LOST tomorrow - season finale

LOST tomorrow. You cannot miss this. Of course, if you have never seen LOST you can skip it though. I do not want to talk to people about it that have not invested any time in it. I will talk with my wife and the people that have actually watched more than one episode. If you are not a LOST watcher and would like to talk with me about it check out the LOST encyclopedia first.

Links for today

What will the next iPhone bring? I do not know, Steve Jobs does not talk to me personally. There are some major problems and hopefully they can be fixed. If the battery could be replaced easily and there was enterprise support I would consider an iPhone, but I still love my Curve.

Bill Gates was talking about the new version of Windows and what MS learned from Vista, this is what he said, "Based on compatibility -- we're going to do better. The way you see the user interface and security -- we're going to better. The way we help move you onto the new version, we're going to do better on that. So it's a ton of things. We have a culture that's very much about `we need to do better'. Vista has given us more opportunities…." The columnist says the last line was drowned out by laughter. "We Need To Do Better" that is a great tagline for Microsoft and Windows.

I do not use FireFox, but some people I know do. Version 3 will come out soon. I will take a look and give it a chance, but I think I am an Internet Explorer guy.

Looking for a new laptop? Read this first so you can get the info that you will need to get the right one.

Baseball is going to lose some love for this. Why can't the kids have the name of the team for their uniform and an official MLB hat to wear. Kids want to pretend they are on a pro-team. This is just disgusting. I guess a couple billion a year is not enough for these guys.

I do not like Rachel Ray, but it is a freaking scarf people, calm down!

Daddy Daughter Date

Tonight me and Chloe went to a Daddy Daughter date over at the church pavilion. It was fun. We did a bunch of relay races. During the three-legged race our tie broke and I picked Chloe up. Cool, right? Well, three steps in I slipped and we crumpled to the ground. Don't worry, I threw Chloe clear so I did not land her. Everyone is all good, except for Chloe needed a little drama first. We did a crab crawl and tightrope walk and water balloon carry. Our group won everything. After we had a donut and milk. I did not have the donut or the milk (I had water). We had a good time. I bet you want me to post a pic of my fall. Well, no one caught one or I would.

Spell Check

Diana,

Just so you know I spell-checked all the following posts for today. If there are misspelled words the spell check missed them. Thanks for reading my blog.

Love,
Matt

Great Sign

This is the greatest sign ever. This was taken in the McDonalds by the Thomas the Train activity. I really do not think of McDonalds employees as "popular". Maybe I just need to get to know more McDonalds employees.

National Treasure 2

Saturday night we watched National Treasure 2 as a family. I do not like Nic Cage, but I enjoyed National Treasure 1. I also enjoyed NT2 when we saw it in the theatre in St. George when it first came out.

This is a good movie with the same plot as the first one, just a different treasure, and they added Nic Cage's parents into the movie. This movie is not bad. You should watch it. It is fun. They will do a part 3 - they set it up in this movie.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars - and if Nic Cage was not in it maybe they could have gotten a higher rating.

I did not see the new Indiana Jones movie this weekend. I do not see very many shows and I am waiting for Dark Knight. See the Jokers site here.

Here is the link to the new TV commercial for Dark Knight. Man, I cannot wait for this movie.

New Kid Bikes

Friday night we went to WalMart to get some new bikes for the kids. Now a lot of people do not like WalMart, but I do not mind it (I think I have said all this before). I am just careful what I get from there. We did not buy the cheapest bikes that WalMart had, we got a decent upgrade and the bikes feel really solid. Friday night we just got one for Chloe. She found a purple one that she liked. It is a Mongoose. It has dual suspension and is a 21-speed. It is pretty cool. The bike has 24 inch wheels.

There was not one that Jordan could have. There was a 24 inch wheel bike for boys, but it was heavy (really heavy) and Jordan could not even get on it.

Saturday (after Thomas and Great Harvest) we went to Target to try and get a bike for Jordan. They had nothing! It was pretty pathetic. We then decided to go to a different WalMart and they had 3 different 24 inch bikes for boys. The first one we tried Jordan did not like. The second one he LOVED. It is silver, yellow, and black and is also a Mongoose (just like Chloe's (and mine by the way)).

Once we got home the kids went to riding their bikes. And they spent all afternoon/evening riding around. I did yard work (mow front and back) while the kids rode. I then got my bike out of the shed and pumped up the front tire (it was flat, duh!). Me and the kids went for a ride around the neighborhood and Jordan would not stop talking about how cool his bike was. I am glad that he is so happy about his bike.

Thomas The Train and McDonalds

Today we went for a ride on Thomas the Train with the kids, my parents, and my brothers family. It was a good time. We like to let the kids have time with their cousins. Chloe and Addy are good friends and spend the entire time together. Chloe is waiting for Izzi to get older so she can have two buddies at every family thing. We went on the train ride, walked around the Thomas area (stick-on tattoos, petting zoo, story time, thomas toys, performance area. We got through that and went to McDonalds. It was OK. I got the chicken nugget combo. We then went to Great Harvest Bread and got some bread for breakfast Monday (maybe - we might just go to IHOP).

Charlie Wilson's War

This movie is supposed to be a funny show based on a true story. One thing a funny movie should have is some actual jokes. This movie is not funny. There are a couple chuckles, but nothing just straight up funny. The movie has Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts (maybe 4 scenes), and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The movie was OK. Nothing great. I will have to do some research and see how much of this was made up and how much was true. You should do that too, or maybe I will enter the information I get if I ever get to actually do the needed research.

Overall I will give this movie 2 out of 5 stars, but I expected a lot better from it.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage was a great movie, but if you cannot stand subtitles then you should not view it. This is a Spanish movie by Guillermo Del Toro (who I think is a great writer and director). The plot was great, the direction was great, the cinematography was awesome. This movie was just great all around. I do not want to give away any plot points because I want you to rent it and watch it yourself. Just know that it is great.

FYI: It is a scary ghost story about (what else?) an orphanage.

This movie gets 4.5 out of 5 stars (this would be a five star movie, but it takes a little while to get moving).

Big Drums

Jordan's school performance started with a demonstration of some big drums. A group of people play these Chinese-inspired drum instruments. And they are loud. You can feel the vibrations going through you. They also dance and hit the drums in rhythm. It was pretty cool. Here are some pictures.

Jordan's Performance

You might think that we only go do things with Chloe, but that would be incorrect. Thursday night Jordan had a music and art show at school. Jordan sang one song and was done. It was good. Also, the 4th grade teachers did not put anything out for their students. It was a good time. Ohh, did I mention it was two hours long? It was. Every minute of two hours.

The third grade did the chicken dance, macarena, and the bunny hop. The fourth grade classes did one song each class (total of 3). Good times.

Nothing Left To Say

I do not know if I have anything left to say. This is interesting. I thought I had so much to talk about, but nope. I think I am out. I suck.

Sweet Pictures

Some sweet pictures I found on the Internet. I can hear the rain coming down outside, so I went to Google and found these.

