Saturday

No snow at least to speak of Saturday morning when I awoke. The temp was around 20 and it did not hit 30 all day.

Not having the kids I thought it was going to be a quiet weekend, the X called around 9:30 AM, evidently Danielle who was using her laptop had picked up a Trojan. So, long story short I spent about 5 hours of my Saturday cleaning her laptop. She stayed for the onset of the cleaning and we watched last weeks episode of Knight Rider. Both of us agreed the new series is a 'young and trendy' version, and that to us, the car is the best part of the show. I even went to state that the car was even better when the female star was parading around in black lingerie one week! After the show was over I sent her on her way as she had things to do with Danielle and there was nothing she could do to help this.

On the issue of the laptop I had cautioned the X multiple times to setup a non-administrator account for the kids to use because 99% of most Trojans need admin access to install themselves onto the system.

So, at least she agreed to this, and via an e-mail this morning I know she has done it.

Tails and I spent the majority of the rest of the day relaxing and watching TV.

Food, Kids, Computers, TV, and Weather

Not much happened over the weekend; the weather was nice, we ended up grilling some Steaks on Sunday; Saturday I made three cheese and garlic herb tortellini with garlic and mushrooms for dinner; the X was working a show over the weekend so I invited her to stop in on her way home for a bowl of food. And good news, she's finally on the mend and seems to be mostly recovered. There was enough leftover so I gave her a bowl to take with her. She and I watched an episode of Dirt while we ate. After growing up with Courteney Cox Arquette in Friends and Family Ties it is so shocking to see her play the evil, scheming, and seemingly heartless lead character on Dirt!

Chris goes for his drug test today and then his first day of work is Monday. This is so exciting! If he does well and likes this company he could be working there after he graduates in three years. He'll be working 8AM to 5PM which means he'll need to get up fairly early since he needs to allow time to get to work. I hope he gets into the routine OK; he's used to staying up all night, going to bed in the AM, and getting up sometime in the mid-afternoon. Even when on campus he'll be up most of the night and grab a couple of hours sleep before classes; I don't know how he does it; ah to be young again!

Danielle appears to be making a bit of an effort to be on the Internet less and spend some more time with me watching TV and such; she still spends way too much time doing non-creative things. She barely uses the tablet and pen anymore that I got for her last birthday, but Scott uses it quite a bit so its not like it is going to waste. Danielle is still taking a lot of pictures, mostly of Tails and has captured some good shots.

Scott, sadly, is moving into his second week having insomnia again; he is worried about stuff that may happen over a year from now when friends go off to college and his loses touch with them. Hopefully he will sort this out and move on and do what I've been telling him, which is not worry about things that will never happen. I've also mentioned that good friends will keep in touch! Scott is such a good, sensitive, and talented young man; I hope he overcomes this as he gets older.

Tails is as cute as ever and has adopted my bed as a resting place when she wishes to be left alone; now that the weather is warming up I leave my room and the windows open and this allows a good flow through ventilation with the rear sliders opened.

Its been in the 70's since Sunday and will be through the end of the week though temps are expected to drop into 60's and possibly 50's over the weekend, though the weekend is forecast to be dry. We shall see.

I ordered AT&T's U-Verse fiber optic service last Friday. For a few dollars less that what I am paying now, I will have phone, TV, and Internet delivered over a fiber optic link, with more speed, channels, features, and even HD programming! If I add in the cost of what Dish Network would charge me add another savings of $20 each month!

Such geeky features too! Check out the U-Verse site here. I can't wait they come on the 30th! Its an all day install (6 to 8 hours). I spent some time cleaning my office and the utility room where they will have to work, though my office needs additional cleaning to get it beyond the embarrassingly dirty/disorganized stage that I would not want strangers to see. Weird how that works isn't it? My kids and others I know see it and it does not bother me at all!

The new Home Theater PC is now fully setup; I had four problems that took me a couple of weeks to solve 3 of, and the fourth is an issue with Microsoft Media Center; it's a know issue and from what I see on the Internet, Microsoft says the fault is with the video drivers I am using which makes it the video card vendors issue....and of course the video card vendor says it Microsoft's fault. I have logged tech support calls and we shall see what happens. I brought the box in for the old one, once I do a couple of minor things to that I can box it and sell it. Then the last pending computer job is to build one for the X wife; back before they changed the rules at work I obtained a decent desktop Pentium 4 machine which will certainly be better that her Pentium II PC she's been using for the past 8 years. I will have to load it and install it at her place.

How much TV can you watch in one day......

