Chewing on the right

Well, I had surgery yesterday.

You know, they kind where they cut out gum tissue from the roof of you mouth, and then graft it onto the front of you lower teeth.

What, you haven't done that? Weird, I figured everyone has at least once...

Yep, I had the first of two gum grafts performed yesterday. Because of the way my mouth is structured, I never really had any true gum tissue in the front of my lower front 8 or so teeth. The tissue that was there was more of the flexible, semi-transperant tissue that covers the inside of your cheeks. Great for being flexible and stretching, but not so great for providing support for teeth. Because of this, the semi-gum tissue has been slowly receding and wearing away (since it wasn't really up for the job in the first place), leaving more and more of those teeth exposed.

Left untreated, eventually the roots would be completely exposed, and without any gum support, they could fall out. Not cool. At this point, they aren't loose, but were getting to the point where the dentist and periodontist were getting more concerned about it. So, yesterday we did the left side. The periodontist cut out tissue from the roof of my mouth (on the left side) and sutured it onto the front of my lower teeth where I was missing gum tissue. After a couple of months we'll do the right side too.

Have I grossed you out yet?

The actual surgery wasn't too bad, since they loaded me up with novocain. The worst parts:

1. Injecting the novocain. Not really that painful, but a lot of needle pokes and prods considering that they had to inject it into the roof of my mouth, the gums near my lower left and front teeth, and parts of my cheek.

2. Feeling like I something was blocking my airway. When the effects of the novocain reach the front of your throat (because it was injected in the roof of my mouth), it feels like you need to clear your throat, like something is there, but it won't go away. Creepy bad feeling that you just have to get used to, all the while feeling like you're about to choke.

3. Antiseptic solution applied to lower gums where the grafts were placed had a horrible taste the lingered and reached the back of my throat, such that I had to consciously try not to gag. This was the worst part. It didn't just taste bad, it really made me want to gag, and it was like that for about 5-10 minutes straight.

4. Stitches. Lots of them. Upper where they extracted the gum tissue from behind my teeth and lower where they grafted it. Not painful, just a weird feeling when you see the doctor sewing in your mouth. He just kept going, and going, and going...

5. Being awake for the whole thing, but not being able to see what was going on. No, I wasn't creeped out by what they were doing, rather, I wanted to watch. I'm the kind of person that likes to watch them stick the needle in while giving blood, and I wanted to see them working in my mouth. Every once in awhile, when his head angle was just right, I could see my mouth in the reflection on periodontist's glasses. The image was so smal though, that it didn't provide a great viewing experience.

You can't really see much of what they did, since everything is covered with a silly-putty-like dressing to prevent infection. There are basically three big globs of putty: one of the roof of my mouth, one of the front of my lower left and front teeth, and one on the back of my lower left and front teeth.

I have the stitches taken out in 2 weeks, but I'll have to eat on one side of my mouth for an entire month. I'm not even supposed to chew with my front teeth, since the left half of them were involved also. No food restrictions though, which is why I was willing to do this before Christmas. Penicillin to prevent infection and Vicodin (extra strength!) for pain.

Oh, and if you thought I was a slow eater before, wait until you see me now! ;-)

DotD: Wireless Lexmark inkjet printer and wireless 802.11g Buffalo router bundle - $20 - That's right, no USB cable needed for the printer. It's wireless except for the power cable (you can also use USB if you want). Buying the bundle together allows you to use a $50 rebate that drops the total price of both to just $20. Pretty cool! Only catch is that you have to use in-store pickup from Circuit City. They are not available for shipping.

First impressions are often wrong

Okay, so it has been awhile between posts. You can look at this two ways, depending on if you are a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person. You could look at this as me being lazy, or you could look at this as, "Wow, you sure are posting a lot more than you did last year before you had a blog." I prefer that approach.

I'm also going to blame Facebook. I started blogging to communicate with y'all, but almost all of you are on Facebook too, so I don't always think to visit both. So yes, this also means I've been bad about reading other people's blogs too. However, there seems to be a strange linking between me posting irregularly and everyone else doing the same. The whole blogosphere has almost ground to a halt. I guess I am more powerful than I realized...

Enough appetizers, let's get to the main course.

I've had two things happen recently that have driven home the point that first impressions are often wrong. I'm not sure why this is. Is God trying to tell me something here? Am I judging others and closing myself off to them without realizing it? I'm not sure what to make of this quite yet, but I'll fill you in on the two events keep working on the meaning myself. It just seems way to coincidental to be a coincidence, if you know what I mean. ;-)

1. I needed some new razor blades for shaving, so I stopped by the appropriate aisle at Target or Walmart, I don't remember which. I first noticed that they had the same kind of razor I used on sale, which was the (insert commercial here) Gillette Fusion, with 5 precision blades, a trimming blade on the back, and a comfort strip which has some sort of soothing stuff in it that slowly releases. At the sale price, I figured I might as well get a new razor since it came with a new blade too. While looking over those razors, I saw next to it the Gillette Fusion Power Phantom, which is exactly the same razor, but it takes a battery and vibrates to (insert commercial here) provide a new level of comfort and the closest shave you've ever experienced.

Now, I do use one of those cheap Oral B electric toothbrushes, and I really like it. When I first saw the advertisements for the manual razor that vibrates, I thought it was a joke. And standing there in the store, I could not imagine who would buy such a thing. It was obviously just a play off the popularity of the battery-powered toothbrushes that have become so commonplace. And the battery powered razor was not even on sale, although they were only a dollar or so more expensive than the normal razor's regular price. 

You can probably guess where this is going. Yep, I bought the battery powered razor out of sheer curiosity, and so I could mock it later in all of my conversations. I even imagined blogging about it later, telling all of you how silly of a concept it is.

Except, I love it. You can not image my disbelief at actually trying it and not just liking it, but finding out that it is actually the best shave I've ever had. Not that I'm a shaving expert or anything, but I've experienced plenty of years of shaving each morning to know a good experience from a bad one. I used a manual razor for a couple years, then switched to an electric razor for a few years, and then switched back to a manual razor. This is, without a doubt in my mind, the best razor I've ever used. I'm not going to try to explain how a razor that vibrates could be so much better than the exact same razor that doesn't vibrate, but it is. Maybe it just distracts you or something, but there is so much less discomfort with this razor that I am still amazed each time I use it.

Yes, this is going to be a long blog. ;-)

2. Ms. Fiance and I decided to go see a movie the other day, and I was really disappointed to find out that "I am legend" was not out yet (Friday!). Ms. Fiance really wanted to see August Rush, which is a movie about a little boy who is a musical prodigy and thinks he can find his long-lost parents through his music. Sounded like a yawn-fest to me, and I had absolutely no interest in seeing it. But, being the loving fiance that I am, I told her we could watch it since there really wasn't anything else I wanted to see anyway (until Friday!).

Again, I was blown away. That movie has so many emotional highs and those WOW moments, that I totally got caught up in it. I don't know how many times I felt my eyes tear up, not from sadness, but from seeing the boy learn to play music and how powerful it was for him. 

I am not one to cry at movies. I just don't. At best I sometimes get that tingly feeling when something really builds up to an emotional high that clicks with me, like at the end of Shawshank Redemption when he finally escapes, or in Rudy when he gets to play in the game. I had that tingly feeling throughout August Rush, and while I wouldn't say that I actually cried, my eyes were definitely moist at least 3 or 4 times throughout the movie. It was just really good, and a great story. If you haven't seen it yet, go and watch it!

So there you have it, two times recently when my first impression of something was completely off base. I would have silently, or even not so silently, ridiculed both of these things, but they turned out to be really good. Just something for us all to keep in mind I guess.

