Happy Holidays

From the Baddley home in the heart of T-town, we want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season! It's been crazy for the past month, but we're still doing good. The Geek Rescue job has made two things quickly apparent: (1) I remember a lot more about DOS / Windows 9x computers than I thought I did. BUT (2) I don't know nearly as much about fixing computers in general as I thought I did. It's a lot different having to fix someone's list of problems in 1-1.5 hours with no internet access and no resources other than your memory and a backpack full of goodies. I certainly don't take google for granted when it comes to troubleshooting odd computer problems (newsgroups are such a great research tool). Every day, I'm assaulted by some new error I've never seen before. It's been fun, though, and it's really honed my skills. The hours are uneven, though and my staffing agency is still trying to find me something that's full-time with benefits. In the meantime, I'm still working for TCC as well, although not nearly as often as I should be, due to scheduling conflicts with Geeks. We're about to start a new round of classes. I'll be teaching a Home Networking class starting in February. It will focus on combination wired/wireless networks with cable/dsl/dial-up connections. I be teaching it over two 4 hour sessions on Saturdays. I'm hoping that the interest will be there for the classes to make (you have to have at least 6 people pre-enroll, or it gets cancelled).

Amy and Griffin are adjusting to spending long hours at home without me around. Griffin's saying mama a lot more than dada these days. He was 9 months old on Dec. 11th. He's 22lbs and almost 30" tall. A couple of weeks ago, he learned to crawl. He's has been terrorizing the house ever since. Lucky we only have a small apt., and can close most of the doors to limit his range of destruction. We've child-proofed all of the cabinets, plugs, etc. but he still finds things to get into that he shouldn't.

We have already had a wonderful time with my family this season. My entire family went out to a holiday performance of "Forever Plaid" at the Performing Arts Center. The musical talent and humor of this group was outstanding.

I'm back with pictures!

At least when you view baby pictures online, you can stop whenever you want. I've just posted up a new batch of pictures for those who want to see lots of new shots of Griffin. Actually, some are rather old now, since they date back to 9/11/02. There's a few shots of our visit to Wichita Falls last weekend, as we prepared to move all our stuff from TX to Tulsa. There's even a couple of pictures of the inside of our new apartment before we put anything up on the walls or windows.

The fall weather has come, and the trees around here are absolutely beautiful. This weekend, I'm taking the camera out to try and capture some of the color surrounding this area. I'll try to keep up with the blog as best I can, as my workload increases. Good night!

I'm Gonna Be a Geek

Oh, wait...I was already a geek to begin with. Well, as tempting as the game tech job appears, I believe it's in my best interest to take the one more closely related to IT. Tonight, I called and let Celebration Station know that I wasn't going to be able to accept their offer. They wished me the best of luck, and told me they were sorry I couldn't join them. I am too, because they seemed to be a really decent group of folks who would have been fun to work with. Also, what other job requires that you play every game in the arcade each morning when you come in. Great job...just a limited future. So, I'm going in tomorrow afternoon to fill out paperwork to get started with Geek Rescue on Monday.

Thanks to Bob for offering assistance on the database project I'm about to start. I'm sure I'll be taking you up on it soon. I'm just awaiting the final info from Lufthansa.

I'm gonna work on some pics right now. I'll be back.

Decisions, Decisions

Well, now I have TWO job offers...and I can't decide which one to take. I have the offer at Geek Rescue for an on-site computer tech (complete with cape!...not). They called me today and told me that they want me to start on Monday morning. It looks like the best choice for staying in the IT field, while continuing to build up my skills to jump to something better. Certainly the more "career-oriented" offer. But, this morning I went to Celebration Station, the arcade that's looking for a lead game technician. I walked in, telling them up front that they probably have the wrong guy, and that I'm really not much of an electronics person (I can replace boards, but rarely have I had to replace electronics on the circuit boards). He said he understood, but could I just spend a couple of hours working with him on a problem he was having. It was a Cyclone machine...the lights spin around in a circle and up to 4 people try to "stop" the light while it's under their double hooped neon bridge. Anyway, before I knew it, I was holding a soldering iron, going at replacing a couple of voltage regulators. By the time I spent a couple of hours there...they were telling me that I was underestimating myself, and that I could learn this stuff quickly. They offered me a full-time job with benefits, starting tomorrow morning at 08:00. So, now I'm pretty sure that I should call back Celebration Station, and inform them that I've taken another job and can't accept their offer. On top of this, after weeks and weeks of complaining to her management, Amy finally was given a "fixed" schedule today. And of course, it includes 4 days a week, starting around 5:30 in the morning...mornings I'm going to have to be working. Since we don't have anyone to watch Griffin at this point, she's going to end up having to quit her job, or go back and tell them "Now, I want you to re-work that schedule and only give me a couple of nights". They may not be too keen on that...she'll probably have to leave the Hilton Corp. to get new nighttime hours. On top of THAT, I am going to attempt to keep my TCC job and classes going at least through December.

It's starting to get interesting again....I'll keep you posted.

Changes

I've got a CompactFlash card full of new pics, along with lots of new stuff to talk about. However, what I don't have right now is much time before I have to feed Griffin his "dream" bottle. He'll be 8 months old next week. Last week, he cut his second bottom tooth for a matching pair. He likes all kinds of foods, but he prefers Hideaway Pizza crust over most anything except maybe Cheerios (Os). We have moved into a 2bd/2bth apartment off 71st street. We can't even begin to show my family how much we appreciate all of the love and support they have shown us. After two soggy days in TX loading a 1-way U-haul, we made it back last Friday. BTW...thanks very much to James Doolen, who gave up his lunch hour to drive out to nearly Iowa Park and help me load 5 pieces of furniture into the truck. After a quick unload, thanks to Tina, Melissa and Rusty, the unpacking has taken somewhat longer than we wanted. We finally got all the boxes cleared out earlier today, and it's finally starting to look like someone lives here. We still have completely bare walls, which is somewhat disturbing...but I'm leaving it up to Amy to choose where to hang the pictures. It's nice to have my computer back together again. I'm getting a decent 53.2 Kbps connect on my way too expensive basic telephone line (didn't even get call waiting). Work at TCC is still going good. I'm learning quite a bit in my Network Infrastructure class this semester. Unfortunately, due to problems with the state's finances, they have cut our hours back, and I definitely need an additional job. I'm going back for my 4th interview with Celebration Station, who have a Game Technician/Manager position open. They know that I'm not formally trained in electronics, but they like my enthusiasm and experience so much, they're still calling me back. It would be an interesting job, but very challenging until I ramped up the learning curve. Monday, I had a very promising interview with an eye clinic here in Tulsa who are looking for a Part Time MIS Tech to completely design/implement/train/maintain their network. I picked up a MS Access project from Luftansa Technik, where they recondition reverse thrusters for 747 and DC-10s. I'll be learning a lot as I go along, since I never have done much more than a simple database or two with Access. Last, but certainly not least. I've been offered a contract to hire position with a company called Geek Rescue. They are primarily a web design firm, but branched out to on-site and in-house computer service last year. I will most likely go work for them full-time starting Nov. 11 or 18th as a Mobile Service Technician (or something like that). The contract is for 4 months, at which point they will hire me as an employee, unless I turn out totally incompetent, which is unlikely.

Nothing quite like a single dense paragraph of completely unrelated thoughts...sorry 'bout that. Gotta go feed the little man. I'll get pictures posted soon, I promise! Good night.

Testing

Blogger has rewritten some of their core code, causing problems for a lot of users. Currently, my normal customized template is unavailable. I'll try to get my comments and other features back up and running soon.

Brief Update

Can it possibly be the middle of October already?! This summer has really gone past at a breakneck speed. I've particularly been enjoying the cooler Fall weather these past few weeks, since my car has no air conditioning. I ought to be able to make it to next Summer now. I finished up my Windows 2000 Server and Network+ courses last week, and will be starting a MCSE Networking Infrastructure course next Monday. At some point in the near future, I'll start taking exams towards these various certifications I've been studying for.

This has been a busy week. Griffin cut his first tooth (lower right front), and has lots of fun running his tongue over it. This makes for some pretty funny faces. Unfortunately, he's also managed to come down with what we believe to be Fifth disease, a relatively harmless virus that gives him a lacey red rash on his cheeks. Luckily, they say that he is no longer contagious at the point the rash shows up...so hopefully it'll clear up soon. He was right at 20 lbs when I took him in for his last set of vaccinations. He's our little "sack 'o taters".

Amy's birthday was Wednesday. She gets to spend one last year as a "twenty-something". We had a nice get-together with some of my family to celebrate after she had worked all day Wed. Always the "unique" one, she insisted on Krispy Kreme donuts instead of birthday cake (mmmm...donuts!). I didn't hear any complaints, and it was easier to blow out a single candle than 29 of them! Amy's mom has been in the hospital in Wichita Falls for quite a few weeks, recovering from heart valve replacement surgery. We had a chance to visit there briefly last weekend to check on her. She's certainly ready to return to her home and animals. We wish her a quick recovery and hope her life returns to "normal" soon.

It's supposed to rain for the next couple of days. Of course, it can't do this on the days when Amy and I are working. It has to wait for the days that we want to go do things, like taking Griffin to a pumpkin patch for pictures in his first Halloween costume (thanks, Aunt Lucy!). We're still going to try and get him out there for some pics soon, and we'll post them as soon as we do. He's getting really close to crawling now, but his primary means of transportation is rolling. Last weekend, he rolled all the way across the living room floor to see his Aunt Crystal. Unfortunately, corners and furniture still create obstacles that he can't quite navigate around. Too much fun!