6:00 PM Links

Last time on the 24-hour challenge I did 6:00 PM links so I would like to keep the tradition going.

The moon is exploding? Not really, just outerspace junk hitting the ground and I guess it looks pretty cool from a good telescope.

This is one smart parrot. Some days I do not know it my kids could do this.

I told you earlier that I like to read the online reviews to help me choose something to purchase. Now this guy is ruining it and all the reviews will soon be plants. I am not happy about this. I thought I could trust those reviews. I will have to start looking for a new way to research things on the internet.

The problem with these oil guys is that they looked to make a 30% (made up number - but I know there is a number) profit on everything. When oil was cheaper they made good money and everyone was happy. Now that oil is so expensive, the guys kept their percentage the same and it is biting them in the butt. They need to wisen up and decide on new percentages depending upon the price of oil. It is like when I do a print job for someone. If the job is cheap, I get my 33%. If it is over $1,000 I drop my % to 30. If the job is over $2,500 I go down to 25% and over $5,000 I just take 15%. My customers don't know and I don't minde making 15% of $5,000 on the job.

You would think these guys are smarter than this, but they aren't. The supply and demand scenario does not work when you have speculators that can drive the price higher. Supply and demand works with tennis shoes - not oil.

American Airlines

I will never fly these guys. Today American Airlines announced a $15 fee for your FIRST checked bag. That is freaking outrageous. Do they expect you to travel with only carry-ons? You know that everyone that flies AA from now on will be just stuffing those carry-ons, trying to get three on board. I swear, this is the beginning of the end for airlines as we know them. Soon you will just slide your credit card to open the doors to the airport and there will be a per minute charge until you slide the door to exit.

I am someone that lovs to fly. I hate long car rides (too many as a kid). This is really turning me off to flying all together. The main problem is that business travelers will be mostly paying this...so prices go up to help cover the increase in airfare.

BOOOOOO American Airlines. This is bad.

Dancing with the stars

I am sure you all watched it. Just like I did. It was horrible. Yamaguchi won. Of course. What can you expect when you get someone that basically danced on ice in the olympics competing against people that could not dance at the beginning of the competition. If you want to learn more you can click here. I am done with it and hopefully next year I won't see as much DWTS as I did this year.

I held this post back so Diana would not see it. She fell asleep during the finale last night. Honey, feel free to watch it today without me!

The problem with big oil

Read this article and try not to be angry with Big Oil. These guys do not care that they make billions of dollars as the regular american is just trying to put gas in their car. These big oil companies could reduce the price of oil by 7 to 15 cents a gallon and still make billions in profit. This is an outrage.

There is nothing we can do about it though. You have to buy from some big oil company to put gas in your car. One day boycotts will not work. We need the government to step in and try something - and no, and gas tax holiday will not work. Maybe the government should try to improve the standing of the dollar against other currencies. Perhaps start dealing with inflation so everything is not so expensive. You do know that the gas prices have more than doubles in a year, but the government says inflation was only 3.2% last year. What a crock of crap.

I have been thinkng of getting rid of my Saturn. But it gets 30 miles per gallon. There is no way I will get rid of it without first finding a car that can get that kind of gas mileage.

HDTV

I do not plan on buying an HDTV any time soon. Am I weird? http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/FourReasonsToBuyAHighDefTVNow.aspx

It is like I have to buy one just because everyone else is. I have DirecTV and in Fedruary of 09 my picture will be just like it is today. There is no need is there? My friend Anderson says once I get one I will see how much better everthing is in HD, but I do not have a problem with my current resolution/view on my TV.

And no, I am not spending my economic stimulus on a TV. I put mine in the bank.

American Idol Update

There are sites out there already saying they know the winner. And it is not David Archuleta who everyone agrees won last night. Click the link for the full rundown: http://dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp

This leads me to my rant against most reality competitions. American Idol and Survivor mostly. The right people rarely win these shows. Dancing with the Stars (I don't really want to say this) has the formula down pretty good (though they always seem a little fishy. There needs to be some kind of points system - especially in Survivor. The best players get picked off at the beginning of the merge or they carry everyone along and then get voted out at the end becuase people don't want to go against them in the end. There needs to be a points system and only the bottom 2 or 3 are eligible to go out every week. It would require you to work in challenges and around camp and things like that. Same with American Idol, the best people should not even be up for elimination until you get down to 4 or 5 people. I guess this would remove a lot of the speculation and doubt in the show so it will never happen, but until then I will watch and just think of what a waste it all is.

Fantasy Baseball Update

I have not let you know where I am in baseball lately (my team sucks). I want to be truthful with all of you so I will tell you that I am in 4th place. My team is below .500 and I get blown out most weeks I play a good team. You can see below that the 3rd place team is way in front of me and I am barely ahead of the 5th place team.

This week has started out well though. I am playing the 2nd place team and I am winning. Hopefully this keeps up and I can win. Monkey is my arch-rival. Him and I almost always are near the top when we play. He refuses to trade with me unless he is a clear favorite.

I sent Monkey a trade for baseball earlier in the season and he sent back a response that said. "This seems fair for everyone and I should do it. But I am not going to." I was like, you are crazy. It helps both teams equally and he will not do it because he is not winning the trade, make the trade, but he wouldn't. I moved on though and beat him in our only meeting so far this year. I MUST beat him again this week to show him that he should have made the trade.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Yesterday it was 90 degrees. Today RAIN! It was really windy last night as well. I kept hearing the wind rip around the house and blowing things around. As I was driving home from Webelos with the boys the wind started and it was pretty wild. It is crazy when you have a big car like I do and the wind still whips you around on the road. If Diana had been in the car she would have been scared, but the boys barely even noticed.

The weather report says rain all day today which is OK. It lets me keep my sprinklers off for a couple more days. The rest of the week does not look promising either. Good think I am going to St. George next week for a weekend of golf.

No LOST tomorrow!

NO LOST TOMORROW! I have to sit through a 2 hour grey's anatomy. Why do they do this to us? I don't know if I can take it. Watch some previews here. I wish I had a time machine to go forward and watch the finale, I would then come back and blog all about it. You would then think I was super smart when everything came true.

I love LOST.

Tuesday night webelos

The Bear leader and me got together tonight to work on space derby ships for the boys. It was fun, and the Bear leader has all the tools to make it easy. Of course, I have no idea what I am doing, but things seemed to work out OK. Now I just have to figure out have to actually get the thing put together. All I have is the thing shaped.

More information on the space derby here.

Work Lately

Lately my job has been kicking my butt. I put in the hours and the efforts, but I tell you, the more I do and the more time I put in the more I feel like there is still more to do. Catalyst is coming up quick and I have so much to do. I was planning on having the conference monopolize all my time starting in June, but I already spend 90% of time on Catalyst. We have a couple conference related items that are beginning to reach critical mass: complimentary consultations, presentations, executive meetings, external presenters need help, finalizing the schedule. These are all things that I am spending time on and it seems as if I do nothing else (except when I get home at night at actually have time to work on something else). I just think that I am lucky that I have a job that I love or I would be hating my life right now. I love being a contributor to Catalyst and really enjoy being on site seeing my 9 months of planning finally pay off while I am onsite.