DotD: Today you get two, big surprise.

Gillette Fusion Power Phantom - $10.99 - The only difference that I could tell between the Phantom and the regular Gillette Fusion Power razor is that the Phantom is black. They were both the same price, so I went with the Phantom. I just bought mine in the store, but I couldn't find it on a quick search of Target or Walmart's website, so that's why there's an Amazon link. 

August Rush - $7 or $8 in theaters - Go see this movie. After one viewing, it instantly moved near the top of my all-time favorite list. Both Ms. Fiance and I thought it was great, and can't stop telling people about it.

Nurse Chris

Ms. Fiance and I had a lovely visit to urgent care a few nights ago when her migraines became really bad for a few days. During this visit, we met Chris the nurse. He made our visit quite memorable. I will leave you with two highlights:

1. Nurse Chris had to give Ms. Fiance a shot. He knew from talking to her that she worked in the medical field, which seemed to make him nervous. I think he wanted to impress her because he started using really big medical terms where they really weren't needed. When describing the shot, he said, "This is a subcutaneous shot." He then went on to explain what that meant. "It's, uh, well, it basically goes below the cutaneous." Thanks Nurse Chris, for clearing that one up!

2. Nurse Chris explained that the urgent care room we were in was used by internal medicine during the day, so he was having trouble finding things in the room. Like a band-aid to use after giving Ms. Fiance a shot. He was looking around, but couldn't find one. He finally said, "Well, it probably won't bleed anyway." My Dad always keeps a band-aid or two in his wallet, and I picked up that habit long ago as well. I handed Nurse Chris a band-aid, which he then proceeded to use. The next time Nurse Chris came back in the room, he brought with him another band-aid, this one with neon-colored dinosaurs on it. He said this was to replenish the band-aids in my wallet (I had not asked for one). I found it quite amusing, but then it got even better.

It was decided that Ms. Fiance needed one final shot. Back in comes Nurse Chris to administer the shot. And again, he didn't have any band-aids. He turned to me and said, "Um, I'm going to need those dinosaurs back." Ms. Fiance and I did our absolute best not to just laugh out loud. I think next time we see Nurse Chris I should just bring an entire box to give him as a Christmas present. 

DotD: Walmart Black Friday Specials - Click on "View your local ad" in the left sidebar to see the specials for the day after Thanksgiving.

Leopard

Well, the first week of my new job went well. Actually, day 1 was pretty crazy. My head was swimming from all of the new information, procedures, tools, etc. My current project is working on software for a medical device. I'll be generic at this point until I get a better feel for what I am allowed to say and what I am not allowed to say. Given that we have to keep the machine under a tarp when we are not actively using it, it is safe to say that confidentiality is a pretty big deal for the company making it. I currently have a small version of the machine in my cube for development and testing purposes. I can flip switches, turn dials, and pretend to be a great doctor or nurse. 

Of course, while important, that had nothing to do with the subject of this post. Because while I like to keep you informed of what I'm up to, you just want to find ammunition to use against me. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Ms. Fiance and I were meeting after work at Rosedale Mall, planning to have supper after a failed attempt to meet somewhere else...

*Insert side story here*

We were originally going to meet at Arthur's Jewelers to look at wedding bands. We already have hers, but I don't have one yet. Anyway, at a recent wedding expo she won a coupon for $100 off a wedding band if you use the coupon by the end of October. As it turns out, the place closes at 6 pm on 3 out of 5 days during the normal work week (huh?), Friday being one of those days. Well, by the time we both would have gotten there it would have been about 6:30, so no dice.

*End of side story*

While waiting at Rosedale Mall for Ms. Fiance, I decided to walk all the way to the other side of the mall to the Apple Store, since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was being released that day starting at 6 pm. I had pre-ordered my copy online, but I figured I could kill some time and maybe even grab one of the free t-shirts they were handing out for the release night.

It was about 6:15 when I got to the store, and I saw the store was pretty full. There were employees standing next to the door offering people the free t-shirts as the left. I went to walk in past them when the first guy stopped me. I figured he was going to ask if I wanted a t-shirt. He said, "Did you just come from the line?" With me being surprised and confused, he continued, "We're only letting people in who waited in line." At this point, I turned around and noticed a line of people waiting to get into the Apple Store that extended all the way down the hall to about Macy's. Yeah, somehow missed that line of hundreds of people standing in a nice orderly line in the middle of the hallway. Whoops!

Countdown

Just a few more hours until I'm off to TEC 69. And I'm STILL not done with my wheat. Seriously, I need to concentrate and stop blogging and chatting, or someone's going to be very disappointed. Good thing Northwestern is open until 9 and is just down the street.

I finally joined Facebook last night, but then again, I think all of you know that already. Oh, yes, I know I'm years behind, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Even if that old dog is a computer geek.

Oh, and Cooper cheats at Scrabble. 20 points for sticking the letter 'p' between two 'o's? Seriously? That's an informal abbreviation, and you know it! I'm going to be dumping pop all over the conference room starting tomorrow and then we'll see what kind of words you use against me!

DotD: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Family Pack - $189 - Oh sure, people complain about Mac's costing more. But how about this? The full, no-features-removed-or-disabled version of Apple's next generation operating system, usable on up to 5 computers for less than a single upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Or, get a single license for $109. No product activation and no license keys, and everyone gets the full version.

MacDepot

Cooper and I were chatting the other day on the way back from a TEC meeting. We got to talking about websites and it reminded me of my old website from many years ago. It was a chance for me to spread my journalistic wings a bit and write about anything I wanted to. Which, of course, was all Macintosh related. A quick search in Google revealed that the long-forgotten website still existed out in cyberspace, but with many broken links, graphics, and features due to services and websites that don't exist 10 years later. In any case, it was fun to see the product of a young geek that I know very well.

Without further ado, I present to you the great archaeological find: MacDepot.

A couple things worth checking out include the News (including the Archives), Supporters, and Graphics pages. I wrote all of the news articles, gleaning information from tons of Mac-related websites and magazines. The Supporters list was a listing of people who had visited my site and filled out a form to have their name and location added to my list of Macintosh supporters who had visited my site and wanted it recorded, and the Graphics page is a page of various Mac graphics (gifs and animated gifs) from the pre-flash era of the web.

I hope you enjoy your trip into the past as much as I did.

DotD 1: TEC! TEC! TEC! It's coming this weekend! Hurray!

DotD 2: USB Vacuum Cleaner - $5.99 - I guess you can use it for vacuuming between the keys on your keyboard or in your cat's ears or something. But it was strange enough and cheap enough that I had to put it on here.

New Job(s)

This past Friday was my last day at Teradyne. I'm officially unemployed for about 3 weeks until October 22, when I start at my new job at Logic Product Development. Why three weeks? TEC, of course! I really wanted to work this particular TEC for a number of reasons, and since I was fortunate enough to sneak onto the team through the back door, I wasn't going to give it up. I wanted a little time off between jobs since I haven't really had much time off while saving up vacation for the wedding. So, I could either start at Logic, work a couple of days, and then have to burn my only vacation for the rest of the year for TEC, or start after TEC and enjoy a few weeks off. Granted, it's without pay, but I think it will be worth it. The downside is that my first day is now the first day after a TEC weekend, so I'm going to have to grab every last possible minute of sleep I can find during the weekend. Hopefully I can count on a particular Rector to help me out with some of his own bedtime stories, so I can fall asleep faster. ;-)

One interesting twist to this is that in the process of looking for a new job, I got to interview with Bob. No, not just Bob's company, but Bob herself. At my previously mentioned introduction to High Society, at the hands of Bob herself, she mentioned that her group was looking to hire. This was part of our computer geek conversion mentioned in that post. That was probably the weirdest, yet most fun interview I've ever done. I was both relaxed, since it was Bob, and yet not too relaxed, since she had a cohort with her for the interview. However, in the end, Bob's influence and bribes were not enough to overcome the lack of some specific skills and experience that they really wanted for that position. I am no longer speaking to Bob. Well, except for this past Sunday, next Sunday, the Sunday after that.... ;-)

I would like to point out that this was the first time I've ever applied for a position and not been offered the job. And it was all Bob's fault! Never again will I listen to her lies and deceit! Or something like that. ;-)  Actually, the recruiter from her company said the feedback from the interview process was really positive and they thought I would be a great fit for the company, but just not for that position. Which is just dandy. But in the end, I decided that without the special draws of that position in particular, the commute to Eden Prairie from Andover was going to be a bit much (probably about an hour each way, a little longer in the evening), and the Logic position was still a possibility. So, in the end, I chose not to work in the same building as Bob, as crazy as that sounds. I'm not sure that company was ready for the two of us in the same city at the same time anyway.

