Doing a jig-edited-

So, the minor news first, so it won't be overshadowed by the big news.

First, I've sent a file to a grad student at the University of Wisconsin to be translated. The letter is one of many that I've obtained that are in Norwegian. I have a friend, Kai, in Norway, but don't want to impose on him too much. So, with a little help from the grad student, I hope to have most if not all of the letters translated. Here's one of the envelopes:

From The Richard E...

Second, I've sent the first 15 pages of my story off to a published author (Jeff VanderMeer) for an edit and critique. This is likely my biggest news and the scariest moment for me right now. Not many people know I've been writing anything, let alone a story. We'll see what happens. And apologies to Epheros, as he's been my right-hand man in writing this story (I'll be sending you more to read when you finish what you have).

-edited-

What makes you different?

So I've been scrounging around recently in an attempt to gather family history items. I have been fortunate enough to get a large collection from my aunt in Nebraska as well as a large amount of photos from my uncle in Arizona (one of them). My dad is on his way to Nebraska for a family reunion (his mother's branch) so I can only hope to get more info.

Genealogy is one of those hobbies I dabble in when I get time. To date, with the help of many, many others, I've amassed a family tree that has 29,000 individuals spanning back to 1331.

Let that sink in for a second.

1331. That's before the Black Death in Europe. That's before the Ming Dynasty in China. That's before Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Frightening and curious all at once.

So, needless to say, I enjoy it. And so far, I've enjoyed the letters and documents I've been able to find (and scan) dating back to 1863 (with most in the 1900-1930 range). Well, this morning I came across one about me.

One that clearly explains why I'm a bit "different" than others. Read this excerpt and tell me what you think.

Status Update

So, where are we now? Hopefully out of the woods. But to get out, I'll need to lead you on a long path from topic to topic, so bear with me. Or skip ahead. Whatever tickles your pickle.

School
I've finally finished all of my assignments for my last week of class (Managerial Communications). I still have another week of posting and responding to do, but the writing is done and turned in. The professor was, well, a bag of hot air. I could get more information form a pile of shit in the street than from this guy. But my fellow students were great and I learned a lot from them. I'll be sitting out the next couple of months due to the pending baby and lack of money and will start again in October.

Weddings
Well, really only one wedding, but anyways. A good friend of ours gets married this weekend. We both want to go, but neither of us feel comfortable being that far from the doctor if the baby decides to come early. So, we're sitting tight and playing it safe. And with Yvonne having contractions everyday, I'd rather play it safe. So sorry, Hutz and Molly, we'll be thinking about you. Guess I have to start calling you Dave now. Or should I call both of you Hutz?

Work
Well, some things don't change. That's good.

Reading
I finished S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire and promptly took up the next in the series, The Protector's War. Way, way too much Wiccan in it for me, but seeing as one of the main characters is Wiccan, I slog through it. So far The Protector's War has started slow, but there's new characters coming in from Britain, so it should be interesting. After I finish this, I don't know what's next, guess I should look into that. I've also been listening to the Essential Lewis and Clark in the car. Not too bad as it keeps to the interesting parts of their journals, like York getting frostbite on his, well, that "certain male anatomy." I'll listen to Captain Blood next courtesy of LibriVox.

Writing
Ha. No update here. Haven't written a lick in a long time, but I have resolved my issue of where to go next with War Wagon. Epheros, the Chinese invade. That's all I'm saying until I write more. Hopefully soon. And I came up with another idea for a story. Not sure how long it would be, but it's interesting enough to make me curious how everything would work. Think Waterworld meets BioDome. But without the humor.

Survivorman
Les Stroud is back on TV tonight with Shark Week (I'll be skipping that one) and back with new episodes of Survivorman next week. He's the real deal folks, not the faker like Bear Grylls with his conjured bear attacks. I hate to badmouth the guy, but Les humps his own camera gear while Bear has someone else do it for him.

Watching
I've been re-visiting Deadwood lately. I picked up Season 3 on DVD and felt I needed to go back to the beginning to make sure I caught everything. It's been my lunch-time addiction of late. At home, I've been revisiting Firefly. Just a hands-down great show. Dad also picked up a few new movies (Shooter - not so hot, Davy Crockett - decent Disney, and the entire series of Daniel Boone - haven't seen it yet). As for "regular" programming, it's been Hell's Kitchen on Mondays with Monk and Psych on Fridays. Not too much worth my time at the moment.

Waiting
Dad's away shortly to Nebraska for a family reunion and to visit the family farm. I'm eagerly awaiting the goodies he should be bringing back as well as new information for the family tree.

Well, that's about it for now. Catch you all later.

Videos and Photos

So I've uploaded three new videos, two of Elizabeth, one of the killer hummingbirds. Here's one of Elizabeth counting to ten. Not too shabby for a three year old.



Then we have a slew of new photos. Nearly all from Yvonne's camera as I don't download that one very much. I think my favorite is this one.



And in other news, I've stumbled upon my cousin's family blog (why didn't you tell me they had one mom?). Anyway, it's nice to get caught up, even if it is virtually.

And that's about it for now. The weekend is quickly approaching. And what's in store for Neil this weekend? First goal is to fix the plumbing from the water supply under the sink to the backside of the ice maker in the freezer. What should have been a fairly simple fix last night turned into a "we need to remove all the dishes under the sink, pull out the copper, drill the holes larger, snake through the new braided hose, remove the dishwasher, run hose behind dishwasher, turn everything on and hope it works" kind of project. After that's done (hopefully by Saturday afternoon) I'll be able to do some work outside. I might even feel ambitious enough to wash the cars. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will rain. I also have three major papers due for class Sunday. Hope to have those in on time. Then there's the standard chores that always need to be done.

