zoom 

Amish computer virus 

Check out our new cool fan. 

Window 

Wall (Closet left, door to hallway right) 

Look at the circle in the bottom right. 

2004 - Year in Review

Well, another year come and gone. I decided to throw this blog entry out there so that we can comment on something that happened this year. So if you can think of something (funny especially) that happened this year, feel free to mention it. Let me see if I can think of some things that happened and then make the next one match the previous one. Charlie got a new computer. On his computer he put pictures from this summer when he went to Mexico. David had a Mexican baby. My wife is now expecting a baby. Jared gave my baby a couple of blue toys. Jared got a job at a newspaper where he uses his new RAZR phone. I got a new cell phone. I put Michael's phone # in my cell phone. Michael got me interested in starting a blog this year. Rick comments on my blog. Rick, Michael and I almost set the forrest on fire once. My friend Jason, who is a Park Ranger, lives in the forrest. Jason came to visit about a week ago. Thinking of Jason reminds me of the smell of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches that his roommate in college used to sell. Thinking of grilled ham and cheese makes me desire a coke. Thinking of eating that makes me think of finishing that off with bananna pudding.

Yes. It all makes sense. This has been a good year.

Arafat's successor: Palestinian state will replace Israel

Click here to read the article. I get a kick out of how blunt they are.

The Immortal Grey

Well...where do I begin? Let me try to summarize. Tori and I like animals. One day we decided to get 2 hampsters. The hamsters bred...possibly because there was not too much else to do except run on the wheel. They probably had about 5 litters. We would take the chitlins to the pet store and sell them or give them away. In one litter, the magical grey hamster of immortality was born. While taking that litter to the store, he escaped in the car. In the deat heat of summer, he survived 5 days in the 100 plus degree inferno heat of the car. I found him after returning from a vacation. He was dehydrated and pathetic looking, but alive. Later, Kiley Toto (my in-laws dog) and Snickers (my dog) knocked off some of the cage's tubes and ate the matriarch, patriarch and many chitlins. The magical, indestructable, immortal grey hamster was in the tube but knew not to come out. He lived. He was dropped at least twice from a high altitude. He was bitten by a dog. He saw his parents and siblings perish. Yet he lived. He emitted an aura of invincibility. If I had jumped out of a plane without a parachute, if I held him in my hands, I would somehow land on a hotair balloon and decend to safety. In the world of the mini-mammal, he was..."the one."

Below are pictures of the massacre. But this blog entry is a tribute to my hero...the magical, indestructable, immortal Grey hamster. **Which was given to the pet store so that his immortal reputation will forever remain intact and honorable.

The culprits

Forensic Evidence 

A possible accomplice? 

Together in Hampster Heaven 

The fallen 

Like an old western dead man line up 

Yes, it's to scale

Miami Heat (news) center Shaquille O'Neal (news) (32) walks next to Denver Nuggets (news) 5-foot 6-inch guard Earl Boykins (news) (11) during a timeout in the second half Friday, Dec. 17, 2004, in Miami. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Well, I thought I was going to be painting the nursery today. I underestimated how much prep work had to be done. We had put up a ton of pictures in that room and there were nail and tac holes all over that had to be spackled. Then I discoverd how dirty the bottom of the window seal was. There was a bad case of mold there. I had never seen it before because the blinds had been covering it. So I had to scrub that clean. So I'm not painting yet, but at least I'm headed in that direction. 

Nursery -- The Before photo 

Here is Tori enjoying one of her favorite activities...registering for baby stuff. You can't see the back of that scanner gun, but there's a tube running into an I.V. in her arm. She's a happy camper. 

President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolton (C) talk to conferees, above a misspelled sign, at the White House Conference on the Economy in Washington, December 16, 2004. The White House went all out to showcase the advantages of U.S. President George W. Bush's ambitious financial agenda this week, but in the end the 'challenges' proved too much. The word 'challenges' -- a main theme of a two-day White House economic conference that ended on Thursday -- was misspelled on a large television monitor that stood in front of Bush during a panel discussion.REUTERS/Reuters TV 

I love technology-- Here are the painting possibilities!

Technology is straight awesome. I thought that surely somewhere on the web, on some painting website, I can choose colors and they can simulate it on a picture of a wall. Sure enough, through Home Depot's website, I came across a cool Behr website that does just that. Of course, then it wouldn't let me just save the picture to my computer...but my Paint Shop Pro 7 allows me to do screen captures. So I captured the photos of the different colors and then cut and pasted my border in. Now the border is not as big as it appears in these photos. I allowed it to be a little bigger I could get a good look at the contrast.