So, why the potential plural in the post title? I just found out yesterday that big brother is also getting a new job. Neither of us knew that the other was in the process of looking, so we surprised each other with new jobs at almost the exact same time. His last day was yesterday. Little sis got a new job a couple of months ago as well. I guess I should expect some news from my parents in the next few days...

DotD: Superman keyboard and mouse - Free! - Newegg again has the Superman keyboards and mice in various colors for free after rebate. I picked up the red and blue keyboard and mouse awhile back when they were also free and really like them. They're not the highest quality, of course, but I think they just look pretty cool and they've worked fine for me. The keyboard is available in blue, black, or silver, and the mouse is available in red/blue, blue/black, and silver/black.

Hang in there!

Yes, a new post is coming. Yes, one besides this one. Expect a large update soon. In the meantime, don't give up. Mac Man Minutes will prosper once more.

DotD: Mac Man Minutes - Free - When I don't post for awhile, you don't have to waste time reading things that I wrote! ;-)

My Bad

You tried to warn me, but I didn't listen. You tried to tell me that I was making a mistake, but I ignored you anyway.

Turns out, you were right. Serenity is an awesome movie!

Mr. Da Coops and I got to talking about movies on our drive up to camping, and he brought up Firefly. I mentioned seeing one episode, but not liking it much because I had no idea what was going on. Well, Mr. Da Coops, I'm ready to start watching Firefly now. It might be a bit weird, since according to IMDB, Serenity supposedly takes place after the last Firefly episode, but I guess that just makes the experience somewhat like Memento. And there's nothing wrong with that!

For what it's worth, I'm also now just one episode away from finishing season one of Star Trek: Voyager, with season one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine waiting in the wings (backwards again, I know). Yeah, I'm a bit behind on a couple of shows... ;-)

Oh, and if you run into Ms. Fiance, don't forget to tell her happy birthday. The official day is Sunday, but everyone except me gets a free buffer of a couple of days to let her know that you didn't forget. Because you didn't, right? Right?

And because I completely forgot about Deal of the Day in my last post, you get two today. And what better way to spread the savings than with two more Apple deals!

DotD: Apple iPhone - $399 - Just 2 months after being introduced, it's now available for $200 less. Plus, the people that already bought an iPhone get a $100 credit at the Apple Store because of the sudden and massive price drop. First time I've heard of that happening!

DotD Part 2: 40 free digital prints - Sign up for York Photo (a sister company of Snapfish) and get your first 40 prints free.

What have I done?

Well, that'll teach me to try to get people involved...

I just got a sad email about the next TEC. I'm on the waiting list. This, of course, comes after convincing some other adults to apply to work. And then they take my spot! Sheesh!

And then Cooper has to rub in the fact that Baron is overall Rector (read the candidates a bed time story!). Stop with the heaping coals already!

Okay, so I'm not exactly down in the dumps here. I just need to ham it up a little to get some attention, since you guys and gals have left my comment section dry recently (yep, and my posting has been too, I know). So I'm trying for a virtual hug here, and pity seemed like the best tool.

I am excited about those that get to work. It'll be a blast. And hey, if a couple adults have some unfortunate run-ins with Tonya Harding, well, it wasn't me. Mostly. ;-)

Bitten by a horseshoe

Camping last weekend was a ton of fun, even though Ms. Fiance couldn't make it. We were up at a resort on Mille Lacs Lake. Unlike the majority of the people we saw who stayed in cabins or RV's, we brought tents. Cooper and I shared my tent, which was quite spacious for just two people.

The four of us played horseshoes, croquet, 2 on 2 sand volleyball, went swimming, and went biking on the Soo Line bike trail. The bike trail was not my favorite thing. It used to be an actual rail line that was removed and converted to a combination bike and ATV trail, so it is perfectly flat and perfectly straight. There also wasn't a lot to see around us, but hey, it was exercise and we had fun biking on it as  a group.

The horseshoes, on the other hand, were fun. We played countless games, sometimes while watching the sun go down over the lake. The problem is that horseshoes are dangerous. Very dangerous. I had my camera along and was taking pictures of everything, including the games of horseshoes. I decided after awhile that I'd like to get a good action shot, so I squatted behind the horseshoe pit with the wooden  wall in front of me, and took a picture when Cooper was throwing a horseshoe towards the pit I was behind. I said to the friend next to me to tell me if I needed to get out of the way so I didn't get hit, but Cooper's horseshoe was clearly landing in the sand pit about 6 feet in front of me. I looked down at my camera, while still squating, to see that I had gotten the horseshoe in mid-flight. Sweet!

BAM!

PAIN!

Cooper's horseshoe had hit the sand in front of me, and then instead of settling in the sand, it bounced up, over the the wooden barrier, and hit me directly on the knee cap. Remember, he had just thrown this horseshoe about 40 feet, so it had a lot of momentum on it and is made out of solid metal. MOMMY!!!!!

I survived, but my knee was really sore the rest of the day. I couldn't really bike because it hurt to push down on the petals, so we moved biking to the next day. It even hurt when I was just sitting down. Luckily, my knee felt much better by the next morning, so we could continue with our biking plans a day late.

I dominated at croquet, to the point that we decided to change the rules a bit on how many extra shots you could accumulate by hitting other people's balls. Of course we were playing croquet out in an open field in the middle of the day after playing sand volleyball and swimming, so at this point we realized that we were getting crispy. Oh yeah, we kind of forgot to put on that sunscreen I had brought with me...

We did an awesome job with our food. The highlight of the weekend's cuisine was Saturday night. We built up a big fire and then cooked corn on the cob and a special potato, carrot, and cream of chicken concoction by wrapping everything up in tin foil and sticking it directly in the fire. It took awhile to cook, but boy was it good! We also cooked some pork loins on my gas stove, so in the end, it was quite an extravagant meal.

We played a little poker Saturday night as well, inside the screened-in part of my tent. Everyone lasted quite awhile, but as the night wore on, it was getting really cold. I was in the final two, so I decided to just bet everything on one hand, and ended up losing by a hair. Oh well, great fun!

Our last camping adventure took place on our way home Sunday. We stopped by Grand Casino initially just for lunch. It was my first time in a casino, and Cooper's as well. I watched everyone lose a couple dollars at the nickel poker machines, too odds-inclined to actually play a game myself. Total lost between my 3 companions: $9. Total time spent playing games: An hour? Not too shabby.

