Gosh, Facebook really is a timewaster.  I am not even wasting the required time for my blog.  I actually had to remember how to log in.  That is sad.  There have been a lot of meaningful happenings in my life in the last month.

• I saw Kung Fu Panda with the family a couple weeks back.  It was good.
• I just saw Wall-E with the family.  Pixar’s worst, IMHO.  Kung Fu Panda was better.
• My phone died and I got a new phone.  A Nokia 5310.  It is really thin.  I really like it.  The speakerphone could use some help though.
• I caved and got Lego: Indian Jones for myself, uh..Trey.  Crisana got a new Care Bear.
• We saw some baseball at the Dr Pepper Frisco Ballpark.
• Trey had Twilight Camp.  Crisana was a Papoose for most of the week.
• Debbi went on a scrapbooking weekend, I bach’ed it.  The kids survived……barely.
• I replaced the battery in the truck.  This is the second one, not bad for a truck coming close to a decade old.
• The Rangers won the series against the dreaded Yankees.

Okay, an update.  No rhymes, haikus, Suissian meters, or anything else.   I may actually be creative later on.

Back to Facebook.

I now have a Facebook profile. What a complete, useless, waste of my time. So, why do I keep looking at my profile every three minutes? Why to see if I have some new flair, or new friends, or something else. We even had a Facebook party Friday night. Four laptops on our dining room table….all of us on our profile pages, editing them, playing games, whatever. Yes, a real timewaster. My friend count has gone up some. I am now in double digits, may hit three sometime. One of my friends has over 200 friends. If you know her, you would understand. Most of her friends are from some old school in Austin though. I have created a map of where I have been. I am old enough to have forgotten several places I am sure. I have a friend wheel and have done exceedingly well in Star Trek and Lost trivia. I am now on Facebook……and there was much rejoicing….yeah. I have to check and see if something has changed in he last five minutes.

UPDATE:   I spent the rest of night doing something much more productive.  I started to watch the Discovery Channel’s new space flight show.  Watching TV is so much more productive than Facebook.

..and the sky grew black as the night…

My six week project ( that mushroomed to ten ) is finished. I have worked sick, missed very many moments with my kids (from Cub Scouts, trips, activities, bed time stories, etc), and after being told my option was to do it or quit, I give you this:

more graph humor and song chart memes

Yes, what option did I have. “Do, or do not, there is no try.”

All that being said, I think I did a great job on a project that will come in millions over budget and have to get VE’d. That is Value Engineering for you non architectural types.

In an earlier post I blogged about the McFBC Men’s Retreat at Pine Cove.  During that retreat plans were being set up for a 150+ man choir to sing the next week.  Well, not only did we sing, but the songs are now on YouTube of all things.  Here is just one of five songs.

I figured it is hard to go wrong with Rich Mullins, so that is the resaoning behind linking that particular song.  Just search on YouTube for camo choir to get the rest.  I won’t link all of them.

I watched the AI finale last night sans wife. That’s okay, I am used to that. I wanted David Cook to win, but was not so sure after watching Teusday night’s episode. David Archiledoohickey really won hands down. I then proceeded to watch the results show right afterwards, ahhh..the glory of DVRs. I enjoyed it and was glad that David Cook won. He certainly deserved it. I enjoyed the look way back into the season that debily captured, but this was my favorite…

Okay, life is just too crazy. I still have a post to write about something in January. All I can say is that at least it is in ‘08. I am not even sure I know where this post will lead me. Maybe the blog should be Random Thoughts…

Read the complete article »

Short & sweet.  The traffic reports today mentioned a derailed train in Arlington.  The reporter misspoke and said ‘deranged’ train.   That is definitely a ‘loco-motive.