No rest for the wicked, right?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Oh, almost forgot. For those few out there that have even heard of Kurt R. A. Giambastiani (author of the Fallen Cloud Saga), he's doing well and is looking to get back to writing this fall.

Almost there, almost there.....

So I'm almost done with S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire. It's actually a continuation of his older Island in the sea of Time series. I wasn't impressed with Conquistador, but Dies the Fire is decent. Good enough I want to read the next book in line.

On the flip side, I'm still struggling through GRRM's A Game of Thrones. Everyone keeps telling me it's an awesome book (and series), but I'm still struggling. I just got to the point where Ned get's a dagger shoved into his chin. Well, I guess what they say is true, when Martin gets tired of a character, he kills them.

No estimated start date for the Deathly Hallows. I want to pull a marathon and start from the begining. But I did download Captain Blood on audio so we'll see how that floats.

Harry who?

That potter kid sure has taken the world by storm. Over 8 million copies sold in a single day? That's crazy talk.

Sure, I started reading about harry back when books 3 and 4 came out. I was even lucky enough to work in a bookstore when 4 (that's the Goblet of Fire) made its debut at midnight. And I've enjoyed reading the series since then. I find it hard to knock any book or series that gives kids (and a nation) a reason to read.

But I'm actually more inclined to re-read The Name of the Wind before I take a crack at the Deathly Hallows. What?! you might exclaim. Well, it's like this. Potter is, well, a kid's book. Kvothe is, well, a kid, but so much more.

Source: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2007/07/kvothe-vs-harry-potter-cage-match.html

Random Ramblings on Friday Night-edited-

I read today that Google reported their second quarter profits of $3.86 Billion, up 58% over last year's second quarter. Woof!

And, via -edited-, Google wants to or is buying the 700 Mhz bandwidth. I'm guessing they'll be looking to become their own service provider in the cell phone market.

Then we have Microsoft apply for patents to use some sort of search technology or ad technology to search your hard drive and develop ads based on the content. I can't say if they are going to produce the ads or block them. Guess we'll see.

I can't wait for somebody to rip a copy of the latest Die Hard movie online so I can see it. I keep hearing about Pirate Cove from -edited-, but I have no desire to actually download the movie. I know, I know, watching a pirated movie and downloading one are the same.

My college roommate, Dave, let me borrow one of his audio books, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Well, I hate to stop half-way through, but I couldn't finish it. I don't know how to explain it, but it was just, not right for me. So, I'll look at listening to Harry Potter or one of the classics that can be found for free on LibriVox.

And, I have made progress with War Wagon. Not in writing more, but in getting past my writer's block. I actually have something to write about now, but no time to do it in. Sure, I could write instead of blog, but then what would you read? A newspaper?

Well, blogging is distracting me from Psyche. I'm off!

A big update of sorts

Baltimore

Yvonne, Elizabeth, and I went to Baltimore last week to spend a day walking around the Inner Harbor and visiting the National Aquarium. Overall, it was a decent trip. The Aquarium was so-so with the dolphins being the most exciting thing there. After that we walked around the Inner Harbor a bit. Most exciting thing there for me was the USS Constellation (a really old sailing ship). The most disappointing thing there was that the canons on the piers were plastic, not cast iron. Check out the pictures here.

Seven Years Ago

So, seven years ago, Yvonne and I got married (seven years this past Saturday to be precise). We've been dating since October of 1994 and were engaged a couple of years before we married in 2000. It seems like forever, but at the same time, it's like yesterday. There are days where I get so caught up in going to work and doing chores and trying to relax that I sadly don't pay enough attention to the lovely woman next to me. She's become my best friend, my wife, and the mother of my children all rolled up into one. I've lost myself many times just staring into her eyes. But enough of the mushy stuff.

Shenandoah

We went to see Shenandoah yesterday at the Riverside. A decent play, but too depressing for an anniversary celebration. I love Jimmy Stewart, but I doubt I'll buy this movie.

Flipping for Trash

Now, for the funny stuff. Yesterday I took out the trash and ended up looking like this.

Not to worry, I didn't end up in the trash can. But I came close. As I sometimes do, I took out the trash in my bare feet yesterday morning. I leaned over the railing on the porch to open the trash can (it sits on the ground, about 4 feet below the bottom of the porch). Well, I must have shrunk since the last time I did this because I lost my balance and flipped over the railing. In the instant of falling I happened to notice the nice brown wood and nails as my head passed by. I couldn't tell you how I landed or what I landed on, but I did knock the trash can over. After putting the bag in the can and coming back inside, things went like this:

Elizabeth said "You fell down Daddy."

I said "Yes, Daddy fell down."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, Daddy's okay."

Elizabeth said "It's okay Daddy, I fall down sometimes too."

"Okay honey, Daddy needs to sit down for a second."

"Do you want me to read you a story?"

"Sure Elizabeth."

So she started to read me a Dora story. Halfway through, she stopped and said "Daddy, you need to use the steps."

"Yes, Daddy will use the steps. Mommy's done with her shower so why don't you go tell her Daddy fell down."

Needless to say, if we had security cameras, I would have been on TV with a chance at winning some money. But sadly, all I got was a beat-up face, some scratches on my arms, a sore elbow, and a sore gut from laughing at myself.

Les Stroud and Survivorman News

This just in from Les Stroud:

- Season 2 starts August 10th on Discovery (October 2nd on OLN).

- Les is hosting all of Shark Week on Discovery (July 24th through August 4th).

- Les is swimming with the sharks in a one-hour special (July 31st at 9 pm EST on Discovery).

- Read about Les' latest adventure in Labrador Canada on his blog.

That is all.

Where oh where have you been?