I, however, won the big one. There was a 2 cent poker machine behind where the others were playing and I saw that it said there was half a credit available. Someone had apparently left and decided cashing out a penny wasn't worth the effort. I thought otherwise, especially since it gave me a story to tell about my first casino trip. I went over to the machine (no one had been there in the 15 to 20 minutes we'd been in that area) and hit the cash-out button. A paper slip was printed saying I had a $0.01 credit. Sweet! I had Cooper take a picture of my glorious winnings, and later went to the automatic cash-out machine to claim my winnings (I didn't want to waste an actual human's time at the counter). I then took another picture outside showing my new-found riches with the casino in the background. 

So yeah, if you need some good luck, ask for me. I'm the guy that wins money at the casino without actually playing a game!

DotD: Buffet lunch at Grand Casino - $9.99 - Great food and plenty of it. And then free pop while you walk around afterwards.  And then for me, free money at the casino!

Used gallbladder for sale

Ms. Fiance just went into surgery a little bit ago to have her gallbladder removed. She had a lot of pain late last week, but because it got better after a few hours, she was able to wait to do the surgery today. I'm sitting in the lounge at the hospital right now, and expect that she will be all sewed up within the next hour. Please keep her in your prayers, that everything will go swimmingly well, both now and over the next couple of recovery days.

Because of the pending surgery, Ms. Fiance wasn't able to go on the camping trip this weekend that we had planned with some friends since early summer (more on that in another post). She was really bummed about missing out, so I brought camping to her last night. After getting home from the weekend camping trip, I immediately put the tent back up again, this time in my backyard (Ms. Fiance was waiting at my house after helping little sis move this weekend). I surprised her with a little camping adventure, including the tent, a small campfire, smores, and croquet.

It was all well and good until the storm went through last night. Wow! Ms. Fiance abandoned her air mattress and blankets at 11:00 to retreat into my house because the wind was so violent that it was keeping her awake, and she wanted to be fully rested for surgery. I stayed in the test, bunkered down with my air mattress and sleeping bag. 

Around 1:00 am, it started to sprinkle. I woke up to the rain, closed all of the windows and doors in the tent, and tried to go back to sleep. Then the rain changed from a sprinkle to a wicked downpour. It was pretty loud in the tent, and the wind was still whipping the tent around. And then the lightning and thunder started. Lights were flashing everywhere and constantly for about an hour, with incredible booms and rolls of thunder. I also started hearing louder plops on the roof of the tent that I assume was small hail mixed with the rain. At this point, I was pretty much stuck where I was, a bit afraid that I should not be outside in the storm, but also thinking it was not a good time to walk outside the tent. 

The storm finally finished passing through about 2:30 am, and I raced inside in case there was more to come. 

Ms. Fiance slept through the entire thing.

DotD: Gallbladder removal surgery - $15,000? - Insurance is a good thing...

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

The great and powerful families have finally met. This past weekend Ms. Fiance's parents met my parents for the first time. It went swimmingly well. Not that we were worried or anything, but it's nice to have that past us.

We did a little steak and corn-on-the-cob grilling on Saturday, and then played a few games of cards. No, Cooper, not THOSE cards. ;-)

On Sunday, Ms. Fiance and I were on worship team at church, and we sang a duet during offering. It went really well. We had some issues getting to that point, however. The first plan was to sing along to an instrument-only CD track, but the range was too high in a couple spots, and if I dropped down an octive, it was too low in a couple spots. Basically, the worst possible range for me. The other option was to have someone play the piano (actually keyboard), but then Ms. Fiance had some trouble with the harmony since it was in a different key. In the end we slowly worked out the harmony and sang with the keyboard, guitar, and drums from the worship band backing us up. It was really cool that both of our sets of parents were there for our duet debut.

After church, we headed down to the Metrodome to see the Twins play. Wow, what a game! This was the Johan Santana performance you may have heard about, where he struck out 17 people in 8 innings. Think about that. He had to get 24 outs, and 17 were strikeouts. Crazy! And only Sammy Sosa caused it to not be a no-hitter, as he had both hits that the Twins allowed.

And you thought all it did was rain this weekend!

DotD: Refurbished iPhone - $399 or $499 - For a hundred bucks less than a brand new phone, you can have a just-like-new, factory-refurbished iPhone, in either the 4 GB or 8 GB version. Yes, it is still expensive, but it's an iPhone! Why aren't you running yet? Oh...yeah...it's on the internet... Why aren't you clicking yet?

You can sleep when you're dead

So, yeah, I'm the church treasurer.

This glamourous job has lots of perks. You know, like total control (at least on paper) over the finances of a large organization. Keys to rooms in the church that other people can't get into. Combinations for the safes. Passwords and admin access on the computers. Oh yeah, and the responsibility to keep things running smoothly and error free.

That error free thing can be a pain sometimes.

I just spent last night down in the basement of the church re-reconciling the main church checking account back to January of this year. If you think that would take awhile with your checkbook, think of how long it takes for an entire church, including payroll, bills, mission checks, donations, etc. I started about 9:00 pm after worship team practice, and finally left around 5:45 am this morning. And yes, I did have to get up for work this morning. Two hours of sleep, color me rested!

All because somewhere along the line a couple entries were put in wrong (I'm innocent!), but in such a way that they didn't rear their ugly heads until we were preparing mid-year giving reports. And in QuickBooks, if you change a transaction that has already been reconcilied, you can't just fix it without undoing all of the later reconciliations and then doing them all from scratch again.

Now technically, I could have left the transactions the way they were. I could have manually corrected the reports and added an adjustment in the current month. But that pains me greatly. If you haven't noticed, I have a little flair of perfectionism flowing in my veins. I bit the bullet and spent the entire night at the church in the treasurer's office.

Again.

By my count, that's three times this year. 

Next time, I'll invite you to join me. You just might want to be treasurer too!

DotD: Sudoku toilet paper - $7.16 - In honor of Greg's sudoku post. Sorry, Greg, it isn't binary.

How long have you been in Fertile?

Just got back from a trip to Iowa for a friend's wedding for which I was one of the scripture readers (Psalm 121, baby!). During the rehearsal dinner, I was catching up with another good friend who is just finishing up his internship for seminary. He's in a small town in Minnesota called Fertile for two more weeks. I wanted to know how long his internship was (a couple weeks, the whole summer, a year, etc), so I asked:

"So, Ryan, how long have you been in Fertile?"

Immediately, Ms. Fiance burst out laughing. It was at this point that I actually realized what I had said and how it sounded. He took it quite well, and was laughing along with everyone else at our table.

Another interesting note from the weekend: When I was first asked to be one of the scripture readers, I asked the my friend (the groom) if he wanted me to read from a particular translation. He said probably the same one they used in their church, which was NRSV. I hunted around my house to found my first bible, given to me in 2nd grade, which was NRSV. I brought it with me to the rehearsal, and all three of the scripture readers used it since there was no bible up in the pulpit. After the practice, the pastor came up to me and asked me which translation the bible was. I replied, "The one the groom requested." As I was saying this, he grabbed the bible (which was in my hand), and read the spine himself to make sure it was the right one, and then said "Good." I thought it was a bit strange. I guess just hearing us all read our versus moments earlier wasn't enough reassurance that we weren't using the Hawaiian Pidgin bible or something.

Regardless, the whole wedding went very well and the reception and dance were great. The reception was at the Iowa Arboretum, so some of us took a little time to walk around outside and take some pictures. Ms. Fiance and I did a lot of dancing, so much so that I think I lost about 50 pounds through sweat alone. We made sure to do enough Swing dancing to be ready for the next time we see Janet. And since there were no polkas played, my parents started to polka to one of the songs on their own, so Ms. Fiance and I joined in. After a bit, I switched to go polka a little bit with my Mom (which let Ms. Fiance polka with my Dad), followed shortly thereafter to dancing the polka with my Dad. My parents are awesome dancers. They were teaching a couple of the little kids how to do the twist, and pretty soon one little girl kept hanging around my Dad to dance with him. It was really cute.

