Thursday, July 31, 2003
I heard a really funny story last night about some of our youth. I'm omitting names, but it's still good stuff.

Earlier this week several of the youth were out late working on things for youth week. A couple of them were getting a ride home from 2 of the graduated seniors. The seniors needed to stop by Albertsons to pick up a couple of things, but since there is a curfew in Coppell, they told the two younger guys to keep there heads down and stay out of sight. While the seniors were inside, one of the boys in the car notices a parked police car in the parking lot of Albertsons. Since no one is in the car, he decides it would be fun to shoe polish the police car. He gets out and is in the middle of this mischief when another police car happens by and notices what he's doing. The cop car pulls into the parking lot and he decides to take off running.

Shortly afterwards the two seniors come out of the store, hop in the car, and pull away; Completely unaware that any of this has happened. They are almost to one of the houses when the other boy who stayed in the car pops out and tells them they need to go get the other one. After he explains what was going on, they turn around and go back to the store to find youth #1 sitting there waiting with the police. The police take the two younger guys to the station and called their parents to come get them. The seniors were sent home since they convinced the officers that they didn't know anything about it.

Of course this story was told sitting around talking with several of the youth counselors. Where it was shortly followed by a story about how one of the counselors had stolen a car from a car dealership. He didn't have a license and he and his buddy wanted to learn how to drive.

Youth Counselors are an extremely odd breed.

9:48 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Wednesday, July 30, 2003
My brother sent me and I just had to laugh.

9:51 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Monday night was Whirlyball with the Junior High. When asked how many kids we had, I replied "135." It wasn't until much later that someone pointed out that 17 X 5 equals 85 and not 135. Oh well. It was still crazy. We had a tremendous amount of people there. But I made time to allow me to go play a game. I went last time and was in charge of the sign ups and things and I never got to play. I was the sign up guy this time as well, but I made sure I could play at least one game.

Last night I worked really late and then went over to Keri's to assist in the creation of her web site. She had done a lot to get things ready to go. She had designed the web site in Word and created a background. We took my template as a basis and messed with everything to create her own template. I think it looks good, but there is some work to do. I'll link it when Keri says I can.

9:49 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Monday, July 28, 2003
It doesn't feel like it should be Monday already. The weekend just flew by. I just hope this week does the same thing. Life has been interesting at work. We have a big demo coming up soon and have been getting ready for it for a month. That doesn't include the other clients we've been working with in the mean time.

My weekend was good. Slow for the most part, but good. Desiree and I went to assist Leia in her asset relocation party. Basically we helped move all her junk (and I say that kindly) from point 'A' to point 'B.' There was a whole fiasco renting a truck from Uhaul. Fortunately between all the cars, vans, trucks, and SUVs we had, all her stuff got loaded up and moved in a couple of trips.

Sunday was a concert at the church. They had Shoreline and By The Tree come play. It was a good show. I was actually surprised I knew a few of the songs. I had no idea who these guys were. A lot of the youth and several adults stayed up at the church until Midnight taking down the stage equipment, lighting, and everything else. It was a real big deal production. I sat for half the concert fascinated by the lights. I wanted to take them apart and see how it all worked. I really liked the laser lights that were spinning every direction. I thought about getting a CD, but didn't have any money on me. I might have to pick one up later. After everything was packed up in the trailer, almost everyone who had stayed to help (including members of By The Tree) swarmed into IHOP for a really late dinner. I hadn't really eaten much that day so I was particularly hungry. Unfortunately IHOP was completely overwhelmed. We had close to 50 of us there and they only had 2 waitresses and one trainee working. The manager pitched in for a while and then went into the kitchen and started cooking.

Over all it was a very pleasant weekend. This week is going to be fun. The concert on Sunday was a kick off to our annual Youth Week. There's a lot going on this week including Whirlyball, Rock Climbing, a scavenger hunts, and a Lock-in on Friday night. I'm going to try to go to as much of it as I can, but work is going to be interesting as well.

It's a good thing to be busy. I don't think I would have it any other way. But I would like to be home long enough to finish my laundry at some point. Oh well. Small sacrifice.

11:17 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Thursday, July 24, 2003
Since I have been asked repeatedly by interested parties what I want for my birthday, I thought I would send all interested parties to my wishlist. My birthday is coming up August 6th. No pressure, but the perusal of some of the wacky things I've selected amuses me.

11:09 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

I was running around on the net looking for something for my mom and came across this site. I like the idea of only paying a set up fee, but I really have to wonder how practical they can be. They offer all the bells and whistles. Hmm... I'd like to try it out, but not on a site I cared about.

