HUGE UPDATE
The long 4 month update. Gahh sorry things have been pretty busy.
September
Not too much happened at the end of the month I started watching Night Court and was surprised at how enjoyable it still is. Although I can only find the first 3 seasons.
October
Took the 3rd off when Maer was planning on arriving but they ended up not coming in till the next day. We went to Cork n Cleaver for Meg’s birthday I had one of the best round steaks I’ve ever had it was coated in a cracked pepper (pepper fiend) and ground coffee beans. We also had the Shrimp appetizers in various flavors. This is about the only place I would eat shrimp at since it doesn’t taste “fishy” like most places (not a sea food fan). All in all everyone seems to have a good time.
We started watching Allison and Lilly (anime) and quickly finished it within a week. It really is a good series with a nice story line and good background scenes.
We went out shopping and I ended up buying 2 paintings & a Japanese style lantern side table light. One painting was of a bamboo tree which I put in my bamboo room with the Japanese style lantern on the night stand. The 2nd painting I put up in my bedroom it is a brown and cream color 4 pane type picture of Japanese flowers. I also went out and bought some wall shelves for the living room to put my smaller Japanese knickknacks on.
On the 24th we went down to Evansville for the Willard Library over night on the 25th. There was a lot of interesting things going on starting off at the beginning of the night I went down to the basement area around the bathrooms and ran into a small group that just had something happen to them. Apparently a coin was thrown at Scotty (sensitive) while he was at the water drinking fountain. They were scanning with the EMF readers and getting spikes now and then and even turned the lights off since the meters were going off when close to the lights. Later that night there was activity in the area down the hall near the back door and elevator and a group of us were there using dowsing rods with the lights out and one person had an IR camcorder. I was standing next to the person with the camcorder and you could see orbs moving across the screen quickly. We checked to make sure there were no drafts in the area that would cause this but nothing and the orbs were moving in different directions. It was pretty fascinating seeing something like that for the first time.
November
Maer and Meg left at the beginning of the month. I finally got most of my living room decorations in and put together and placed on the walls. It looks pretty good now and I will need to post the pictures I took when I get home (at work). I also bought more things for the house another bamboo painting, fake bamboo tree, light for front room & another painting for my bedroom. The bamboo picture I put up over the bed in the bamboo room and the tree in the open corner I also bought some river stones to place in the basket to make it look nice. The light stand I put next to the front door replacing the old light stand I had there. And the 2nd painting I I put up over my bed in the main bedroom.
Somewhere in there I found the picture of me, my brother, and mom that was taken while in Japan at a professional photographer studio. I put the picture in a 3 picture glass frame and hung it in the living room. I will need to get copies of the picture of me and my brother and one of just me and one of just my brother so I can put them in the frame and one in the single frame I have on the side table.
While in the process of putting stuff up on the walls I finally broke out my old anime wall scrolls and put them up in the college bedroom.
Went to Grandma’s on Thanksgiving basically same as usual I left a bit late so missed out on the Thanksgiving over at my Dads. Although still went over and visited a bit with them and Andrea’s family came over briefly to pick up the fold out table.
December
Finally got a definite date on when Tony and family would be here during Christmas they were flying into Fort Wayne on the 22nd and leaving on January 5th.
Started planning for the Party for Rich since he was coming back to the States for the holiday. This time we set the gathering up on the 13th (Saturday) instead of the middle of the week like last time. Was pretty nice had more people and everyone had a blast we will have to do it again next year and get more people to come.
With all the financial market issues going on the mortgage interest rates have been dropping. I got an email from my Realtor saying that her husband a Mortgage Broker is getting low rates right now so I went in and got my house re-finance saving me $150 a month on my loan.
Around this time I grabbed the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes TV shows that were made in the mid 80’s. For those of you that don’t know I’m about as big a Sherlock Holmes fan as I am a Doctor Who fan. I’ve been reading Canon Doyle’s work since I was 7 and the Sherlock Holmes series was my favorite. I also found Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes that was done around 2000. I’ve only seen part of one episode on PBS some years ago and have been searching for the series ever since. The show is just amazing if you are a fan of either Canon Doyle or Sherlock Holmes. I also picked up some of the Sherlock Holmes games and have been playing them.
