A Second Chance

Many years ago, I switched from being a PC guy, to being a Mac guy. Now today, I own 5 different Mac devices. I've owned many others in my day, but tonight is a first for me. I'm doing a re-install of the software. When I used to have my PCs, I'd go through this once a year at least. This is the first time since my first Mac in 2006 I've had to do this. A few months ago, I took an upgrade of the Operating system. It was like moving from Windows XP to Vista. It nearly killed my computer. So, Heather and I have been dealing with this now for a few months, and a couple weeks ago, decided it was time to oust the laptop. I decided that maybe it wasn't time to give it up just yet. So, like my father has done with many vehicles in his day, I am trying to bring it back and give it one more chance. Tonight was the reinstall, and I'm currently trying to get it back to operating process just like was before the re-format. Then we will see if this 5 year old computer can run like the day I got it. And, if you're wondering, this isn't the oldest computer we have here (2008). We have a 2005 or 2006 Dell that Heather was using when we got married that still runs like it's new as well, so I just wanted to throw that in there that it may get called into a more full time roll around here if the Mac doesn't shape up.

I hope this is working

Well, two reasons I hope this is working properly. 1. It's been a while.... 2. Its been so long, they changed the whole blog interface I use. So, I have no clue about this new layout on my end of entering these posts. Well, I'm going to go with it's working, and trust you'll get this. Hard to believe that September is gone and October will be here this weekend. Last night I got to wrap up my high school refereeing, and now, my season is over half completed. I've got four weeks remaining of the college season, and then the playoffs if I get any assignments there. We'll see how the rest of the season goes before determining that. It's kept me plenty busy, plus work, plus all kinds of other minor or major projects around the house. So, what else has been going on around here. Olivia is continuing to make like a bean sprout and shoot up. She's growing quite quickly and has started entering the terrible twos (even though we're only at around 20 months). We always thought she may be advanced for her age, so why not get this going too. She's really turned into a fearless little dare devil. She'll now use her ability to climb on things to get her to a better position to jump off them. The higher the better, and if it's a soft landing, GREAT!! if not, oh well. Hard to know what's been going on around here since I last either saw or talked to most of you, so we'll leave it at that. Fall is always a busy time around here, so you may or may not see much more of me. Soon our computer will be going under the knife here, so it may be black for a while. Wait, that may happen regardless of the computer fixes, but anyhow, I'll let you know. If the computer repairs work, this one will pry stay, otherwise, we're shopping for new computers. Of course, we made the threat to replace it, and now it's worked well the past few nights. That doesn't mean it's not getting worked on though!! Alright, happy October, and I'll try to catch you before halloween.

I hate bees

So, I ha something happen to me this week that hasn't happened in a long, long time. I got stung by a bee. Let me share the entire story with you.

This past Thursday, Olivia was a bit more on the cranky side at bed time the past night, and squeaked a couple times in the night, enough to wake me up. She did fall back asleep on her own, but that feeling didn't allow for much restful sleep that night. So, I went into the day tired. I also had to go to Huron to referee soccer in the early evening, so I had a lot of things to do that morning. So, I run Olivia to daycare and get her dropped off. I head to the gas station and get filled up with gas and see that I'm running late. I had been having issues with one of my tires losing air, so I needed to go and air it up. So, I head over to the air pump at the Cenex, and put it on the car. The only thing that happens is more air comes out of the tire, and none goes in. I'm angry and dumbfounded, but knew that my day was too packed to get away to work on it more, so I ran back home quick to use my air compressor. To my dismay, mine wouldn't turn on. So, I'm 0/2 now, and late for work, and still don't have my tire aired up. So, I head toward work and stopped off at Coborns to use their air line, and their's lets more air out of the tire than Cenex's air hose did, so now I'm 0/3, and the tire is nearly flat. So, I called up Heather, and asked if she could come and meet me to switch cars so I could use the TB to do the traveling. So, I get to the school, and am waiting outside to get the keys, and I get stung by a bee. I was just standing there, minding my own business, and the dumb thing got me. I gave it a good whack, so I don't think he survived, but I couldn't find the body to dismember (which I would have, because I was mad). So, my arm starts to swell instantly. I got things moved over, then went home to get some antihistamines. I got them in me, and my arm started looking a lot better as the day went on. All in all, a 10 minute car swap turned into a 40 minute project. So, I thought all was going to be ok. Friday morning I wake up, and the entire crease of my elbow is red and hot to the touch. Great.....this is awesome. So, I went to the doctor, and of course they wanted to draw blood. Great....love that. Then the doctor comes in and tells me I have a serious skin infection that if I left untreated much longer would land me in the hospital. Seriously?!?!?!?! From a bee sting....I get a serious skin infection. At least it was only limited to my arm/elbow area. So, I got two options: 1. I could go to the hospital and get an IV, or 2. I could take a shot in the butt. Now, I'm not faced with too many decisions in life that are as difficult as this one. I would rather let someone hit me with a baseball bat than get stuck with a needle, and putting one in my butt doesn't sound like anything close to a good time. IV is by far the better option, but going to the hospital means I'm going to be paying 10 times too much for that service, so that wasn't a good option. I told the doctor I wasn't doing either, what options did I have for a pill. I was told that I didn't get a pill option, I had to pick one or two. So, out of two absolutely awful options, I chose the cheapest. My hip is still incredibly sore. I didn't get the shot in the cheek, it was actually in the hip area, which is bad enough. I have a hard time limping around. Sitting isn't comfortable at all, and there is just an ache that is constant. I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow, where I will again share my displeasure with him. Ohh, it's also not my regular doctor, so that makes it even more fun. I'm going get on my usual doctor, and tell him when bees are in season, he's not allow to take vacation!