Yesterday was a really odd day. I went to go look up a better word than weird. I think all of these apply.

Entry: psychedelic
Function: adjective
Definition: mind-blowing
Synonyms: consciousness-expanding, crazy, experimental, freaky, hallucinatory, hallucinogenic, kaleidoscopic, mind-bending, mind-blowing, mind-changing, mind-expanding, multi-colored, psychoactive, psychotomimetic, psychotropic, trippy

I had an odd email from my mom. We had someone come in to the office building and steal a plasma TV in the middle of the day. I have been working like a fiend trying to get everything done that needs to get done. Last night was a counselor meeting at the church. It was upsetting how few people could make it. I finally get home and I just collapse into bed. I tried to read for a while, but I didn't get very far. I'm now back to reading something I put down a while back. It's a book on cryptography . It's fascinating, but a slow read and highly technical.

I walked out of the counselor meeting feeling like it took us 3 hours to do what could have been done in 1.5 hours. Oh well.

For some reason Marvin the Martian just popped into my head. "Where's the Ka-Boom? There's supposed to be an earth shattering Ka-Boom!"

9:26 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Monday, July 21, 2003
I'm in an ever so grumpy mood. I did not sleep well last night. I got into the office and people were already scrambling. I've picked up and run with 2 of the top 3 priorities on my list. I keep getting interrupted by some of the non-technical people asking questions that I think they should already know the answer to. It's not details about how something works, it's how to set up what they've already done a dozen times.

I'm not at the stage where I have no patience for dumb. I'm waiting on them to get me the things I need so I can accomplish my tasks. It's all a little annoying.

Today I'm just nit picking things, but one of the things I see that always annoys me is when a set of flags has the US Flag, the Texas Flag, and come company or other flag at the same height. It's putting your company on the same level with the US. I know they do it to be symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing, but I hate it when they do that. People are stupid sometimes.

1:20 PM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Friday, July 18, 2003
I can't decide if I think this is really cool or really weird. Does the idea of mixing water and electricity ever enter their minds?

The Side Panel Aquarium Kit

6:30 PM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Thursday, July 17, 2003
You know it's going to be a weird day when you do something that makes your boss cry by 10:00 in the morning.

I've had enough. I'm going home.

6:11 PM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

It has been a less than stellar week. My back started hurting on Sunday and has bothered me all week. If I go for a walk or work out, the muscles get worked and relax, but they hurt more later. I did something weird yesterday and decided that moving was out of the question. As a result, I stayed home, slept, soaked in a hot tub and read my book while waiting for everything to go back to normal.

I am reading the latest edition of the Harry Potter Saga. I read Who Moved My Cheese on Saturday and Sunday. I've been doing a lot of reading lately. I don't know how I find the time, but I'm enjoying it. I also signed up for something called Audible.com. It's like a book club, but I can download audio books and listen to them while at work or while I'm working out. I've already listened to The Face by Dean Koontz and have started on Moby Dick by Herman Melville. On tap is Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned

I don't know if I have mentioned here, but I have been trying to learn to play the Piano. I'm making progress, but it's really slow progress. I have learned enough that I can pick out most notes, but I have a long way to go. It's been fun. It's a good stress reliever. I'll forget everything else that's going on while I'm trying to puzzle out what I'm supposed to do. I'm working hard to get each hand to do what it's supposed to do. Right now I'll get one right or the other most of the time, but when I try to get both of them to do it right at the same time, I'll have to repeat the same measure several times. For Desiree's birthday, I managed to figure out how to play the "Happy Birthday" song. I looked it up on 8Notes.com and struggled to figure out what some of the notes were. It helped that I knew the tune. I don't know that I would have been able to figure it out otherwise.

11:01 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Monday, July 14, 2003
Let's see. What fun things have I been up to in the last few days.

Last Friday I had my first sushi bar experience. Several of us from work went to a sushi buffer called Osaka. It was a little pricey, but it was good. I tried just about everything. I tried eel, octopus, squid, salmon, mussels, tuna, redtail, and several other things that I can't remember now. I think my favorite thing was the eel. It just dissolved in your mouth.