DotD: Da Jesus Book (Hawaiian Pidgin New Testament) - $10.41 - "Da peopo dat know Jesus, if dey goin do good job fo help odda peopo find out bout Jesus, an teach, dey gotta use peopo's language, so dose peopo can know him fo real too."

High Society

It's time for me to hang up my blogging cleats.

Oh sure, I've had a good run these past couple of months. Okay, actually I've bored you to tears in the process, but that's not why I'm moving on. Blogging just doesn't fit into my new lifestyle. You know, the rich and famous.

In a short period of time, my place in society has risen from the dung heap to my rightful place among the stars. I am speaking, of course, about being invited over to Bob's house for a cookout. That's right, not begging to be invited, not sleeping on the doorstep hoping to be invited in, but actual "won't you please come over" invited.

My hubris has attained new heights!

Ms. Fiance, Little sis, and I joined the famous Bob for some delicious grilled meat, fresh fruit, and skinny cows. Bob was good and didn't eat the skinny cows, but I have no such control. It was a ton of fun, reliving our memories from TEC 68 and just chatting into the night. I also found out important information such as the number of M&M's consumed by Bob during the last TEC. I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Or at least tickle you.

Bob and I even managed to talk computer geekiness for about ten minutes before Ms. Fiance and Little sis started to poke themselves in the eyeballs and bang their heads on the table in boredom and disgust.

All in all, a great relaxing and fun evening.

A word to the wise: If you ever find yourself in high society as I did, don't use the front door. It's forbidden. Those who wish to not perish by Chinese water torture should use the side door instead. I was the only person to make this grievous mistake last night.

Oh, and I was kidding about the end of the blog thing. I'll keep blogging. But I'm not the one that's going to suffer!

DotD: An empty gas tank for the grill - $19.99 - Someone went to the gas station to get a new tank of gas, since hers was empty. The station attendant was busy with customers, so he told her to take whichever one she wanted. She picked one out and brought it home to use at a particularly high-society cookout. Mac Man saved the day by both pointing out that the new tank was awfully light, and by driving back to the gas station to retrive a full tank. Understanding that this could be quite embarrasing if anyone ever found out, he has chosen not to divulge the name of the individual who made this hilarious mistake. ;-)

Where to start?

Since I've been MIA the last week, let's get a recap on the life  of the Mac Man.

This past weekend was all about paint. Lots of paint. More than the amount of paint you're thinking of. Yep, more than you're even thinking of right now. A little bit more. Perfect!

My parents came up this weekend to help paint the main floor and upper floor of my house. This was partly because Ms. Fiance was not as enamored with the multiple colors everywhere as I was. Actually, it's probably because I was too lazy to finally start the project, unlike her. The painting in my bedroom had bothered me since the day I moved in, but it took over 2 years for me to do anything about it. Life as a single guy, I guess...

So, with the help of the parental units and Ms. Fiance, we painted the entry way, kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, master bedroom, spare bedroom, bathroom, and every single ceiling for all of those areas as well. Quite the undertaking. Even worse, the old paint that was on the walls was quite dry and seemingly oil-based, so we had to put 2 coats of primer on the walls in the entry way, part of the dining room, and the living room. On top of that, we also had to put 2 coats of paint on the accent wall in the living room. 

We started when I got home from work on Friday, painted until about 11:00 pm, then went to bed. We got up the next morning and painted all day until about 10:00 pm. On Sunday, we went to church, came home, and painted until evening. We really didn't take any breaks except to eat and sleep, but we got all of the painting done (well, except a few closets).

The end result looks pretty nice. My parents are the expert painters, so we learned quite a few tricks of the trade from them. The taught me the proper way to hold a brush while trimming, and with a little bit of practice, I was out-trimming them. I was really sceptical when they said they didn't use any of that painter's tape that you can put down to keep from getting paint on the ceiling, windows, doors, etc. We did the whole house without tape, and it looks really good. You can get closer to the trim without the tape, and you don't have the problem of the new paint (that's on top of the tape) peeling off along with the tape.

I also replaced a bunch of receptacles and switches in the house at the same time, which was the first time I've done that. The old ones were covered in paint from the previous residents, and not just the color paint that was on the walls before we painted. I replaced 17 outlet covers, about 12 receptacles, 3 light switch covers, and about 8 light switches. It looks much better now.

I also played electrician and added a new GFCI outlet (the kind with the test and reset buttons) to the bathroom and fixed the wiring on the existing one. For some reason, the person that put in that outlet had it wired up so that if the breaker on the GFCI outlet tripped, it would cause the lights to go out in the bedroom downstairs. That's kind of annoying, so I finally got around to fixing that as long as I was playing around in there anyway.

I also had more car trouble on Tuesday night. When I was coming back from Home Depot with all of my new receptacles, switches, and covers, I smelled something unusual in the car. When I got home, there was a big puddle of gas forming near the back of my car. It slowed to a small leak, but when I turned the engine on again, it started pouring out really fast again. The wet spot from the gas was about 8 feet long and 8 inches wide, so we're talking about a pretty big leak here.

I didn't want to drive the car to the shop like that, so I figured I would probably have to have it towed. I let it sit there until the next day, when it was light out. I crawled under the car to have a look, and nothing looked cracked or loose (not that I'm an expert). I tried to tighten the couplings along the fuel lines, but nothing really seemed to be very loose. The car hadn't leaked overnight, and still didn't leak when I turned the engine on. I decided to make a run for the shop, and experienced no leaks along the way. They had it for about 5 hours, but didn't find a thing wrong with it.

So, no expensive repairs this time, but I'm a little afraid that something is going to happen again. After all, the gas was just pouring out of there the night before. I must have just tightened something enough while under the car, but who knows how long that will last.

Finally, we had our last co-ed softball game last night. I lead off, walked, got to second base, and then tradgedy struck. While running to third base to try to beat the third baseman to the bag (a grounder was hit to him), my foot landed a bit awkwardly in the sand, and I felt this strange sensation in my hip as my hip slipped partially out of socket. It popped back in right away, but it hurt pretty bad. It hurt a bit to walk on it, but I could still run pretty well. I was able to finish the game (even hitting an inside-the-park homerun after my injury), and ended up a triple short of hitting for the cycle. I also had a few nice defensive plays. In the end, we won for just the 2nd time this year. It was easily our best game of the year. The hip still hurt, but that pain got much worse after sitting still in the car on the way home. Today I am limping badly, and it's hard to bend over to put on socks, tie my shoes, or even get into and out of the car. Hopefully it's short-lived, however, because I start fall softball in just 2 weeks!

So, that was my week in a nutshell. If you've made it this far without your eyes glossing over, congrats! 

DotD: Two of the As Seen on TV products that I consider to be the most useless ever are now on sale! Help your arthritic dog with the Doggy Step for only $19.99, and while you're at it, cook some pasta for yourself with the Pasta Express for only $6.99. While I can't say that I've tried the Doggy Step, I have tried the Pasta Express. Ms. Fiance's parents got me one for Christmas as a joke, and we tried it out as a joke. It was even worse than we thought. It took longer than the normal way of cooking pasta since you still have to have hot water to pour in there, and once you do, you can't keep it heated like you would over the stove. The pasta was quite starchy even after waiting what seemed like forever. But it's on sale!

Keeping it cool

Well, many hundreds of dollars later, my car has a brand new radiator, upper and lower radiator hoses, and a complete coolant flush. It feels happier, I feel poorer, and the world is at equilibrium again.

