Category: Rachel

Need A Paper?

Then I’m your man, at least on the far westside of Bloomington.

I officially became a carrier for the Herald-Times today.

Rachel and I went on the route, and we had a few hiccups but it went pretty smooth.

200 papers, 2 hours.

With high gas prices, you would think that it would be a losing situation, but it’s not.  The route is only 26 miles, and I can deduct that expense on my taxes next year.

I’m eventually going to buy a beater of a car and use it.  Until then, I think I’m going to use my truck.  This morning we learned that Rachel’s car is just a wee bit small.

Primarily Undecided

For the first time in my lifetime, the Indiana Primary has become an important step in the process of deciding who will become the next president of the United States.

The hardest part, for this household anyway is deciding on who to vote for.  We are not “hardline” party voters.  We instead vote for the issues that are more important to us, and try to make an effort to vote for a person who will do their job, and do it well.

Since G.W.’s administration has made everything under the sun a nightmare, we are voting Democratic this time.  One point I have been making since it has become a Obama vs. Clinton showdown is that history will be made no matter who wins the nomination.

Both canidates have made appearances in Bloomington.
Obama showed up for the Little 500, and was here last night.  He gave a speech at Assembly Hall with a crowd of 13,000 present.  I sat comfortably at home and watched it via a live feed on the Herald-Times website.
Hillary, Chelsea and Bill Clinton have all made appearances here.  While I have not gotten a chance to see any of them speak, I haven’t heard much buzz regarding those appearances either.

When all of this began I was leaning towards voting for Hillary, but I have changed my mind, I think.  The turning point for me was last night when Obama said that, his entire campaign was funded by the american people, one $25 check at a time.”

Last night, we went to my grandmothers for dinner.  We have to drive by the airport to get there, and saw a large plane.  It had an american flag and “The United States” printed on the sides of it.  We knew it was for Obama.  While there, we were watching the news and they had a live feed from Indianapolis.  He was there speaking.  About 11pm, long after his speech here was over, we felt that plane leave.  It was an experience unto itself.

This country needs a change, and while I see it happening with either canidate, I see it happening better with Obama behind the wheel.

She’s Being Hooded

Friday that is.

That’s right, this Friday my wife Rachel is going through that ritual of rituals, graduation.  This will be her third.

I’m so proud of her, as she has practically devoted the last 4 years of her life to this degree, the Higher Education & Student Affairs Masters program.

She has also devoted her career, and much of her life on education.  Which is very interesting because I’m almost the exact opposite.  I guess opposites really do attract.

The only question now is if she will someday take that next, final step and go for the doctorate degree?  We have been discussing it, and at the same rate she has taken the masters program, it would take her 10 years to accomplish the required credits needed for the doctorate.

Perhaps when she’s had a chance to breathe for a while.

Anyway you cut it, I’m very proud.  (It’s not easy with the distractions I seem to bring along)

If The House is a Rockin’

The midwest felt something very strange Friday morning, there was an earthquake.  I have heard so much about the quake of ’87 or the quake of ’02, but I didn’t feel or just don’t remember them.

I’m only writing this so my own personal account of what happened is out there.

It was about 5:30am and I had just woken up to use the restroom.  I had made it back to bed and just started getting comfortable.  That’s when the bed started shaking like it never had before.  Rachel thought I was going into a seizure, or our cats were fighting underneath the bed.  It’s intensity was about the same as my wife and I making love, not enough to scare, but strong.

I was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on by the time it stopped.  It lasted a total of about 30 seconds.  It’s been recorded as a 5.2 on the richter scale.

I tried to get some sleep afterwards but really couldn’t.  Rachel called her mom and started watching TV.  Her office view is directly looking at the Geology building, and all of the major Indianapolis TV stations showed up with their satellite trucks.  It was kind of funny because each stations’ truck was a different size small, medium and large.

I guess this is a 15 or 20 year event.  In the end, I’m glad I’m not anywhere near the San Andreas fault.

A Very Productive Weekend

Rachel and I weren’t ourselves this weekend, we were productive!

Saturday, Taylor came over for a while and we had fun.  She was up with her mom, I think they’re trying to unpack their new home in Owensburg before they actually move up here.  As my big helper, she helped me with the yearly maintenance of my riding mower.  After Taylor left, dad and I loaded all of the concrete remnants I had removed from the ground into my truck.  I then took it off later that night.  I don’t think my truck has ever had that much weight in it, as it was lower in the rear than the front.

Sunday, Rachel and I re-arranged the garage.  It’s more organized now, and I must say easier to get things in and out of.  We got rid of a lot of trash we didn’t even realize we had, for that I took off another load of garbage.

While I finished painting our dining room area, Rachel worked on her final paper for her Master’s Degree.  There is still a little bit of touching up to do, but it looks fantastic!

Sorry about the picture quality, my lens needed cleaned!

We capped off the weekend by watching the last of the Star Wars Saga, Return of the Jedi.  I can’t believe how much of a Stars Wars freak my wife is.  I enjoy it, but she really gets into it!

Easter with My Little Halfshell

Taylor has spring break this week.  She stayed last weekend with us, and is staying the evenings with us thru tonight.

Over the weekend we celebrated Easter with my wifes’ family bright and early on Saturday, and on Sunday with my family.  It was honest to goodness pure family fun.

We’ve missed Taylor tremendously, and hopefully sooner than later she’ll be up here permanently.  This weekend her mom and step-dad moved the majority of their belongings up here to their new home.  It’s about 30 minutes away, but that’s better than 4 hours.

We have been very busy, but having loads of fun.  Taylor got 2 new video games for the PS2 from aunties Brenda & Michele.  She got Petz Cats 2 and Madagascar.  The Cats game is more like a “beginner RPG game.”  I don’t like it much, but she does.  I do enjoy the Madagascar game though, as it is like the movie.  The best part is you get to “be” all the main characters, unlike most video games.  Taylor plays until it gets too hard, and then daddy takes over.

Taylors nighties were getting a little tight, so we got out my vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PJ’s.  I wore these in the late 80’s and they’re still rockin’ in 08!  It kind of reminds me of this picture.  Taylor’s only complaint?  “These feel like boys clothes!”  That’s cause they are!

I’m gonna miss her when she goes back to Tennessee, hopefully for the last time.

14 Days!

Today we delivered everything back to the Kelley School of Business MBA program.  I must say, I am quite astonished that I was able to complete this mega-transfer in a mere 14 days.

Total time spent on each tape was about 50 minutes on average.  Multiply that by 79 tapes, and that’s almost 66 hours of work.  I actually put my computer to “bed” so it could cool down, as it was working non stop.

Let me go over some of the interesting things about this particular job.

Tapes:  DVCAM and BetaCam SP.  Professional quality videotape, that is just the same as their commercial counterparts (Mini-DV and Betamax) just larger.

Equipment:  Professional grade comes at a professional price.  I had to rent one player, but it was much more economically feasible to actually purchase the other.  While the one I purchased isn’t a ferrari, it gets the job done.  Thanks to my wife Rachel for finding this new one for the same price as very used ones.

Technical Difficulties:  Originally they wanted all of the tapes to be transferred to DVDs, after some testing I found out this was not going to be possible.  So then we tried to see if I could upload them to IU’s MDSS (Massive Data Storage Service).  That was highly unlikely as my upload speed is 384k max, the estimated time to upload 1 was over 36 hours.  So we decided on an external hard drive.  I found this awesome one on newegg.  At 1 TB (Terabyte) it had plenty of space, it also has 3 different connection types, USB, Firewire A and Firewire B.  External isn’t really my thing, but this thing rocks!

Kristi and Ashly were blown away by the speed of this, and I hope that they are equally impressed by my professionalism and price.  Now that I am in the Indiana University network for independent contractors, it will be much easier for me to do other work for the university.  I just hope that my hard work will pay off and other professional work such as this will come my way.

Last Birthday

Today, my wife is celebrating her last birthday.  According to her anyway.

