Monthly Archives: March 2008

Life in the Fast Lane

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It was kind of an interesting day today. I felt like I was running around playing catchup, something I haven’t had to do for a while. Shortly after I was in the office this morning we started realizing that we hadn’t done a good job time-lining the next couple days/weeks and that there was a little less tim there than everyone was expecting. Things weren’t on people’s calendars, so I was booking them and myself for other things without realizing what was really going on. So, I had fun working on putting all sorts of events on people’s calendars and trying to figure out how the next two weeks were going to work out.

Somewhere along the line in dealing with trucking and prepping shows, it was realized that someone needed to go to Vista to pickup some gear. We were going to have Enterprise deliver a van, but I got to thinking that maybe it would make sense for me to drive Batch down there so he could pickup the gear and get the van. As usual, what I was really thinking about was food, which helped tip the scales. We went to Fudds for lunch before going to visit Sandy and Enterprise.

As we were leaving Murrieta, we heard on Murrieta Fire’s tactical frequency them talking about arranging trucks so they were in 1, 2, 3, 4 order. We couldn’t figure out what the heck this was for since that is usually the last thing on someone’s mind. When we got on the 15 at Winchester, we found about four engines parked on the overpass with lights flashing and firefighters standing on top. The same was true at the next two bridges and then we shortly saw a caravan lead by CHP with Murrieta Police and Murrieta Fire units. I found out tonight that one of the Murrieta Fire captains recently died in a hospital in San Diego and they were bringing his body back to Murrieta. It sounds like he picked up a parasite fighting recent wildfires.

Back in the office we got right back to work trying to make everything fit in the day. Nathaniel was prepping a show, I was working on admin stuff and Batch was just trying to keep his head above water. A lot got done today though, that’s for sure. I stayed late and got the taxes pretty much done. I just need to look them over in the morning for any typos or other mistakes and print off some final copies before putting them in the mail.

It was late when I got home tonight, so I’m pretty much just getting ready for bed and trying to wind down from the high paced office today. It’s a good thing I’ve got so many reruns of Without a Trace to watch…

Getting Close

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I got within $15 of balancing our corporate tax return today. I’m happy with how far I got, so hopefully I can get it finished and filed tomorrow. That was pretty much what I worked on most of the day, so I don’t have anything else exciting to report. I stayed at the office till 7 when I left to hop on the Fallbrook ARES net while driving home. Wish me luck tomorrow finishing up the taxes and keep on truckin!

Short & Sweet

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Today wasn’t nearly as productive as I was hoping for, but I got stuff done nonetheless. We had a good board meeting this evening. While the meeting itself went quickly we ended up staying and talking for a while longer and I missed FHE. Nathaniel, Larry and I ended up going to Outback. And that was pretty much my day. I made it to work pretty close to on-time even with the time-change, so I was pretty happy, especially after how late I stayed up last night writing.

A Good Sunday

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Today was pretty good and was probably just what I needed. I got a good amount of sleep based on what time I went to sleep and yet had a reasonable amount of time to get ready this morning. I was able to finish the reading for gospel doctrine and then got through most of the priesthood lesson at the stake center before sacrament meeting started. It seemed like all the messages today contained something that I needed to hear. I’m sure they always have something that I need to be working on, but today it seemed exceptionally focused on me, or at least I was able to focus all the talks and discussions on something that I needed to learn or work on.

Truth be told, the last few weeks or months something has seen off. I don’t know if it has necessarily been bad, but it probably hasn’t been great. I’ve been doing all the basics, reading, pondering, praying, etc. daily, but it just seems that something has been missing. I was thinking the other day that this month I will have been in the branch for a year. it had pretty much been a forward or upward movement for most of the time, but lately I’m not sure which way i’ve been moving. I’m hoping that today was the start of the new upward trek. I think part of the problem is that I haven’t been giving the branch my all lately and I have been focusing elsewhere. I think work had been getting some extra focus. After taxes are done this week, I think things can return to normal. We are almost done with many other changes there, so we should be able to start pushing forward there soon too.

It was kind of quiet at the Dowden’s earlier in the afternoon, but it picked up around dinner time. People must have just known when to show up as the food was coming out of the oven. I had a good chat on the radio/net tonight. They are working on setting up a new track of classes and exams so anyone who is interested in getting their ham license, stay tuned. I had a good time talking and playing with some I typically don’t get to spent much time with.