I took my car to the same shop that I used recently for new tires and an alignment. They took a look and called me with what needed to be done as well as an estimate on the damage about to be incurred on my wallet. The quote was much higher than I had anticipated, so I called another shop in a nearby town that some guys at work had recommended. I told them exactly what needed to be done (thanks to the conversation with the first shop), and asked for an estimate. Theirs was $263 cheaper.

Now I had a conundrum. I had taken my car to the first shop because I could drive there with my limping car, since it was only about 3 miles away. I had to stop once and refill the engine coolant along the way. Even doing that, my temperature guage was fully in the red for half of the trip, and to the absolute farthest point of red by the end of the journey. I was not going to be driving it much farther, so if I took it to another shop, I'd have to have it towed. Plus, I would still owe the first shop just for looking at the car.

I called the first shop back and told them about the much lower quote. He hemmed and hawed a little bit, and then said he could do everything with the exact same parts as before for $140 less. I asked what was different this time. He said he just added in some price matching and coupons. Thanks and all, but why couldn't we have done that the first time?

I ended up letting them go ahead and fix the car, since by now the still $123 difference would have been completely eaten up by paying them the diagnostic fee and towing. Picked it up after work, good as new!

Is it just the car industry that acts this way? I don't go to McDonald's and have to negotiate for a better price. It really makes me wish I was more mechanically inclined. I can tear apart a computer, build one from scratch, write you a software program to balance your checkbook or perform automatically scheduled backups, but I often have no idea where to begin when something goes wrong with my car.

Yes, I can change a headlight, change the oil, change a tire, and maybe even put on new brakes by myself now that I've helped with that before. But the expensive stuff, not a chance.

DotD: Expert Painter-Parents willing to come up and help paint for free. I have 6 rooms, 2 hallways, and ceilings for all of those to paint this weekend. All in all, we'll have about 12 gallons of paint and primer hanging out at my place ready to be splattered everywhere.

And a bonus for you today, 50 Verbatim DVD+R discs for $5.99 after rebate.

One of those days

Today was one of those days. You know, the kind you wished would just end already, so you can climb back into bed and try again the next day. Well, it's finally almost time to try just that.

The day started off on a low note. I was running late to work. I walked into the garage to leave, and I smelled a strange, sweet scent. I also saw dark stains on the cement floor, orange puddles in the cracks, and my garage door dripped when I opened it. No, it did not rain Hi-C Orange in my garage last night. A quick check under the hood of my car, and sure enough, all of my engine coolant was gone. Problem. Well, so much for driving to work, I think the car is staying right where it is.

In my extreme lack of car knowledge, I did check to see if a hose was leaking somewhere. No such luck. The leak was coming from the bottom corner of the radiator. Bummer.

Later on, in our softball game, my little sis tried to catch a pop fly at shortstop and ended up catching her other hand a bit funny. From the outfield, I couldn't quite tell what was going on, until she and a couple other people left the field heading for their cards. I ended up waiting in the urgent care room with her after the game (which we were leading in until the last inning, when they scored 10 runs and then won), since I had to get a ride to the clinic (see above paragraphs). She hyper-extended two fingers and her wrist, and had some nasty gashes on her fingers. Nothing was broken, but she needed four stitches, a lot of cleaning, and a splint for her wrist and hand.

We finally got home and Ms. Fiance and I managed to get my car over to a repair shop so they can look at it in the morning. I filled the coolant reservoir before leaving, but had to stop once to refill it about half way to the shop. The coolant would just come streaming out whenever the engine was running, and for the first time ever, I was driving my car with the temp gauge not just in the red, but at the farthest end of the red mark. The repair shop was only a couple of miles away, and there my car now sits.

Thinking nothing else could happen today, I then remembered that I still had to sign checks at church. It was already late, but I headed over there in my sister's vehicle after stopping by CVS with little sis to get some prescription pain killers for her. There was a little bit of extra work to do at church besides signing checks, but not bad. I then checked my box in the office, and found a copy of a letter written to one of the church staff from a church member. It was given to each member of the leadership team. It was so full of venom, anger, and hate that it really turned my stomach. How can people be so mean to others, especially in a church? I could not believe what I was reading. Pure venom is the best way to describe it. Unbelievable.

So, it's finally time to go to bed and put this day behind me. Here's to tomorrow!

DotD: Prescription painkillers for softball injuries - $10 copay - What's the cost without insurance, little sis wanted to know? $10.99. Whew, good thing we didn't have to go that route! ;-)

We talked about what you talked about...in your talk

TEC 68 has come and gone, and my sleeping patterns have not righted themselves yet. It was a great weekend, though draining and frustrating at times. It's so easy to slip back into that atmosphere of love and fun, and just want to remain suspended in it.

I was an ATL this time around, and my table was challenging at times. It was a much different experience than my last go-round as an ATL. There were times when we had some really deep stuff come out from half the table all at once, and other times when it felt like we were getting nowhere. By the time we got to closing, I was blown away by the changes I saw and the comments from the candidates. Truly God was working through the team this weekend to reach these candidates!

Yes, the title of this post was an actual comment made by someone while sharing after a talk. Yes, it was an ATL. Yes, it was me. I got part way through the sentence (right where the elipsis is), and decided I might as well go all out and add the last one for good measure.

The talent share was good times as well. My table was the very first act, and we did a short little skit. Since the Anderson's were pretty much having a family reunion, we did a skit together (which I titled Anderson* on the sign-up sheet, since Ms. Fiance was involved). Chicken Farming at its best! Kelly and Ms. Fiance made excellent chickens, and my Dad made an excellent chicken farmer. Me, I just played narrator/chicken seller.

It was cool to see a lot of my peeps there this weekend, but sad to know that a bunch of them were there for the last time AS YOUTH. Emphasis on the youth part, because working as an adult is pretty much wonderful as well. You just have to have a little bit of patience.

DotD: TEC - $35 for candidates, $40 for team - May be the best $35 or $40 you've ever spent.

Great Outdoors

I can't wait until the work day is over. Immediately afterwards, I'm heading home quick, packing a few last minute things (like food), and then Ms. Fiance and I heading to Interstate Park. It's going to be a short camping weekend, but it should still be quite fun.

This is our alternative to the SonShine Music Festival which is going on right now. I had to take a bunch of vacation days during the school year to get various projects done, and I need to save some vacation for next year, meaning that SonShine got the axe. It was sad, but we're doing the next best thing, which doesn't require about 3 days of vacation.

We're coming back Sunday just in time for the last TEC meeting. Can't believe next weekend is TEC already! These past couple of weeks have flown by. I need to get my little body in gear to get stuff ready for next weekend.

Oh, and there's going to be a card night on Tuesday, which means Monday night I need to make some decks. It's going to be a busy week!

DotD: Norton Internet Security, Norton Partition Magic, and Norton Ghost bundle - $0.00 - Pretty sweet deal if you ask me, and easy on the wallet (after mail-in-rebate). This bundle has it all: Antivirus, Antispyware, Antiphishing, Firewall (incoming and outgoing), partition management, and disk imaging and backup. Did I mention free? 

My short career as a uniform salesman

I just got back from Boston yesterday. It was a really short trip. I flew out on Sunday night after leaving early from the TEC meeting, had an all-day UML training class to attend on Monday, and then flew back Tuesday morning.

The class itself wasn't really worth the trip, since we've covered UML in my undergraduate and graduate level courses quite a bit, but the entire software team was required to go. I could have condensed the useful-to-me training from 8 hours to 30 minutes. Basically all I learned was the new changes to UML 2.0 (which are actually quite nice). I did, however, get to have dinner with a former coworker who lives out there now, and I got to play with his new iPhone on Monday night. That was fun. 