Amy and I have been pre-qualified for some reasonable home loan rates, and are slowly searching for the right house in the Tulsa area. In the interim, we are going to probably get an apartment within a couple of weeks. My parents have been most gracious in sharing their home with us, but after almost 5 months, I'm sure we all need a little privacy and space.

I'm sure there are ton of other things I'm forgetting. I'm won't even get started about the US/Iraq situation (can you say "Wag the Dog"?...sure you can). I better just get back to work. Have a great weekend!

New Pics

School and work is going great. I'm learning all the stuff that Donnie tried to teach me years ago. I just aced the first exams in each class. Amy's still working lots, and helping me juggle Griffin. We're trying hard to get back out on our own soon.

I'll try to update tomorrow with a rundown on the who/what/where of the new picture gallery.

Tired but Wired

I really should be crawling into bed and dropping off into a deep, coma-like sleep right about now. However, I'm still too mentally awake to crash just yet. Today I started two classes at the TCC Corporate Training Center, where I also work. They gave me the opportunity to add a networking class to my schedule, so I jumped on it! Unfortunately, they are back-to-back on Tues/Thurs., and they are almost 3 hours each. My brain was spilling over a little by the time I finished my second class around 8:30 tonight. It really felt good to have something crammed in there, though. I'm catching up on a lot of networking and admin stuff that I have very little experience with.

A few blogs back, I mentioned Griffin going to the doctor for a checkup. I forgot to post his vitals. He weighed 17.5 lbs and was 27" tall. Of course, this was several weeks ago, so I'm sure they've already changed. The doctor said he was "Perfect". He just keeps progressing in every area. It's amazing how quickly they change at this age. Every week he's figuring out something new. Today, Joshua came to visit. I was told that they had a grand time playing with the Mega Saucer while I was at work/school. I'm sure that Joshua will be glad when Griffin can actually play with him, which, at this rate won't be long.

Amy's still putting in the hard hours. She works the next three mornings (before 6:00am) and then switches to nights for the weekend. She and her 22 year old manager occasionally have some sparring moments...but she seems to be doing really good, and keeps making decent money even on slow days. We went down to Wichita Falls last Friday and came back Sunday. It was a fast trip, but she got to see all of her family in various shifts and we hit the storage unit for some additional clothes and misc. baby items (although we never found a particular turquoise foot-locker that had all of Griffin's 6-12mo clothes...maybe next time when it's not 104 degrees in the shade).

Going back to the Falls, I realized just how much I've fallen in love with Tulsa again. Wichita Falls just seems so small, flat and desert-like after being back in "Green Country" for a couple of months. When I lived here before, some 15 years ago, I used to always say that I "Love Tulsa, Hate Oklahoma". That still pretty much sums it up for me now. It's large enough to have almost everything that Denver and Dallas has, but without the extra million or so people to add to the traffic and cost of living. I think even Amy would admit that she's enjoyed being able to almost immediately know her way around, since the layout is so simple. She already has told me that she thought the area was really pretty; reminding her of Maryland. It does look very similar to a lot of the northeast, with all the hills and trees. I can't wait until Fall when the trees start changing colors!

The interview with the Computer Nerdz (notice the cheesy spelling!) went well too. They wanted to hire me...but it didn't pay that great, and the job itself (on-site computer tech, fixing Win95/98 problems, installing modems and hard drives, pushing upgrade products on computer neophytes, etc.) didn't seem to be very challenging or exciting. Also, they wanted me to use my own car, which still has no A/C in this heat and humidity (Did I mention?...I can't wait until Fall weather!!!). All in all an interesting opportunity, but not enough to leave TCC. I'm still looking, though, in case I can actually get back into a job with similar salary and benefits as I once had.

Haven't watched any more movies lately...we never found the time to watch Harry Potter, which Dad rented the same time he picked up Lord of the Rings. My family has got me watching Big Brother 3, despite my normal adversion to reality TV. Shows like this are every bit as trashy and addictive as soap operas and I'm ashamed to admit that I actually enjoy this one.

I know that I promised new pictures...but I'm still not quite ready to post a new gallery. I'll get something up before too long.

NOW, I'm going to bed. Thanks for all of the e-mails...I'll be responding to each of you soon! G'night!

Finally!!
The interview with Tulsa Community College went quite well last Monday. They offered me a position as a Computer Technician in their Corporate Training Center, and I've accepted. Yesterday was my first day. The people here are great, and the job seems like it will be quite fun. Right now, I'm typing this from my new cubical, watching a great rainstorm out of my 2nd floor window. I'm working a lot with Windows 2000 and XP machines, so I'm getting a refresher on configuration of these systems. Also, I'm allowed to take MCSE preparation classes for free. I start my Windows 2000 Server classes next week. Things are starting to look up!

Griffin turned 5 months old on Sunday, and is still the bright light in our lives. I've taken some new pictures, and I'll try and get them posted soon.

This afternoon, I go back to Computer Nerds, an on-site computer consulting company. I applied for a job there a few weeks back. The General Manager for Oklahoma must have thought I did decent on my application exam (testing mostly Microsoft OS knowledge), and wants to interview me. I figure it can't hurt to talk to them, and see if they can offer me a better deal than TCC. If nothing else, maybe I can pick up a little work to make a few extra $$ on the side.

Amy, my Dad and I watched Fellowship of the Ring last night. Very excellent adaptation of the first book in the Lord of the Rings series, which I haven't read in over 20 years. This movie had incredible special effects and the scenery was awesome! I forgot how detailed Tolkien had described Middle Earth, with all of the unique creatures and characters. It was like watching a real-life Everquest. Occasionally, things got a little confusing, trying to keep up with everyone's names and understanding the dialog through some of the thick accents...but it didn't keep me from enjoying it immensely. I'm really looking forward to the next film, the Two Towers. I may even have to see it at a theater, as I'm sure FotR would have been great on the big screen.

I'm thoroughly jealous of Donnie this week. Last Thursday night, he and JC got to go see Dream Theater in Phoenix. They are touring the US this summer as co-headliners with Joe Satriani. The real kicker is that they have King's X opening for them (one of my most favorite bands!). They are going to be swinging through TX later this month, with the closest to Tulsa being a gig in Grand Prairie on Aug 16th. Even though I've seen all three bands live before, I'm really sorry I'm going to miss them this year. Oh well...maybe next time!

I better hop off of here. I'm happy to have internet access here...but I don't want to abuse the privilege.

Update As Promised

Wow, this weekend sure went by fast. It's already late, and I need to get up early in the morning, so I don't have time to go into the detail that I planned...but here's the Reader's Digest condensed version of our lives right now.

Amy's working for the Doubletree Warren Place. She does service for Greenleafs, their resturant, as well as room service. Quite decent pay, particularly when she works room service. The catch is that she usually has to be at work at 05:30am...which is pretty hard for her, since she's the type that can sleep well past noon, given the opportunity. The first day she worked room service, she got to deliver breakfast to Gary Busey...who apparently has a reputation at the hotel as a pretty large pain in the ass. She's not terribly excited about having to work, but I can tell it makes her happy to be able to at least cover our bills while we are living with my parents. I'm so proud of her. She's certainly pulled it together a lot since we lived in Colorado.

My favorite cow-dawg, Flannel Bean has been living with my sister, Melissa (a.k.a. Lucy) in Owasso, north of Tulsa. She has a huge white lab named Allie, who's become Flannel's best friend. I miss my dog terribly, so every visit is bittersweet. Seemingly oblivious to my absence, she's really enjoying herself. Melissa and her husband Rusty have been taking awesome care of her. Occasionally, Rusty and Melissa have to go out of town, so we get to stay over there and take care of the pups. Allie is a totally spastic pup at less than a year old. There aren't many things in their house that she hasn't chewed on yet. She makes Flannel look like she's been professionally trained (well, almost!). Dewey really misses Flannel too...she sniffs me up and down everytime I go up there and visit, when I can't take her with me. Amy and I can't wait to have a place of our own again, where we can re-assemble the zoo we once had previous to our lives crumbling around us.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I've been playing Mr. Mom, taking care of Griffin each day while Amy's at work. He's become quite the "Daddy's Boy"...which doesn't hurt my feelings a bit. During naps, and when my Mom is watching him, I'm still searching and applying for jobs every day. I have an interview tomorrow morning with Tulsa Community College. This one is for a technical position working at their Corporate Training Center. I'd be responsible for installation, configuration and operation of computers, video equipment, etc. The engineering firm bidding on the CDMA overlay project did their "Dog and Pony Show" for US Cellular last Wednesday. After a serious shakeup in the regional organization of the company (which involved the Director of Network Operations being escorted out by cops), US Cellular will be picking the winning bid sometime in a few weeks. If this firm does win the project, I'll be working with them on the surveys of all sites scheduled for upgrade, making sure they have enough DC power, floor space and A/C capacity to handle the CDMA equipment additions. If I somehow manage to get another job before then, I'll try to work them both, since this project is scheduled to be completed by year-end, and it would give me a chance to make more than enough for us to move out on our own again.