After the exciting crazy, busy weekend last weekend, I was eager for a little break. I was pretty much a bum most of the weekend. I saw a lot of movies and hung out with Dezi a good chunk of the time. I saw Gangs of New York (not bad, but one I wouldn't add to my collection), Star Trek: Nemesis (enjoyable), and A Guy Thing (cute, but predictable). We went to the Dollar Theatre and saw Chicago. I was a good show, but I was getting tired of my seat by the time the movie was over. I also watched an awful lot of TV. I just couldn't sleep Friday or Saturday night. I would turn on the TV and watch the Pet Detectives until 3:00 in the morning. They follow ASPCA officers as they investigate reports of animal cruelty. Not a very nice show, but it's like a train wreck. I can't turn away.

It's amazing how many times I've been interrupted this morning. You'd think they would leave me alone and let me procrastinate a little longer. I suppose I should go get busy.

8:54 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Thursday, July 10, 2003
Preserve the original Star Wars Trilogy.

3:26 PM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Monday, July 07, 2003
I have had a very good, but incredibly busy weekend.

Thursday night we went to see the Broadway production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I had taken off work about 3:00. I just couldn't work any more. I went to get my hair cut and pick up Desiree a little after 4:00. We headed down to the Music Hall at Fair Park. After a quick stop for dinner type food. The show was very good and we had good seats. I kept comparing the show to the animated movie, but I made myself quit after intermission and enjoyed the second half much more.

While we were waiting for the doors to open, my phone kept ringing every few minutes. It was the office. They had a couple of things they were trying to figure out from what I had done earlier in the week. It was finally decided that I would come into the office on Friday for a little bit and get things straightened out so they could send a report to the client. Dezi went into the office with me for a little bit. We had every intention of running around Frisco when I was done, but after a little bit of shopping and some lunch it was nap time. We went back to my place and relaxed for a little bit until it was time to leave for Dezi's concert. Dezi plays percussion in the Carrollton community band. They were playing a 4th of July concert for a Carrollton city event. They had someone back out so they were down to three percussionist and were scrambling to get everything filled. When we got there, we found out that one of the three was sick and wouldn't be able to make it. I was soon drafted to fill some of the positions that the two of them wouldn't be able to cover. Now let me tell you something. I'm not entirely ignorant when it comes to music. I can read music, but there is a large difference between playing something like a trombone and playing a bass drum or cymbals. It's not as obvious if you mess up with a trombone. I managed to fake my way through a couple of songs with Dezi and Kevin's help. When the directors figured out what was going on, one of them would help with percussion while the other was directing. It all worked out in the end. I can now mark that down as something I never expected to do. Something I am proud that I did. And something I would prefer not to do again. Though Dezi said I did well and bought me ice cream afterwards.

As soon as the band was through playing another band started right up. I knew I had heard them before even before they had finished their first song. It was a group called Insideout. I had seem them a couple of years earlier at Cool River. They are a really fun band. They go from song to song to song without stopping.

Saturday was spent running errands and getting things ready for Sunday. Saturday night I went over to Dezi's house. The street was having a block party. I assisted with helium balloons and tried my hand at making balloon animals. I'm not very good at it, but I it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

Sunday was Dezi's birthday. I had some fun stuff planned. I think everything went well. I started off by leaving her a present on the hood of her car before I left Saturday night. I had bought a bag of Hershey's kisses and left them in a little cooler in my car. I made a giant heart across the hood of her car with 'Dezi' spelled out inside. I had seen that on the hood of a car in my parking lot a couple of months earlier and held onto the idea for use later. That evening I made dinner and tried to surprise her since I told her we were going somewhere fancy. Afterwards we watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I'm glad she liked it. Why is it that you can never understand the girl movies.

So all in all. It's been a non-stop weekend. It was fun, but I would love to be able to sleep for a while longer. I guess I need to go be productive now.

9:31 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts

Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Today I saw a bumper sticker that said, "The more people I meet, the more I like my cat." I think that's a pretty fair representation of how my day went.

I got an email today that really ticked me off. I wish I could make myself not care so much, but I do. And it continues to rile me up. I was venting to Leia over email and she called me up and asked if I wanted to meet her for dinner. We dined at Texadelphia and I got to catch up with her and here about her new job. I miss getting to see her, but she says she may start back as a youth counselor since her new job is so close.

I ran around today and did some much needed errands. But I still have not been to get my hair cut and I'm starting to resemble a wookie. I treated myself to a trip to Fry's but surprised myself by not buying anything. Instead I went to Wal-Mart to grab a couple of things and headed home. I also saw that my favorite movie theatre is closed for some reason. It's a little movie theatre behind Wal-Mart at Macarthur and 635. It usually had a fair number of people, but not excessive. And it was always kept neat. I'm sad to see it go.

I suppose that's about it. I'm going to work on getting the comments back to working tonight.

9:48 PM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts