Horror of Horrors

ABC's of... ? Honestly, I hate this kind of stuff. I fully expected to never bother with one of these, and had I been tagged, I probably still wouldn't have done this one. But there was something I liked about it. and it seemed harmless enough... and my databases class is about boring stuff I already know right now...

A. Attached or Single?Bound (... and loving it)
B. Best Friend? My brothers
C. Cake or Pie? Yes
D. Day of choice? Thusday after 6 through Saturday
E. Essential Item? Water
F. Favorite Color? Green
G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Yes
H. Hometown? Lafayette, LA
I. Indulgence? Picking out pieces to build my computer with from Newegg (Sadly, this doesn't include purchasing said pieces)
J. January or July? Yes
K. Kids? Definitely
L. Life is Not Complete Without? A knife... or a flashlight... no, definitely both. And a bit of rope.
M. Marriage Date? April 25, 2003
N. Number of Brothers and Sisters? 2 brothers, 1 sister
O. Oranges or Apples? Yes
P. Phobias? Being wrong. Seriously, scares me silly. That and big cats.
Q. Favorite Quotes? "Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction"
R. Reasons to smile? Cassidy. She just cracks me up.
S. Season of choice? Yes
T. Tags? Like I would ever do that to anybody
U. Unknown Fact about me? One time, even though it is impossible, I breathed in and out at the same time for a few seconds. It freaked me out and kinda hurt, so I stopped and never tried it again. I know, I don't believe it either.
V. Vegetable? Yes
W. Worst Habit? Procrastinating the inevitable
X. Xray or Ultrasound? Cat scan
Y. Your Favorite Food? It changes at least hourly.
Z. Zodiac Sign? Pisces

A Carpenter in Our Midst

As part of (finally) moving in to the new house, we had to put up our bookshelves, which I conveniently disassembled for easy transport. As I was working on putting them together, Cassidy came in and said, "I'ma wanna help!" So I thought, okay, she can set the screws in the holes I guess. That lasted about a minute, then she found an extra screwdriver while I wasn't looking, and when next I saw her, she was busily putting a screw into the shelf! I watched her for a minute, wondering if she could do it, then realized she was turning the wrong way. Laughing, I said, "Cassidy, the other way honey." She looked up at me with a huge grin on her face and as she started turning the screw the right way, she said, "I'ma help daddy!" When she was finished, I had about a quarter turn to get it tight enough. From then on she helped me put in the rest of the screws, putting in about eight of them all by herself!

Her favorite part, however, was putting in the "circles" that cover the screw holes for a nice finish. I wouldn't let her use my hammer (I'm not that crazy), but she grabbed her trusty screwdriver once more and pounded them all flush. It ended up being a lot of fun, although she was up pretty late. I think it was after 10:00 before we finished.

New House

We're finally moving out of our apartment! Hopefully we won't have to live in one ever again. It was a little tight with just Cassidy, before she learned to walk, but now with Grant as well, just starting to get mobile, and Cassidy turning circles around our coffee table at break-neck speeds... well, we need more. Something like... a yard maybe?
Fortunately we'll have all that now. That means we need to get a lawn mower and all sorts of other goodies. (Is a lawn mower a goody?)
We're all really excited about the move though, and Cassidy has taken to calling it the "Big House" for the time being.

DevCon Orlando

Next up was my trip to the Microsoft Developer Connections conference in Orlando. LSU was nice enough to send me off for a week in Florida, and I took full advantage of it. It really was a great conference, especially the part where they get shipwrecked and the seal went tumbling down the ship and did a headstand... oh wait. That was SeaWorld. So as great as the conference was (I really did enjoy it, and learned a lot while I was there), I think the trip to the park will be the more memorable part of that excursion. My favorite part of all the shows was the whale and dolphin show. Those dolphins are incredible acrobats, and I had the thrill of being a 12 year old again as I watched them flip, tumble, and twist each time they jumped out of the water. Sadly I have no pictures of that, as part of the show involves the audience getting all wet. Oh yeah, and Shamu was great too, but same issue. Whales can throw an awful lot of water into the crowd. Next time any of you are in Orlando, I highly recommend paying a visit.

Easter in June?