Busy.





















No seriously, I've been busy. And a little lazy. And a little stressed out. And, well, here's a partial list of what I've been doing lately.
- Attending school - I'm now in my second week of my Masters program at the University of Phoenix
- Scanning - I've been scanning letters, documents, legal papers, photos, tons of family history stuff
- Writing - and all of it is for school, haven't had any time to even think about War Wagon
- New baby - there's been lots of prep work getting the spare bedroom rearranged, well I guess it's the baby's new room now, furniture, clothes, etc.
- Work - while the rest of my peers are enjoying the week off, I've been busy at work trying to catch up on things

And I'm too tired to list anything else. Mom went to Salt Lake for a couple of weeks (she's back now). Yvonne and Elizabeth went to Pittsburgh this week (due back in a couple of days). Ugh. And I forgot all about the reading I need to do for class.

Life never is easy.

So I've been busy, just like I said before. believe me now?

Well that was an interesting commute

Saw two near accidents unfold right before my eyes. The first was an 18-wheeler approaching a red light. He just kept driving and driving and driving. He must have finally woke up because he locked up his tires and left a good 20 feet of tread behind him and he stopped well over the stop bar. All I could see was him plowing through the cars coming across the road, fortunately they realized his error and waited for him to stop before driving in front of him.

Take two was a mere mile and two stoplights away. There were six lanes in our direction. Two lanes turned left, two went straight, and two turned right. She was in front of me turning left in the extreme left lane. Well, she went through the light like she was going to drive straight across the road into oncoming traffic (at least they had a red light). She realized that wouldn't work and cut a hard left turn while the rest of us that were turning in our proper lanes slowed to watch the spectacle.

Woof. And I thought my day started weird when I woke up before 0600 and was wide awake. Can you tell I'm married and a father? I can survive on little to no sleep.

Family

Well, I could go on quite a bender with that topic. "Family" conjures up quite a few emotions with people. And in light of that, I'll keep this post short with the comment that I have my grandmother's report cards from 4th and 8th grade sitting next to me (circa the 1920s and 30s). And I'll post a picture of her youngest son, my Dad's brother. He was nice enough to come down to visit us twice while on travel over the past few weeks.


And Dad was actually a bit more pleasant than he looks. Guess that's where I get my preferences for being behind the camera from.

What's this I see?

So I was reading Patrick's blog today and what do I see in the background of his publicity shot? A drawing. No, it's a map. A map for The Name of the Wind!


Woohoo!

Pardon me while I geek out a bit.

Source

Feel free to Kvothe me

A few weeks back I was browsing the local brick and mortar bookstore when I spied an interesting cover in the Fantasy section. I'm likely the world's biggest sucker for covers as that's how I often choose/buy books. I started reading R. A. Salvatore because of the Crystal Shard cover I saw on the back of a GI Joe comic. I loved the Hardy Boys covers. I avoided George R. R. Martin's series because the cover was just too plain.


Back to the story. I spied this interesting cover. The book was called The Name of the Wind. I didn't pay much attention to the title or the author's name, just the artwork. Something about it drew me in.


I spotted the cover again on a return trip two weeks ago. Again I was drawn to it. Over and over in my head, I kept asking myself "should I really spend $20 some odd dollars on a hardback book from an unknown author when I'm trying to cut back on my spending and my book collecting?" Over and over in my head. To buy or not to buy.


Finally I decided to buy it. I picked it up. I saw the alternate cover (the plain one) behind it. Well that's cheesy I thought. I put it back.


But that damn read-haired guy on the cover holding the lute kept pulling me back. I didn't even notice he was showing his chest. I just saw the hair. And the eyes. The eyes kept looking at me, daring me to buy this book.



I gave in. I bought it. My wife thought I was acting strange (stranger than I usually act). I got home, and put it in the honored spot on my nightstand that holds the "Book I Shall Read Tonight." It lay there quietly as I went about the rest of my day.


As night approached, I began to think about my upcoming read. A new adventure. I was hoping I wouldn't waste my money. Or my time. 600+ pages is a lot to read. The first page should have clued me in. A silence of three parts. I love the number 3. It's my lucky number. I was born on the third. As I turned to the next page, I caught a glimpse of the title page. Whoa, this book is only day one? Hmmm, now I'm even more interested.


So I read. I laughed. I groaned. I pondered. I cheered.


But I read. And I continued to read until I finished last night.


In the span of two weeks, I finished a 600+ page book. I stayed up until at 12:30 each night reading. I forced myself to keep the book at home for fear I would read at work and accomplish nothing. I spent every free moment yearning to read more. Television had become boring.


I felt like I was 12 again and reading The Crystal Shard into the wee hours of the morning by smothering my reading light with my pillow so my father would think I'm asleep. I was nearly giddy with joy at times. I had in my hands one of the best written stories I have read in ages. Years. Maybe decades.


If I haven't lost you so far, then please continue. I'll try to be more objective in my review.



Patrick Rothfuss is the new kid on the block, hangin' tough with some heavy hitters. Kvothe (pronounced quothe) is the center of the story. Posing as an inn-keeper, he lays out his life's story to the Chronicler (a journeyman scribe or historian of sorts). His story takes you from a childhood in a traveling troupe, through the death of his parents, to University where he learns magic (of a sort). He falls in love, gains friends, and makes enemies.


At times it feels like Harry Potter with a "normal" boy forced into a different life. But it goes beyond that. Potter is so full of magic and tangents that, despite being set on "Earth," it's a very "fantastic" story. Not so with the Four Corners. It is so ordinary, it's like Star Wars. Things look and feel used. Lived in. Real. Kvothe's world is so ordinary, it's noticeable. But it doesn't take away from the flow, in fact, it helps it along.