I mentioned to Christina and Brooke tonight at branch prayer that I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to Keith Urban on Thursday. For some reason or another, I’m just not thrilled about going. Maybe it is just because the seats aren’t so good or because there have been too many other things going on. I mentioned that I might sell them and Brooke didn’t like that idea – unless I was selling them to her. Lauren has already expressed interest in going as well (along with Matchbox Twenty – interest noted Lauren), so i guess I’ll just play it by ear as we get closer to Thursday.

I’m thinking it may be about time to start looking into the house situation again. I’m feeling like I need to move to Murrieta one way or the other – either buying or renting. Buying seems like the way to go, but I’m just not sure if I want to buy a house before I’m married and really start putting down roots. Oh the decisions of life.

I think I’m going to work on getting to bed at a reasonable time tonight as I feel that tomorrow is going to be a heck of a day in the office. I’ve got a board meeting to get ready for and I really want to get started on actually doing the taxes now that I’ve almost got all the data ready. I’m going to write back to Tara though before I go to sleep so i don’t get into any more trouble.

Slow Saturday

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I should start out by being honest and admitting that I didn’t accomplish much today. i did go for a bikeride, and I did a few things around the house, but I also did a lot of sitting around, playing and surfing facebook. This afternoon I started to get antsy, so I decided I was going to go to Disneyland. I thought Christa would go, but she had other plans. I thought Lauren would be up for going, but she had other plans as well, so it turned out to just be Larilyn and I. We still had fun and tried not to kill anyone. I found out that California Screaming is fun in the front. I guess the train is short enough that you don’t spend too much time waiting for the last car to catch up.

As we were driving home I started craving strawberry lemonade. i had thought about Teal earlier, but I didn’t really want to stop on the way out and they don’t make it convenient to get back to Katella. We ended up stopping in Irvine, and apparently Teal had already gotten the message to our waiter there. He decided to spill a glass or two of water on me since I had managed to escape Disneyland completely dry. (it probably had something to do with both Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates being closed.) Long story short, I didn’t melt and I made it home alive.

That’s it for now. I’m going to sleep as it is way, way, way the heck past my bedtime.

New Antenna Mounted

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Today was interesting in the office. Things went well, and I was busy the whole day, it just was out of the norm for me. I spent time checking support as well as spent some time being the only one in the office. It was weird not having Tara around, but it wasn’t bad like it was two weeks ago. I still missed her, but we survived this time.

Buck came by to show off some new toys – the ZX3 and ZXA5. We played with them for a while and then enjoyed some lunch while talking shop. It sounds like the trip could be to Hawaii or Buenos Aires this year. I’d rather go to Hawaii if I had my pick, but it will be interesting nonetheless. Europe would have been cool, but I guess we’ll save that one for a chocolate run some night.

Since I was in early today, I decided to take off a bit early so i could get home while there was still light to install my ham radio antenna finally. Batch ended up joining me since he was early to Fallbrook and it only took a few minutes. I didn’t get the cable through the existing hole in the house, so I’m probably going to need to cut a new hole as I’ve just got it coming in the window now. I was able to hit GTARC with just 5 watts from my house now and can pick up Murrieta Fire crystal clear. i was hearing the staff at GT tonight as well as the custodians at the high school, so I’d say it is working pretty well.

i think there was something I was supposed to do tonight, but I don’t know what it was. I enjoyed a quiet evening at home, surfing the net, listening to the radio and watching Without a Trace. I got a letter from Tara today, pretty much telling me I’m a slacker. I guess it’s the truth, so I’d better pick up the slack!

Restless

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I was getting restless in the office this afternoon. I don’t know if I was there too early or if I just spent too much time reconciling credit card statements, but I was definitely done around 4 o’clock and couldn’t figure out what to do to be productive. I ended up cleaning the office. I went through a bunch of stuff on my desk, then started cleaning surface and after closing got out the vacuum cleaner. I really wanted to get out and do something, but with institute tonight I knew there wasn’t really anywhere to go.

I’m still feeling somewhat restless, so I’m not sure that I am going to get a good night’s worth of sleep, but I’m going to try so I can get up in the morning and babysit the office tomorrow while everyone is gone.

Quickest Route to a Heavy Heart

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Well, just in case it wasn’t already official, I’m old. I’m getting older as we speak.