My sister Tina and her husband, Kirk have been building a house in Stillwater, where he recently was hired as head football coach for Stillwater High School. The house is almost complete, and they expect to close on it this Thursday. They moved in with my parents 4 days before us (they sold their house here in Broken Arrow quickly), so I'm sure they are quite ready to move, and have their lives/privacy back. Kirk works harder than any coach I've ever known. He's been the defensive coach at Union High School for the past 10 years...so this is his first time as head coach. He has been spending an incredible amount of time preparing for this season, with videos and Powerpoint presentations and playbooks. You can tell that he has a true love for the game and for the kids. I'm sure that he'll do an excellent job. It's going to get very quiet around here without them and their son, Joshua living with us. We are all going to miss them.

The upside of living at Mom and Dad's has still been the amount of time that I've been able to spend with them. They are such wonderful people and role models. I don't know what we would have done without them. It's been great for Griffin to get to know his grandparents so well. I love seeing his face light up with a huge smile of recognition when he sees his Nana each morning. It's also given me a chance to feel more like a part of my own family, since I've lived so far away from them for the past 15 years. With Griffin, I'm only just beginning to understand how deep the love for a child goes. My parents have always shown me that kind of love, and it hasn't changed even now that I've become an adult.

O.K...I'm going to bed now. Now that I realize that a lot more people read this than I realized, I really will start keeping it updated more often (I can already here you..."sure, Tom!"). Really! Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Got the point!

OK...Bob, I owe you an apology. It has been way too long since I've added an entry. Things are definitely different for us up here in Tulsa. Amy's working and I'm at home playing Mr. Mom! I don't have time to give the full update...but I promise that I will before the weekend is over.

In the meantime, here's a new picture gallery of Griffin, my family and my dogs taken over the month of July. Griffin goes to the doctor on Monday...so I'll be able to give you the newest vital statistics on him soon.

I appreciate the comments from everyone...even if they are jabbing at me for being a blog slacker.

New Pictures
As promised, here's a small sampling of pictures taken over the past month. The first gallery includes some shots of our friend Susan and her two cute kids, Lane and Macy. They helped us out quite a bit while we were preparing for our move. Other shots were taken in hotel rooms a few weeks later when we went back to Wichita Falls for Amy's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary (anyone who makes it that long deserves a major party!). The second gallery includes pics of my family here in Tulsa. Most are from a poolside steak dinner at my sister, Tracey's. Steven and Todd are hers and Joshua is my sister Tina's 1 year old (tomorrow).

I spent 1.5 hours yesterday morning interviewing with a downtown Tulsa engineering firm that is bidding on a huge CDMA overlay project for (of all companies) US Cellular. In fact, about 1/2 of the sites they are upgrading were ones that I originally built in S. OK and N. TX during my work with USCC. I'm really crossing my fingers that they win the contract. Unfortunately, they won't award the contract until the end of July, so it's going to be an anxious month waiting to find out. In the meantime, I'm still searching diligently for something else. I can't believe the news that has come out over the past two days regarding Worldcom. That's all the telecom job market needs...17,000 more unemployed people all fighting for positions in an already scarce job market. But despite everything I'm still hopeful that the future holds something better for me than "Do you want fries with that?".

Alive and Kicking in Tulsa
Sorry for the lack of updates...life's been a little hectic over the past month. I'm still doing better than Bob, though! ;-)

We have been up here in Tulsa now for almost a month. Living with my parents, along with my sister, her husband and 1 year old has been very interesting, if not somewhat chaotic at times. It's actually been fantastic to get to spend so much close time with my parents, sisters and nephews. They have all been incredibly supportive. The job market here in OK seems to be somewhat better than N. TX, but I am still searching for a full-time position that can actually support us. Griffin is healthy, growing like a weed, and still makes us smile every day. He's 3.5 months old now, and becoming more and more aware and expressive. His hand/eye coodination is improving as well. This weekend was the first time that Amy and I had been away from him for more than 2 hours. We drove down to Henrietta, TX Friday night to visit Amy's mom for a couple of days. My Mom, Dad and sister Tina did a great job of taking care of the little guy while we were gone (and Dewey, our little escape-artist pomeranian). It was very strange to wake up in the morning and not have the G-Man there to feed or look after. We were happy to make it home this afternoon. Judging from the smile on Griffin's face when he saw Amy and I, it doesn't look like he's holding any grudges for us leaving either.

We've continued to take digital pictures during the past month. I'll get them posted very soon.

New Photos
Griffin is 10 weeks old today! In celebration, I just posted a handful of new pictures. Sorry they are in alphabetical instead of cronological order. I'm going to switch programs soon so I can sort them the way I want, and easily add comments. In the meantime...I'm just happy I can get them posted online. I've had to go back through the older photos and delete a lot of galleries, since I repeatedly run out of web space each time I add new pics. I'll update the Photo Gallery page soon to reflect the series that have been removed (everything from Griffin's birthday and older). Obviously, I still have backups of all deleted pics, if anyone wants an old shot.

I didn't get my car to the shop yet. I'll have to meet up with Butch tomorrow morning. However, James Doolen came over with his step-son and friend and loaded up all of my arcade games. He's going to "store" the MAME machine in his game room until we get back on our feet and have a place to put it and the rest of the games. The Asteroids Deluxe and Omega Race will probably go into true storage in his workshop out back, along with Jason's MAME cabinet (my old Star Trek cabinet). I feel much better having him hold on to these as opposed to putting them in a u-store-it type building. He's a fellow collector too, so he appreciates the games a little more than the average guy. Hopefully, the MAME machine will still work properly when they get it moved into his game room. They have a big bi-annual poker game coming up on Saturday, and it would be great for him to have it running with so many people over.

Griffin hasn't been too bad after his shots. He's a little more fussy than normal, but doesn't seem to be running a fever and he's still eating the same. Of course, they had to use band-aids with superglue adhesive....man, they're hard to get off. We've got two down, two more to go.

Today's Highlights
Here's the short version of how the day is going so far:

o Talked with a RF Engineering firm about doing a network optimization project in the London, KY area. I would check and adjust all cellular RF equipment, as well as clean up switch parameters controlling handoffs and translations. I've expressed interest in the opportunity and will be working with the firm to come up with a proposal later this week. Customer has not asked for this work to be performed, so it'll have to be a win-win-win situation for everyone involved before it might become a reality. Regardless, it will only be a 1-3 month temporary contract position.

o Spoke with Melanie at TekSystems of Dallas. She is a recruiter who deals specifically with wireless and telecommunications projects. We discussed the various types of hardware that I had worked with previously (unfortunately, no Nokia GSM certification/experience), as well as a brief rundown of the various functions I could perform. She had no immediate projects available, but said she would contact me as they pick up new ones.

o Located and applied for 4 new positions listed on Monster.com. The positions included Telecom Administrator, Field Service Engineer for Johnson and Johnson, Manager of Field Service, and NOC Technician. I'm qualified for any of these four positions...we'll see if I get any bites.

o Reserved 26' U-Haul truck for next Tuesday afternoon (24 hour Local rental). It's the same price as the 22', and has much higher ceilings. I'm still checking around to find the best deal on a storage facility to move everything into. Now's the time when I wish I had lots of BIG friends living in the area. At least I was able to rent a utility, appliance and flat dollies to help me move this stuff in/out of the truck without putting me in traction for back injuries.

o E-mail contact x2 with Stu Manning, the technical recruiter in the Tulsa area (former TekSystems employee). He seems to be happy that I'm moving to the Tulsa area with my skill set. Apparently, he doesn't always have people with as much experience available for contract work. Although he doesn't have any project needs immediately, he feels that there will be plenty of jobs in NE OK that he can put me to work on once I've moved up there. I'm going to meet up with him and Neil for lunch after we get moved.

o We took Griffin to the Health Dept. to get his 2 months immunizations this afternoon. They gave him 4 very painful-looking shots (one arm, one in a leg, two in the other leg). He's not feeling too hot right now...but he was a little trooper and only cried (..er...screamed in agony?) for a brief moment. I think it was as hard on his mom as it was on him.

o I'm about to take my car back over to Butch to have the air conditioning checked out. The a/c went out Friday on our way home from visiting my family in Tulsa. Good thing that the temp only reached 70 that day! Hopefully it won't be an expensive fix. I'd hate to have to spend what we have left from the garage sale just to get my car fully operational again. At least we got both of our cars registered and current last Wednesday...so we can both drive around without fear of being ticketed (I was still running with my CO plates until last week).

I better get over to the auto shop before everyone leaves for the day. I'll be back soon.

I'm Alive
In computer programming, sometimes you have to make your program respond with "I'm Alive" messages to let you know that it's still running as expected, even though everything is quiet. I guess this entry is somewhat like that.

We're in the middle of garage sale that will run through until tomorrow evening. So far, we've managed to get rid of a lot of stuff that we don't need anymore, and certainly don't want to store when we move.

On Thursday, we took a brief trip up to Tulsa to see my folks. We are preparing for our move up there at the end of the month. Sorry, I don't think we took a single picture the entire trip, though. I have taken a few today during the sale, so I'll try and get some posted before the weekend is over.

Take care, everyone!

New Photos!
Just found a minute to post up a few new pictures. When we were at the WIC office the other day, he was weighed at 12lbs 4oz. and 22" long. He'll be exactly 2 months old tomorrow!