Getting excited for the trip. Have to get a ticket for the Europe conference. In Prague this year.

American Idol Recap

The American Idol finale was last night. Now we just have to wait for the votes to come in. I watched the show with Diana last night. Cook sounded like he was singing bad karaoke all night. It was not pretty. Archuleta sounded ok, but this show is wearing very thin on me. I am ready to give it up, but as long as Diana wants to watch it will be on in this house. Plus, watching idol gives me plenty of time to blog.

What are your thoughts and reactions to last nights American Idol?

Woof, Woof! (The Links)

Woof, woof, woof. Maybe you need this. I don't believe a word of it.

Just like I always tell everyone: use the internet for all your research needs. Actually go touch, view, buy at the best place. The internet is a great tool for researching things, I like to read reviews of people that have bought what I am looking at to see their experience. When I am ready to buy I use the internet to find the best deal, and then go inspect and buy at the actual location. Why do I feel like I just completely repeated myself. That was weird. Must be a glitch in the matrix.

A lot of people like the iPhone. When you switch carriers you must really, really, really want something. Even though you can move your number now, it is still not the easiest thing to get done. I hope all these iPhone owners are happy when the new iPhone comes out.

Many nights it feels like I have got to the end of the internet. It looks as if it may be a reality. What happens when there is no more internet? I am sure we will figure out a way to move on.

Why does BlockBuster want to buy Circuit City? I just do not get it.

This is pretty cool. I think it would be cool if there was UFO's, but I don't believe any of these.

This Month In Collaboration

At my work I do a part of the company meeting titled: This Month In Collaboration. During this time I speak on ways for BG to work together better. This month I spoke on SharePoint meeting workspaces. Here is some of my presentation on the benefits of meeting workspaces:

•Create and view meeting or event agenda items: The agenda can be accessible to any or all users, providing attendees with the ability to add items that they want covered in the meeting. Having the agenda available prior to the meeting enables attendees to do any necessary preparation for the meeting.
•Communicate with attendees: Email messages can be easily sent to attendees.
•All the documents for the meeting available in one place: Any documents associated with the meeting can be stored in a document library for easy access by all members.
•Access to the most current information for the meeting: The meeting workspace serves as the one central place for storing and updating meeting information, ensuring that people always access the most current information.
•Assign and track tasks: The task list is available on the meeting workspace so that all meeting members can see what tasks they are assigned to complete before the meeting and what tasks they are assigned as the result of the meeting. Task status can also be viewed for managing tasks.
•A complete record of the meeting for future reference: Using the meeting workspace to store the agenda, objectives, and documents for reviewing prior to the meeting, and then updating the site after the meeting with the meeting minutes, decisions that were made, and follow-up tasks provides a complete picture of the meeting and what was accomplished.
•Provide information to all attendees: Items such as directions to the meeting and a list of things to bring to the meeting can be made available through SharePoint lists and Web Parts.

Now you all know for sure that I really am just a geek.

Mad Money

Watched a movie. Mad Money. Katie Holmes, Queen Latifa, old lady, Ted Danson. OK show. Do not want to waste time with a review. Go watch it. It is fun fluff. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Click here to read a pro's review. I don't get paid enough to review all these movies.

NBA Lottery Last Night

All you people that love to mock my NBA knowledge will love this. NBA lottery results here. They better go with Beasley or they are stupid. He is a man. Rose will be good, but Beasley will be a star. This is fun as well, you can create the draft just how you want it!

Celtics win at home again. I do not think it is good when your team is so different depending upon where you play. I am pretty sure the hoops at 10 ft. in all the arenas.

Barkely is cool, but when you owe someone $400,000+ you have a problem. Hopefully he will really stop like he said he would.

Chloe's dance recital

Chloe had another year-end dance recital on Friday. It was good. Chloe is getting really good at the dance thing and I really enjoy watching her dance. She really likes it which makes it better for me. Here are some pictures from the dance. All Chloe's grandparents where there and Chloe was happy about that as well.

Kelly Ripa - what a joke

If you have seen this ad then you know Kelly Ripa must be the best mom ever. NOT! I bet she has never ever turned on her appliances - but I am sure the help makes some great tasting dinners. This commercial makes me laugh out loud.

Webelos trip to lagoon

On Saturday I took my pack of Webelos on a car ride to Lagoon. No, we did not go on rides. For the traveler activity pin they have to navigate a car ride of over 25 miles. Lagoon is 28 miles from my house. Diana and I printed out maps and directions for each boy and let them take turns pointing out items from the map or telling us where to turn or where to merge. We had a good time and the boys seemed to have fun. Once we got to Lagoon we let the boys eat their lunch and I took a picture. We then drove home and were done with the Webelos for last week.

Links

This makes for interesting reading. You can see all the customer satisfaction ratings for hotels, phones, cables, fast food, airlines and more. When you read this you understand that you need to switch to DirecTV as soon as possible. But first call me so I can refer you and get credit on my account.

I never even heard of this, but Disney needs to step it up and keep Virtual Magic Kingdom free. Disney is RICH - what is the problem with giving this game away for free? Losers.

I never use SMS text messaging on my curve - I always use instant messaging on my phone. I guess I am ahead of the curve here. Can you believe that the average subscriber sends 2 SMS messages a day. That seems SUPER low.

I really think that the PS3 and the XBox 360 have maxed out at their price points. A Wii is only $250 and has better/funner game play in my opinion. Plus, who wants to spend $600+ to get their system up and running?

No wonder I do not like George W. Bush. The dude does not use a computer.

Burton Group IT1

Most of you probably do not care that I work for Burton Group - but I have some big work news. Burton Group launched IT1 yesterday. A lot of my readers just stopped reading this, but they do not understand what a large step this is for BG. We used to sell "services" which covered certain information technology (IT) disciplines. These services used to be separate and rarely overlapped. Now, you cannot talk about identity without talking about security. You can not talk about content or collaboration without talking about data centers or application security. Burton Group IT1 is a way to purchase all of our topics areas (see them all here) at once (including our new Data Management topic as well as Enterprise Architecture) but you also receive access to our team of research assistants (which I manage). All in all if your enterprise is looking for IT research and advisory services - you need to try out Burton Group IT1.

Also - in less than a month I will be on the ground in San Diego blogging all about the Burton Group Catalyst Conference for this year! Register now!

Hopefully that is enough about work. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog posts.

I hate Cheryl Burke

You know that chick from dancing with the stars? The one that always wins (because they always give her the best partner)? I just cannot stand her. I don't know why, she just always has. Cheryl Burke is her name and her voice just annoys me. She dances OK, but it always just seems as if she mostly dances around her partner and never really gets them that involved. Here is one of her old dances (and this is just for my wife, because Cheryl is her favorite)(another parenthesis - I don't know if this is proper - Cheryl is not really her favorite, Emmitt Smith is her favorite and he was partners with Cheryl).