There are hints, references, even mentions of other-worldly things that bring you back to the fantasy world here and there. And Kvothe's killing of the draccas (essentially a dragon, but I prefer the lizard-chicken) is surely not ordinary. Nor his studying to be an arcanist.


Of the entire book, only the last few pages were a bit of a let-down. The ending wasn't very strong and the allusion to the future didn't quite make a great impression on me. But I know more is coming, and that does more than enough to get me hooked.


On a side note, Patrick Rothfuss is a certainly odd character. From reading his interviews, he's a charmer, a genius, and a comic. He's like that weird guy that sits in the cube next to you. He may have some strange things to add to the conversation, but he's just an ordinary guy. And he has great tastes in shirts.

The Gutters and The Gutted

So, we have new gutters up on the house. Nice, long, seamless, white, gleaming, and a huge 6 inches. I'd say get your mind out of the gutter, but hey, that's what I'm talking about!

Same size as the shed's, these are the only way to go. The crummy 5 inch gutters just couldn't satisfy me. I added some corrugated drainage pipe (4 inch) to the ends of two of them and found out rather quickly that 50 feet just isn't enough. So I'll need to get about 25 more feet to make it all square. Maybe another 50.

Anyway, here's a good look at the new stuff.

And then we have Elizabeth's room gutted, cleaned, and partially re-assembled. Yvonne will be picking up all (or at least most) of the new furniture today from Value City, so we'll see how that looks tonight (and no, she won't be unloading it, I will be doing that).

Elizabeth likes her new drapes and we've even gotten her to sleep not only in her "big girl underwear" but to also sleep without the little rails on her toddler bed. Seems to be doing great so far.

To draw or not to draw

For those regular readers (haha, yeah, right, like I have any of those!), you may want to skip to the next paragraph. I have a concealed weapons permit in the state of Virginia and Pennsylvania. I carry nearly every day and almost anytime I leave the house. Even going to the gas station, I carry. I feel safer, I feel I keep my family safer, and I feel I have the right to do it.

So setting that stage, let's talk about our ride home last night, at say 11:30 or so. We pull up to a stop light as the first car in line in the left lane. To our right is a big 18 wheeler. He honks and hops out of his cab. Now, at 11:30 on a Sunday night isn't always the best time to hop out of your car and approach the guy next to you. Fortunately there was no traffic.

As Yvonne rolled the window down (is it still called "rolling down the window" when you have power windows?), I put my hand on my gun and un-snapped my strap. It's not terribly easy to draw when you're the driver, wearing a seat belt, and wearing your holster. I wanted to be prepared.

The good news is, that's as far as I had to go. He just needed to know how to get to a particular industrial center a short drive down the road. He could probably barely read English as his spoken English was very broken. We gave him the directions and went on our way.

In other news, buried at the bottom of this post, is my progress on The Name Of The Wind. If you haven't read it yet, please do so. I love it. Nearing on the end, but not quite there. I also got some great video of Elizabeth asking "where's Quiznos?" I think Yvonne eats there a little too much as the guy making sandwiches knew her order. And that's about it for now. It's 10:17 and I have to go back to work tomorrow.

And I still want to read more of The Name Of The Wind.

Meconium Happens

The title pretty much says it all.

Sunday was an ordinary day in King George. Yvonne, Elizabeth, and I drove into town to run some errands. We walked around downtown to look for the items in the Itty Bitty City Scavenger Hunt. No such luck there, so we did our thing and came home.

I dropped Yvonne and Elizabeth off for Aiden's birthday party (he's a friend of the family and turned two). I came home and did some chores, talked to Dad, and waited for the
come pick me up" call.

Shortly after 6:00, I got the call. And that's when things started to go sour.

On my way over, events transpired that were, well, rather unexpected. Elizabeth decided to ride one of those little Cozy Coupe cars down the driveway, across the road, and down the neighbor's driveway. Exciting as that sounds, it's worse.

The driveway is rather steep. Both are. And after looking at the scene today, so was the little front yard she drove down. And the retaining wall she hit was not very tall, but it stopped her from going down an even steeper ravine. She was fine. Even laughing at the fun ride she just took.

But it's worse than that.

Yvonne did the motherly thing and took off after Elizabeth. And promptly fell in the middle of the road.

On her stomach.

And she's 28 weeks pregnant.

Now, before you start freaking out too much, everything turned out fine. So no frantic phone calls or emails, please.

Now for the details of the rest of the night and today. As I got there to pick everyone up (no more than a few minutes after the speedy trip down the road), I realized this Sunday wouldn't be an ordinary one. We got Yvonne patched up (she scraped her arm and knee) and on the road home. She called the doctor, they told her to come in to get checked out to make sure things were fine, and we headed home to put Henry in his house and pick a few things up. We dropped Elizabeth off at the Inzana's house (Aiden's parents) and went to town. Dad took care of Henry and went home, Elizabeth stayed over night, and we stayed a few hours at the hospital.

We finally got out of there around 11:00 pm, but it was very calming to hear the baby's heart-beat and to see such nice people willing to take care of you at 11 at night on a Sunday. The nurse, Jean, was professional but still showed enough heart to care about you. She's also the source of the post's title, we had a good laugh over her little button that said "Meconium Happens."

Anyway, everything turned out okay last night, so we came home and went to bed. I had a hard time sleeping from being so wired, but was able to catch-up a little today with a nap. Today, we went by the Orthopedic doctor to make sure Yvonne's shoulder was okay. She had some difficulty moving her arm around today but with some care, she should recover in a few days.

So, Meconium Happens. Make sure you take the time to do the right thing and tell those important people around you that you care for them.

