Movies

Today was a day of unlikely coalition (Red Alert 3) followed by finishing watching the Pink Panther at home so my daughter and I could make a trip to the movies. Buttered Popcorn, peperoni pizza and a diet coke for me and cookie dough bites, cheese pizza and a Mr. Pibb for her. While watching the movie, we both laughed pretty well and agreed that Mom probably wouldn't have liked it, too much slapstick comedy.

We got back to the house around 8:30 PM and I played a little more RA, while my daughter got on AIM. Meanwhile, it sounds like my wife and daughter in Mexico had a great day too.

Tomorrow bring worship services in the morning and we are off the afternoon.

Left Behind

Well, this week has been pretty difficult since last week I was in Houston for training and came home late Thursday night only to get up and go to work Friday for a full day. The work day came to an end and then it was the weekend before my wife flew to Mexico to visit our daughter studying there for this semester.

Saturday was a blur, I don't know why but Sunday was filled with Church Services in the morning and our bi-weekly home group in the evening. I love to hear and sing praises at church and I love our home group. We now have lived in New Market for 19 months and I must say that I am not very well connected into anything except my best Friend Charlie and his wife Nancy. I can't figure out why. This move has been harder on me than I care to admit.
So began the week. The week was filled with interviewing four candidates for a position at work, getting caught back up with administrative work, getting an invoice off to the owners, and preparing for Friday's onslaught of work at the plant. All of this was followed by the evenings trying to help my bride, where she would allow me too, to get ready for her trip to Mexico. Another week without her by my side :( but I know that she and our daughter will have an awesome time together which makes me happy :).
Wednesday night came and we had planned to head to the Golden Corral for dinner to celebrate my wife’s 48th birthday which she would have the first full day in Mexico. I had a mission on the way home to pick up a specific present that my youngest daughter wanted to give her Mom and to pick up a birthday card and wrapping paper. So I scooted by the Book Nook Café and they had everything I needed. I headed home and we quickly changed vehicles and we were off to dinner. After dinner was time to open the presents and time went swiftly. All was ready for the trip to the airport in the morning, so I headed to bed around 10:30 PM and my wife came to bed around 1:30 AM and I woke up and could not go back to sleep.
Frustrated about that and giving prayers to our Lord for about an hour, I got up and opened my work computer to try to get more things done. By 6:00 AM I had watched the hour long CEO video, and drafted a start on the presentation for why my company should be the choice for what we do at my plant. I heard the alarms go off, so I hurried to complete what I was doing and headed back upstairs to the shower in preparation for taking our youngest daughter to high school and then taking my bride to the airport. We had planned to leave the house at 9:00 AM to drive the hour to the airport and allow for the time for her to get through the security and arrive at her gate in time for boarding. One last thing before leaving…to put the patch on the helps prevent motion sickness. It worked extremely well on the cruise last year. At 8:45 AM she opens the prescription box and it is empty, a bump in the road and another chance to excel. I called the pharmacy and they don’t open until 9:00 AM and it is 15 minutes in the opposite direction of the airport. So we decided to go ahead and leave the house and head to the pharmacy. We arrived there about 9:05 AM (Leadfoot Bob) and fortunately they had the patch and it gave us a moment to pick up a couple of last minute items.
Off to the Airport, the route we took was all interstate highway from the Giant Pharmacy and with my heavy foot, I made up all but 5 minutes of the time and today there was hardly anyone at the airport. Just last week I had a similar flight from BWI to Houston and spent an hour waiting in the security line to get through to the protected side and head to my gate. This allowed my bride and me to stop and smell the roses in a coffee shop on the unsecured side of the security. We had a nice time talking over a cup of coffee. I think we both silently agreed that we should take more time for these types of moments. As she said, she had watched a segment on television about how to affair proof your marriage and that it asserted that most couples don’t talk but 12 minutes a day and that we should talk more and exclude the topics of money and kids. So we tried to practice it and I know the topics that were said we should avoid came up a couple of times. We’ll just have to work on that some more and I look forward to those opportunities.
It was time to head to the security screening area and we separated. It was an awkward moment for both of us. Usually it is me the runs off to some other part of the world and we both had a hard time remembering when the last time she left me to fly somewhere. We concluded that it was when she had to fly to Virginia from Texas with our youngest daughter who was sick, during our move from San Diego to Virginia, and I had to drive my oldest daughter and me the remaining portion of the trip. Wow, that was 13 years ago. I watched my bride go through security and waved at her across the abyss one last time. I headed back to the garage and then headed home. We stayed in touch by the magic of text messages and I knew that she had made the trip to Houston and was on the follow-on flight to Merida Mexico.
I was not “Home Alone,” my youngest daughter rode the bus home from school and found me busily working on my presentation. We enjoyed each other’s company and had our dinner together. I headed to bed around 9:30 PM after having a very long day.
Friday came swiftly and 5:30 AM was a rude awakening since I had to be at work extra early due to divers going into one of our tanks at 7:00 AM. I got out of my shower and was dressed when I got my daughter up. She woke without a fuss and I headed down to the kitchen to assemble her lunch. Ah, peanut butter and banana sandwich, pretzels, apple sauce, rice crispy treat and a soda. She was set and by the time I put it into her backpack she was out of the shower. I wished her a good day and was off to work.
After work was over, I swung by the Block Buster Video store to pick up the movie “Pink Panther” starring Steve Martin in preparation for are trip to the movies on Saturday (today) to watch the sequel “Pink Panther 2.” Unfortunately I could not stay awake to watch the video we had rented so we will finish it this morning before we go see the next one.