I have an interview in the morning at 9:45 with Prince Communications regarding a position in Wichita Falls working on their new cable modem network they are building for Time-Warner/Roadrunner. We'll see what they are all about, and what positions and pay scale they have. Wish me luck! After that, I'm heading over to Bob Lennard's step-mom's house to help her out with her internet access, since it sounds like she has some type of corrupt file preventing her from connecting. We're going to have to postpone the garage sale...we just aren't quite ready, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be able to keep ourselves plenty busy anyway (I'm gonna have to cut the yard, or hire a combine next week!).

Everyone enjoy your weekend!

More Nibbles
I got another nibble this morning from a technical recruiter. They are looking for a Nortel switch operations/maintenance engineer for Pensacola, FL. I told him that I was very interested in talking with his client company regarding the position, and sent him an updated resume. He e-mailed me back saying that there was no management or supervision required for this position, and asked if this was O.K. Hmmm...let's see, I get to do my job, and I don't have to babysit other techs and make sure they do their job...sounds pretty good to me. The lack of those responsibilities probably also affects the salary range, though...so it might not work out. Besides, they may not feel like relocating a guy all the way from N. TX down to FL...but we'll see. I also applied for 5 more positions in the Dallas area via Monster. Most of them were actually for positions that I feel I'm qualified for. We'll see if any of these inquiries pan out. James Doolen just emailed me, and said that he may have 2 days worth of work at the Carrier plant for me to do, getting the work order system all straightened out from the refresh project that we just finished. Hopefully, his company will allow him to bring me back in to help.

Griffin is doing great...sitting here beside me while Amy is packing up stuff in the bedroom. He's been discovering more and more sounds that he can make, and often bursts out with noises that just crack me up. Of course, every time he does it, particularly when it's accompanied by a huge open-mouthed grin as he stares up at me, my heart just melts. We went down to the WIC office yesterday, and got set up. They'll at least cover his formula, and some additional food items during this time that I am employment deficient. It's hard to swallow your pride, and do this...but we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that Griffin is unaffected by our plight.

Well, I better get back to work. Between e-mails and scouring the Internet for jobs, I'm also trying to sort through the stuff in the garage, in order to have a yard sale this weekend. Sorry for the lack of photos...I'll try and get more posted within a few days.

Roadrunner Internet / Job Hunt
Timer Warner, our local cable-TV owner, is finally rolling out high-speed internet connectivity via their digital cable network here in the Wichita Falls area. Today I found out that Prince Telecom is handling the rollout in the field, and looking to hire new people to handle the area long-term (with benefits). I've submitted my resume for field manager and tech positions. With the high-speed alternatives here in WF so limited (SWB DSL only available within the "golden circle" and wireless DSL startup costs around $1400), I'm sure that the Roadrunner service will take off. It's certainly good to see at least some type of new network being rolled out here in Wichita Falls. Hopefully it'll bring along some more jobs too.

Not much else encouraging on the job front. Lots of regular scouring and applying on the Internet job sites (Monster, telecomcareers.net, radiofreeq.com) as well as the local and Dallas papers. I'm still trying to get my foot in the door at Cingular in Tulsa. I've sent off updated resumes to the manager of a recruiting company (my brother-in-law's brother), who's going to shop it around OKC and Tulsa. At this point, I'd consider a position almost anywhere, but would prefer to stay in the N. Texas / Oklahoma area. I've been applying for a lot more positions in the IT industry lately, and have updated a new resume to reflect recent IT work I did at the Carrier plant. I've spent a lot of time updating my online resumes and search agents as well, to better target the jobs I'm looking/applying for. I'm definitely getting more interest than I was last month. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm not sure which) a position that I had applied for near Cleveland apparently was filled before I got to interview with them. Follow-up calls to US Cellular and Choice wireless have turned up no new positions. I never received a response from the Tulsa-based site management company, which is disappointing, since it seemed a very good fit to me (managing telecommunications tower sites). A promising lead with a medical equipment technician led to a very interesting chat for nearly an hour (the man had trained in the military under Amy's grandfather), but no job opportunity. I'd like to find out more about the GE Capital medical equipment technicians that I saw at the hospital when Griffin was born. I'm sure that they are often trained by the equipment manufacturers, much like the telecom field techs. I couldn't seem to find any contact information anywhere on the web, even though GE Capital has lots of web sites. I may have to go wander the halls of the hospital to track down one of the technicians and ask about any job opportunities or H/R contacts I could talk to.

At this point, if I'm not successful with my job hunt by the end of this month, we are going to have to move up to Tulsa and live with my parents until I can find a job in that area. The opportunities certainly seem more plentiful than here. Anyway...in the meantime, the job search continues...and my head remains up. Griffin, Amy, my family and friends all do a great job in keeping me positive during this transitional period. I know that everything will work out. Thanks, everyone for your support!

Have a great week!

Keeping tradition
Staying with the pace I seemed to have established over the past few weeks, I come back from the silence with new batches of pictures. The first set was taken between 4/21 and 5/1. I apologize for the stains on his outfits. Seems that the only time I grab the camera is after a particularly messy feeding. And, of course, you don't notice these things until you start viewing them in high-res on the computer and go "Uh, we should have changed him first". Oh well, he sure didn't care. I was going to name this series the "Just Try and Catch Me Smiling" series....since he would grin like a madman up to the split second before the shot went off...then immediately go stone faced just in time for the picture. He found this quite amusing, and we found it somewhat funny in a frustrating sorta way.

Griffin - 4/21 - 5/1

That set of pictures maxed out my flash card, so we switched over to my backup card on Thursday to catch a few more shots. Yesterday, we went over to James Doolen's house during lunch to take some shots of his new arcade project, a huge Simpsons cabinet he plans to turn into a 27" MAME machine. He recently obtained a new golden lab puppy, Molly, who is 6 weeks old. Molly was intrigued by Griffin and loved Amy, and vice versa.

Griffin - 5/2 - 5/3

As you can tell, Griffin is getting much bigger. He's putting on the "baby fat" quite well...the little Chubboo. He weighs 12 lbs now and he's started outgrowing some of his early clothes, making his mommy a little sad. The yellow outfit in that last set of photos was the one she tried to take him home in (the one that swallowed him). So far, he's remained a healthy and happy boy (although, not without an attitude now and then). His neck, legs and arms are growing stronger every day. I'm sure that it won't be long before I'm chasing him all over the house. But for right now, I'm enjoying the fact that he can't get out of his chair! I bring him in here to geek with me quite a bit. In fact, he's sitting here right now, chilling out. He particularly likes it when I fire up all the old 70s-80s mp3s and sing to him. Don't laugh, my voice is getting better, now that I'm a non-smoker (4 months without a cigarette as of last Wednesday!!). Besides, what can he do...he's a captive audience! He gets to listen to everything from Bach and Beatles to System of a Down and Disturbed. He's gonna be a little music encyclopedia by the time he's a teenager.

Thanks for all the comments. It's so good to hear from all of you! Keep checking back.

Special thanks this weekend to my dad, who sent me a card reader for my camera, so I could once again dump pictures to my computer. I'll make sure and keep 'em coming!

New Pictures!
According to my Dad...I should be flogged for my lack of blogging. Heheh...probably so. I apologize for the lack of updates. Parenthood has taken a lot of my previous free time, and makes the computer somewhat of a lower priority.

But due to popular demand, Amy and I sat down to today and picked out a few pictures to share with everyone. It's amazing what a difference a few weeks makes. Griffin hardly seems like the same baby that was born 6 weeks ago today. Here's the pics:

Griffin - 5 Weeks
Griffin - 6 Weeks

I'll try to find a minute over the next few days to sit down and talk about how life is. See ya!

Visitors from Tulsa!
Yesterday, my Mom Randa (a.k.a. Nana) came down to visit with two of my sisters (Tina and Melissa) as well as my little 9 month old nephew, Joshua (he's Teen's, and he's precious!). It was wonderful to get to visit with everyone. They stayed at the Holiday Inn Holidome here in Wichita Falls, which is in the middle of a major renovation...but has lots of indoor space to spread out, and their room had been recently redone. It has a huge landing on the 2nd floor where we were able to all sit around and visit last night. Afterwards, we ordered way too much food from On the Border (yes, Wichita Falls finally has an O.T.B) and had a picnic in the hotel room. The best part was that since the Kalua ice-cream pies were melting, we had to eat them first, then follow them with Ultimate fajitas. It's pretty cool getting to enjoy your dessert while you're still starving, instead of full to the brim (like I was after the fajitas). Anyway, this morning we woke up to a wonderful thunderstorm that rolled quickly across the area, with lightning and hail...and then almost as quickly moved on and the sun came out. Close to lunch time, we met back up with everyone at the hotel, and went over to a sandwich shop for some lunch before they had to get back on the road heading home. We met up with Amy's grandparents, her dad John, her brother John and his wife Crystal. The food was not that great today (it's kind of hit and miss at this place...although you can tell from one of the pictures that it didn't slow me down a bit), however, the company was fantastic.

Thank you guys for coming down and visiting! We all 3 enjoyed having everyone around. Here's some of the pics from the past two days in absolutely no particular order:

Visitors from Tulsa Photo Gallery

It's a much smaller group of pictures that I originally thought it would be. It felt like we took a million pictures...but due to lighting and such [bad photographer], a lot of them didn't make the cut...sorry.

Have a great Sunday, everyone. I'm heading to the kitchen for some leftovers. All this talk of fajitas is making me hungry...just wish I had another piece of that pie!

