captbrando’s log

Thank goodness! St. Louis won’t be so bad tomorrow after all. Or maybe it will be full of rioters. Anyway… no game 5 to worry about!

Chris has been feeling a little bit of movement and last night I got to feel it too! Very faint… He was kicking or hitting the wall of her belly saying he needed some beer or somesuch.

Anyway… big day

Phew. From driving out to Possum Kindom lake to take shots of Joel & Leslie to replacing our garage door opener, its been one hell of a weekend. In the midst of all of that, I also have been setting up the new computer and trying to consolidate hardware. I’ve got most everything done, but I need some mounting brackets for my internal switch. If I can do this, I can mount it in the rack and quickly clean this mess up.

The garage door was certainly fun to do. It actually was not TOO terrible for a first time guy like me. It only took me about 1.5-2 hours total (football is REALLY important folks. Though not important enough to compete with game 2 of the world series…. lame). In town this week until Thursday when I get to fly to St. Louis on the day of Game 5. What a horrible bad mean thing to do to myself.

So anyway……

Congrats to Kristina who is now married!

Oh… Chris has a new food avoision (aversion? I say avoision!)… pork. Manifested itself during dinner tonight, but thankfully she was able to find refuge in her pickle jar by way of dessert. Man she is weird.

Okie dokie… out for the moment.

Its a little chilly up here in Minnesota while you guys are steaming down in Tejas. Though even for Minnesota, it is rather balmy. Today, 60 as a high I think. Still long sleeve weather regardless.

Well, I think I have finally decided on an iPod over the Dell MP3 player and others. iTunes is pretty damn sexy and having it integrate so tightly with the iPod (marketing, but whatever). Anyway…

Meetings are getting ready to start so I’ll run away now.

Well, this weekend was pretty damn good following a less than great week. Saturday consisted of haircuts, and playing with our cute niece. Then I left Chris at her sister’s house and went and saw Brent, Angie and Vincent. Took about 140ish pictures of Vince for them and hopefully a few turn out for them. We had some tasty dinner, enjoyed each other’s company and then I headed home.

I had to leave a key out for James as he crashed at my place after a friend’s bachelor party. We enjoyed breakfast at Mimi’s Cafe and met Amy there. Then ran by Market Street where we picked up some shrimp and caught a glimpse of a wind-blown skirt. Came home and watched a pretty good week of football. Started out REALLY bad, and I lost the games I was wanting wins out of the most but it ended up working out not too badly and I did not get too far behind in the overall standings.

Tonight I’m preparing to teach class tomorrow. All about Policy. Fun stuff.

Off to St. Paul on Tuesday and boy is it cold up there! Will be back later this week and hopefully I can stay on the warmer side of the Mason-Dixon until Mayish of next year

Early voting starts tomorrow! I’m going to get it over with and forget about it. I’m getting really tired of the bullshit, and hopefully things will be better on the other side of Nov 2. Well, 2 days after I’ll be getting another year down the road of life, but whatever.

Enjoy your week!

BOTH sides have misinformation and its getting rediculous. And Kerry quoting media outlets is a little dangerous when they are clearly anti-Bush.

I’ll be exceedingly happy when this election is fargin over.

Hey folks, we DID try sailing this weekend, and boy what a weather filled mess it was. I think it rained the entire time we were out on the lake, and we cut our time short due to it. Had very decent winds tho. High enough to make me reef the genoa and eventually take it down. We were easily doing 6 knots on main alone.

I also came to the conclusion that sailing is only fun in the rain if you are on the ocean with 6-10 foot swells. mmmmThatSoundsGood….

Oh, I have a new toy now. I finally got my Kenwood D7A in and had to re-solder some cabling but I was able to make a connection between it and my GPS (OLD Garmin 12XL. Still works tho!). What does that do? Well, it allows me to have some APRS fun! On the right there you will see a link that says “Find me!” Clicking on it will take you to a site that gathers the data transmitted and will show you where I am! This of course requires me to turn ON the GPS, but since it is a new/fun toy for me, I’ll probably turn it on a few times It also sometimes seems to have some intermittent failures (this one may be cable related). It currently shows me in the incorrect place. Maybe I’ll go fire it up shortly and see if I can get it to correct itself.