On the 19th the last day I worked for the year till January 5th was when the big ice storm went through the area. I left home for work with power and everything fine and when I came back the power was out and tree limbs all over the back yard and on top of my roof. I spent the next few days without power and bailing water out of my basement since the sub pump wasn’t working. Luckily the basement stayed fairly warm so I slept down there and used candles for light and minimal heat. I called mom and step dad to come over with a chainsaw so we could clear the limbs up and pull the ones off the roof. Luckily there was no damage on the roof and took pictures before and after of the pile of branches sitting in my front yard for pick up. The power finally came back on late Sunday the temp upstairs was at 32 degrees and took about 8 hours to get the house warmed back up to 65 degrees. After things warmed up a bit one of the pipes in the basement started leaking. I had the water running during the outage in the sinks and tub but the outside water hose lines were not on and so that line froze. It was not leaking that bad but enough that I had to put a bucket under it and empty it once a day.
On the 22nd I went to the airport to see Tony and family come in with my mom, little brother, dad, and step mom. Originally I thought that they were going to be staying at my place, but they ended up going to my mom’s since she had a larger vehicle to carry them all around in.
Ok that’s brings up the many family Christmas events. Let me see there is the one at my Great-Aunt’s place for my Dad’s side of the family. That’s where I found out that Tony is going to be shipped off to Afghanistan shortly after his vacation here. Then the one at my sister’s place for my step mom’s side of the family. I finally got to see their new house after they gutted it and expanded and remodeled it. Then Christmas day at my grandmas for my mom’s side of the family. Then to my Dad’s for the immediate family Christmas.
After that I invited Tony and family, dad, step mom, and both sisters and family over to my place since most of them have not seen my house yet. So a total of 14 people and still had plenty of room and things to do. We went out to BW to eat and had a good time. It was nice to see everyone again especially my brother and family since I haven’t seen them in 3 years.
Maer come down for a few weeks after Christmas on the 27th. We pretty much relaxed through most of the stay doing the regular things and staying in for New Years for the first time. Sometime in there I finally got around to temporarily fixing the leaking pipe. I had to drill out the leaking section of PVC pipe since it was in a spot I can’t cut it out and it runs through one of the main supporting beams under the ceiling so couldn’t pull it out. I ended up putting a plug on the end of the line since I don’t use the outside water facet that much. After I fixed that the main shut off valve started leaking a little gahh that one I will have to have a plumber fix since it’s a bit more complicated and would require shutting the water off from outside of the house. At least it is not leaking very much just small drips every once in awhile.
We ended up watching all of Guardian of the Sacred Sprit (anime) a really good show nice story line and above awesome animation that make the backgrounds look almost real.
January
Started back to work on the 5th everything was extremely busy and hectic almost none stop. I didn’t have much rest days over my vacation with everything that was going on above so it was a bit unnerving to have the constant stress. Maer ended up staying over a little bit longer then tended then went home 9th.
I have just recently started watching How I Met Your Mother it is a pretty good show I have been meaning to pick this up and watch it for awhile now.
One week we got some freezing cold temps outside and one day it never got above 0 degrees outside and -20 during the night. One day I woke up and found out I had no water and the temp outside was -17. I called the city water place to see if there was a line break in my area. There was none and she said that my outside water line was probably frozen from the extreme cold weather. I opened up the “cabinet” where my main water line comes into the house and turned the temp up inside the house to 70 and left for work hoping that it would help thaw the outside line by the time I got back. It did so I didn’t have to call a plumber to figure out how to fix it. On a plus side the main shutoff valve has slowed down leaking a lot so hopefully I will not have a problem with it.
I just recently grabbed Fallout 3 & Call of Duty 5 and been playing them. Not too bad the graphics in both are very impressive and I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into with Fallout 3 until I started playing it. I didn’t realize it was the same company that made Oblivion so it was a pleasant surprise to see that style of game setup in a different genre.
I’m almost ready for another vacation after all this but I will wait and see what happens after my 5 year anniversary at work since I should be getting another week of vacation added on. Once again I will try to update more often these big updates take a lot of time to put together LOL. I hope everyone is doing well and the holidays were good to them.