Doctor Visit Update
Griffin went in today for his 1 month checkup. He weighed 9 lbs 4 ozs and was 20" long. Still a little guy...but so much bigger than he was 4 weeks ago. Dr. Mike looked him over good, and told us that he was perfect. Of course, we already knew that! He got a new immunization shot, the predecessor to 4 additional shots that he'll have to get at his 2 mo. visit. We were told that we could start stretching out his feedings longer at night, in an attempt to get his internal clock adjusted to sleeping all night. At this point, even 5 hours between feedings sounds wonderful to us. One last thing mentioned by the doc was that it appears that GT's eye color will most likely remain blue. According to Amy, the combination of eye color and his recent loss of hair (where'd it all go? he was born with a head full!), makes him look even more like his recently-shorn dad.

I took a couple of pictures before we headed out today. We had a 2:00pm appointment, and his feeding time was around 2:45...so he was already pulling his Little Bird (a.k.a. Baby Bird) routine before we even left. When we got there, the nurse proceeded to parade Griffin up and down the hall, showing him off in the cute little outfit (this is the back) that Amy put him in. Sorry to make you work for the pics this time...I'll add them to the next gallery I post also.

"Better Baby" Photo Series
I had completely forgotten about these pics taken late last month...although I felt like I was missing some. Here are some additional shots taken before Easter that aren't nearly as out of focus as the "Blurry Baby" series.

"Blurry Baby" Photo Series
These pics were taken over the past few weeks by Amy and I. Almost every one of them is blurrier than a closeup shot of Cybil Shepard in an old episode of Moonlighting. They almost look better as thumbnails...but I had to post them anyway. As you can see, Griffin is quite animated (except when he's doing that sleep thing), and keeps us very entertained. I can't believe that tomorrow will be exactly four weeks since he was born. The time has really gone by fast. He's growing up healthy and happy so far! We go to his next checkup on Wednesday, so I'll let you know how much he weighs and stuff later this week.

My last day at the Carrier plant is Monday. Jason finished up and headed back to Dallas on Friday with enough money to cover this month's rent and lots of motivation to find a permanant job. Tomorrow, I'm going to help James make sure that everything is ready to be shipped back, and that none of the users have any unresolved issues (that I can do anything about, anyway...some are beyond our assistance!). These are most of the machines that we replaced with the new Dells. They range from Pentium 100s with 32m of RAM to PIII 866s with 256m. It's a shame to see some of those 866s going back in a bulk deal with those old Pentiums...they are some fast little machines. It's been great working with James and Jason, and it's with some amount of sadness that the project has drawn to a close. Thanks again J.D., for the recommendation. Hopefully someday I can repay the favor.

I'll be blogging again soon...and I promise I'll try to get some clearer pictures next time.

We're Still Alive and Kicking!
Things at Carrier have definitely picked up during our last week here...and things at home are busier than they ever were. I just wanted to drop a quick note and let everyone know that we are still alive and well. Amy and I are still working shifts to make sure that both of us get the sleep we need. Griffin just keeps growing and getting more and more alert every day. He's learned to grin at us, although it's more likely gas...but we humor ourselves that he's doing it for us.

I've been working on some hardware problems on my home machine, so I haven't been able to dump pictures lately. I'm hoping to get everything running correctly tonight, so I can get some new ones posted. At the latest, I'll have some new stuff posted up by this weekend.

Sorry this is so brief...but I have to get back to work again. We're cleaning off the hard drives of the 50+ computers that we've replaced, preparing them for shipment. I'm going to have to start bringing a mask up to work, if things get much dustier! Aaaaaachooo!! Everyone enjoy their week! I'll be back soon.

Checking In
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It's just that I haven't had much new to say. I'm up here at work right now, staring at the last dozen computers to be deployed. If we've estimated things correctly, we'll have enough to keep us busy until next Thursday or Friday. I'm going to miss working on this project, as it's close to the house and the steady paychecks have proven quite useful.

At home, Amy, Griffin and I are trying to settle into our routines. Griffin went to the doctor yesterday, and everything checked out O.K. His eye is much better, although we're still using drops each day to make sure the infection doesn't come back. The doc says that we need to start stretching out the feedings, even if it means that we have to entertain GT until his next feeding time. This is going pretty well, despite how upset he gets when we make him wait for an hour to eat. Now he's drinking larger quantities in fewer feedings. We were able to get through last night with only 2 feedings (me taking the 1:00am, and Amy taking the 5:00am). Using this arrangement, we are all getting a lot more sleep than this time last week.

We still spend a lot of time in awe of Griffin. It's amazing how fast they grow. He's already different from the baby that we brought home less than 2 weeks ago. I completely understand why people say "Enjoy it now...these times will past by quickly." We are trying to take the time to appreciate and remember each and every stage of his babyhood. And, of course, We've continued to take pictures...although not with the frequency of the past few weeks. I'll get some of the new ones posted soon.

I hope everyone's week is going well. I'll post again soon.

Thanks, AirCell!
Much thanks to my former co-workers at AirCell, Inc. for the cute baby gift. When I went home for lunch, Fed-X had just dropped off a box containing a plush teddy bear laying on his back. His tummy was hollowed out to make a basket, which held a batch of home-made cookies! Very cute!...and I'm sure that we'll put the cookies to good use. I'll post a pic of it next gallery. It's good to know that they still remember us up there in CO. I miss them all terribly, and often wish I could be working with them again (if they could just open up a N. Texas office!). We really appreciate it, guys!

Amy is staple-free!
Amy had her c-section staples removed this afternoon. I think she was expecting more pain, since she seem quite suprised that they came out so painlessly. She's healing up nicely, considering it was just over a week ago that I could see inside her incision during her surgery.

We also took Griffin to his doctor today with what may be a minor eye infection. Amy didn't want to be overreacting, but his eyes were pretty gummed up this morning, and last night, they were weeping. She talked to a nurse first, and his doctor recommended that we go ahead and come in. We ended up getting a prescription for some drops, and were shown how to help him keep his tear ducts cleared. Overall, it wasn't quite worth the $25 copay for the visit...until they gave us almost $100 worth of his exact formula (Simulac w/ Iron...BONUS!).

Time to go home from another hard day at work!

Omega Race Repaired
Last night, between Griffin's feedings every 1.5 hours, I managed to work on one of my arcade games for a bit. I've been having problems with the monitor on my Omega Race almost since I first got it up and running last summer. The monitor brightness was WAY too high, and I couldn't adjust it down. This prevented me from leaving the machine on, because I was afraid that it would burn into the screen. These problems are typical for an electronic game that was manufactured in 1981. So, yesterday evening I finally got motivated and discharged the monitor so I could do a little troubleshooting (I'm always very safety concious when working with high-voltage arcade monitors). Upon close inspection, a potentiometer that controls brightness appeared to be faulty. Luckily, I had a replacement parts kit that I had purchased a year ago, so with a little precision soldering, and a couple of adjustments, the monitor looks GREAT now!

Then, Jason proceeded to repeatedly kick my tail, forcing all of my high scores off the screen. I had forgotten how much fun this game was...particularly when there is decent competition around. Tonight, we're going to add in a NiCad battery to retain the high score settings when the game is turned off. We still have a problem with 2-player mode (I need to replace a couple of lighted LED buttons), and I need to finish making a back door for the game. But once I get those things done, it'll be ready to go into my computer/arcade room. At that point, I'll move my Asteroids Deluxe back to the workshop to be assembled and tested. It will be nice to someday have an entire row of video games that ACTUALLY WORK!

New Pictures
Here's a single page of pics taken over the past few days, including visits from Tracey, Steven and Todd as well as Amy's grandparents and brother.

It's been a long night so far. Griffin is going through his first growth spurt, so he's gone from 2-3 oz. every 3-4 hours to 1-2 oz. every 1.5 hours. He's definitely keeping us busy!

Follow-up Visit
I can't believe that it has already been over a week since Griffin was born. We just got back from our first follow-up visit at the hospital. They thoroughly checked him out, and gave him a A+. He's in perfect health, his circumcision is healing nicely, and his umbilical cord stub is about to come off. On top of it all, he has gained 9 oz from his birth weight of 6lbs 9ozs, putting him at 7lbs 2ozs. They were happy to see him passing his birthweight so quickly.

I have to head back to my project at Carrier, but I just wanted to keep everyone updated. I got some good pics of my sister Tracy and my nephews with Griffin, as well as some pics during a visit from Amy's grandparents. I'll get them posted tonight.

Added New Photos Page
I've consolidated all of the photo galleries onto a single page, to make it easier to browse through past pics. Just hit PHOTOS on the top of this page.

My sister T.R. and her boys, Steven and Todd made it into town around lunch time, but I still have work to do before I can head home and see them.

Yet another gallery of pictures
Here's another small set of pics taken over the last few days. I apologize for the quality. My old digital camera really has a tendency to blur images taken in low light (I really miss my Digital Elph!)

So far, so good
I actually have a couple of minutes before Griffin's next feeding, and Amy's in the shower...so I thought I'd jot a quick note. So far, things are going very well. GT slept between feedings (now almost 4 hours apart) last night, and Amy and I both got some much needed sleep. We all hung out together on the back porch for a while this morning, as it was a beautiful day. He wasn't too keen on the bright sun, but was otherwise unfazed.