Anyway….. This week is going to be very busy with both social engagements as well as family and work fun. I’ll keep you folks posted! Also, if I have not mentioned yet, there are some new pictures in the Gallery. Have fun!

What a beautiful day today was. With fall seeming to FINALLY arrive (damn the 22nd of September), the windows of the house have been open. Chris being home (and a little stir crazy) decided to take down all the summer decorations and put up fall. Its quite decorative here in the house with the oranges, reds, yellows and browns. I was hoping someone would view the house this weekend because I think these decorations present the house better than the summer ones do.

Another great day of football coming your way! Tomorrow should be interesting considering nearly every team suffered major losses last week due to injuries. James…. GOOD LUCK!

We saw Garden State today, the Zack Braff production. Interesting film for sure! There is quite a bit of symbolism that I don’t believe I fully grasp at this point, but it may be one of those movies you need to see more than once. It had some really cool music in it for sure.

I’m off to St. Paul next week so I hope you all keep Texas nice and cool for me when I get back

I just finished watching the debate (yeh, everyone has an opinion) and I really drew some interesting things from it. Sounds like Kerry lectured while Bush talked to the people. Also sounds like Kerry just told the swing voters what they wanted to hear, without telling them how he was going to raise the crap out of their taxes to pay for it. If we do everything Kerry suggests, this country will go bankrupt.

Oh and so he wants more global support on actions that the US does, uhh, except for North Korea. That one he can screw up on his own.

I hope people watched this. Scared of a draft? Don’t vote for Kerry! He wants to activate more divisions! Where is he going to get those folks? Even he admitted we are extended as it is!

Anyway… I hope everyone has a great weekend coming up! We’re hoping to relax a bit and help Chris recover even more.

Ok, I know that I got one. Well needed. Chris is still sleeping as well and will probably stay in bed until she hits the 12 hour mark (at least). I know that a full night sleep can do wonders for making you feel better.

My vanity call came through. I’m now NQ5I. Will keep this one until the one I REALLY want comes available. Gotta wait for the FCC to allow me to take it tho. I’ll be watching…

Thankfully, I’ve been able to work all week so I’m not really behind at all. I’ve got work to do that is sitting on my desk, but its not piled up super high. Chris really did pick a good week to have this happen. I’m going out of town next week so luckily I was to be in town, and not working on-site at any projects. Would have been hell to get more resources to cover since we still are looking for consultants.

Anyway…. gotta go attack that work!

Finally got her pain under control, and she is home safe and sound!

Well, it has been a long day. I’m off to bed myself. Chris is doing better, slowly but surely. Don’t know when she is coming home yet, it really depends on how well she progresses in her pain management.

Thank you all for thinking of her and we are all looking forward to her return home.

Nickle to quarter sized kidney stone all busted up and she is on her way to feeling better. Relief is being spread around for everyone!

Welp, Chris decided that instead of enjoying an easy pregnancy that she would rather try to pass a kidney stone instead. I’m up here at the hospital (have been most of the weekend) and we are waiting for her pre-op stuff to start. She’s finally comfortable again and the baby is doing great. The kiddo is pretty much just along for the ride.

More as we go along…

Hey folks, shameless plug here. I found this company called Panavise that makes all different kinds of mounting devices for cell phones, cameras, basically anything you wanna stick on a mount in a car. They have these InDash mounts which make use of factory hardware on your auto, and create a bracket for mounting your cell phone or other stuff on. So no holes to be drilled, no mess to cover up. Took me about 10 minutes to complete the installation, and when I get rid of the car it will only take me another 10 to remove it. I’, thinking about buying one for Chris’s car as well.

Anyway…. hope you all are well!