There are many things I believe that she wanted to do before she turns a certain age, I think she feels dissapointed that she hasn’t done some of these things so far.

She has accomplished so many other things that she should be proud of though.  I’ll list a few here.

She:

Is a Homeowner
Is almost finished with her masters degree in Higher Education
Is married to the kindest, sweetest man in the world who loves her forever 🙂

Something she needs to remember is that some people don’t achieve these things in their entire life.

We’ve only just begun my dear, just remember that.

Spread Thin

Progress on projects I have undertaken has come very slow.

Here is a list of things I am currently working or trying to work on:
1. Redesign my website.
2. Redesign all electronic menus for DVDs and packaging for my products.
3. Look for permanent position with ANY company.
4. House fixes and updates.
5. Work with Kelley School of Business on plan to strategically market my business services to other local businesses.
6. Always workin’ on ROX

I do have to say that I have made some progress on the house.  A couple of weeks ago I had a day off and started a surprise for my wife.  She doesn’t like it when I do things that she has no knowledge of.  I painted our hallway.

The color doesn’t come out well in these pictures, but it’s called “Grand Stand Tan.”  It dried a lot darker than we expected, but we still like it.  I was very surprised when I went to purchase the paint, it was on sale!  So after Rachel was surprised, we bought a few more gallons to have enough to finish our living room and entry.

I also must say that all the hard work I put into the hallway definitely paid off.  Our “red” wall has a lot of character due to the texture in the wall.  That texture is there because I didn’t work on it like I did the hallway.  Besides a paint streak here and there, it’s smooth as a baby’s butt.

I have slowed way down on the redesign of my website. All the content is there, I just haven’t found a good way to add PayPal buttons on a Joomla site yet.

The redesign of my menus and packaging are going good, too good to be exact!  I have been working with my logo and have a “translucent design” working right now.  My only problem right now is that it doesn’t look good at smaller sizes.

My work situation is a weird one.  Yes I have a job, and I’m thankful for that.  But I am not a full time employee with IU, I’m an hourly employee.  I do not get paid for holidays, or time off.  Also my position is mostly an “academic-year” position.  Meaning when schools out, I’m out.  I have been applying for positions that seem to suit me, only when they come around.  I’ve had a couple of interviews, but nothing has panned out thus far.  I was really excited about a position I interviewed for last week, but as each day passes I wonder.  I don’t think this economy helps either.  I know it’s sick, but it’s times like these that I really miss my job at Baxter.

I am trying to focus on direct business sales this year.  I think if I start a working relationship with other businesses in this area, it will help my business become more successful and profitable.  I’m no marketing major, so my wife has used some of her contacts in the Kelley School of Business (where she used to work).  I have been in contact with the deans’ wife.  She teaches marketing, and is trying to help.  The only problem is communication right now.  I work when she’s in her office, and I can’t really talk on the phone.  Right now I’m not even near a computer either.  I hope this pans out, with the right plan I could make LML Video Services something bigger this year.

I’m still transferring what I have of ROX onto DVDs for storage.  Some episodes will have to be, dare I say it, repaired.  They just have too much heat damage.  I’m waiting to finish a job for a aunt to get some money.  Once that is done, B will have about 50 odd DVD’s for homework.

Plus we discovered a clog in our sewer line.  Everytime our washer drans, water comes out from under our toilet in a hurry.  My ex-contractor neighbor Bill is going to help me try to fix this problem Saturday.  I got his Wi-Fi going, he’s returning the favor.  He has some specialty tools to help.  I hope we can get this clog gone.

I have finally got my hands on a basketball goal as well.  We have a “post” that appears to be designed to have a basketball goal on it.  I have wanted one for a long time.  The prices for a bracket to attach to the post and a goal add up to a cool $100.  I have been offered one on freecycle for free.  There’s only one kicker, I have to dig this one out.  That’s my plan for Sunday – pray for me.  The strange thing?  I have never been good or even really liked basketball.  I just want the goal!

That’s all I’ve got for right now.  I’d like to write more often, but it’s hard when you have things such as this on your hands day in and day out.