[non-Griffin related ramblings]

Last night, while running errands with Jason, I ran into a problem with my newly-repaired car. Since I lost my remote for the car, but had a new key made, I have no way to arm or disarm the factory alarm. We were coming out of Eckerds and hopped into the car, which was parked right in front of the front door. All of a sudden, the alarm goes off, and of course, I can't disarm it. Figuring that I'd rather work on this at home (9 blocks down the road), I start the car and put it in gear. Immediately, the car dies. I remember that this alarm system had a computer controlled fuel cutoff, so we aren't going anywhere. I climb under the car, and unhook the two blaring horns...allowing me to think. One of the teenage girls working there steps out and offers some suggestions and snickers at Jason and me. I try every possible trick of most alarm systems, but to no avail. It's 6:00pm at this point, and the local Dodge dealer says that everyone in Service has gone home. Now, some additional Eckerd employees are regularly sticking their faces to the window to see if we are still there. As we ponder our situation, sitting in the car, Jason suggests that I try the Dodge dealer in Lewisville, since their service dept. is open late. Unfortunately, their techs had just left the shop as well. Thinking, thinking...what would Donnie do? (Donnie could find ANYTHING out as long as he had a phone with him). I pick up the cell phone and call information and ask for a Dodge dealer in Riverside, CA. (since they were two hours later than me). I call up and tell them that I bought my car there back in '96 and I'm having problems. They actually have someone working that knows what to do. I explain my situation, and he seems confident that he can help me. The only problem, when I try it (turning the key of the driver's side lock two times to left), it doesn't work. We try a few other things ("You sure this isn't an aftermarket alarm?"), and he finally runs out of ideas. Meanwhile, my lights are still flashing like crazy, but thankfully the horns were silent. I get off the phone and look over to Jason. We were just about to hoof it back to the house on foot, since Amy can't drive yet. At the last second, I go over to Jason's side of the car, and turn the key twice to the left...everything stopped. The alarm was disabled. Apparently, my driver's side lock is no longer functioning properly. This is approx. 45 minutes from the time that Jason and I walked out of the Eckerds to leave. We finally headed on over to Wal-mart and finished up the shopping by 8:00. Too much fun! On the positive side, my car is running quite good now, and I know how to disarm it, should this happen again. I guess I can crawl back under the car and reconnect my horn. Not that I ever use it anyway ("Don't honk my horn!"...sorry, one of my little quirks).

Amy's going to try and take a nap, and it's time once again to feed the little Griffin. I took some more pictures last night, and tomorrow Amy and I are going to try and re-create a scene from a picture she found of her Grandmother holding her Dad right after he was born. I'll get them posted soon!

Great Day!
This has been a really good day. Both Amy and I shared responsibilities for feeding Griffin during the night (I got the 01:30 one, she did the 04:30), so we both feel like we actually slept a little bit. He was such an angel for his first night home, waking only long enough to finish his bottles, and go back to a peaceful sleep. We realize that this can't last long...but it sure is appreciated at this point. Heavy bonding is taking place...even with the furbabies, who find GT quite interesting (and tasty). ;-)

Work at Carrier today was relatively slow, but it looks like we are going to have enough to keep us busy until almost the end of the month. Finally, I was able to pick up my car during lunchtime, after I had a new timing belt, serpentine belt, idler pulley, water pump and ignition key replaced. It wasn't cheap, but it was a LOT less than what was originally quoted last September from a Dodge dealer. Right now, it really feels strange to drive a car as large as an Intrepid, after driving Amy's Cavalier for the past 6 months...but it's going to be a much better vehicle than the "Grape Ape" for transporting "G Badd" ((TM) - Bob Lennard) when necessary. (for those who don't understand, T BADD has long since been a nickname of mine, since the old computer days when I ran an Electronic Bulletin Board (BBS).

I'm sure that I'll get more posted soon. Have a great weekend!

New Image Gallery!
It's late, and we've had a long and wonderful day. I did manage to get a new gallery posted, but unfortunately without descriptions. I'll do better in the future, and I'll try to get everything properly commented when I get the Gallery Archive completed. G'Night all!

Blogger Problems
Sorry...blogger.com has had some problems today. I can post again, so I'm going to work on getting a new gallery online. Sorry for the delay in posts.

We're Home!
This morning Amy was examined by her doctor. He determined that she had recovered from the surgery enough to go home. Dr. Mike (Griffin's pediatrician) also came by and confirmed once again that he was ready to go home. We just walked in the door less than an hour ago, and still have a lot of settling down to do. Griffin is happy and healthy, sleeping in his crib for the first time. He slept the entire way home, despite the glaring sun and 85 degree temp. He's so precious.

I have managed to take quite a few pictures over the last few days, and I promise to get them posted soon (hopefully tonight).

Much thanks to my grandparents, Mar and Jim Shumate, for the baby swing that just arrived via UPS a couple of minutes ago. It's exactly the one that Amy wanted. Thank you both so much! We miss seeing you, and wish that Mississippi wasn't so far away. Of course, I'll have to show Griffin "the homeland" once he's old enough to travel.

Huge thanks to all of my family for everything that you have done for us. The "long-distance baby shower" was a fantastic treat, particularly since Amy didn't have one before his birth. We just finished opening the gifts together, and we'll be using almost everything right away (the cute jungle mobile is already on his crib).

I'll post more later tonight. I need to grab a bite to eat, and head back to work. Crystal is coming over in around an hour to keep Amy company and allow her to rest. Last night, we went ahead and had the nursery keep GT from 02:00 until morning, so Amy and I both feel a little more rested. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Whew!!
We knew from the beginning that this was going to be tough...but there was no way to prepare for this. Last night was the first night that Griffin slept in the room with us, and I don't think any of us got much sleep. We're all doing fine, though. Amy is still waiting to hear from her doctor regarding her release. The pediatrician has given the O.K. for Griffin to go home as soon as Amy's ready.

We spent all night feeling like such total newbies at all of this. I often thought of Tina and Kirk, two science teachers, figuring this out for the first time last summer. We had two different bouts of the obligatory "change the diaper and have the clean one messed in less than 30 seconds". Also the "I'm not going to burp, but as soon as you lay me down, I'm gonna puke all over myself and my bedding". Amy, at one point, says to me "I should have been reading about babies for the last three months, not vampires". It might have help out some, but I'm pretty sure that even a pile of Babies for Dummies books couldn't have really prepare us for this. Thank goodness that it's only fed to us a day at a time.

Despite these negative aspects, I can't believe how much I already love the little guy. I would and will do anything for him. I can tell that Amy feels the same way. I didn't expect for our maternal/paternal instincts to kick in like this, but I'm sure glad it is. It really is true that "It's different when it's your own child". I had to go to work this morning, and I hated leaving both Griffin and Amy. I can't wait to see them again around lunch time.

Last time I checked in around 1/2 hour ago, Griffin had just finished a bottle, and was settling down for some sleep. Amy had just received her dose of pain meds, and was hoping to get a little sleep herself.

I took my laptop up to the room last night, so I'll try to update some more (including more pics) from the room later this evening. I'm glad Amy doesn't read my blog, since the pictures I posted yesterday were around 10 minutes after her surgery, so she was VERY groggy and not feeling well at all. By the way, the additional people in yesterday's pics were Amy's dad and my Mom.

Thanks to everyone for their support! I gotta get another cup of coffee in me, and get to work upgrading some computers.

Introducing: Griffin Thomas Baddley
Born: 03-11-02 14:19 (2:19 pm)
6lbs 9ozs
19.5 Inches

Amy's gonna kill me if I don't get back up to the hospital. After 36 hours of labor, she ended up having to have a C-section. She's feeling pretty rotten right now. I'll post more details tomorrow.

Here's some pics. from as early as 20 minutes after his birth:

Griffin Picture Gallery

I'll try to get some more pics tomorrow as well...see you then!

Hospital Update
Well, we've been at the hospital now since around 5:45am. Amy has been moved from Triage over to a Labor and Delivery Room. She's about 4cm dialated at this point. She finally got her epidural an hour or so ago, and her pain is GONE. She chats straight through the contractions now, without the intense pain she endured all last night and this morning. Outside of being hooked up to numerous IVs and monitors, and a severe lack of sleep, she's relatively comfortable.

Things are going well so far. I just came home for a second to let the dogs outside, while Amy's Dad is keeping her company. My parents are on their way down from Tulsa, and the rest of the family is waiting until later to visit. I better get back to the hospital before she has the kid without me!

I'll keep blogging as often as I can.

Heading to the Hospital
Around 5:00 this morning, the contractions started coming around every 5 minutes, and they seem to be lasting almost 1/2 that duration. I wouldn't have spent last night in Amy's shoes for ANYTHING! Hopefully, things will move along well once we get there. I'll update as soon as I can.

Baby Due
According to the Outlook reminder that just popped up on my screen (along with a cute little sound), we have a baby due!

Amy's contractions are now predictable at around 7 minutes apart. We're trying to rest as much as we can before we leave for the hospital. I somehow always pictured things differently. On TV, they always just suddenly realize "I'm having my baby!", and immediately rush to the hospital. I never expected to have enough time to take a shower, chat with Jason or add to my blog. It definitely adds to the anxiety, however. I doubt I'll be sleeping any more than Amy tonight.

I'll post an entry before we leave for the hospital.

Update
Well, It's after 8:00pm, and Amy's "cramps" have been determined to be early contractions by the doctor via phone. So far, they haven't settled into any predictable pattern. Right now, they are randomly occuring anywhere between 9 and 13 minutes apart. They don't seem to be getting any closer in frequency, but they are increasing in intensity. The Doc told us to get to the hospital when they are closer to 5 minutes apart. We could be in for a long night!