I'm Back

You probably thought I would never post again and are just about ready to stop checking and reading my blog. To make it up to you I am re-starting my 24 posts in 24 hours marathon blogging session. There might even be some bonus posts as the time goes on. I have definitely spent enough time offline that I have 24 blogs saved up in my head.

Let's get it on.

Links Before LOST

It is Thursday again. That means LOST. This week better be a good one. Last week was a real downer for me. I hope I am not going overboard though, cause then nothing will be good. This weeks episode is supposed to show the Oceanic 6 getting home. I am sure that not too many questions will be answered though. If they answered questions - it wouldn't be LOST.

They say that cell phone ear thingies are going to start looking nicer, but if you walk around with one of those things you just have to fess up that you are a super-geek.

Have problems with your computer? Try this place, they seem to know what they are talking about.

I am a Plaxo member, but I like Linked In better (check out my profile on the right-hand navigation - and while you are there, click on the ads!). Having Comcast buy Plaxo probably won't change anything. Plaxo having access to my Internet records is weird though - and trying to use Plaxo to record TV watching habits is odd also.

I used to want to be an astronaut, but not so much anymore.

I like Batman, and this is one movie that I will go see on the opening day.

Thanks for reading. And yes, I spell-checked my post tonight.

Have fun watching LOST.

The Great Debaters

Another night, another movie. Watched The Great Debaters last night. Not really though, I was blogging while Diana watched it. I saw the last little bit after I finished blogging, and it was OK. I do not want to really talk much about a show that I did not watch all the way through. I will give it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

**START SPOILERS**

This is a show about a debate team from a black college in Texas and how they come from nowhere to become one of the greatest debate teams in the country. They go through a lot of discrimination and the team finally gets a match against Harvard, the greatest debate team in the country at the time.

The team ends up winning the debate and everyone is happy. There is a side plot with Denzel and some sharecroppers trying to form a union. Forest Whitaker works at the college and is the parent of one the of the debaters.

**END SPOILERS**

This movie is not bad, there is just not a lot of suspense. You know they will win, you know everyone will end up happy, you are just watching the show to see how it all happens.

Politics

I was explaining my idea of the politics of the upcoming election with some friends at work and drew this handy chart:

The basic premise of my drawing is that right now Obama has a lot of love from the democrats, but probably not that good of chance of winning. Not everyone likes Hillary and she has no chance to win. McCain is NUTS and will probably win, he is just W for another 4 years. So, in my plan (some of this was taken from an MSN opinion piece that I read) Obama would drop out of the race citing he wants to throw his full endorsement to Hillary and that it is for the good of the democratic party (right now Hillary and Obama are hurting each other in this race). He would then spend the next four years actually trying to improve his record in congress, try to implement some of the things he has talked about in his candidacy.

A race between Hillary and McCain would end up in a McCain (BOOOOO!) victory most likely. McCain's four years would be like keeping W for four more years and things in this country would get even worse. In 2012 the democrats would not allow Hillary to run again (after losing this year) and Obama would run unopposed for the democrats.

If Obama spends the four years actually trying to implement some change he will crush any opponent in 2012 and will basically walk into the white house with the experience and the track record that a president should have.

For the record, I actually prefer Hillary to Obama and would never even consider voting for McCain. In the general election I will be voting for whomever the Democratic candidate is.

We will see what happens in the upcoming months, I just hope whomever wins will actually try to start making things better for America. There is some pretty easy things that can be done, how about we take half of all the monies we send out of the US and keep it for internal programs? That would be billions of dollars on infrastructure improvements or tax breaks. How about we start getting the Peace Corps to work in the US instead of sending them to other places in the world? I just think it is time for the US to think of ourselves more than other places. I had a boss that once said, "Before you try to go do extra things for others, make sure you can take care of yourself." That rings pretty true about now.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day for our family was OK. It was good for Diana. I had gotten muffins and chocolate milk for breakfast. We had to get up early for church, so there really wasn't time to make a big breakfast. We came home from church (where Diana finally got a real flower, not the half-dead in a plastic cup flower she usually gets) and had some tacquitos, which are quickly becoming the families newest food love.

The kids got Diana some general cute kid stuff. Chloe made flowers from pipe cleaners and small poof balls. Those were prett cute and the kitty loves to play with/eat them. We also got Diana three new Precious Moments, which she collects and it has been a while since we had gotten her one (let alone three). I let the kids pick the ones to get her. Chloe picked a Tinkerbell one. Jordan picked one that has a boy giving someone a bouquet of flowers. I gave her one about being a good mom.

For dinner I cooked Salmon for Diana, and I was making brats for the rest of us. The salmon was made to no event. Diana said it was good and that is what is important. I burnt the brats to a crisp and was forced to make macaroni and cheese for everyone else. And I had gotten strawberries and angel food cake for dessert. No one liked my concoction for that either. I had gotten the strawberry glaze to put on the strawberries - and it went over horribly.

Hopefully things will go better next year.

Love you sweetie! You are a great mom!

We Got Ripped Off!

So, I get a call Saturday afternoon from Card Services. It is my bank asking if I mad a purchase at McDonalds this morning. Now, I have gotten these before and there was never a problem. The lady then asks if I made some purchases at Ashley Stewart. Now, I have no idea what that is. And then she said there was two. One was 200 and one was 300. I couldn't believe it. The lady told me to go to the bank Monday morning and that she was putting a cancel order on the cards so that they could not be used. Now this wasa crazy and I was angry. I could not believe it. Someone had gotten our numbers and was making purchases. Spending my hard-earned money. I jumped on the internet and looked up our account and there is was. Showing around 500 that was pre-authorized and not yet cleared. I got madder. There was nothing I could do about it, so I moved on.

I went to the bank Monday and spent 45 minutes telling them what happended and filling out forms and showing my ID. The person that helped me (who had the same birthday as me, random info learned as she was looking at my ID) said that the person had our PIN number and had no idea how that could happen (usually the perpatrator just runs the card as credit).

The bank tells me that I have to wait 7 to 10 days for a new debit card and 7 to 10 days to get the money put back in to the account. Plus, I now am using my Disney credit card for everything. Not really a problem, I might as well get some extra points from all this happening.

Not a good time. What kind of people really think this is funny. I will no longer laugh at the Friends episode where Monica gets ripped off and then meets the person that did it and wants to be their friend. I have worked too hard to get in a good financial situation for me and my family for something like this to happen. This person needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law - it they get caught.

41st Post of the Month

Lots of links for tonight.

I posted about the new blackberry bold - but what about the thunder? This phone looks good - but will it have what it needs to take out the iPhone?

I am not doing as much design as I once did, but the new Quark looks pretty good. I am still using version 6.

New Get a Mac ad and Diana loves it.

If you have any of these passwords you should get them changed as soon as possible. Some of these are pretty funny. Who chooses "monkey" as a password?

I have had a TiVO for years and I think everyone should have one. I tell everyone that getting a TiVO will change your life and the reality of just that is finally hitting the TV executives. A lot less people are watching TV when the network wants you to - they are watching it when and where they want. It is time for a new kind of TV and I can feel it coming. Hopefully soon.

Microsoft was laying down this same stuff when they started to develop Vista. Smaller? Less system resources? More promises that Microsoft cannot deliver on.

There are a lot of fun social sites on the web. But how do they make money? That is the question I have always had. Once you give someone something for free, they do not want to have to pay for it. Not ever. If you change to pay - people will leave and find another service that stays free.

This is intersting and I think...why aren't we already doing this? Wind is free and does not burn up the Earth. I know that at my house it is windy every day.

Diana won't be happy that I posted this...but I think that the writer hit most of Oprah's buddies dead on.

Watched American Idol while I was writing this and none of the people were that impressive tonight. Pretty poor I say. The song choices were weird and no one really looked that comfortable.

American Gangster

We watched American Gangster this weekend. It was a good movie, but boy was it long. We did watch the extended cut. It felt like four hours, but clocked in at under three.

American Gangster

**START SPOILERS**

Denzel Washington like the bad boy role. He really does. This is basically the heart of this movie. Denzel can pick his roles, and to pick one where lights people on fire, shoots people walking down the street, buys/sells drugs, and much, much more means he wants a role like this. Maybe he thought this would be another Oscar winning performance - but no, this movie is almost laughable. I always laugh at a movie that starts with "Based on a true story." No matter what the movie I always think the movie is based on the true story of "there was a planet named Earth" and the rest is made up. Really, I just do not get it. Either the story is true or it is not true. Which is it? If it is not all true, please do not act like it is true.

Russell Crowe is the good guy, a super-honest cop that even turned in almost one million dollars (and this was in the 60's or 70's - when a million dollars was ALOT of money). The bad news is that the movie spends the first 20 minutes letting the viewers know that Russell is good and his partner is not. This should have been a quick 5 minutes for the movie, but it wasn't, it was an omen that everything in this movie would take 4 times longer than it should.

The lowdown - and I do not want to give up too much, so you can rent it and be surprised.

Denzel bad guy, Russell good guy. Denzel's boss/mentor dies. No one is in charge of crime. Denzel decides to go into business for himself. Business being drugs and other crimes. Denzel goes to foreign country to get drugs, uses friends from the military to get drugs to US. Russell is slowly moving up the ranks of cops. Becomes leader of organized crime task force in New Jersey. Russell unravels the drug rings of Jersey - and it leads him to New York City. He has most things figured out - but does not know the big boss. Denzel gets a big head and brings his family in and they cause trouble. He gets a girl and she causes trouble. Most notably the outlandish jacket that he wears to a boxing match (Louis vs. Ali) which gets him noticed by Russell. Russell begins to figure out who he is and starts to build a case around him. Things start to unravel for Denzel and he gets caught by Russell. Denzel gives everyone up that he can to get his sentence down to seven years. In the end Russell and Denzel are friends.

**END SPOILERS**

This movie was OK, it just went on forever and ever and ever. I mean it, it seemed long! I give it 3.25 stars (I can't decide between 3 or 3.5) out of 5. You could rent the movie, but then my review wouldn't seem as good.

Sorry

I was supposed to blog tonight and I do have quite a bit to note, but I finally got my old work computer home and I have been playing with/setting it up all night so far, and now it is time for bed. I will post more tomorrow.

I will leave you tonight with a link to the new Blackberry phone, and it is cool. This phone is supposed to be an iPhone killer, but I just don't see how. The people that buy an iPhone are not the same people buying a Blackberry. Apple is probably not worried, especially since they are so close to releasing the next iPhone that will solve all the original iPhone complaints. All I know for sure is that if anyone wants to give me a Bold, I would not refuse it. You should know up front - it is going to be sold for the AT&T network only for now.

Downtown Part 2

So, Chloe and I went downtown last night for an orchestra concert. We had a good time. Some of the songs were too long though. But, none of the performers had any music and they had between 3-7 songs per kid. It was pretty cool. They had some really young kids, and one of the kids that had a solo was only 8. We attended this becuase on of Chloe's friends (my friends daughter) was performing. Plus, Chloe likes to see this orchestra stuff right now, she is very into it. It was a good night. We even walked from the assembly hall to the car - which was like 9 blocks. It was fun. Chloe and I chatted the whole way.

DOTS Diet

If you know me, then you know that I like DOTS. DOTS are a great snack, a great food, they are just all around great. If you did not know, DOTS are fat free, so they are actually good for you. I am going to propose a completely fat free diet, a diet I like to call the DOTS Diet.

The DOTS Diet
Breakfast: DOTS
Lunch: DOTS
Snack: DOTS
Dinner: DOTS

Pretty good, right? That is a diet I can get behind. If anyone wants to try this diet let me know, I would like to do some case studies before I publish my book about the diet.

Downtown

Last night Chloe and I went downtown for a children's orchestra concert. Whenever I have to go downtown I like to park near the courthouse (free after 6PM) and then trake Trax to where ever we are going downtown. You wouldn't believe it but while we were waiting for the train Mehmet Okur and AK47 came up to wait for the train with us. If you do not believe me, look at the pic below.

I wonder why Memo was wearing his away Jersey. And what about that purse? AK - I know you are from Russia, but in america, buys don't wear purses - or even a "man bag".

I have a theory about replica jerseys and it basically states - "If you are over 18 you should not wear a replica jersey." C'mon, by the time you are 18 you should be your own person, not trying to be someone else. It is funny when I see older people wearing jersey's. I usually snicker aloud to myself and then tell everyone my theory and no one ever agrees with me. I tell them that they must have a jersey at home they like to wear, because my theory is very sound.

Links Before Lost

I use Comcast, so this scares me. I do not even know how much usage I have every month. This could be very interesting to see how it effects other service providers.

This is just plain mean. I mean, it could be funny, but rude!

I should get a car that uses nautral gas. It could be very good for me and my bank account.

I have an Inspiron, but mine doesn't look close to this cool.

Man, these are some weak links. I better do better tomorrow.

Orchestra Concert

Tonight Chloe had a orchestra concert at the school. Beforehand all of the kids did the Gettysberg Address (by Pres. Lincoln). Here are some pics from the performance. I have some pics of Chloe's violin performance on the camera, I will upload those when I get them off the camera. These pictures taken from my Curve.

The orchestra did a bunch of songs. Chloe performed in a trio and she also had a solo. Her solo was the Can Can. And she did it perfectly. It was a good night.

Chloe had us arrive at 6PM even though the school did not even open until 6:30. So we had some good times waiting in the car.

Snails

Littlkins went outside today and saw this:

Icky.

