Monday's Delayed Random Rambling

I wrote the first draft of this post Monday May 4th, and today, Wednesday, I am spending my lunch break finishing it up!

And I never finished it! It is now Friday at Lunch and I am finally done!
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Yes, it's another one of those posts, friends, family, and others, when I have not posted in a bit and then lump a bunch of things together that can span hours, days, or weeks.

I had the kids from Wednesday though Sunday as the X was out of town in Philadelphia (I still can't believe she did not go to Pat's King of Steaks here for an authentic Philly cheese steak at Pat's where it all started!

It was an enjoyable 5 days with the kids and all extra time as this was supposed to be the X's weekend.

Friday, when I got home from work, the Digital Entertainment PC had arrived, I resisted temptation long enough to ride the exercise bike for 30 minutes, then I unpacked it.

I removed my PC tower case from the entertainment system and placed that on the dinning room table and cracked the new PC so I could install the 1 GB module bringing the RAM up to 1.5 GB. Being the geek I am, I yelled for the kids so all could peer into the case and see what it looked like. I then installed it into the entertainment system, powered it up, and synced the RF keyboard.

The system came up, I entered the WEP key for my wireless network, and I was on the Internet. Total time from opening box to functional system, just under 2 hours. Considering this is a factory refurbished model I could not be more pleased! Saving over $200 from a new unit, this was in perfect shape, cosmetically not a scratch or ding or any imperfection on it!

As the kids were around and wanted to watch some TV, and as it was SciFi Friday, I stopped working on the system, though I did spend a coupe of hours from 11PM-1PM tweaking things. It will be days until it is the way I want it to be.

Saturday:
I arose around 8AM, played around on the new PC for a bit, and started my exercise bike ride. Near the end Mom (X's Mom) called to see when I would be down to work on her PC, told her after I finished exercising and got kids up. I finished, cooled off, and let Scott and Danielle know, who were both up now, that we would be leaving in 30 minutes or so. I had both kids strip their beds and take them downstairs, and left their sheets soaking int he wash. I got cleaned up and we headed out with Scott driving.

This was to be Scott's longest solo drive with me yet as it is a good 20-25 minute ride to Mom and Dad's. He drove most excellently and I commented on this fact to him in front of his grandparents.

While I started work on the computer the kids headed off to the school yard across the street where they have plenty of things to play on including this huge wooden fort like structure.

They were back in about an hour and Mom made them some sandwiches and we chatted a bit. I was due for some carbs so I had a few handfuls of trail mix. It took about two hours to fix the PC which evidently did not like a different version of McAfee security software being installed over an expired version with more features than the new version. This screwed up the McAfee software and trashed the Netzero Internet connection software and I ended up having to take both pieces off and reinstalling them to get it all working again.

This done, we headed out with Scott once again behind the wheel of my Mustang. Instead of heading directly to my house we stopped first at Family Video to rent some videos (they had no games the kids wanted) and Scott wanted French Fries as his treat since he had opted out of the apple pie that grandma offered. I got him a large size, made him give a few to his sister and I enjoyed a few myself.

Heading out of the parking lot, Scott, whose weak area is parking lots, drove across the left lane of the entrance narrowly cutting of someone even though I had reminded him of the fact to stay to the right. We proceeded back to my house stopping at Forest Hills Foods to pick up some Delmonico steaks, corn on the cob, and salad greens for dinner. Scott also almost hit a vehicle in this parking lot too. Other than that, for the log distance driving he drove incredibly well.

I spent the next few hours deep-cleaning my basement office which has not been used in almost a year and swapping the various loads of wash to take care of Scott and Danielle's beds (six in all with the pillows!). Back to the issue of my home office, picture a shot of the inside of the Munsters house as to how much dust and cobwebs were in there. In addition to that the room has been used as a dumping ground for anything we did not have a place to put, so, all of that had to be moved before cleaning could begin. I vacuumed everything including all shelves, walls, floors, book tops, etc and my desk which took almost an hour to clear off.

The room, now clean within an inch of it's life, the computer could be connected which it soon was and I made it sure it worked. I then proceeded to relax and watch some TV with assorted kids and then it was time to make dinner.

The Delmonico steals were seasoned yet again with that Montreal Steak seasoning (except Scott who likes his plain) and on Chris's and mine i added some Cajun seasoning and Red Monkey BBQ Spice powder. The steaks were grilled to perfection and served with a nice salad and corn on the cob.

Chris was heading out with friends around 8PM and Scott, Danielle, and I watched Flushed Away which turned out to be most amusing.

Sunday:
Scott and Danielle were up before me at 8:30, and I spent a bit of time starting to organize some of the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. I called down to them quietly as not to wake their brother asking if anyone wanted to accompany me to Supercuts where I was going to get a haircut. After that I would take them to the McDonald's for breakfast. Scott declined, but Danielle accepted and we headed out, though I found out Supercuts did not open until 10AM on Sunday. We headed off to McDonald's where I had a single breakfast burrito and Danielle her usual Bacon, Egg, and Cheese bagel and a Cinnamon roll afterwards. On the trip back we stopped at Forest Hills Foods for a couple of items I needed. I dropped her at my house and walked into Supercuts right as they were changing the sign from closed to open. Good thing too because right on my heels walked another gentleman, and as I was sitting in the chair getting my hair cut, the stylist was interrupted by call-ins and walk-ins wanting hair cuts. By the time I was paying the wait was up to two hours, so, I was happy I got there when I did.

I went back home and Danielle and I spent several hours working in the kitchen cleaning out and organizing drawers and cabinets and removing old food from the fridge. Scott's friend Taylor showed up and around 1PM we all watched Eragon. Taylor left around 4PM. I enjoyed this though Chris left during the first 20 minutes and Scott remarked it could have been a bit shorter. After Taylor was picked up around 4 I took the kids to Taco Bell stopping at CompUSA which is in it's last week of being open. Not much there but I did pick up the King Kong PC game for $9 and change.

I watched the kids eat Taco Bell, then we headed back to my house after yet another stop over at Forest Hills Foods. The kids sat in the car while I ran in to grab what i needed. I began making my dinner (Turkey bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato rollups on that flat bread i have been using.

The X arrived and we watched Supernatural while I ate. Chris and Scott headed back to her house. She and Danielle left around 7PM, I watched some TV, did a half workout on the exercise bike, showered, and hit the hay. I have, for the past week or so been having a lot of trouble falling asleep. i was please to fall asleep quite quickly last night.