So Ivan sure is taking his sweet old time figuring out what to do. And now Jeanne is starting to get organized as well. Forecasts were predicting a very active hurricane season this year, but I don’t think everyone thought it would keep hitting the same areas time and time again.

Work has been VERY busy this week. What a crazy time. I’m off to Lee’s Summit next week, then here, then back up to St. Paul. Lots-o-fun. Can you believe September is 1/2 way over?

I REALLY want fall to show up. I thought we had it in the making, but the temp is back up to the 90s with lots of humidity again. Can’t even open up the windows at night/morning anymore without it seeming to make the whole house stuffy. I hear a cold front is coming through next week, so maybe I’ll get a little break when I return from my trip. I wonder if Ivan will affect my travel next week at all?

Went to GrapeFest today! All week we have been thinking that it would be very unseasonably cool out there and boy were we wrong. That’s one of the funny things about McKinney. We get much different weather sometimes from the rest of the metroplex. It was a full 6 degrees cooler up here. Bummer, cause we are hopefully going to be moving closer to Grapevine and all that heat.

Anyway, we had a GREAT time. It has only take us about 5 years to perfect the process, but I was able to taste a majority of the wines, not get drunk, and still remember the good from the bad! Really good day out there overall. The sun and heat really tired me out. Got home and all I wanted to do was sleep (after showering of course)! I thought summer was over!

So on the way home, we decided to rent a movie. I really wanted to grab Jersey Girl, but alas, out. We instead found another movie that we wanted to see but never did in the theater, The Passion of The Christ. Wow is all I can say about that movie. It’s all still sinking in. I also just finished reading The DiVinci Code, so it has been a fairly religion centric weekend. More reading is definitely required!

Ivan has powered up again, and I’m hoping that those in danger’s way will be able to weather the storm. I’m listening in on various ham nets via Echolink, and this weekend is going to get even more busy. Those that want to follow along on the Voice over IP net can do so by clicking here. This is of course listen only, and is simply an audio stream from other IRLP stations that connect into the net. Obviously, as power goes out, less stations will contact. Hopefully those with HF privileges will relay reports.

Three years ago today, a terrorist group brought war on our own soil. We will never forget! Think of all of the victims and heros from that history altering day while you are enjoying your freedom.

Getting so sleepy, I think I’m headed off to bed. Everyone enjoy their weekend and keep folks in the path of Ivan in your thoughts.

Austin was pretty fun for the day! Very nice weather, and the traffic was decent. I was in the Town Lake area (around the 360 area). Gorgeous.

Met James for lunch, and argued with our corporate travel agent to get me home early. I really dislike people who will not admit a mistake.

Guster and NFL tomorrow!!!!

Busier than all get out, but thats to be expected after a 3-day weekend. I’m off to Austin tomorrow and judging by the workload presented to me, I don’t think I’ll be staying. James and I will grab us a beverage of some sort and I’ll head back to Dallas.

At any rate, I need to do some prep work so I’ll catch you all on the flip side!

Was pretty nice this weekend! For Texas anyway. Today was absolutely gorgeous. We did get a cold front last night and it certainly showed.

I enjoyed a long Labor Day tradition of many folks today with the cookout. Granted, it was only for the wife, baby in the oven and my parents, but it was still quite good. I think I’ve eaten enough to skip a meal a day for the rest of the week.

Work this week should be fun. I’m putting out fires locally and running down to Austin mid-week. I’ll be hooking up with James at some point. The question is for how long? If my client work only takes a few hours, I’ll cancel my hotel and just hop on a flight back. If not, I’ll stay the night and head back the next morning. Its kind of a crapshoot.

Anyone noticed Mary Tyler Moore on those Juvenile Diabetes commercials? She is almost 70 but with the amount of makeup on her you would never know. I love watching those old MTM Show or Dick Van Dyke reruns that come on Nick At Nite. She was a hottie in her day! I know she is fighting both diabetes and Parkinsons, she just looked quite strange in that commercial. It almost looks as if it was filmed 15 years ago.

Anyway, sorry for the strange segway. I hope everyone enjoys their shortened week!