My Wife Is Nuts

I just found out that my wife visits message boards for America's Next Top Model. That is crazy! I can't believe it. I really can't believe that America's Next Top Model even has message boards, but whatever.

American Idol just ended (on our tivo) and Diana is happy that the white dread lock guy is out. Good for him. About time.

Bye Bye.

Links for Wednesday, May 7

Flickr is going to start letting you upload video. I am an opponent to that. Flickr is for photos. Also, Flickr is the number 1 photo-sharing site in the world. Sign up now and start sharing!

I guess this Grand Theft Auto thing is going to be pretty big. Never played it. Never will. Anderson, my buddy, has it and I bet he has been playing it for days.

Now this is one of the awesomest things I have seen. And of course Disney would be the first to use it. Disney is usually pretty pioneering.

I am sure the prices for honey will skyrocket soon. The prices for everything else is going up.

This is not encouraging at all. I better get some lysol wipes for the office. I wonder what IT will think when they see me wiping the keyboard with a wipe.

New Curve coming out. I won't be getting it. I still love my Curve 8320.

Only one day until the new LOST. Is Clare dead? Missing? Who has her? Why was her Dad there? So many questions. I am sure we will barely even see what happens. This week is going to be about Locke. We know Locke is not one of the Oceanic 6, so are we going to see if he is alive in the future, see others that decided to stay on the island? Or is this an actual flashback this time? I am excited. Check out the preview.

Figuring It All Out

At work today Scott, Aaron, and I started working on a process flow for vendor briefings. We started by drawing out the current process and and then highlighting the problem areas with Red marker. I think what you see when you look at the drawing is just how broken this process was. Current process:

We also spent time drawing out the ultimate process - which will never happen. Then we wrote down the 4 top priorities that needed to be accomplished. Lastly we created a drawing of what we are looking to accomplish in version 1.0 of the system. In this drawing we pointed out which priority we were addressing with all of our decisions.

At one point in the drawing we decided that there needed to be MAGIC. That is, there is a process that needs to happen, but we do not know how it will be accomplished. We are still working out a lot of this, but we are in a pretty good spot after our 2-hour meeting today.

Other than that, today was just a regular work day. I had Catalyst core team meeting, which I am really starting to feel the crunch on. 7 weeks out. Register now!

24 Hour Challenge

If you were not paying attention every hour today, you probably missed a lot of the posts from today. Here is a recap of each post from the 24 hour challenge.

• Anonymous
• Friday, May 2
• Saturday, May 3 (early morning)
• Saturday, May 3 (mid-morning)
• LOST Recap
• Costco - Saturday
• Costco - Friday
• Pictures of the Cat
• Yard Work
• 27 Dresses
• Jordan in the Storm
• Cinco De Mayo Party
• 8 AM Links
• Naked!
• Fantasy Baseball Update
• Matt Got An Apron
• LadyBug Cake
• How I Met Your Mother
• 2:00 PM Post
• New iPod Commercial
• Falling Down
• Speaker Training
• Gifts for May Birthdays
• Mother's Day
• Sweet Picture
• And That is That

Take your time going through the posts, leave a comment. Let me know if you want more 24 posts in 24 hour challenges. They take a lot of time, but I think it was fun and would be up to doing it again, I just can't do it everyday, I don't make enough money at this yet (maybe if you clicked on the ads more I could quit my day job).

And That is That

There you go. MORE than 24 posts in 24 hours. I hope you enjoyed your time reading my blog today. I will try to post more often, but life gets in the way sometimes. Here is a link to a bunch of Counting Crows stuff. Videos, live songs, and the like.

Talk to you all later.

Sweet Picture

Now this is a sweet pic. This is a volcano erupting in Chile during a Lightning storm. More pictures here.

Mother's Day

It is weird that Mother's Day is so soon this year. I can't believe it. I need to get Diana some stuff. I have it all planned out what I want to get her. It all started with the Dyson.

Just kidding, the Dyson is not a mother's day present. And Diana already said I could not get her an iPod (her nano has the "white screen of death" - it works, but the screen just stays white all the time, so you cannot pick songs). Diana says that since she already has an iPod I cannot give her a Mother's Day gift that replaces something.

I need to get to shopping here pretty soon, becasue the days go by so fast. It has been so long since I have seen the ocean. Sorry. A little Long December there for you. I think i will go shopping Wednesday for my lunch. I would put where I am going, but Diana reads this and then she would know what she is getting, and to make Chloe feel better about it, I promise not to get anything from WalMart for Mother's Day. Chloe does not really like WalMart, she likes Target, but that is just because she is not the one paying for things. If money was not a concern I would go to Target and pay 10 to 15% more for everything.

Gifts for May Birthdays

On Sunday while my parents and brother's family were at the house we celebrated birthdays for Wesman and Addison. It is also my Dad's birthday in May, and we did let him blow a candle out of the ladybug cake, we will give him his present on his actual birthday - which is soon. For Addison we got a koala bear stuffed animal. I liked it so I got it for her. For Wesman we got some coloring books and a how to tell time book. We also gave my borther's entire family (even though I doubt my brother and his wife will use it) our kids art desk. It is pretty cool, has a small chair and lamp. We got it for the kids 4 or 5 years ago for Christmas and Chloe and Jordan are too big for it now - they need a real desk for their work.

Giving the desk away is all part of moving Jordan upstairs and getting rid af some of the toys that are impractical for our kids. We do like to have some younger kid toys for when family/friends come over, but we cannot dedicate our entire house to it.

It was hilarious trying to get the desk home though, Ry-Ry had to move car seats around and have kids ride with Mom and Dad to their house and then leave the desk for my Dad to bring the rest of the way to their house later this week.

Have fun with the desk, but don't fight over it!

Speaker Training

On Monday I had speaker training at work. It was very good. It was given by Ellen Cahill from Cahill Associates. It was good. Once you see yourself on video giving a presentation it is pretty easy to see what you are not doing right. What I learned is that I might give presentations with boring subject matter and that is OK, I have to try and find a way to weave a story into the presentation. I also learned that I need to hold eye contact longer with people and that will help me slow down my pacing - I usually talk very fast during presentations. I hope with practice and time I can improve my speaking presence. It was a good day at work - just long.

I took the entire work day and did the training so that left a lot of other things undone that I usually work on. So I worked late and then went home and did some more, as well as all the blogging that is going on now.

Falling Down

People falling down is funny. People falling down in slow motion is even funnier!

New iPod Commercial

New iPod/iTunes/Apple commercial. How long until this song is on the radio every five minutes?

2:00 PM Post

Already 2:00 PM? This is easy. It is like I posted all these at once and just scheduled them to publish at certain times. Anonymous - where you at? Where are all your snotty posts now. This is how a blog should be ran.

Out

How I Met Your Mother

If you have never seen this show (Monday nights on CBS) you are missing out on the funniest sitcom on television right now. All of the characters are spot on - and they are hilarious! See the recap here.

Last nights episode was about Barney and his rebound bro, and I laughed my head off!