Getting Closer
Around 6:15 this morning, Amy woke me up saying "We may need to go to the hospital, I've been having severe cramps since around 3:30, and they don't seem to be gettting any better." In the groggy state that I was in, I could only reply "Could it wait until around 7:00 or 7:30?" I'm lucky she didn't kick me out of the bed onto the floor!

Anyway...she did wait a little longer, and the cramps subsided somewhat. I've spent the day waiting for her to tell me it's time...but it doesn't seem that we're quite there yet. At least it's an encouraging sign that maybe he realizes that it's time, rather than making Amy go through an induced delivery, which I imagine would be slower and more painful than normal. She's still cramping this evening, so we may end up at the hospital before the night is over....but who knows.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Jet-powered motorcycle
It's a good thing that my brother-in-law, John doesn't have one of these! He would probably end up in a situation like this guy, who was put in jail for doing 165mph out on country roads (the proof, a video tape he had made by strapping his camcorder to the gas tank). A turbine engine would sound really awesome at a stop-light though, wouldn't it?

If a dark-side Jedi played guitar...they'd probably use one of these.

Cartoons and Donuts

Saturday mornings have always been my favorite time of the week. For many years now, Saturday morning has been just about the only time during the week when I'm alone. Amy sleeps in late, so I get up early and geek on the computer for several hours. It's completely guilt-free geeking. So today, I'm enjoying and appreciating what may be my last free Saturday in a long time. Jason went back home last night to take care of some things in Dallas (hopefully, he won't get arrested this weekend!). Amy's sleeping soundly in the way-too-bright bedroom. I know that very soon Griffin will see to it that we have PLENTY to do early on a Saturday morning. I'm sure that my Mom and Dad were happy when I got old enough to get up on my own and entertain myself with cartoons, letting them have a couple of extra hours sleep after a long week. I remember they would set me up with powdered mini-donuts and chocolate milk the night before (so they wouldn't have to worry about me trying to cook myself breakfast). I'd wake up around 6:30, while the farm reports were still on (sometimes I even beat the farm reports, and the station wouldn't even be on the air yet...hmmm...Griffin will never know of television that doesn't have 24 hr. programming). Anxiously, I'd wait for 7:00 to roll around, so I could watch all the Warner Bros. cartoons that were instant classics from the first time they ran. Their subtle social commentary and ever-present pop references certainly seem to have given them a much more timeless quality than something like Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, which I'm embarrassed to say, I also watched, although usually with my sister, T.R. By that time (I was 10 or so), I preferred the creepy Sleestaks from Land of the Lost over the silly sea monsters anyday. It was always slightly dissapointing when American Bandstand came on, since it signalled the end of the cartoon programming for the day. I think I hear Barry Manilow singing right now...I better go. Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Griffin Update

Well, Amy went to the Dr. again on Tuesday. He didn't feel that she was as far along as he would expect for someone due next Monday. She's going back in on Monday, and if things aren't any further along, they will induce labor the following Monday. No signs of contractions at this point (even the Braxton-Hicks contractions seem to have subsided)...but I know that Amy's ready to get this part over with.

The Carrier project has been extended an extra week or so, due to the supply of new computers coming in slower than expected. I certainly don't mind extra days of work! Signs all around seem to indicate that the economy and the technical jobs are starting to come back to life. I'm still keeping my eyes open for a permanent position. I've also put my name in the hat of a couple of I.T. outsourcing companies for any local contract work that might pop up after this one.

Thanks for all the good wishes and nice comments from everyone lately. I'm so lucky to have such supportive friends and family members!

Enjoy what's left of the week...it's almost Friday!!

New Photo Galleries
As promised, I've posted up some new photos. The first gallery is from the weekend of Feb 24th. The second gallery is from the past 4 or 5 days. I'll be creating a Gallery Archive in the near future, where you can browse through past photos that I've posted.

With the weather turning a little warmer, it was a great day to get some more stuff done around the house. I also had my Intrepid finally towed to a shop for repair (needs a timing belt and water pump). Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me find my keys (yes, the only set I have, including the remote for the alarm). I'm still scouring every place I can think of, trying to locate them. Hopefully, they'll turn up before I have to replace the locks.

James sent me an e-mail this afternoon, letting me know that some new machines came in today for our project. Hopefully, this batch will keep us busy until the next systems arrive.

Special thanks to Peggy and Nolan Isaacs for the early baby gift. They made it possible for Amy to pick up the Fisher Price Crib Aquarium that she's been eyeballing for the past few months. It's pretty cool, although I will probably follow Nolan's advice of wiring it up for an A/C adapter. If we end up leaving it on for extended periods of time (like they did with their daughter), it could chew through a lot of batteries.

What kind of bird doesn't fly?

Jason has been staying at our house while he works with me on the Carrier project. However, last night he got a free night in the pokey, compliments of Wichita County. Due to a odd chain of events, he ended up spending all of Sunday night at the county jail, freezing his backside off on a metal slab they called a bed. The entire event was based on the fact that Denton County had not retracted the "state-wide" portion of a bench warrant that they had issued many years ago (that Jason had long since cleared up). Unfortunately, it took waiting overnight to see a judge this morning before they could clear him, and let him out. Sometimes I feel like I have the worst luck in the world, and then I think of Jason! It really makes my life seem charmed.

Hospital Tour
This afternoon, Amy and I took a tour of the 5th floor (Maternity) at the hospital where she'll be delivering (United Regional Health Care). The nurses we met with there were really nice, and we were more than a little (pleasantly) suprised at their facilities. The 5th floor looks like none other in this hospital. Subdued lighting, contemporary color schemes and lots of natural wood sets this area apart from the rest of the place. The actual Labor and Delivery rooms look nicer than most Hiltons I've stayed at. With hardwood floors and lots of space, they've succeeded in transforming the surroundings from a hospital atmosphere to more of a home setting. All of the various equipment is hidden behind stained wood cabinets, and the decor of the room is quite comfortable and classy. Of course, within a couple of hours of delivery, you get moved over to a more "standard" type hospital room for the remainder of the stay. They also showed us how their new security measures can prevent someone from taking off with a baby. Cameras, keypads, electronic "tags" and sensors...man, hospital security is finally getting high-tech. At least we now know much more about where to go and what to expect, once the time comes. We were also able to get all of our admissions paperwork completed, so we don't have to worry about that part. The due date is one week from tomorrow, on the 11th....we'll see how good of an estimate it really is.

I don't go back to work at the Carrier plant until Tuesday. We've outpaced the delivery of new systems, so we're sliding the project back a day, and taking Monday off. It's a good thing, though, since I have several things, including some work for RF Consulting, that I need to get done during a weekday. We'll be back at it again on Tuesday, when a new shipment of computers hopefully comes in. I got a couple of good digital photos of the fun we had with the packing materials on Friday...and I promise, I'll get the new photo galleries posted before I go back to work on Tuesday.

For those of you who have been snowbound over the weekend, I hope that things melt off quickly, and you can get back to your normal lives. Be careful out there with the remainder of the snow/ice. Enjoy the coming week...Spring is only right around the corner!

I'm Still Here!

Greetings from cold and snowy Wichita Falls, TX! After weeks of false alarms, we finally got a little snow last night. It's still well below freezing, but the sun has been out and melting most of it.

I know that I've been slacking this week at Blogging Baddley. I'm starting to feel like Bob. Everything is going very well, just getting busier during these last few weeks before the baby comes. We have quite the list of chores to do this weekend. I'm hoping to get most of them out of the way today, so we can relax tomorrow. I'll be writing more and posting a new picture gallery soon.

Have a great weekend!

Just wanted to take a quick moment and wish my Mom, Randa, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you had a great one, Mom. I love you!

Windows 1.0 to XP: Screenshots
Maybe you just have to be a geek to appreciate the above link, but it's a walk down memory lane for me. Great screenshots show the slow evolution of Gatesware from 1985 (right before I started work at MicroAge Computers in Tulsa) to present. At various points in my life, I have used (or worked with) every single one of these operating systems (even Windows 286, which I had completely forgotten about.). I guess I've evolved over the years, just as Windows has. Donnie would say that Bill Gates has brainwashed me (he prefers penquins). But, to me, nothing else compares to Windows for pure usability and abundant killer apps. I do have to admit though, MacOS X is a huge advance forward for Apple, giving it a high "drool factor" as well. I've always said "I don't do fruit!", but I'd take a new iMac anyday.

Work on the new project is going well. The pace has definitely picked up, and I'm staying busy all day. They brought in 2 more techs today, who are doing the actual computer installations (software configuration and grunt work). They work for yet another outsourcing company; this one with offices in the Dallas area. I'm submitting a resume to their company tomorrow in hopes of picking up some regional contract work from them. Jason is coming up to Wichita Falls tonight. Starting tomorrow, he will be following behind the installers, catching the brunt of the complaints and questions from the users. We're actually having a good time, and making good progress too. It'll be particularly fun to add Jason into the mix.

Here's couple of photos from work. The first is the staging area. It's pretty much my "office" while I'm working for Carrier. It is also where the computers are configured. Here's James loading images on a few new Dells. Those are 1 GHz machines with 17" flatscreen monitors..pretty nice computers. The last shot is looking out of a window in the staging area down on one of the areas of the factory, where they have some seriously big machines that cut, drill, bend and shape sheet metal into housings for commercial HVAC units.