September
Not too much happened at the end of the month I started watching Night Court and was surprised at how enjoyable it still is. Although I can only find the first 3 seasons.
October
Took the 3rd off when Maer was planning on arriving but they ended up not coming in till the next day. We went to Cork n Cleaver for Meg’s birthday I had one of the best round steaks I’ve ever had it was coated in a cracked pepper (pepper fiend) and ground coffee beans. We also had the Shrimp appetizers in various flavors. This is about the only place I would eat shrimp at since it doesn’t taste “fishy” like most places (not a sea food fan). All in all everyone seems to have a good time.
We started watching Allison and Lilly (anime) and quickly finished it within a week. It really is a good series with a nice story line and good background scenes.
We went out shopping and I ended up buying 2 paintings & a Japanese style lantern side table light. One painting was of a bamboo tree which I put in my bamboo room with the Japanese style lantern on the night stand. The 2nd painting I put up in my bedroom it is a brown and cream color 4 pane type picture of Japanese flowers. I also went out and bought some wall shelves for the living room to put my smaller Japanese knickknacks on.
On the 24th we went down to Evansville for the Willard Library over night on the 25th. There was a lot of interesting things going on starting off at the beginning of the night I went down to the basement area around the bathrooms and ran into a small group that just had something happen to them. Apparently a coin was thrown at Scotty (sensitive) while he was at the water drinking fountain. They were scanning with the EMF readers and getting spikes now and then and even turned the lights off since the meters were going off when close to the lights. Later that night there was activity in the area down the hall near the back door and elevator and a group of us were there using dowsing rods with the lights out and one person had an IR camcorder. I was standing next to the person with the camcorder and you could see orbs moving across the screen quickly. We checked to make sure there were no drafts in the area that would cause this but nothing and the orbs were moving in different directions. It was pretty fascinating seeing something like that for the first time.
November
Maer and Meg left at the beginning of the month. I finally got most of my living room decorations in and put together and placed on the walls. It looks pretty good now and I will need to post the pictures I took when I get home (at work). I also bought more things for the house another bamboo painting, fake bamboo tree, light for front room & another painting for my bedroom. The bamboo picture I put up over the bed in the bamboo room and the tree in the open corner I also bought some river stones to place in the basket to make it look nice. The light stand I put next to the front door replacing the old light stand I had there. And the 2nd painting I I put up over my bed in the main bedroom.
Somewhere in there I found the picture of me, my brother, and mom that was taken while in Japan at a professional photographer studio. I put the picture in a 3 picture glass frame and hung it in the living room. I will need to get copies of the picture of me and my brother and one of just me and one of just my brother so I can put them in the frame and one in the single frame I have on the side table.
While in the process of putting stuff up on the walls I finally broke out my old anime wall scrolls and put them up in the college bedroom.
Went to Grandma’s on Thanksgiving basically same as usual I left a bit late so missed out on the Thanksgiving over at my Dads. Although still went over and visited a bit with them and Andrea’s family came over briefly to pick up the fold out table.
December
Finally got a definite date on when Tony and family would be here during Christmas they were flying into Fort Wayne on the 22nd and leaving on January 5th.
Started planning for the Party for Rich since he was coming back to the States for the holiday. This time we set the gathering up on the 13th (Saturday) instead of the middle of the week like last time. Was pretty nice had more people and everyone had a blast we will have to do it again next year and get more people to come.
With all the financial market issues going on the mortgage interest rates have been dropping. I got an email from my Realtor saying that her husband a Mortgage Broker is getting low rates right now so I went in and got my house re-finance saving me $150 a month on my loan.
Around this time I grabbed the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes TV shows that were made in the mid 80’s. For those of you that don’t know I’m about as big a Sherlock Holmes fan as I am a Doctor Who fan. I’ve been reading Canon Doyle’s work since I was 7 and the Sherlock Holmes series was my favorite. I also found Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes that was done around 2000. I’ve only seen part of one episode on PBS some years ago and have been searching for the series ever since. The show is just amazing if you are a fan of either Canon Doyle or Sherlock Holmes. I also picked up some of the Sherlock Holmes games and have been playing them.
On the 19th the last day I worked for the year till January 5th was when the big ice storm went through the area. I left home for work with power and everything fine and when I came back the power was out and tree limbs all over the back yard and on top of my roof. I spent the next few days without power and bailing water out of my basement since the sub pump wasn’t working. Luckily the basement stayed fairly warm so I slept down there and used candles for light and minimal heat. I called mom and step dad to come over with a chainsaw so we could clear the limbs up and pull the ones off the roof. Luckily there was no damage on the roof and took pictures before and after of the pile of branches sitting in my front yard for pick up. The power finally came back on late Sunday the temp upstairs was at 32 degrees and took about 8 hours to get the house warmed back up to 65 degrees. After things warmed up a bit one of the pipes in the basement started leaking. I had the water running during the outage in the sinks and tub but the outside water hose lines were not on and so that line froze. It was not leaking that bad but enough that I had to put a bucket under it and empty it once a day.
On the 22nd I went to the airport to see Tony and family come in with my mom, little brother, dad, and step mom. Originally I thought that they were going to be staying at my place, but they ended up going to my mom’s since she had a larger vehicle to carry them all around in.
Ok that’s brings up the many family Christmas events. Let me see there is the one at my Great-Aunt’s place for my Dad’s side of the family. That’s where I found out that Tony is going to be shipped off to Afghanistan shortly after his vacation here. Then the one at my sister’s place for my step mom’s side of the family. I finally got to see their new house after they gutted it and expanded and remodeled it. Then Christmas day at my grandmas for my mom’s side of the family. Then to my Dad’s for the immediate family Christmas.
After that I invited Tony and family, dad, step mom, and both sisters and family over to my place since most of them have not seen my house yet. So a total of 14 people and still had plenty of room and things to do. We went out to BW to eat and had a good time. It was nice to see everyone again especially my brother and family since I haven’t seen them in 3 years.
Maer come down for a few weeks after Christmas on the 27th. We pretty much relaxed through most of the stay doing the regular things and staying in for New Years for the first time. Sometime in there I finally got around to temporarily fixing the leaking pipe. I had to drill out the leaking section of PVC pipe since it was in a spot I can’t cut it out and it runs through one of the main supporting beams under the ceiling so couldn’t pull it out. I ended up putting a plug on the end of the line since I don’t use the outside water facet that much. After I fixed that the main shut off valve started leaking a little gahh that one I will have to have a plumber fix since it’s a bit more complicated and would require shutting the water off from outside of the house. At least it is not leaking very much just small drips every once in awhile.
We ended up watching all of Guardian of the Sacred Sprit (anime) a really good show nice story line and above awesome animation that make the backgrounds look almost real.
January
Started back to work on the 5th everything was extremely busy and hectic almost none stop. I didn’t have much rest days over my vacation with everything that was going on above so it was a bit unnerving to have the constant stress. Maer ended up staying over a little bit longer then tended then went home 9th.
I have just recently started watching How I Met Your Mother it is a pretty good show I have been meaning to pick this up and watch it for awhile now.
One week we got some freezing cold temps outside and one day it never got above 0 degrees outside and -20 during the night. One day I woke up and found out I had no water and the temp outside was -17. I called the city water place to see if there was a line break in my area. There was none and she said that my outside water line was probably frozen from the extreme cold weather. I opened up the “cabinet” where my main water line comes into the house and turned the temp up inside the house to 70 and left for work hoping that it would help thaw the outside line by the time I got back. It did so I didn’t have to call a plumber to figure out how to fix it. On a plus side the main shutoff valve has slowed down leaking a lot so hopefully I will not have a problem with it.
I just recently grabbed Fallout 3 & Call of Duty 5 and been playing them. Not too bad the graphics in both are very impressive and I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into with Fallout 3 until I started playing it. I didn’t realize it was the same company that made Oblivion so it was a pleasant surprise to see that style of game setup in a different genre.
I’m almost ready for another vacation after all this but I will wait and see what happens after my 5 year anniversary at work since I should be getting another week of vacation added on. Once again I will try to update more often these big updates take a lot of time to put together LOL. I hope everyone is doing well and the holidays were good to them.