LadyBug Cake

I told you that my parents and brother's family came over Sunday, well, there is some birthdays in May that we were celebrating. We made a ladybug cake, and honestly, Diana did most of the work. I did not want to make the cake becuase it made me miss my Sunday nap, which is very disappointing. Here are some pictures of the cake:
Impressive! I laid down the mouth and the eye-lashes, as well as cut the gumdrop nose in half.

Matt Got An Apron

One of my Mom's friends (and me and Diana's friend), Ersula got me an apron with my name on it. I really needed this. Usually people forget my name while I cook because they are salivating from the aroma of the wonderful food. Here is the pic:

What a good-l0oking apron.

Fantasy Baseball Update

So here I am thinking about what to post and then I think that I have not given you enough info on my fantasy baseball team this year. I am currently in third place and I hope to move up. My team is OK, but not great. I am great some weeks though, which is frustrating. Baseball is a long season though. Here are the standing. I am Big Big Stars (the highlighted team).

I have pretty good hitting and OK pitching. Here are my hitters:

And the pitchers:

Pretty good team, right? I just do not think they can win the whole thing.

Naked!

On Sunday we had my parents and brother's family over and when I told them that I was glad that they could all make it, Gar-bear, the youngest boy yells, "NAKED! Who is naked?" We had to tell him again that we are glad he could make it, not naked.

Gar-bear also likes to say duty, but he really means doo-dee. He is a funny kid.

That needs his hearing checked.

8 AM Links

Want some cheap Air Jordan's? I have never shopped here, but if this is real, I cannot think of a better deal for some cool shoes. Sneaker On Sale.

Mother Nature strikes again. This is just horrible. When are we going to understand that these huge nautral disasters are being caused by the things we are doing to the Earth? Now I am not a tree hugger, but I do think that we need to think about how we can at least try to help the Earth recover from having so many people using up the natural resources of the planet.

The Hornets are looking pretty good. Can they keep it up when they move the series to San Antonio. Are the Hornets for real? I originally thought these guys were too inexperienced to win it all, but the way they are playing I could be persuaded to change that idea.

This is the beginning of the end for Yahoo. They should let Microsoft buy them and take them over. Yahoo is not doing anything that great and they continue to lose market share to Google.

This is an encouraging story. But how much time has been spent on this. Sometimes people need to look at the bigger picture and realize that maybe they should use their smarts for something like curing cancer or something a little more important.

Cinco De Mayo Party

We had a great party on Saturday, May 3. We had two (had 3 - but one cancelled at the last minute) families over. A total of 18 people. The menu included:

• Chicken Enchiladas
• Spanish Rice (first time making this one)
• Corn
• Seven Layer Dip
• Mexican Soft Drinks
• Salad
• Fruit Salad
• Tacquitos

It was great. Everyone loved the food and we had a great time with our friends. The kids all played together. From Nintendo Wii - Guitar Hero to hide and seek to jumping on the tramp they did everything. It was great. Us adults hung out and then played Mexican Train. I like that game. It is fun, and you can chat while you play. I like CatchPhrase too, but that is not really a game you can chat and play, there is too much going on.

And if you were wondering, I did win Mexican Train. Even though Diana was trying to cheat and take the title from me.

Jordan in the Storm

Jordan is in trouble. His room is a mess. We want to move him upstairs because he just is not trustworthy enough to be so alone downstairs. He doesn't clean his room. He does not put things away. He destroys the toy room. Basically, he keeps two rooms a complete mess. By the way, I am back to my Saturday recap. This is the storm I was talking about earlier. I get home from Costco and Diana and Jordan were downstairs cleaning for the party. Things were not good. Diana was just trying to get the toy room done and said that they would just keep the door to his room closed and no one can go in. Diana is just going to clean his room while she clears it out for the move upstairs. I hope things get better for him. Once he is upstairs he will be forced to keep the room clean because Mom and Dad will be walking by all the time. Hopefully this will get resolved soon.

27 Dresses

Diana and I watched 27 dresses on Sunday night. It was OK. But I can't thing of a more contrived love story (except August Rush). This was fun and cute, but you knew the whole time who was going to get together and what would happen. By the end of the movie Diana was guessing (correctly) the next line in the movie.

**SPOILER ALERT**
Girl (Heigl) is a control freak, so all of her friends, and even some that aren't, want her to be a maid of honor at their weddings. She cannot say no. She even goes as far as being the maid of honor at two different weddings on the same night.

She meets a guy at the wedding and brushes him off. You later find out he is the writer of the Wedding announcements for the newspaper, but he does not really believe in love. The Heigl character is in love with her boss, who just uses her as an assistant (which is what she is). Heigl character's sister (who is a model) comes to town, meets the boss, they fall in love. The sister completely lies about who she is and what she does to get the guy.

Of course, the sister asks Heigl to be maid of honor, and things get crazy from here. Heigl has to do all the planning. The newspaper guy is following Heigl around and writing a story on her being a bridesmaid 27 times. He lies to Heigl about what he is writing the story on. He is developing a crush on Heigl and she kind of likes him. He uses that to get a photo shoot of her in all her 27 dresses. The more he learns about her the more he likes her. It all leads to a night with Heigl and the newspaper boy singing Bennie and the Jets in a bar, getting drunk, and getting it on.

The next morning the news story publishes and Heigl is pissed. They break up, but they were never really together. Now that Heigl is pissed at the newspaper boy, she is mad at the world. She ruins her sisters wedding while at the rehearsal and she gives a speech about all the lies the sister is telling the boss.

Here comes the end...but I am not going to tell you. You need to rent it for yourself if you like what you have read so far. If not, you really won't care about the rest of the movie.

**END SPOILER**

I give 27 dresses 3 out of 5 stars. It was OK. IT could have been better and it also could have been a lot worse, a lot, lot worse. But is couls have been so much better as well. The only good news is that there will not be a sequel.

Yard Work

I hate the summer. Not really. I really just hate yard work. Beyond being allegeric to grass I just do not like to do all the yard work. I do like the yard to look good, but I just do not like to do the work.
My yard before:

And the yard after:

Boy, was I tired.

Just kidding, these pictures are just ripped off the internet. I used the google image finder for these. Hopefully Diana doesn't see the bottom picture and get any ideas.

Pictures of the Cat

I bet you can't wait to see pictures of our cat: Princess Fuzzy Boots. Well, you do not have to wait any longer. Here are a couple:

This is the kitty asleep on the bed.

This is the kitty awake after we took her picture and she wants to know what is going on. And yes, she is sleeping on Diana's legs, which is nice in the winter, but now that it is getting warmer it is not as nice.