Dinner and Dancing

Things are really looking up. My wife and I went out with another couple last Friday night. We ate dinner at the Brewer's Alley and then decided to go bar hoping. However, we never made it past the first bar. We spent the evening at Bushwallers. At 10 PM a band started playing and somewhere in there both couples were on the floor dancing amoungst the college students.

Breaking up is hard to do!

Well the week is over and Saturday is here. At night, we have enjoyed the AIM video conferences with our daughter in Merida Mexico and watching some of our favorite shows; House, 24, Greys Anatomy, CSI, and Numbers.


Yesterday Louie (our small Bichon) was take to the groomers in White Marsch and looks so much better. He is trying right now to find a way into my lap as I am typing this.

Also yesterday my youngest daughter was sad since her friend broke up with her. It hurt my heart to see her this way. I let her know that we understand that this hurts since we had dated others and had break ups many times before my wife and I found eachother. I said there wikk be more ups and downs before she finds the right guy God has intended for her and that these experiences will make the time with the right guy that much better. Still, I am sad and hurrt for her.

Well another week down and January is almost over. Time flies faster as you get older.

44th President

Well, it was a mad dash yesterday from getting of a business call at 11:30 to run over to the Rally Point on base to eat lunch and watch the inaugruation. Although I didn't vote for President Obama, I felt it was a major historical event that will probably be the bigest in my lifetime.

I pray for his safety and leadership. I enjoyed the entire TV coverage and look forward to the changes in US attitudes towards other races (from all sides). 20 years in the Navy so I have a shelter life regarding racism since it wasn't tolerated.

May God watch over you and your family Mr. President!

Saturday

Well, it was 5 degrees yesterday when I got up at 8 AM. The heat never seemed to shut off. As the day passed we experienced a warming trend to the low 20's. It was 27 degrees this morning.

Yesterday was filled with a full recovery of the laptop I am using right now. I started with making sure I had all the personal files copied to the external hard drive and then went for the jugular. A complete reimaging of the hard drive back to the factory settings. Then reloading Norton, the printer and AIM. Now the computer seems to be working as it should. Prevoiusly we would constantly get errors that Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer and several others failed and required restarting. I am glad to be past that.

It is Sunday morning and we are off to church.