Saturday morning the pain in may back was quite intense making anything but finding a comfortable position and sitting next to impossible. I did several sets of the exercises the chiropractor had given me in the past for my back, and spent the day watching TV, playing Devil May Cry, and eating cold leftover pasta for food. Tails stayed with me all day either on my chest or on my legs sleeping or watching TV.

The kids and the X popped in on their way to the mall as the kids had left their wallets here (though Danielle could not find hers theorizing that it must have been in the bag she took over to her mom's Friday) and then they headed out back to retrieve that wallet and head to the mall.

What made the whole day bearable was a call from the X around 7 or so; Scott wanted to know if he could come over and hang out for awhile figuring with my back sore i might be lonely. He arrived and we watched a couple of hours of Simpson's episodes off the Season 5 DVDs including the infamous Cape Feare and Homer Goes to College episodes.

After Scott left I spent until 2AM alternating between rounds of Devil May Care and TV, I did a Angel Marathon over the weekend as I had about 8 episodes recorded and I watched the last before retiring.

Friday and the Crock Pot O'Meatballs

Friday as they were going to be fixing my desktop PC I left at lunch time so after lunch I could work from home. I stopped at Forest Hills Foods on the way and picked up ingredients for homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs. I broke a record and within 20 minutes of arriving home I had meatballs made and the sauce in the crock pot and got to work until the kids came home a bit after 3 PM.

Around 3PM, as Emma was due over since she and Scott were going to be taking in a movie later, and since this was the last day of my week with the kids the upstairs of the house had, shall we say, lost all it's Feng shui, I decided to spend a bit of time cleaning up and folding three loads of that had been living on the two seat sofa since the day before.

The smell of homemade pasta was in the air and I asked Scott if he wanted to have dinner hear or go out as his mom had mentioned to him the night before. He checked in with Emma and they decided to eat here. The X arrived around 5:30 with a loaf of garlic bread and once Emma arrived (preceded by a phone call from her mom to gt concurrence of the kids evening plans) I set two types of Dreamfield pasta, spaghetti and Rotini, to boil, and when it was ready we ate.

Everyone agreed that the crock pot sauce and meatballs were a success, so, I will be posting that recipe shortly! There was also Italian sausage and pepperoni in the pot as well.

Everyone headed off around 7:30 or so and Tails and I settled in for a quiet evening of TV.

Friday and Wing Heaven

Friday my son Chris and I got together; I picked him up at 2 PM and we braved the holiday crowds and went to the Woodland Mall for Chicken wings at Wing Heaven. This place has some excellent wings and they do a 12 piece sampler where you can choose 4 different sauces. So far I have sampled the following of their 17 sauces:

SCORCHING
HOT BBQ
SWEET RASPBERRY PEPPER
SPICY GARLIC
MANGO HABANERO
CARIBBEAN JERK

After finishing our lunch/dinner we hung at my house watching TV together alternating with us each playing games on our computers. Around 11PM I took him home, this was the longest time we have spent together in one day and I greatly enjoyed having his company.

Scott's Birthday

Thursday was Scott's 16th Birthday. I know from talking to the X that his girlfriend Emma surprised him at the house that morning so she could go to school with him; wish I could have seen his face when that happened!

I left work early to pick him up at school. When he got in the car I surprised him with a pack of Peanut M&M's, his favorite candy snack and wished him a happy birthday. I could tell he was pleased by my small but thoughtful gesture, and we headed over to pickup his sister from her school which is int he same complex as the high school. Scott informed me that he was wearing the shirt and scarf Emma had gotten him, and they were both quite nice. I teased him a bit and asked if he complained to her about getting clothes as a present, as he has all through the years, as most kids do, when this happens.

We headed home, Scott getting first dibs on Tails as it was his birthday! After greeting her we all did a quick cleanup of the messy house common areas and our bedrooms, and then spent some time watching TV including the new Shrek the Halls Christmas special which we all thought was excellent!

A bit before 6 PM we headed out, stopping at the 5/3 drive through so I could stoke up the wallet with some Yankee Dollars, and we arrived at Outback where Scott wanted to have dinner. having just witnessed his brother Chris being embarrassed to no end at Texas Road house on his birthday, he opted for outback. At Texas Roadhouse, they can really embarrass the heck out of you on your birthday like no place I have ever seen.

Mom and Dad were already there and had a table setup and the X along with Chris and Emma arrived. We had an excellent dinner and at the end Scott was presented, quietly, a small bowl of ice cream and topping with a candle in it. Around this time the X's cell phone rang, it was Uncle Kevin (and family) who called t wish Scott a happy birthday. once this had wound down a bit the bill was settled and I headed out with Scott, Emma, and Danielle as Emma had to get back home. The X and Chris headed off to get Scott Chris' birthday present.