I did have some travel-related quirks to the trip, however. Because of the storms that rolled through on Sunday, instead of arriving in Boston at 10:30, we were delayed and arrived at the hotel at 2:00 am. Then, when I went to check in, they couldn't find my reservation. As I was searching for my confirmation number, they desk clerk found my name, but said I'd already checked in.

Say what?

Yep, according to their records, I had checked in early that evening, and that person was in my room. Furthermore, when that guy checked in, he said he worked for a company that sells uniforms, not exactly my company's line of work. That room was already switched from my credit card to direct billing to the uniform company, so I didn't have to worry about being charged for their stay. But still, very odd.

The guy at the desk was very apologetic, however, and was joking with me about my career change and my apparant multiple personalities. He also upgraded me to a room with a jacuzzi. 

Now, since I had to be up in about 4 hours for the class, I didn't get to take advantage of it that night. But I did try it out the next night. It was nice, but a big small for my legs. There was no way to completely stretch out my legs, so either my feet or my knees had to be out of the water. Such poor living conditions, I know... ;-)

And thus, Tuesday morning, my career as a multiple personality uniform salesman came to an end while I checked out of the hotel. It was a nice run while it lasted.

Oh, and watching episodes of Star Trek: Voyager on an iPod is an excellent way to pass the time at the airport and on the airplane. I decided to start watching the series from beginning to end, since I've only seen a few of the epidodes up till now. I made it through about the first 5 on my trip. Favorite moment so far: the doctor slapping Tom Paris in the face to show that holograms aren't just images. It was hilarious!

Oh, and Baron thought I looked very manly at the TEC meeting when I ran into him in the hall. It made my day. I'm not sure if it was because of my handsome good looks, or because I was holding onto Ms. Fiance's purse for her. Or it could be because he was so excited to see me that that's the best compliment he could think of as his brain shut down in wonder. I'm going to assume the latter.

DotD: Free Squishee (Slurpee) at 7-Eleven today-only to celebrate the 80th birthday of 7-Eleven.

Wedding Blues

Come on now, don't get so carried away already! I never said these wedding blues had anything to do with my upcoming wedding. Get your facts straight before you jump to conclusions like that!

Anywho, Ms. Fiance was in a wedding this weekend, the much-hyped 7-7-7 thing. As wonderful fiance, I attended the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception. I did not go to the wedding itself, since I did not know the bride or the groom at all (hadn't even seen a picture), and since Ms. Fiance was in the wedding, I would have been sitting by myself, not knowing anyone (except a couple of people I met at the rehearsal dinner), in a Catholic wedding. I get a little nervous in Catholic churches, always a bit afraid I'm going to be standing or sitting at the wrong time, or doing something that only Catholics are supposed to do or something. I think I need a Catholicism For Dummies book or something to help me out.

The rehearsal dinner itself was fine, although as previously mentioned, I went into it knowing nobody besides Ms. Fiance. I did get to chat with a couple guys who were going to be sitting near me at the reception the next day. Yep, because Ms. Fiance was a bridesmaid, I got to sit at a reserved table, having my own name card and everything. 

And where, pray tell, did Mac Man get to sit?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Oh, none other than the front-most, center-most table other than the head table. In other words, here were the guests at my table:

1. Bride's mother

2. Groom's mother

3. Groom's father

4. Groom's grandmother #1

5. Groom's grandmother #2

6. Priest

7. Scripture reader and husband of one of the bridesmaids (no, not Ms. Fiance)

8. Me

Oh, and my chair was the absolute closest to the bride and groom of anyone in the entire room, other than the wedding party. Even the parents were farther away than me.

Don't get me wrong, it was a nice reception, pretty good food, and Ms. Fiance and I enjoyed a little swing dancing, a little polka, a little YMCA, a little Chicken Dancing, and a little slow-dancing. But man, was the whole ordeal uncomfortable at times. 

Random happy thought from the wedding reception: I saw two iPhones in use. A husband and his wife each had one, and the husband, who was also the Best Man, also made reference to Steve Jobs in his toast. Nifty!

DotD: 320 GB hard drive - $59.99 - A great price for this size hard drive. You can either install it inside your computer, or buy an external case for it (like this one, free after rebate) and be able to move it from computer to computer.

Fireworks vs Cars, Round 1

The first round of the battle pitting fireworks against cars to capture our hearts, imaginations, and interest is over. The results are a bit mixed, so let's take a look at the fight so far...

Pre-fight warm-up

While making a late-night run to Blockbuster on Tuesday to rent Along Came A Spider due to the DVR cutting off the last 20 minutes when something ahead of the movie ran over its alloted time, we were suprised to see big fireworks going off in Anoka (this was July 3rd, after all). We happened to have Charlie (my cat) with us at the time, since he loves car rides. We pulled into a park, got out of the car (bringing Charlie with us), and watched the fireworks for about 25 minutes.

Ding! Round 1 begins

I held Charlie in my lap as we watched the fireworks, but he could care less. Instead, he kept turning his head to watch the cars go by on the street next to us.

1 Point: Cars

Last night, some friends and I (including Cooper) went to see the Roseville 4th of July fireworks. Tom's 1 year-old, Kira, was with us. She was a bit afraid of the fireworks, but stared intently at them the whole time, ignoring the passing cars that kept driving by.

1 Point: Fireworks

Before the Roseville fireworks began, a little boy near where we sat yelled out, "Look, a Corvette!" It was a Pontiac. And besides, the fireworks hadn't even started yet.

No points awarded

Ding! End of Round 1

Like I said, the results are mixed. It's a close one, certainly too close to call right now, as we're all tied up 1-1. Keep tuning in for your up-to-the-minute Fireworks vs Cars coverage!

All in all, a pretty good 4th of July. I had the day off from work, we played some games and pool at the Marlin's while grilling, and I got to see two different fireworks displays, even if one was by accident.

The bad news is that the next holiday I get off work for without using vacation is Labor Day.

DotD: iPod Shuffle - $29 - A refurbished original white 512 MB iPod Shuffle that is the size of a small pack of gum. It cost $99 when it came out, and is a great cheap small iPod. I got one for this price about 6 months ago, and it's been great for those times when I don't want to carry around my regular full-size iPod (because of size, weight, or fear of it breaking). Also available, the newer clip-shaped 1 GB refurbished iPod Shuffle for $49. Smaller, twice the storage space, and a convenient clip instead of a lanyard for a little bit more than the other model.

Here we go!

I begin my new adventure as a member of the worship team this morning (approximately 2 hours). Hopefully that goes as well as Baron's day at KT.

Also, today is the first team meeting for TEC. My sister, fiance, and I will be in the conference room, and my Dad will be in the Support room. Can't wait!

DotD: iPhone - $499 or $599 - Couldn't resist. Buy one already!

Trial by fire

I just got back from my first worship team practice...ever. Actually, it's the first organized singing group thingy I've done since junior choir when I was about 8.

I had an "audition" which consisted of our worship leader playing the piano and me singing by myself. I've never been good at starting off cold by myself, so of course the first line was really flat, but then I was more decent.

We had a small group today because one person was sick, one had a wedding rehearsal, and one couldn't make it, so I think that made me feel even more self-conscious because there weren't as many voices to blend in with.

As if singing on the worship team for the first time on Sunday wasn't enough, I was also asked tonight to sing the first verse of one song by myself and to read a bit of scripture as a transition between two songs. So much for a gentle introduction... ;-) It's going to be wild and crazy come Sunday, so wear your ear-plugs if you're within 50 miles of Anoka this weekend.

The other first this Sunday: My Dad is preaching at his church! He's filling in for there pastor who is apparently going to be out of town. He, of course, didn't tell Dana or me about it until after we said we'd sing with the team at our church, so we can't go. But if you're in the Albert Lea area for some reason, head on over to the Methodist Church to cheer him on!