Amy's still hanging in there...trying not to dwell on how uncomfortable she is. All the bags are packed and ready to go whenever it's necessary.

I'm sure I'll be posting more over the weekend. Have a great Friday!

Baby Update
Amy went to the Dr. again this morning. He says that things are moving along well and that Griffin has dropped into a lower, head-down position. He explained to Amy that the pains she has been feeling lately are Braxton-Hicks contractions and are normal. He told her not to exert herself in any way, and to keep track of any recurring pains and their frequency. She's been moved to a once-a-week schedule, so she'll be back to see the Dr. next Tuesday.

We're getting close!

Good 1st Day
My first day working on the new project went quite well. It's really nice to be interacting with so many people again. The workload is interesting, but light. Jason is going to come join me on Friday to work as the post-install tech (I'm the pre-install tech). Not much else to say, I'm heading to bed.

New Photo Gallery Update
I finally got around to dumping some of the few pictures we have taken over the first 1/2 of February. Notice that it includes shots of both me and Amy resting/sleeping. We figured we better document it now, since I doubt we'll be doing much of either next month (or many months to follow). Sorry I don't have any better shots...I'll try to get some more as the month rolls on.

I spent a couple of hours at the MagicAire/Carrier/United Electric plant on Friday. I took the $0.10 tour and got a better idea of what was going to be involved in this project I'm going to be a part of. Looks like everything is right up my alley, and I'm looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning.

Film Sound Cliches
The above site is a list of stereotypes and common logic flaws of sound effects in movies. Wow...and I thought I was critical about continuity flaws..this guy is ruthless on the sound editors. I'll never be able to watch movies again without noticing at least one of these.

Another interesting site along a similar theme is The Movie Cliches List, which has tons of cliches grouped by topics such as Food, Villians and Bodily Functions.

"When you enjoy something, you must never let logic get too much in the way. Like the villains in all the James Bond movies. Whenever Bond breaks into the complex: 'Ah, Mr. Bond, welcome, come in. Let me show you my entire evil plan and then put you in a death machine that doesn't work'."
-- Jerry Seinfeld, "Sein Language"

Happy Valentines Day!
I hope that everyone is having (or had) a decent Valentines Day. I spent part of the day printing, copying, faxing and mailing all of my employment forms to this new company I'm going to be working for. It appears that they are under contract with Dell Computers to provide upgrades and customer support, so I guess I'll be inadvertantly working for Dell.

Amy and I took some time this evening to share some simple gifts with each other. Among the ones she game me, was a 25' long home-made card of linked hearts (I'll post the picture here soon), each one containing a different reason that she loves me. Everybody together..."Awwwwwww!". She's definitely the romantic in the family. I didn't do too bad myself, though, considering the budget we were working under (the half-dozen Winnie the Pooh kids Valentines were actually a hit). We did splurge tonight on a take-out dinner from our favorite local steakhouse. It was great to walk in there amongst the ~100 couples and families flowing out the doors, waiting on tables, and walk out with some tasty grub in less than 5 minutes! It was extremely good too...so much that I had to waddle like Amy to come in here and finish this entry.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Landed a new contract job!
It's only for a few weeks, but thanks to my friend James Doolen (of all people), I have landed a computer contracting job working at a Carrier plant starting this Monday. I'll be working with all of their old desktop computers in preparation for a mass upgrade of their systems. It'll be full-time work for at least a couple of weeks, and hopefully it will branch off into even more work after this project is completed.

It's not the ideal job, but it pays decent and it will get me back working full-time again...which I desparately need for my own sanity. Besides, it'll be fun to work on computers again, since I'm very secure with my knowledge and skills in that area. I've scheduled an appointment for Friday after lunch to tour the plant, and get a better idea of what I'll be doing during my time there.

Job Opportunities Looking Better
Well, after a very weak January, the job market in the N. TX area seems to be picking up. I've already applied for several openings today that come much closer to matching my previous work experiences. The past few months have had NOTHING even remotely related to my field, so it's good to be applying for jobs that I feel I better qualify for. Looks like it's going to be a pretty busy week...which is a good thing! I'll keep everyone posted.

I love this weather!
It's 66 degrees and sunny right now. Call it Spring Fever or whatever...but my mood has improved 100% in less than 24 hours. I'm loving this warm weather! Of course, I'm having all kinds of sinus problems from the constantly shifting temps and humidity...but I don't mind. Amy and I took some sandwiches out to the park this afternoon (just the two of us) for a short picnic. We both realize that we don't have much more time to spend simply as a couple, so we're trying to take advantage while we can and appreciate the quiet life that we've lived for the past 7 years. Things will never be the same again!

Doing my taxes!
I finally got all my forms and paperwork together and spent a good portion of this afternoon and evening working on my taxes. This year I'm using H&R Block's TaxCut software, since I have three W-2's, a 1099-Misc, a 1099-G and a 1099-R to deal with. This, along with 6 months of uncompensated work miles logged for my Intrepid made me realize that I wasn't going to be able to simply whip out a quick 1040A this year. I went with TaxCut because it was only $15, and was the companion tax product for Microsoft Money, which I use (TurboTax is the Quicken companion). They couldn't convince me to pay an additional $35 for Money 2002, even though it had a $35 rebate making it essentially free. Money 2001 still works fine for me. I've been impressed with TaxCut. So far, it's stepped me through a LOT of complicated forms that otherwise I would have had NO IDEA what I was doing. It's been particularly helpful when dealing with the business use of my car and home office..all that itemized stuff that I've never had to do before. I'm about 98% done. I only have the "Final Error Check" to go through. Thankfully, we don't owe anything, and it looks like we are going to get back a much needed refund. We can certainly put it to good use.

Blue Heeler Drives Truck Into Tree
Thank goodness not mine! So far, Flannel hasn't done this to me. I know that there were times when my friend Donnie, while on the road for AirCell, was nervous that Benny would pull a stunt like this while he was miles from anywhere, leaving him stranded. For those of you who are curious, Benny is 1/2 Rottweiler and 1/2 Cocker Spaniel and isn't nearly as annoying as I thought he was before we got Flannel. He traveled for almost two years with Donnie all over the U.S. in a Ford Expedition 4x4 (along with Stratus, the cat)...and never once crashed the truck. Good Ben!

Crash Course in Programming
I spent a good portion of the evening reading about ASP, PHP and Javascript coding for web pages. This blog has peaked my interest in programming again. I'll be stuck in the wireless industry permanently unless I can branch out into something new, so I'm going to learn as much about coding for the internet as possible. Next to anything medical, this is one of the few remaining fields that seem to still have high demand for new employees (in Dallas, at least). I know that my friend Nolan Isaacs is making quite the decent living in Addison doing ASP coding (just look at the cars he and his fellow employees drive). It's sad, too...since I was the one who first got Nolan interested in programming back in the early 90's when I was using Turbo C to modify and compile our WWIV BBS's. Speaking of The Mist (my old BBS)...Now that Google has 10+ years of newsgroups online, I found this BBS listing from Aug 1990, which shows that I was running a whopping 106 meg with a Hayes 9600 modem. Things have certainly changed a lot in a just over 10 years!

New Feature: Comments
You may now add your $.02 worth to any entry that I post simply by pressing "Comments". This will pop up a box and allow you to view and post comments for that particular entry. In between the brackets is the number of current comments for the entry. This feature allows the blog to be more of a 2-way medium, rather than me babbling alone.

Feel free to drop a comment anytime. You don't have to list your e-mail or webpage (or even name, for that matter) unless you want to. If nothing else, it lets me know if anyone out there is even reading this.

Have fun!

(thanks to YACCS for the free comment system. I was having NO LUCK using any of the public scripts I could find online.)

Snowing in Wichita Falls
After raining most of the morning (the dogs were SOAKED!), the weather had turned to snow by the time we got out of Amy's Dr. appointment. Big wet flakes! Unfortunately, it's about 36 degrees...so it's melting as soon as it hits a surface, rather than actually accumulating.

Amy's doc says that things are going very well. Based on today's examination and the recent ultrasound, Griffin is in a head-down position, heart looks/sounds good, amniotic sac is fine, activity level is good and length and size are still correct for his due date...we're still a go for March 11th. We go back in 2 weeks for her next exam.

Some Ads Score, Some Fumble
Speaking earlier about the Superbowl commercials...Above is a link to the Top 5 Best and Worst of the Bowl Ads (New York Daily News). I don't think I saw a single one of these! I really want to see the Bud salute to the Towers. Clydesdales are still my favorite horses, even if they're worthless for riding.

Cheap Entertainment
As I've said before, I'm pretty easily entertained. Late last night (O.K...early this morning), Amy and I spent about 1 1/2 hours playing a new game called "Guess the Body Part". The baby is finally getting big enough to actually see and feel through Amy's belly. He gets pretty active between 11pm and 1am. Amy will be reclined, reading in bed, when all of a sudden you see a little lump (or two) moving across her stomach. It like something from Aliens! T.R. has told me the story of Steve grabbing Steven's knees before he was born. Sure 'nuff, there are times when you can almost grab his little knees, feet or butt. He usually squirms away from the threat quickly, although he doesn't seem to mind much if you just "cup" his butt. We go back to the Dr. tomorrow morning for her regular checkup. Only about 6 weeks to go!

What an incredible time of our lives. We are so grateful for the good things that life has brought us, and hopeful that things will continue to get better.