Petit Le Mans

Finally, the time has come. I bought tickets for this race for my younger brother as a birthday gift back in July. It has been quite a wait, but last weekend we got to experience the race in all its glory. I took the day off on Friday and he played hookie from school so that we could catch all the qualifying and extra races.

Happy Birthday Courtney!

A belated annoucement to say the least, but Courtney's 7th birthday was on September 28. She had a few friends over to spend the night and they had a blast playing and just being girls. Mommy took her over to her favorite store and bought exactly what she wanted.

A brand new bed.
Ikea made. What a good kid. I spent the entire next day cutting, sanding, and assembling the bed for her. She couldn't be happier.

New Dogs

Tickles has been adopted and we temporarily had a small terrier named Colby. A quick list of our dog history.

Pat pat
Checkers
Baby Doe
Lilly
Blue
Belle
Anastasia
Tickles
Colby
Dooney and Burke

Happy Birthday Rachel

My little cousin's 2nd birthday was Friday, and her family was coming through town on their way to Florida. She has an older brother, Colin, who always loves to play with my oldest, Courtney. He wanted to make sure he saw and had a chance to play with her, so we were all over at my parents place Friday.


Courtney had a little cheer exhibition at the high school for the first football game, but she was over right after to play.


We had a little birthday party for Rachel and had a good time catching up. We really need to take a vacation and visit them up in Nashville. We had a lot of fun the last time we were up there for Colin's birthday.

Another day, Another dog

With my wife being involved in the local pet adoption so much, we have become foster parents to both cats and dogs. Last week, she was able to adopt out both the dog and kitten we were watching. This brought our animal total from 5 down to 3. This return to only our two dogs and one lazy cat was brief.


She called on her way home to see if we could foster the pure bred weimaraner the shelter had taken in. Alright, another puppy to watch no big deal. Of course, the 'puppy' was really bigger than our largest dog. I guess it can stay for a bit, as it gets along with the kids just fine.


http://www.mostlymutts.org/

Recycle much?

Having forced my family to recycle with me for months now, we finally decided to haul the stuff off. Our trash company had a slight problem, as they were out of bins to give out for recyclables, so we were forced to carry all this stuff down to the county services location. I wouldn't allow us to burn all that gas every week hauling a handful of stuff, so we had built up quite a collection of stuff. So as you can see, we barely managed to get it all in and still fit the kids in the car.

Ahh Technology

I love this Mac. It's lots of fun, and comes with all kinds of cool software. We have had fun making and editing stuff without really any trouble at all. Just last week I attempted to add a special ringtone to my phone. I looked at various websites and even checked Cingular's site to try and add one. Seeing the prices and knowing that there had to be a better, i.e. cheaper, way, I saved my search until I got home.

I hoped on the Mac and did a little digging. I found a great app for ripping audio from the internet and started there. Audio HiJack is a great program that you can use for free. It allows you to pick the program and record at will directly as the audio is played. I used it to record some of my favorite audio.

Then I was left with an odd audio file that needed to trim. I found Audacity for my audio editing needs. With a little work I was able to edit the files down and then export them to an mp3 file.

Luckily, the next step was pretty simple for my phone. I have a Motorola Slvr with iTunes and have a data cable to go with it. I simply connected my phone up to the Mac and after a little fiddling, I was browsing the files on the phone. I copied over my songs and I was set to go.

My wife's phone was a little more work, but an equally rewarding experience. I knew that her phone had bluetooth, and of course the Mac came equiped with it as well. I very quickly figured out how to connect the phone up, and within a few minutes had transfered over a couple of songs for her.

Overall the process took about an hour, but most of that was research and browsing. Since that time I have created and transfered several more songs to both phones. Now it only takes me a few moments to rip a song and send it over to the phone via bluetooth.

Just one more thing that makes me love this Mac.

Life as it happens

Wow, the time sure has flown by. Just 5 short years ago we were married. I can't believe how much has happened in that time.

Alyssa is now a little over 2, but at the time it was Courtney that was just under 2. We have moved to Atlanta, back to the burbs, out of an apartment, into a house. We have sold an old car, bought a new one, not sold my truck, but bought another car. Renovated 3 rooms in our house, painted some rooms, painted those rooms again, or even a third time. We have destroyed our backyard in hopes of making it better, planted grass, and replanted monkey grass. I graduated and started working full time. I have changed jobs, learned a few new programs, started down a Green future, and learned a completely different construction type. Jen has begun the final paces of her degree; ready to be through herself. We have met friends, lost friends, found them again, and made new ones.

So much has happened in these past 5 years, that I can only hope we can keep up. And if looking at this beginning is any indication as to my future, then I know I will be happy without end.

About Being a Dad

So, this past weekend was father's day.

And last week I got an email about being a 21st century dad. A lot of little things you don't think about were mentioned, but one really stuck, "You get a second chance at being a kid." So, for father's day we played like kids. It was a lot of fun, and contrary to popular dad belief, it didn't ruin the grass.

Let's get started

I will update when I have time to think.