Arriving at Emma's house I dropped her off and we headed back to the X's house where I watched Scott open his last present. This was a Legends of Zelda jacket and shirt which Scott had been wanting. He was most pleased with it. After he disappeared to play his Wii I got ready to leave, and, after recalling them, hugging the kids I then headed home. Thus ends post 3 of 3 and below is a picture taken of Scott with Tails. Needless t say, though obviously I am saying it, you can click on this to open a new window with a much larger version.

I know from IM'ing with the X this morning that Scott and his friends had a good elebration having Pizza, snacks, and Cake and were up until at least 1AM. As of noon, they were still sleeping. I was pleased to hear this!

Things that go bump in the night......

Last night Chris and I had dinner and he came over to spend the night. It was, I think, a mixture of wanting to spend time with his Dad and not wanting to be at his Mom's house where Scott was having a birthday gathering and sleepover. I am happy to spend time with him no matter what the reason though!

I took Chris to Pizza Hut where we enjoyed some good conversions about school, games, computers, work, and family issues. Since Pizza Hut frowns on people coming in, sitting down, and just chatting we also had some pizza and their new chicken wings made with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. They were very good and actually had a bit of a bite to them, something never realized in eating Pizza Hut chicken wings since the kids were very, very young. Paying the bill, we departed and stopped at Forest Hills Foods on the way home to pickup beverages and snacks.

Surprisingly Chris watched much TV with me including four episodes of Scrubs, one Futurama, an Iron Chef America, and finally Stargate Atlantis for which I made us some hot chocolate. He also spent a bit of time on the computer. Around 11:30 PM his Mom called as some of his friends were not able to reach him on his cell. He headed out with his friends who picked him up and I reminded him to be quiet when he came in.

I stayed up until 2AM, spending time with Tails, the TV, and the computer. Around 5:20 AM I was jolted awake with the usual sound of the metal storm door slamming shut and then the inside door shutting. I got back to sleep only to awaken and hear more bumping and thumping around 6AM.

At 7:15 or so I heard "Thump! Thump!! Thump!!! Thump!!!!" coming from the door in my bathroom. I opened it and in came Tails...sigh....Chris must have let her out of her room for whatever reason. She was playful but I managed to calm her down and I spent a couple of hours fitfully napping (I was tired!) with Tails first under the covers with me (her purring resonating through the bed and covers like a small earth quake!) and then on top of the covers. She and I got up around 7:30AM. After feeding her I began blogging. This is post 2 of 3 I wanted to get done this AM. Work has had me so rattled I have not felt like posting regularly in several weeks.

I can see why his mom complains of his nocturnal habits while he is living at her house; as I did not have to rise for work this AM it was no big deal, though I certainly would have enjoyed a better nights sleep. On work nights this would not be acceptable!

It is now just after 11 AM and the thing that went bump in the night sleeps below me now.... The fun side of me feels like making things go bump in the day, because, undisturbed it will slumber late until the day until hunger gnaws at its belly driving it back to consciousness.....then.....it will rise, seeking sustenance! Probably on my dime no less!! The horror! The HORROR!!!

Friday after work, later that same day..........

Last evening Scott's friend Ben accompanied him home from school, I was well prepared and had already ridden the exercise bike. Scott, Ben, Danielle, and I headed over to their Mom's house so they could get what they needed for the weekend. Danielle cleaned up Speedy's travel cage, Scott got his flash files and we came back here.

Christopher then loaded up the empty propane cylinder into the car and he and headed headed over to forest hills where I cashed in some cans, and got the makings for dinner and some other items, plus a new tank of propane. We came back here, I measured my blood sugar (getting better on sticking with myself, did all my readings yesterday on the first poke, unlike the other days where I sent through 4 test strips (at a buck a piece!) before I had enough blood for the meter!) and I got started on dinner. For the kids I made cheese burgers on my healthy potato bread (they do not realize it has higher fiber and lower calories!), and Scott had hot dogs on the same bread. I made extra flat burgers (out of leaner beef, though the ground sirloin the kids had was certainly a good cut!) and on mine which I had on these excellent flat bread tortillas, I had sliced tomato and lettuce. It was a fun time as it took me over 20 minutes before the grill would light. I finally got all three burners going, and have no idea what the problem was, I checked the tubes and such, tapped the regular valve a few times, and finally, one by one I got the burners going.

Ben was here until about 8 PM, Chris and I watched Stargate SG-1 and part of Stargate Atlantis before he headed out with friends, Scott and Danielle and I watched some TV together, they were in bed by 11PM, I was up until midnight, making sure we had all we needed for Saturday morning.