Ok, so the update to this is I have a dotted outline on my arm of the previously infected area I'm getting looked at again tomorrow. That will be fun, and tonight I was shuffling vehicles around, because I'm leaving. Ohh, I totally left that part of the saga out!! I'm going out of the country on business next week, so I am dealing with this infection, on a holiday weekend, when I'm going to leave the country. That's awesome. So, I'm trying to get things set prior to my leaving, and I am in the garage walking past my air compressor, and I gave it a kick, because ultimately, it's the air compressor's fault. If it had worked, none of this would have happened. So, I kick it and happened to kick the air check release. Air comes shooting out of the thing. As it's loudly dispensing the air out the valve, I realize that there is nothing wrong with it at all. When I went to turn it on, it didn't need to turn on, because it was ready to go. It was fully charged with air, and all I had to do was put it on the tire to try it, and the air would have come. Grrrrrrr. But, the good news is my air compressor was spared a brutal death at the dump tomorrow morning, and the car is fixed!!

One Big Party

Heather and I hosted our first major get together at the house tonight. I've finally finished the bathroom (outside of fixing an outlet and touchups on the trim), so we decided it was a good time to host our church group. We had a great time, and Olivia didn't know what to do with all the kids her age. Every family here had at least one child her age, and one family has two (a set of identical twins that I cannot ever tell apart). So Olivia had tons of kids to help her play with all of her toys, and it was great to have all the room we had to roam around and let the kids play up stairs, and we didn't even get to the basement. We were missing two families tonight, so had they have been here, we probably would have spread to the basement also. Kind of makes all that cleanup we did down there worthless, but I guess we needed to do that also to get it done, and to get ready for some company in a couple of weeks.

So, in all we had 18 people here, which meant a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers to go around, but all was a great success. We had been providing weekly updates on the house in Sunday school, so the group was kind of anxious to see the final product as where it stands now. I told Heather that I think the kitchen is next, so we'll have to have the group over again when that's completed. I'm not even sure when we'll get to that, but in due time, we shall see.

One Wild Week

This week bustling downtown Mitchell area is consumed by carnival goers for the Corn Palace Festival. I know, I know, all of you who cannot make it down here will miss out on this, but I hope you can cope until next year. Actually, our town is invaded with lots of people. I think they go to Dakotafest during the day, then hit down town at night. We made it downtown tonight to have our usual pork loin sandwich. It was pretty tasty. Also, we let Olivia do one carnival ride, the merry-go-round that merry-went-round awful fast. That dumb thing nearly threw me off. Well, it didn't help that Olivia was also screaming and pushing me away while trying to get off her horse. I finally got everything pulled together for last 6 minutes of the ride (ok, it wasn't 6 but it was a long ride, especially with a scream child). So, that wasn't a big hit with O, but the inflatables were! She loved the jumping bean area, and the inflatable slide, well, after the first time, she really enjoyed it. The first time we sent her up in her socks. She knew just what to do, she climbed the ladder as best she could (as it was slippery and steep and the little steps were pretty far apart) and she got to the top and stepped out on to the part of the slide that begins to go down and WHOOOOOP....feet went out from under her and she's on her rear end FLYING down the slide. I will never forget the look of horror on her face as she came down. It made me giggle, because she's never moved that fast in her life, and the expression on her face showed it!! When she stopped at the bottom, then it was all fun!! She couldn't get back to the ladder fast enough. The second time was a little quicker to the top as she got in front of a little girl that wanted to go up faster than Olivia, so she'd push her up the inflatable stairs. Olivia liked getting up there easier, and this time, it was on the stomach using the arms to slow her down.....she went several times on the slide, but none were quite like the first ride down!

Softball Wrapup

This week marks the end of another softball season. Tonight was the beginning of the all-city tournament. We went in with hopes that it could be our year, but after our first game we are now out of contention. We are back tomorrow in the consolation bracket, and are 3 games now from the consolation title. We do have a shot at that, and if I recall correctly, we are defending consolation champs. Maybe I should check the archives.....

Well, the end of softball tomorrow marks the beginning of the fall season for us here. Heather is in process of going back to inservice and getting ready for a new year. She is excited of a little bit of a change. She is now teaching in a middle school type situation where she gets two subject to teach to 3 different sections of 5th-6th, 7th, and 8th. She'll teach Bible and Social Studies this year and is looking forward to that. For me, I begin the fall referee season with soccer this weekend. I'm not sure I'm ready for it to begin, but here it is! It will be nice to get a few games in again. So, from now till November, we'll see you on the pitch!

Bathroom Project Lingers On

This seems to be a project that now the bathroom is useable will not end. I'm in the process right now of trying to get the trim finished, and I never really realized how difficult that aspect is. I have a very nice saw, thanks to dad letting me keep his indefinitely, so that definitely helps. So tonight I was carefully planning it out, and carefully cut my first piece to perfection......only to figure out I had it upside down......so it was ruined. I think I can salvage it on another part of the bathroom, but I wasn't too happy with myself. At any rate, I did get 2 other boards cut and ready to put into place. Now, for the finishing nailer....which I don't have. So, I will explore that world tomorrow, and see what I can get. Normally I like buying tools, but currently, I'm sick of it.

On another note, I'm trying to get this done because next Friday opens soccer season. It's a fall that will already be busy, and I've got games lined up into October, and more will be coming soon. I gotta get more done this weekend, or I'm in big trouble.