As to the rest of last night's adventure, well, you'll need to read the next post about the first time I nearly drew my gun...............

Another Large Photo Update

Starting with our Annual Memorial Day Picnic, we have the family...

And the Edinboro University crew....

Then a birds-eye view of the nearly finished roof...

And the finished roof...

And the new layout in the spare bedroom (where the baby will be sleeping)...

And finally, we have the box of old family photos and letters from my Aunt Mary. It's a treasure trove of history and information.

Oh, and the last little present...my new laptop.

Lots of stuff

I'm so lost at the moment, I don't know what's new and what isn't. My new laptop did arrive today. Came amazingly fast considering it shipped from Shanghai, China late last week. We'll see how Vista works as well as all the new apps.

In other news, Elizabeth is moving along surprisingly well at being a "big" little girl. She's almost to the point of sleeping in underwear at night. And she's doing great at telling you when she needs to go to the bathroom. Not to mention telling you when she wants something period.

Yvonne and I steam-cleaned the spare bedroom this weekend. That will be the baby's new room (sheesh, almost gave away the sex of the baby there). We had to downgrade to a smaller desk (which I think I will like better since I hardly used the damned thing anyway). We also took down the full size bed and put up the crib (still not sure what that means if someone wants to come visit - guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there). The old desk (quite large and heavy) went to the street and was promptly snatched up in a few hours. Amazing what a large FREE sign will do.

We went shopping Saturday evening and picked up a few items. Nothing too exciting there other than a new book. I've seriously been cutting back on buying books and DVDs for awhile now but just couldn't turn this one down. I'm a sucker for neat covers and this one just struck me as a book that needed to be read.

So, yesterday I finished the Star Wars book I was reading and delved into the new one. Pretty good so far. And he's a new author, so I have to support the underdog.

And, the big news of last week, the roof is finished. Mike didn't do the baffling, but no big deal. It wasn't a high priority anyway. And he did fix the sewer and bathroom vents so it's all good in my book.

And that was pretty much my week(end). I'll post some photos of the roof and new room layout when I get some time.

Heroes returns

Well, the show is over for now, but we can still keep ourselves busy with the comics, right?


Here's a peek at the latest.

Our new roof (lots of photos)

Well, it's about half-way done, but it's looking nice so far. Mike (and his helper Billy) built the shed for us and we liked his work so much we invited him back to replace our roof (shingles, tar paper, and any curled plywood underneath).

So, here's the shingles on the rear ridge (and a god look of what the old shingles looked like).

And here you can see the tar paper down (this is after one day of work).

The next day they had the new shingles up (leaving the edge exposed to install metal later).

The other end of the house.

The third day they replaced some venting and solved two problems at once. The bathroom exhaust was just venting to the attic while the sewer was venting fine, just leaking and collecting water. So now there are two sewer vents.

And two vents for the bathrooms.

Inside you can see where one of the sewer vents leads to the roof. The old set-up had a large up-hill climb for any water that came in the vent.

Plus the water would sit in a idiotically installed 4-way connector with a cap on the bottom.

A view of the bathroom vents.

And a general view of the attic center-line.

And, let's not forget the head foreman for the job.

Mustang Paparazzi

Quick shot on the way to work. Sorry for the bad quality, it's from my phone.

I live in a war zone

Yesterday (and this weekend) our house and property has been the target of terrorists. They continually attack from the air and let it be known that they do not approve of our kind. The side of our house, our roof, our back porch, our cars, our driveway, everything outside is subject to these evil-doers. Even Elizabeth's swing set has been a target. I do not believe they have ties to any militant religious groups, but they do flock together.

What the hell am I talking about?

The birds taking a shit all over the place.

Even the side of the house.

Figures I just washed it.

On a positive note, Mike and Billy showed up this morning to start work on replacing our roof. Yeah!

Save Jericho!

I'm upset that CBS has decided to cancel Jericho. I had heard the rumors, but frankly didn't want to believe the sad news.

So I've signed the petition.

And now I'm venting on Blogger.

The only thing left is this cartoon.

Large Photo Update-edited-

Apologies to those on dial-up, but this post will have some photos.


First, we have some pictures of the recent landscaping we've done around the house. I think I've dumped about 50 bags (3 cubic feet each) so far and removed about 350 square feet of sod. Not easy work, but it looks nice. Here's the finished swing set area (where most of the work took place):

Then we have the pipe under the driveway. I have no idea what it's made of, but it was a nightmare to cut. Thanks to Dad for spending the time on it:

-edited-

And finally, the dent that magically appeared on my car:

Okay, not as many pictures as I expected.

Heroes - Season 1

So Heroes nears the end of Season 1. Next week will be the season finale and I'm glad to hear it's been renewed for next year. But I'm a bit skeptical that it will spawn a spin-off called Heroes: Origins. Spin-offs don't always work, and this may be too soon.


So last night's episode brought about the death of the bad guy (who's name escapes me), Linderman (the healer), Ted (radioactive man), and D.L. (walk-through-walls guy) was left with a belly wound. Sylar is on the loose, Petrelli won by a landslide, and the "Walker" system of tracking the Heroes is a little girl. And let's not forget that Hiro is on his way to save Ando.


Quite a nice, tidy package. I'm very glad to see things are getting cleaned up.


And let's not forget the back-story NBC has going with their graphic novels. The latest of which had some interesting plugs.


The Corinthian:




Vote Petrelli:




And the Helix:

Vote Petrelli

Just got a bizarre marketing call from Nathan Petrelli (aka NBC). Caller ID came up as (660) 833-4191 (a Google search brought up this thread). I won't re-hash what they said over there, so check it out to see what the message said.

Which makes this a pointless thread.

Except I followed the advice of Mr. Petrelli and checked out his website (http://www.votepetrelli.com/). Turns out Hana Gitelman (aka Wireless) "hacked" the mainpage to look like this:

Kurt R. A. Giambastiani

* Kurt, I hope you don't mind me posting this, but there are fans out there that may want to know. Feel free to let me know if you want me pull or edit the post. *

Kurt R. A. Giambastiani, author of the Fallen Cloud Saga, recently suffered a mild stroke. He is recovering and doing well, with only some damage to his sight.

Kurt (also known as "k" or "KRAG") recently removed his Timepaths blog. It was because of a new post here that I began to worry his account had been hacked. After getting an email back from, a rogue hacker became the least of my worries.

In the years I've known Kurt, he's always been a great person to talk to. He's very knowledgeable and has traveled the world. Living in the Seattle area, he personified the "artsy" type by writing. He has numerous works available to read, from poetry to short stories and from essays to novels.

Of his novels, the Fallen Cloud Saga is the most widely known and easily found. Without giving too much away, it's essentially the story of Custer's son living with the Plains Indians and eventually attacking Custer (who becomes President). The catch to this alternate history story is the Indians travel and attack on dinosaurs. I only ask that you don't knock it until you read it.

Aside from that, he's also written the Ploughman Chronicles, a duology set in ancient (circa 880 AD) Europe. This set was a bit of an odd one for me as I had never read or heard about ley lines. And if you're interested in something shorter to read, something to give you a taste, check out Carp. That did a number on my head.

So, in the end, I'm sad to hear Kurt has had a rough time recently. He's always been a great author and all-around nice guy to deal with. I've asked for and received signed copies and book plates from him without delay or grumbling.

Kurt, I hope you feel better. You do have family, friends, and fans out there that care about you. Just let someone know if you need anything.

PS - For you fans out there, Kurt said he is still planning on writing Fallen Cloud V.

My nosey daughter

Last night we put her to bed (quite a ritual that's turned out to be - *see more on this below) and she decides to literally put her ear to the wall to listen to us work in the next bedroom (we're cleaning stuff out to make room for the next baby). Catching her red-handed (or red-eared) she looked at me with big eyes, flopped down on her bed, and pretended to be asleep. Very much like her mother has tried to do in the past (pretend to sleep) and she lasted about as long.

I knelt next to her bed and told her she needed to go to lay down in her bed, even if she wasn't tired. It worked, but she's such a ham sometimes. She gave me a kiss but said "I only give you one kiss cuz I haf save some for tomorrow morning."

What a nut.

** The Evening Ritual **
So putting Elizabeth to bed has always been a struggle since she was a baby. We were lucky in that she began sleeping through the night early on, but she has taken a bit of each of her parents. From me, she's taken on the role of a night-owl. She has no issues in staying up until 9 (sometimes later) but will get grouchy if she's too tired. From Yvonne, she's taken on the role of early bird. When she wakes up on her own, she'll be wide awake and full of energy. When we wake her up, she's groggy and grumpy, like me.

Once we finally get her into the "mood" of bedtime (simply saying it's almost time for bed is usually where we start), we need to change clothes. Some nights we'll give her a bath ("get me a bath" as she says). After stripping out of the day clothes, we sit on the toilet. She's progressing quite well with the potty training (several number 2's on the toilet already).

After that, it's time to put on the PJs, jammies, jammers, what-ever the name-of-the-week is. Then the ritual begins. I generally try to leave the bathroom light on as it leaves her room lit at a medium level when we turn out her lights. Then we all go into her room. She'll turn on "Mommy's music" (an Enya CD) and climb into bed. When she doesn't want to go to bed, she'll stop a good step away from the CD player and say she "can't reach it." What a faker!

Once into bed, we pull the blankets up and turn the lights out. There's a little night light next to her bed, so she still has some light in the room. She has Baby (a Cabbage Patch doll), Little Dora (a small, stuffed Dora), and now Diego (a small, stuffed Diego that matches Dora). If any of these are missing, trouble ensues. Most nights, she also needs tissues. Three to be precise. Sometimes the ones already in her bed are fine, sometimes they're too crumpled.

Added to these requirements is the Towel, a Steelers Terrible Towel. This must be laid out on top of her pillow, just like a blanket. One night she even said I put it on wrong and said the tag needed to be on the other end. Oh, and the writing on the towel needs to be facing down too.

So, the kid's in bed, the light is out, the music is playing, and she has her stuffed toys. We each kiss her good-night, sometimes hug her, and sometimes we get a return kiss or hug. Then we say "good night" and "see you in the morning" before leaving the room, which is when I'll turn out the bathroom light.

Sometimes she'll try to be sneaky and say she needs to use the potty, get a drink, or needs more tissues. Generally all after she's been in bed for a few minutes. We have been able to break her of the habit of us turning the music back on when it finishes. She now has to turn it on if she wants to hear it again. And she also knows the number 11, as that's the last track on the CD.

Thus ends the evening ritual.

Jericho Withdrawal

I'm sad. Jericho has ended for the season, and possibly forever. This is by far one of the stand-out shows I've watched in some time. I don't consider myself a TV "guru" but I do watch a lot. And Jericho stands up there with CSI. Well, I guess Jeremiah would be a better comparison, but I'd like to hope it will last longer than a couple of seasons.

I was disappointed when Jake's dad died. That was a bit of a surprise, even though I knew someone important would, but I'm still hoping the current Mayor (Gray Anderson) bites it.

Then there's the US Army coming in to save the day (presumably) in the end. God! Why did they have to end it there?! Where's my Season 2!?

Oh well.

While those Jericho fans are waiting for good news about it being renewed for next year, check out these two sites for more info:

Jericho DVD Release Date

Jericho Wiki entry

My Poopy Voicemail

Thank You Very Mulch

So, Saturday I started working outside on a little project I've been meaning to take a stab at for a few weeks.

The dreaded swing-set landscaping project.

Well, I marked off an area that was roughly 16'x24' as I had originally planned on using some simple landscaping lumber to create an edge. Well, after removing all that sod (nearly 400 square feet of the crap), I realized the simple rectangle wouldn't work. So I consulted Yvonne (who was shopping in town at the time) and she agreed to not use an edge. Something everyone else seemed to think of well before me.

So I curved it out around the slide and see-saw (as those areas were a little too close to the edge) and began to spray the weed killer. I doubt it will help much, but hey, every little bit counts. From there, Dad helped haul the first 15 bags of mulch to the site. That went down after installing the weed fabric. More mulch. More fabric. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Multiply that by Sunday's re-mulching the flower bed next to the swing set.

In the end, I removed close to 600 square feet of sod and weeds. I put down about 200 linear feet of weed fabric. I put down 43 bags of Norfleet shredded hardwood mulch (3 cubic feet per bag). And I spent way more money than I wanted.

What was fun about this project? Seeing Elizabeth play on the slide, pick flowers, and working outside with my lovely wife. While I'm sore today, I'm glad I can cross it off my list.

Sonogram scans

Here are the latest sonogram scans from last week. You can see some of them are "3D" but they look kind of wierd to me. Well, they all do I guess.

Anyway, here they are.

And no, none of these show the sex of the baby. Click here if you want to see that.

A hand.

A "3D" profile.

Another "3D" profile.

Another hand.

A foot.

Baby and Weekend Update

I'll start with the update from this weekend first just to keep everyone in suspense (keep your pants on cinda.....I'm working on the post right now).

Saturday the three of us (well, three and a half I guess) did a lot of shopping. Yvonne and Elizabeth went to swim class while I did a few loads of laundry. Then we went to town to get some lunch at Goolrick's (one of Elizabeth's favorite places to eat). From there we went to the Chocolate Extravaganza, a fundraiser for the local SPCA. Local companies bring in their chocolate desserts and sell them to raise money. Items ranged from brownies to chocolate covered strawberries to huge pieces of cake. Lots of good food.

From there we went down to the fire station to climb on the fire engines. Well, just as we got on one, they got beeped out so we had to leave. Yvonne and Elizabeth went back to the van while I went to the antique book shop and bought more ephemera (a whopping $8 worth).

After that, we all drove over to the mall where Yvonne ran in for a quick return while Elizabeth crashed in the back seat. She woke up to go into the Dollar Tree for more clothes for her Barbie. Then we went to Best Buy and bought a new vacuum (Hoover Wind Tunnel 2 if I remember right). Then grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and a stop at Carl's for a shake on the ride home.

Woof.

Yesterday was just about as busy. We cut the grass, put down new mulch in the flower beds (after they got weeded), and burned more brush. I also broke the weed eater just as I was finishing. Great. Elizabeth's sandbox (or "sand turtle box" as she called it) also got moved and opened, just to make sure nothing was living inside. Yvonne and Elizabeth also went through a bunch of clothes, trying to sort them out and get them boxed in totes (still working on that one). And that was about it.

Oh, yeah, the sex of the baby!


Don't read if you don't want to know the sex of the new baby. And, yes, there are people that do not want to know. Right now, Yvonne's parents don't want to know, so don't ruin it for them. Please.


Spoiler Warning ahead!






















Are you ready? It's a boy.

Now, I'm sure there's a lot of you out there that are thinking I'm very happy. Well, I am, but not as happy as you think I'd be. Maybe it hasn't set in yet, but it really didn't matter to me if we had a girl or boy. I just wanted the baby to be healthy.

But I am dreading the potty training already. I must be a wimp.

Oh, and the next post will have photos.

A vote for William is a vote against Jake Ryan

Vote now!

Please support my cause. My wife is trying to name our next child "Jake Ryan Richard" after the esteemed actor, Michael Schoeffling. Well, Jake Ryan is NOT my hero, nor my high school crush.

No matter how much the ladies think he's cute, I don't want my wife to use that dreadful line "Jake? Jake's my boy!" (from that classic 80's movie, Sixteen Candles). It's bad enough she wears socks that say "I love Jake." Come on, she's a married woman carrying our second child!

I myself would rather name our child "William." It's a good "classic" name that is seen throughout my family tree. And I think it would match Elizabeth (our 3 year old daughter) quite well.

So, vote now. Should it be William or Jake?

* Caution - we do not know the sex of the second baby at this time. Expect updates Friday.

It only takes one idiot

...to ruin people's lives.

Early this morning, the normal routine on the campus of Virginia Tech was rudely interrupted by gunfire. As of this afternoon, over 20 are dead with another 20+ injured.

The worst thing I had to fear in college were exams until the fire we had. That was pretty traumatic. But I was shocked even more when we heard about the school shooting down the road from us (April 24, 1998). We didn't know what to think.

I still get goosebumps thinking about the night I heard the sirens going down the road.

In the end, it only takes one idiot to ruin people's lives.

My Ephemera Album

So in my previous post I talked about my new ephemera collection. Albeit a small collection (a few letters), it was very cheaply acquired (less than $7).

After some initial research, I found notes relating to a Mayflower (as in the ship) family (not mine, but passengers on the boat).

Pretty cool.

But it gets better. I got a letter from one Marcia Davenport that, according to some preliminary research, could be worth about $50. Not a bad investment.

For those interested, I've uploaded the photos to my Picasa album. Enjoy reading (assuming you can decipher the handwriting).

Will I ever get back to writing?