DotD: Free USB Optical Mouse - I decided to continue with the free stuff trend. No, that won't always be the case, but free stuff is fun. It's red, it's optical, and it can be yours free after rebate. Even the shipping is free. It's a bit spendy before the rebate ($29.99), but if you can make due without that much for a couple of months, you'll get the money back after you've forgotten about it, so it will seem like free money.

Mom, she's poking me!

My highly-anticipated visit to the allergist is now over. The past couple of years I've suffered through a couple really rough weeks of allergies in the Spring, along with usually feeling a little miserable when I'm outside a lot in the summer (like camping). When I described this to the doctor before we did the testing, she said I probably had some grass pollen allergies. 

So, the testing began. Thirty pokes in the back with different things to see what you react to. Immediately, my back started itching. The doctor came back in about 10 minutes later and was really surprised at the results. My back was lighting up like a Christmas tree with much redness and many large welts.

There were a couple things I didn't react to, so for those they do an additional test by injecting some of the chemical under the skin on your forearm. Two of those four also became very itchy with large welts and redness.

As it turns out, I am really allergic to grass pollen, but am also allergic to tree pollen, dust mites, mold, and cats.

The cat thing was a surprise, since I do have a cat (Charlie, who just walked across my lap as I typed that and is now trying to get to my cereal bowl), and he's never bothered me. My Mom and both of my siblings are allergic to cats, however. I did not react to the cat one on my back, but did have a big reaction when they injected it under my skin.

The doctor's take on this is that if my allergy symptoms start becoming year-round, it could be because of Charlie and I may have to keep him out of my bedroom, for instance, or use that special anti-allergen shampoo on him.

My take on it was that I shouldn't inject Charlie under my skin. 

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Goldfish and Honey

Continuing on the Sons of Jacob theme...

My church just finished VBS this past week, so on Sunday the kids were a big part of the service. During the week, each group was named after one of the tribes of Israel, so we had Joseph, Levi, Judah, etc. This in itself was slightly odd, because as I walked in the balk of the sanctuary on Sunday, there were a bunch of signs across the back with a name of one of the tribes on each one. Since this was the morning after card day, my first thought when I saw the signs was, "Gee, Gad is a card in the Reclamation deck I was using last night. And Joseph too!" 

Side note: One of the things I'm looking forward to with the Reclamation game is its ability to help me remember some of the smaller characters and events in the Bible. If you doubt this ability, then you have not seen my friends and I rattling off the names of almost all of the aliens in the Cantina in Star Wars. Credit that to the Star Wars card game we play.

Anyway, back to the VBS service. During the week, the kids were trying to raise money to buy sandals for kids in Sudan, most of which do not own and shoes at all. Many of them develop permanent problems with their feet while walking to and from school, for instance, as they can easily cut their feet on glass, rocks, etc. The goal was to try to raise $300, which would be enough to buy around 120 pairs of sandals. After the first 2 days, they had only raised about $90, so the stakes were raised. If the kids could hit the $300 goal, the tribe that raised the most money would get to pour honey on the head of our children's paster (no idea where they came up with that idea). Well, suffice it to say, that goal was quickly reached.

The children's paster then had another great idea. if they could get to $500 by the end of the week, Pastor Nate would eat a goldfish. Final collection amount: $680. With the collection we took at the Sunday service, we ended up raising about $860 for the Sandals for Sudan project, which should be able to purchase about 350 pairs of sandals for kids. Praise God!

Pastor Nate said at the beginning of the service on Sunday that we would see a few things we'd never seen in a church service before. He was right! First, we saw him eat a goldfish (Silas during the first service, and Peter during the second service) in front of everyone. I was a little sad for the poor little goldfish, but it was for a good cause. Then they brought one o those kiddie pools up front and our children's paster sat in it. Each kid from the winning tribe of Joseph got their own bottle of honey (that's a lot of honey!) and poured it all over her head, shirt, face, etc. I can't wait to see the pictures!

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Satan is Dead!

Card day has come and gone, and it was a blast. We played Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Reclamation. A couple of us also managed to sneak in a couple games of ping-pong. 

Reclamation was fun, although there's a bit of work to be done to balance things out (which is completely expected). People tend to do strange things when given the chance, and often find ways to do things in a game that the designers never expected. I pulled off a very unique trick in my first game of Reclamation against Joel. Here's what happened:

I had played Reuben on a previous turn and then I played Levi next to him. I then used the Human Sacrifice card to kill Levi to draw 4 cards (I was losing, and desperate times call for desperate measures). This is where things got weird. One of the cards I drew was Vengeance of God, which says if your character was just killed, you can make another character Might +5. The idea was that if a Hell character killed your Heaven character, God may take some action. Instead, I had actually chosen to kill Levi on my own (as the Heaven side) just to draw 4 cards, which then made Reuben really strong. I used another card to start a battle between a Heaven character and Hell character, and I chose to have Reuben fight Satan alone. Normally not a good idea, but because of the Vengeance of God, Reuben not only won the fight, but killed Satan! Following this? Here's the recap:

Reuben murders his brother Levi in a messed-up human sacrifice, this makes God angry, God grants Reuben super-human strength as a result, and Reuben uses this strength to kill Satan.

Not quite what Cooper intended, me thinks.

The other unusual event of the day occurred in Star Trek. I was flying my ship around, and ran into a Borg Cube in hiding. It attacked, and obliterated my ship completely, killing all of my people. And then it happened again, one game later. ;-)

DotD: Free PC case and Free USB hard drive enclosure - Both rely on mail-in-rebates to make the final cost free (before shipping). I'm a sucker for free computer stuff. I built one of my PCs with a free PC case (not the one shown here), a free power supply, and a $10 AMD 2 Ghz processor.

Let me know if you see it

It's gone.

It's actually been gone for a couple weeks now. I have no idea where it went. But it definitely went missing and left me all alone. I need help finding it, and preferably soon.

Have you seen it? Do you know where it is? 

Does it not like me any more? Did I do something wrong? Have I hurt it in some way? Should I apologize? Did I anger it? Did it just need some time alone?

Why, oh why, won't it come back. Why now? We were so good together! Like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cereal (strange flashback to Baron at TEC just now), or bananas in tomato soup. 

Anyway, if you have any information about its whereabouts, call me right away, day or night. I miss it, and want it to come home. These summer nights are really tough without it. I just really need to rediscover

...my softball swing...

Please, let me know if you see it.

DotD: Optimash Prime - $9.99 - It's a Mr. Potato Head. It's a Transformer (Optimus Prime, no less!). It's going to look great sitting next to my Darth Tater and Artoo Potatoo.

Yesterday

So, here we go. Mac Man is starting a blog. He's been harassed, prodded, begged, and then ignored. Plus, I post enough in Cooper's blog to fill my own blog anyway. And the timing is perfect, since Mr. Baron is out of town. So here, you go, Mac Man unleashed, uncensored, and uncannily funny! Okay, maybe uncensored is taking it a little to far, I do have my standards you know.

So, yesterday was a big day. Why, you ask? A couple reasons:

1. First day of summer

2. 15.5 hours of sunlight (if the clouds weren't in the way)

3. 3 months since I got engaged

4. 1 month since Cooper's birthday

5. Softball game

6. 8 days until the iPhone is released

7. The last day without a blog (Baron will be so happy!)

See, we both survived my first post together! Cue the sappy music and start the hugs!

DotD (Deal of the Day): Plush Elephant LCD TV - $109.99 - It's a toy, it's an elephant, it's aTV, and it's just plain cool!