Okay, so you all know that Easter is long past. All those little bunnies are quickly becoming full grown rabbits with little bunnies of their own. What actually happened is I am a few months behind on my blog, so I decided to catch up.
We took the kids up to Tennessee for Easter, which both they and the grandparents enjoyed, and the highlight was the egg hunt with their cousins. Cassidy did much better compared to a year ago. At least this time she knew what she was looking for and didn't dump her basket each time she bent over to get another egg. It was a good trip, with lots of relatives over.

So, I went up to Vicksburg over the weekend with the scouts. I was a little concerned for their well being, as the forecast called for temperatures in the upper 20s, with a wind chill in the teens. Even so, ten scouts showed up, and we headed north. We arrived at the campground that had been recommended to us around 7:30, and the temperature was already below freezing. On top of that, the wind was ripping across the field we were supposed to camp in. No shelter from the wind, snow coming down, no campfires allowed, and nothing but RVs all around us... wait, that can't be right! Who in their right mind would set up camp in those conditions? It turns out we got a bad tip about where to stay, so I hopped in the Jeep (for protection from the wind) and called home to Lauren. When she picked up, I said, "save us!" She was able to quickly find another campground about 15 minutes away and, as it turned out, about 2 minutes from the park we were hiking in the next day.
After calling ahead to make sure they allowed fires, we loaded back up, crossed our fingers, and headed to a hopefully better spot. (Some people had been trying in vain to pitch a tent, but the wind was strong enough to knock the ice chest over and dump out half the ice, so you can imagine how successful any attempt to pitch a tent was... we couldn't even get a ground cloth down.)
It turned out to be basically an RV park as well, but fires were allowed and there was some tree coverage to shelter us from the wind. It would have to do, so we set up for the night, warmed up some soup and hot chocolate, then most everyone turned in early. Smart move considering we had a 14 mile hike ahead of us the next day.
Saturday turned out to be gorgeous, and the hike through Vicksburg National Military Park was a lot of fun, even though most of the young men were wiped out by the time it was over. There were a lot of neat sites, and loads of history. It was moving to be where such vigorous fighting to shape our country had taken place. We went first down the defensive Confederate line, and then on the return loop we followed the Union line. Trying to imagine what it was like on that battlefield was an awesome and frightening experience. My favorite monument was Ulysses S. Grant atop his stallion. He has long been one of my heroes.
In the end, all the boys made it, though some only got through the last few miles because there was no other choice. Hopefully it will have been a memorable experience for them all.

Happy Birthday to Me

Well, yesterday was my birthday. 27 doesn't seem all that old until you see that it is only three years shy of 30. Even thirty isn't all that old, but it's over half way to fifty, which makes it seem like I'm getting right along in years. Anyway, it was a really good birthday. We kept it quiet with just a little celebration at home. Dinner was corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and schnitzel. Then lemon meringue pie for dessert. It didn't last long -- we polished off the last two slices of that this afternoon.

Also, my wife got her hair cut. With two little ones at home, she was looking for something easier, so ended up chopping a good portion of it off. Now last time she did this I didn't like it all that much, so I was a little worried, but she has plenty else to do besides worrying over her hair. It turned out great though!

Our Star in Training

Here she is again, preparing for her star role. Who knew it took so much training? Of course, she does all her own stunts, so she has to be in good shape. The wife was producer and editor of this film. A special thanks to my daughter for being such a good sport and trying to do whatever mom asked of you.

Movie Star Debut

It would seem that there is a movie star in our midst. She's smart, daring, has no fear, and can count past three. It's our very own little star in her first short feature film. A horror flick no less! (If you happen to be a farm animal) I'll apologize for the image quality in advance, as this was all done with a little digital camera that can take 320x240 movie clips. Oh, and mad props to my wife, who produced it.

A blog of my very own!

Well, it seems that nearly everyone I know has a blog. To tell the truth, I've been meaning to start one for some years now, I just never did. So at long last, here it is.
Not too impressed with the overall look of it as of yet, but that will change with time. I do, however, like the dark look, and I think I'll stay with the darker hues.
My hope is that I will have time to keep up with this. Things are pretty busy between work, school, and the family. Besides that, I mean to mainly post highlights here, so when life is at it's normal, semi boring (or at least uneventful) pace, posts may be rare. Anyway, enjoy.