Amazing Facilities

Today at work we had the opportunity to tour the new NIAID IRF and NBACC Facilities at Fort Detrick. The hosts were very gracious and provided an awesome tour. We saw the new high tech labs that will support critial research for our nation.

The purpose of the visit was to provide us with an understanding of the significance of what our facility supplies in support of these facilites. It was a good day.

Sunday Lunch

On Sunday we attended chuch at the 10:30 Service, followed by a meeting for the youth and their parents about summer missions trips. Afterwards, we went to Foster's Grille
in Urbana at the at Turning Point Plaza, 8925 Fingerboard Road, Urbana, MD 21704
240-699-0194

The food was okay, we each ordered something different. For those who are new, when you order you get a drink and fries with that. So when you order a basket of fries in addition to your meal, you have too many fries. The Strawberry Milkshake was very thick, which I like, but wasn't very strawberry in flavor.

So I would go back for a similar meal, but if I had the time I would drive further into Frederick for a better meal.

Saturday Night's Alright

Yesterday afternoon brought Raven's Football. It was a tense game and fun to watch. Watching with friends over was enjoyable. Football also brings food. We had chips and the taco bean dip, melba toast and a spread to put on it provided by Nancy that was excellent, oh and don't forget the hot wings. They were okay, but I think they have been in the freezer a little long.

The the game...13 to 10 Ravens over the Titans. It was a great game. We had a blazing fire in the fireplace and plenty of excitement. What a great game.

Change in Dental Plan

Happiness is measured in so many ways. One thing that can contribute to your happiness is having a Great Dentist. The Dentist is a necessary evil and having a great one makes the trip a lot more bearable. As I mentioned in my eearlier blog about finding a Dentist, make sure your dentist is in the plan you have. Dr. Tate wasn't in the plan so, last year we selected another Dentist Office in Frederick. It took us three months to get set up with our initial visit and then two weeks before the visit the Dentist's Office called and cancelled over the answering machine and asked us to call the office and reschedule.

So, when the time came to make our medical election coverages came, I got out of the HMO and into the PPO. It costs us a little more a month, but here it is January 10th and both my wife and daughter have had there initial visit and my wife a follow-up. My wife loathes Dentist's Offices and going to the Dentists and the experience has been great for her. I look forward to my visit on Tuesday. Wait did I say Tuesday, I called last week to reschedule my Wednesday initial visit and they got me in Tuesday.

There is a lot to say about this office. If you don't have a Dentist you should call Dr. Tate's Office.

First week back after the Holidays

I have to say that it was a great two weeks off at Christmas. What made it even better was leaving the plant in great hands and being able to return and get caught back up within two days.

One day this week, the Frederick County Public Schools had a two hour delay. Unfortunately for my daughter we didn't get the message until we got to school. She was a good sport about it and I took her home for her mom to take her later.

Yesterday, I was able to leave work on-time. Again, this is due to the great people at the plant. I got home and shortly after dinner didn't feel well. I headed to bed at my ususal time, 10:00 PM and once prepared to hit the hay, felt like I was going to be sick. Well, I was, had it coming out both ends. Trash can in one hand and sitting on the toilet. My wife came up around 11:00 PM and saw I wasn't doing well. This is where I passed out on the toilet in between episodes.

I haven't been sick like that since I was in college and that was for a different reason. So I stayed home from work today since the remaining night I didn't sleep well and I was afraid I might give it to somebody.

I am feeling much better and even had lunch. I thank God that this didn't happen at work...passing out on the toilet would have been very imbarressing.

Go Ravens beat Titians. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow if you had any doubts.

New Years....

Well, I had the past two weeks off and have to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. The time off came to an end on January 4th when we took my family drove to the airport to send our oldest off to Mexico. She is studying abroad for this semester and won't return until late May.

My wife, youngest daughter and I are already planning a trip to visit. You should check out her blog. Merida Mexico Blog.