Costco - Friday

I forgot to tell you about my shopping trip to Costco on Friday. Diana had said it was time for a new vacuum, and I thought OK, let's do it. It was time. Our old vacuum was pretty old. And it was always getting clogged with long, red hair. If you have never met my wife she has the longest, thickest, most beautiful red hair. But it clogs a vacuum like nothing you have ever seen. To vacuum across our bedroom I have to stop halfway to clean out the vacuum. So I got a Dyson. The DC14, it is for people that have animals. While I was looking at other vacuums they were all fairly expensive (except for one really cheap-looking one) and if Diana can get the Dyson to last for as long as our other vacuum, it will be great. Diana was pretty happy and can't wait to vacuum everyday (one of the items I demanded for buying the Dyson). And don't worry, a Dyson at Costco is quite a but less expensive then on the Dyson website.

Boy, it sure is late, hopefully I can keep this up.

Costco - Saturday

After dance Chloe and I went to Costco. My favorite store. There was some more stuff that I did not get at WalMart. We ran to Costco and got more stuff for the Cinco De Mayo party tonight. The Costco is great. We got Churros while we were there. I love the Churros at Costco. They are so much more chewy than Churros you get other places. And they are only a dollar! Chloe and I also ran to my parents house to pick up some more chairs. We do not have enough chairs for everyone coming over tonight. My parents have a lot of extra folding chairs. We always end up borrowing chairs and then taking them back. I am going to ask my Dad if I can just keep these chairs so we can have them when we need them. As I was heading home from these errands I get an text message that my wife is not happy with my son. Trouble is brewing.

LOST Recap

I never posted the LOST recap for this week. Another great episode. I really liked it, but then again, I like every episode of LOST.

Check out the MSN recap here.

Already excited about this weeks. Just 3 days to go. I wonder how many more they are going to have this season? If you know, comment below. Thanks.

And, yes, this is a BONUS post in the 24 hour challenge. And anonymous, get your watch updated, I am posting at exactly the right time, you are always early or not refreshing.

Saturday, May 3 (mid-morning)

I get home from WalMart and I am already tired. It was a long morning and a late night, so I was already getting exhausted. It was time to take Chloe to dance tryouts. Chloe was trying out for Jazz Attitude. She is very excited to make the team and I hope it happens for her. So we go to the dance studio and we are sent with the younger girls to the backyard to learn the steps for the routine they are trying out for. Now me being the only Dad there I sat on some steps in the back of the house and listened to my iPod and played the GameBoy DS. It was fun. Diana told me this would take hours so I was prepared with my toys. But to my surprise Chloe was called in after about a little more than a half-hour. She did not want me to go in to watch the actual tryout so I just waited in the car. She came out 10 minutes later and we were done. I was happy. I did not want to spend two hours of my day (too much to do) waiting for Chloe to dance. Chloe, I am hoping you make it! It will be great! We are supposed to be finding out in a couple days. I will keep you posted.

Saturday, May 3 (early morning)

Saturday I had to get up early to start on the day. We had a lot to do. Tonight is our Cinco De Mayo party, and we have a lot of getting ready. I guess I should go back to Friday night. The plan was that when we got home I would run to WalMart to get the groceries for the party, well, that did not happen, we wrote the list and it was 11:30 PM, so we decided to do it in the morning. Back to Saturday morning, I got up and ran to the WalMart. The list was quite extensive. I forgot to tell you, this is at 6:30AM. Like I said, it was early. It took an hour or so to get the shopping done and I did a great job. I don't mind shopping at the WalMart, you just have to be careful in what you get. I got everything on the list - except the ice. What a loser, I always forget the ice for these parties.

Friday, May 2

Tonight we went to a Hawaiian Luau, had some good food and listened to some music from the islands. The available foods were: roasted pig (the pig carcass was on the serving table), corned beef and hash, and a lot of other great hawaiian foods. I don't know what most of it is, I just eat it. There is some weird sweet potato stuff that they served that I did not have (not a big fan of the sweet potato). The desserts were supplied by the party-goers and they were good too. I ate a bunch of hawaiian. The kids ate a little hawaiian and a lot of desserts. Diana had McDonalds afterwards. She really seemed to like her McD's. There was a band that started by playing some nice mellow Hawaiian music and it was good. By the end of the night they were rocking out and Diana was like - "Where is the Hawaiian music, these guys are just rocking." And they were playing all kinds of just straight rock and roll, but no Counting Crows. Too bad for me I guess.

Anonymous

Anonymous, I do not want to disappoint you so I will post every hour on the hour for the next 24 hours, starting now 9:00PM. And they will be real posts, not just one line quickies. So here is the first one and it won't be the last. So, here it is, the 24 posts in 24 hours challenge.

LOST

We have LOST tivo'd and are getting ready to watch it. Can't wait to see what is going to happen this week!

Rebuttal

Anonymous said:

I think Avery is a good coach. Not great, but above average. Let's see...in the 2+ years he has been in Dallas he has...1) taken his club to the NBA Finals 2) Turned Dirk into a league MVP 3) #1 seed in the West 4) Turned a bunch of offensive hungery players to (at least consider) playing defense for portions of the game. 5) led his club to a franchise record 67 wins.He was not the one who mortgaged the teams future with the Kidd deal. Needless to say, they have been 100% terrible in the playoffs (for 3 years now) since their devastating blow-up loss in the NBA Finals. I still like Avery - Mabey Dallas will bring in D'Antoni from Phoeinx. Avery should go to Chicago - I think that would be a good fit. That opens the door for Jeff Hornecek to coach in Phoenix. PLUS...WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NBA - - LOOK AT YOUR PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS...

Number one: "anonymous" why won't you use your name? Are you too afraid? Be tough and put your name down.

Number two: Let's talk about your thoughts on Avery Johnson, former Mavericks coach. The guy that cannot win in the playoffs. He is 3-12 in his last 15 games, which is not good, and he cannot relinquish control of the game. He forces his team to slow down even when they shouldn't. He won't let the team play, they have to have a play every time down. The team does not pass well, they got Jason Kidd and his assists went down. Avery has two plays; pass on the high post to Dirk and let him do something and; two pass to Dirk on the low post and let him do something. At least when they had Nash and Finley this team ran and created for each other. Avery has stopped all of that cold. Avery is called the little general, and he is, he does not allow his troops to do a thing without his approval, and in the NBA that does not work. People say that he had the Mavs playing defense, which is barely true, any small effort on D was more than the Mavs were playing under Nellie. There are many coaches that have taken a team to the Finals that is not a good coach, heck Doc Rivers could make it to the finals this year and what about Byron Scott as the Nets coach (he has learned a lot in his years with the Hornets plus he has Chris Paul)? As things go, Avery has been a good regular season coach (when most of the teams are barely showing any effort). When he hits the big stage, he can't make adjustments on the fly, he cannot motivate a team, he cannot work the refs or the other teams players like Phil Jackson or Jerry Sloan can. Basically, the Mavs are messed up because of their owner, Mark Cuban, but because he also has a coach that is not right for the team he has. The Mavs need to hire Rick Carlisle, a coach that is known for getting the best out of his players (except Artest, but I don't think anyone can coach that guy).

Number three: My picks aren't bad, they just aren't working out like I predicted, but if you look at what I wrote, my thoughts were right on.