I seriously hope so. I finally had enough free time today to edit War Wagon. The good news is I only have about 3 pages left to edit. The bad news is I have two major plot points that need to be worked out. The really bad news is I don't have the time or energy to write.

So I'm seriously hoping after the tax season monkey gets off my back, I'll be able to meet my goal of 3 pages a day. In looking at my overall goal of 100,000 words, I'm only at 17,000 words. That's 17%. Not a bad start, but I'm just too short on time to add much more at the moment.

Oh well.

In other news, by the end of this month:

- I'll be done with tax season
- I'll know the sex of our second child
- I'll be preparing to move to a new team, coach, and program at work
- I'll be preparing to have the roof replaced on the house

In short, I've got a few things on my plate to deal with. But I don't want it to impact my writing.

NIMBY

Some of you may know that NIMBY stands for "Not In My Back Yard." Well, we have one of those battles going on in King George (the county where I grew up and currently live). The Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail group has been hit hard by many citizens of the county, well, hating them and their supporters. The group is trying (and essentially has already completed) to convert an old railroad bed to a hiking and biking trail.

The land was taken from the original owners by the Federal government back in the day and was used for the Naval Base in Dahlgren. Well, times change, peace arrives, and it's no longer in service.

Enter the current owner, Joe Williams and "trail boss" David Brickley. They teamed up to make this great conversion that has the potential to be a great attraction for the county. Aside from having one of the only bridges across the Potomac River and a large Naval Base, we don't have much to offer. Well, there is the dump that takes in garbage from the entire east coast.

Anyway, the guys are just trying to do right by the trail in creating a place for people to bike, hike, run, walk, etc. in peace.

Now those opposing this have done some damage. They've cut trees, fired shots, the list goes on and I won't glorify their stupidity. In the end, they hate (or at least strongly dislike) the trail folks.

Enter DC and the Railroad Realignment Feasibility Study.

Oh? What's this? Homeland Security wants to re-route dangerous trains through King George? And they might use the old railroad bed?

Can you say IRONY!!!

While I'm not too keen on have trains loaded with dangerous things traveling through my county, they can't be any more dangerous that those trucks on the road. But part of me really wants the trains to come through these assholes backyards just so I can walk by their house and say "See? You could have played nice and had people going by on bikes. And look what you have now. A huge train, blaring it's horn, roaring through your back yard at 3 am. Happy now? I am!"

Just cross out the little hiker on this map and put in a nice large CSX engine or two.

Ephemera

You can start here with a definition.

Why do I mention this word? Well, I've always been interested in the stuff. It's very much like people-watching (something I've always enjoyed). But with ephemera, you can only see what's on the page. Which means you need to look at their handwriting, tone of voice, content, punctuation, everything gives you a little glimpse into their life at that one moment.

So far, my hardest part has been finding a reason to go buy the stuff. There's a store in old town Fredericksburg that has a nice little stash of it and whenever I get the chance to go there, I always take a peek. Granted, they also sell some nice antique books (another interest of mine) but my collecting in that genre has drastically dropped.

So today after eating breakfast with Dad, I walked down the street to have a peek. I didn't even look at the books, but did buy some handwritten letters, most dating back to the early 1900s. And yes, I did come up with an excuse. RESEARCH!!

Same reason I picked up a book on the American West. Research for War Wagon. I've already read the letters and have a few things that sparked ideas. Most of which I'll likely find a way to include in my story.

I may head back tomorrow for more browsing, but I feel good with the stash I have so far. I've already back-tracked the one sheet of genealogy info to an original passenger on the Mayflower. And while the book I got is a bit cartoony at times, I'm probably just as excited about it as I am the letters from a stranger.

So, that's my adventure for today. Ephemera.

For my Russian readers

Right, like I have any of those.

But if you know Russian, well, maybe your ears won't bleed as bad as mine.



via Fantent.com

Viral Video Genius Vilified Voraciously

Kevin "Nalts" Nalty, a native of south-eastern PA (we'll keep his exact location secret), is a self-proclaimed Viral Video Genius. I've seen him do stupid bits (like how to kill an animal) to pure comedic genius (think candid camera of a kid with a fart machine).

In no way do I feel my videos "measure up" to his. But I do take on a sense of pride seeing as my wife (and family) are from PA (including a sister-in-law in Macungie).

Anyway, for all those Nalts fans out there, I think we need to start a Pool of our own. Kevin has been getting progressively more and more "ballsy" with his videos. He's escalated from the video of Spencer stealing fries (but he told the employees) to crawling through an airport (with no notification to local law enforcement).

I can totally see Kevin doing his best to talk his way out of a hairy situation with camera in hand (or sitting unseen on a shelf). But when will he get arrested? When will the cops finally say enough is enough, you've crossed the line, put these silver bracelets on?

So I open this pool to you the fans (like me) who think Kevin has one a step beyond his normal routine and is now "officially" pushing the envelope.

Simply reply with your best guess when Kevin "Nalts" Nalty will end up in the back of a squad car having his Miranda Rights read to him.

Thunder leads to Starbucks

Oh yeah, I've lost it. Completely. After sleeping for a good 3 hours last night, the dog decided to shake and quiver from the approaching thunderstorms.

Which meant he ended up spending most of the night in his cage.

And after an hour of finally getting comfortable enough Elizabeth decided to wake up, scared to death of the lightning and thunder.

Which meant a couple of hours of laying in bed with a kid kicking and tossing around.

Not fun for anyone.

After finally getting her back in bed, we were able to sleep. For an hour or so.

Then the alarm clock sounded the end of my slumber.

How did this all lead to Starbucks?

I had to resort to drinking one of their frappuccino drinks to get a boost of go juice (aka caffeine).