Ryan and I went for a ride this morning. It didn’t almost kill me like it did last week, so we’re making improvements. Now, if we could just get a schedule and stick to it we might be able to make some progress. Work went fairly well. I ended up having to run out at 5 when a customer called and I had to drive something to FedEx to get it shipped for him, so that got me home early and ended the debate of what I was going to do tonight. Since I was already in my car and basically at the freeway, I decided to drive on home.

I actually found another live person on the GTARC repeater this evening. I recently decided that I was going to set out to find someone else on there, so I’ve started calling out when I’m in the area. I found a guy, John, today who was thinking the same thing – that no one ever uses the repeater and we needed to make it more active.

I had a real quiet evening at home. Matt got his new DVR today, so he was happy. I spent some time on facebook, ate some cake and sat down to watch a movie. I watched Sky High. I wasn’t expecting too much from it, but I enjoyed it. As usual, the main character was such an idiot and couldn’t see what was right in front of him until it was made blatantly obvious to him. I wonder if we do the same thing. Are we characters in a movie and people are sitting at home watching us on the screen saying hey idiot, can’t you see such or don’t you realize that? I guess you just have to love how hindsight is 20/20. I’m sure I do similar stupid things on a regular basis – how come you all aren’t telling me what an idiot I am and how I can’t see what is right in front of me?

Warren Peace says to Layla at one point: “to let true love remain unspoken is the quickest route to a heavy heart.” It was quickly followed by, “and your lucky numbers are…” It may not always work out well for us when we tell people how we really feel, but what’s the point in hiding it? Many people will see it, but the one that it matters to may be blind. Sure, it may be awkward, but do some critical analysis, what do you really have to loose? At most, maybe something you never had and were only dreaming of. What do you have to gain? Pretty much, just, the world. You’ll never know if you don’t come out and say it.

I typically hate birthdays because I’m just not one for the attention and I hate giving and/or receiving gifts just because it is one of those times. I must admit though that Bouse generally comes up with great ideas. The Apple stock was classic a few years ago. Today he had an edible bouquet delivered – of fruit! It was quite good. I enjoyed some chocolate covered strawberries this afternoon and am looking forward to working through it some more tomorrow. Batch also brought me some new chocolate which was quite good. And, no birthday could be complete without an ice cream cake which Nathaniel got while picking up lunch.

Where I was trying to go with that last paragraph was that what I do like about birthdays (and other holidays) is it gives us an excuse to talk to people we don’t get to talk to on a regular basis. I got all sorts of random text messages, phone calls, emails, etc from people today who I haven’t heard from in a while. I got to talk to Dale Buzza the other day on his birthday. It’s probably the only time we talk each and every year, but it gives us a few minutes to catch up. That much I do like, and I got to hear from Ashley who I haven’t talked to in a few months.

Well, seeing as how I need to help hold the fort down the rest of the week, I’d better get my old self to sleep. I’m getting too old to stay up late and make it to the office on-time. Oh wait, I’ve always had a problem with that!

In Early

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I actually made it to the office a few minutes early this morning which was nice. I just like the feeling of not being late. Batch and I were able to finish up inventory from a while ago and I was able to make progress on a few other fronts. We finished off the cake, with some help from Melissa and that was about the day. I came home, spent time online and watching reruns of Without a Trace and Cold Case while fussing around on the Internet.

Fairly Typical Monday

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Today was pretty much your typical Monday. I don’t feel like I got anything done at work today, but my phone is now actively connected to Exchange after I just started deleting tasks trying to solve the problem there. Alison and I went to Macaroni Grill for lunch since she had the day off and was up in Temecula getting contacts and her car fixed. The Mazada 6 they gave her was kind of cool in that you could hold the unlock button and it would roll down the windows.

For FHE we shared our favorite scriptures and why we liked them. I liked the input others shared. The attendance was kind of low, but we still had a good time.

I came home and setup my new receiver. I ended up getting it from Circuit City since B&H was out of stock and Circuit City came down another $25 with their price. I liked the auto setup (the calibration) once I got my speakers hooked up. I determined that one of my speakers was out of phase – and probably has been since day one! I guess it is also possible that the wiring is in phase, but it decided for my configuration to reverse it. I guess that’s the beauty of an auto-configuring device.

I’m now enjoying Brad Paisley in concert at Muddi Gras. It’s not nearly as cool as seeing him live, but it is good none the less and I’m getting to give my new setup a little test. Too bad it’s too late to try it out at full volume! It will be nice once I actually get a house and can setup a real theater.