Well, now that you can scroll down and see the options...are your opinions still the same?

(P.S. YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE A LARGER VERSION.)




Pale yellow

Make your baby take anti-spaz medicine yellow 

Light Blue 

Light Green 

I need your advice...

The border for Micah's nursery.

Well, this is picture that is actually two merged pictures. One is an overall shot of the border, and the other is a closeup of the yellow block. It is a cool border and isn't rectangular shaped but is actually cut out so the block have their regular shape and aren't on a background.

But here is where I need some advice... I am thinking about painting the nursery walls a light yellow. Because the red, blue or green might be too dark. Now if I use a yellow lighter than the yellow on this block, will that still look O.K.? Will those yellows clash and look wierd? If I use the same yellow as the block, will that look wierd because the yellow blocks will all blend in with the wall and look half-invisible? I know that may seem like a crazy question, but I don't want to do all this work and then have a retared look. If you have been to my house in the last year or so, you know what I went through with that red bathroom of mine. (Which now, by the way, will be converted to a Winnie the Pooh bathroom so I can keep the red.) Ok...so what do you think? [Also, this border will actually be in the middle of the wall, not up by the ceiling, so it will be noticeable.]

By the way I just installed my Paint Shop Pro 7 software and it is the bomb pic editing, etc. software.

Study: TV Show Negative Image of Religion

On "Drudge Report" (see Charlie's Links) or click here to go directly to the article.

New Evidence Reopens Debate about the Shroud of Turin

Interesting. I'm not sure what to think about it. Doesn't really matter I guess...but interesting.

Click here to read the article.

Just curious

Does anyone want to admit not getting the binary joke? It's ok. The people who comment on my blog never make fun of anyone. Open up...be vunerable.

Children's Choir Christmas Performance

Just got back from church. We've been practicing this little Christmas singing gig with preschoolers. They did a pretty good job. I played the piano and Tori and a couple other ladies directed. Those kids are a hoot. This is a picture of one of the older groups singing. ( I took this picture with my phone...sorry about the quality.)

Michael's "dying wish"

Go to Michael's blog (see my "Recommended Blogs" section and click on "my drivetrain of thought") and read the story "dying wish". I thought it was funny and true.

Blog-evolution

Whew! Who invented HTML anyway? Case sensitive stuff is enough to make you go mad. I've been trying to change a few things around on here...add some color, etc. But you make one little mistake and BAM...all you can see is text on steroids. I'm going to try to give the blog a Christmas theme, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow...It's 11:30 and time to go to bed.

Car trailer 

Kelly's Kennel

While emailing Michael the other day, I was reminded of an old defunct website of mine. It is from a stint when Tori and I had plans to breed our Golden Retrievers and make tons of money. Our female had been "gotten to" by a stray dog before...and the puppies were beautiful, but we gave them away, so we decided to buy a male and make some green. However, it turns out that our male dog was either homosexual or asexual. So much for that plan. The dogs ended up being too much upkeep, they wouldn't stop barking at night, and they had to spend too much time in a (rather large) pen, so we sold them. Why do I feel like I should be wearing a leopard hat with a feather on it?

If you wish to see the site, click below:

Kelly's Kennel

How do you like our logo at the bottom? I made it myself. How cool am I?

After reading Michael's previous "Santa" blog (www.drivetrain.blogspot.com), I decided to contact David Hammack, a pilot buddy of mine to take care of our little jolly red problem. 

Credit Card Shotgun

MINNEAPOLIS -- A new twist on the idea of concealable weapons, the credit card-sized shotgun, is shown at Koscielski's Guns and Ammo, the only gun shop in Minneapolis. It's a two-shot weapon machined from a block of metal the height and width of a standard credit card, and about a half-inch thick. Each barrel fires seven standard steel BBs. It will retail for $100. Mark Koscielski, owner of Koscielski's Guns and Ammo, and Patrick Teel, who makes the guns in suburban Blaine, gave The Associated Press a preview Tuesday night ahead of a news conference scheduled for Wednesday. They said the guns are meant to be used only for close-range self-defense and wouldn't be effective as offensive weapons. (10/05/04 AP photo)