That is what I was greeted with at the 2008 McFBC Men’s retreat. As I signed in, I got a packet that contained the above. There is much to explain, so I should start at the beginning…

I packed Thursday night and planned on leaving work at about 2:30. I was close. I left work at 2:50, which was not bad. I changed into sandals for the drive, which was a great idea. It was casual Friday, so I just kept everything else the way it was. Traffic leaving Dallas was about average. There were not any wrecks, but a lot of cars and not enough pavement. The drive out there was uneventful, and the directions were perfect. I did fill up when I exited I-20, just I would not have to fill up on the way home. Read the complete article »

• Monday, April 21: Softly call to Muster…Aggie Muster aka San Jacinto Day. I went to the McKinney A&M Club’s Muster at the ElDorado Country Club. We had good Italian food, but Muster almost always calls for B-B-Q. I do like how close they are, but the roll call is only for McKinney Aggies, not all. That is kind of a drag, but it is Muster nonetheless.
• Tuesday, April 22nd: Probe Banquet…I left work early two days in a row! Only if you count 5:45 early. I attended Probe’s 35th Anniversary banquet at the Westin Galleria. It was a good time. The two original founders were there too. That was kind of neat. I have a lot of respect for this ministry, so it was good to be there. I however did not have the chance to see their screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
• Thursday, April 24th: LOST…I did get the chance to see Ben’s future flash, Alex get executed,  Ben summon smokie (that was a trip), Ben manipulate Sayid, the doctor from the boat die, Benard use his dental morse code skills, and a whole slew of Other stuff on LOST.  Hey, what can I say, I like the show.
• Saturday, April 26th: Cub Scouts…We have been pummeled with storms the past weeks as my trampoline can attest too. So, spending the night at Camp Wisdom during thunderstorms was not high on my list of things to do. Luckily, the Cubscout Master thought the same thing. Our camping trip turned into a day trip. We settled in at the Castle and had a good time. Trey did graduate from Wolf to Bear and Crisana made some new friends. Imagine that? We made foil packs for dinner, toasted marshmallows, made smores, and got really dirty. It was a late night, but a good time. The kids did get to sleep in a tent that night, just set up in the playroom. In fact, it is still set up. I may try it out, just to ‘get away.’
• Saturday, April 26th: AM stuff…Before the Camp Wisdom day trip I did get some chores done. That in itself is amazing, because of my insane workload. I got word from the lawn mower people that Troy (not very well) Built has a recall on my mower and has a replacement front axle for it. Well, THEY SHOULD!!! See earlier posting for details. I also finally got the tires rotated on the Pilot. That has been nagging me for a long time. I also had the oil changed as well, but that is another story. It was nice to get a couple things off my list.
• Sunday, April 27th:Day of rest…We skipped church this day due to the late night from the day before. I logged time on the project, but did spend some good time with the family too. That was a treat.
• Everyday: Work…My project is due in one week. I have worked sick, worked from home, logged time on it everyday for the past six weeks or so, and it has a long ways to go. I got some help about four weeks ago, and then a little bit more off and on by two other people. I am just trying to get the big picture stuff done now. The little stuff can be issued my addenda. I am happy with the quality under the circumstances, but schlock is still schlock. I know there will be a lot missed. Hey, seven days to go and my (un)civil engineer has not even given me a grading plan. I don’t care about it a whole, but my structural engineer certainly does. Schlock in is schlock out. The good bit of news is that I keep my resume updated.

That is all I have for now. Not a delicate piece of prose, but an update at least.

Last night the McFBC Men’s group, band of Brothers, went down into Dallas to hear John Eldredge speak.  It was pretty cool.  He is good speaker, and can relate to men very well.  This was my first introduction into him.  He has written several books, but have not had the chance to learn of them, much less read them.  While tonight was good, it was also a sales pitch for his latest book.  The main gist was ‘listening to God.’  That listening only comes easily with a deep intimacy with God.  God does speak through His Word, but also in our hearts as well.  He told many stories of God’s conversations with him, some silly, some not.  He also showed a clip from Bruce Almighty when Bruce is asking for a sign from God.  God provides many signs that Bruce just completely misses.  While funny, it is also very true.  How often do we miss what God is trying to tell us.  John was driving cross country and wanted a word from God.  A large semi passes John with the word ‘Grace’ on the side.  Not ‘Grace Moving’ or ‘Grace Industries’, just ‘Grace’.

Band of Brothers is starting ‘Wild at Heart’ after the Pine Cove Men’s retreat.  I am looking forward to going through the book with the guys now that I have a little bit of knowledge of the author.  Several in BoB have been to the Wild at Heart Boot Camp in Frasier, Colorado.  That would be cool too.  I bet Niles, Colorado would be just too orderly.