It sounds like I’ve got everyone on board for getting a BBQ at the office and trying to make our own lunch instead of going out to eat everyday. Now we just need to go shopping and get a plan together. I threatened that we could have a meeting each week to determine our food for the week, so we’ll see where this goes. I guess I’d better get to sleep so I can be at the office before lunchtime tomorrow!

Continue Moving Forward

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Another day, another dollar. Oh wait. i guess you have to go to work for that. Let’s try that again. There was no work today because it was Sunday! I enjoyed laying in bed this morning, getting rest and pondering. Then I got up and had plenty of time to get ready for the day and do some reading. I also started adding things to the online branch calendar for the month.

Church went well. President Smith spoke to us during Sunday school and Elders Quorum. The main topic seemed to be to keep moving forward. Beyond that we need to make sure we are not being distracted from our focus, but all went well. Break the Fast was good – we did breakfast foods which are my favorite! We followed it up with some soup at the Dowden’s Things were fairly quiet there, so I started writing a letter to Tara, but I didn’t get far before people caught on that I was hiding in the corner.

I’ve been thinking of lots of things that I need to get working on this week. I hope the office is as busy at it was last week, but I also hope that I have time to focus on getting things done that I need to do so we can continue moving forward. I was kind of also hoping to find a day to take off and run away to Disneyland, but with how busy we’ve been I don’t know if it is going to happen. Well, I think I’m going to finish my letter and get to bed.

Keep Moving Forward

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I just finished watching Meet the Robinsons. I really liked the theme of keep moving forward. I feel that is what we always need to be doing. It is so easy to be content with the same old stuff day to day. We always need to be trying to come up with better ways to do something and improving ourselves. None of us are going to be perfect, but as long as we keep trucking down the road striving for perfection I think we are doing good.

I spent almost the entire day working on our DSL or our network in general at home. We hooked the DSL modem up straight to the POP without any other devices on the network to ensure that there was not a wiring problem in the house. After another call to tech support and finally being elevated to tier two we were able to determine that the problem was some idiot had put us on a lower plan that what we should have been on. We were able to get our account upgraded to the 3 mbps connection and suddenly we had real internet back. I was able to put away my Verizon card and go back to using the DSL – it was very nice.

I convinced my dad that it would be well worth the effort to run cable in the house to replace most of the wireless connections we have. Either we could do it ourselves or hire an electrician to come in and do it, but we have spent well more time making it work than it ever would have cost to run cable. Even after that, he was determined to make sure he had the best wireless connection he could in the meantime. That lead me to thinking about updating the firmware in the units which set me on this plan of basically starting from scratch. I couldn’t figure out the ip addresses for some of the units, so I just started wiping them. I couldn’t get the repeater we had in the kitchen working again, so I decided just to try connecting my dad without the repeater. It worked and was way faster than anything we had ever seen before. I ended up having to setup an access point in his office to feed the replay in the master bedroom, but we got it all working again and everything seems to be happy.

I just found out I don’t have to be at our branch council meeting tomorrow morning. I guess it’s a good thing that my meeting earlier in the morning got cancelled. This means it’s going to be a long fast morning at home, but I’m sure that will be good for me. Maybe I can actually spend some time doing what I should be doing instead of rushing to get things done for church.

I think I found the new home theater receiver I’m going to get. It’s a decently priced Sony unit that has 3 HDMI’s and some opticals, which seems to do everything I need it to today. I could argue to get a higher priced one that might last longer (as in do whatever I want it to do next year), but I think that I have no clue what next year may bring so there is no reason to plan for expansion and just get what I need and save the money in the bank for the future. It’s a Sony STR-DG910 7.1 receiver. It is missing S-Video, but I can’t actually figure out what I would use that for at this point and I could always go straight to my TV if necessary for something. I found it for $350 at B&H or $425 at Circuit City. It seems that I will be ordering it from B&H once they allow customers to place orders again. I seriously would think about boycotting them just because they are such a pain (B&H), but price gets the better of me and I’m just looking that I can save $75 and I have no need to have it right away. It will be nice to be able to watch HD DVDs again and I’m really looking forward to having the optical hookup for AirTunes to get rid of the hum that is in it now. I’m guessing from the discounts I’m seeing on this unit that it is about to be replaced, but I’m ok with that. We’ll save the high quality stuff for someone who has a real theater and not just my bedroom.