Jack has been alive now for 1 year. Pretty amazing to watch the development of an infant and how fast it all happens. Jack can say "Ma ma", Da da", "uh oh", and "va vo" which we take to mean Volvo, since that is what Shawn drives.

We got a late start today, but did manage to get the two doors hung last night, and cleaned up the nastiness which was sanding, and fixing a door so that it would properly shut (a little planing and sanding). The major thing that I did get done was to remove the awnings!!! Sherry and I love the house without the awnings but Pearl is still not to happy about it. Good thing it is our house :) I personally thing it makes the house look a little bigger and shows of the dental molding under the roof line. Although it is dirty from the lazy people not painting under the awning the last time the paints (I didn't think you were suppose to paint aluminum, but whatever.

A large part of Sherry's family came over to see our progress after Jack's birthday party so that was fun. Everyone seemed to like it.
I will be getting some pictures up shortly and plan on organizing the existing ones to show before and after better.

After taking a month long hiatus from working around the house, Sherry and I have decided to pick it up again. Mainly because we were inspired by Sarah and Heidi's house.

I just got done chipping off all the old paint on the stairs and sanding them (with my new sander). I was going to sand the whole thing but even with 60 grit sandpaper it was taking forever so I used a razor blade scraper to get it all off and then sanded it. Tomorrow I am going to fill the badly chipped wood with wood fill, resand, prime and then paint.

Jack's first birthday is also tomorrow, so we will be heading over there around 2 tomorrow.

I always wondered why society things that some rent-a-cop slacker could protect us from a serious threat. Do you think they would catch a smart terrorist?

I remember talking about this concept a long time ago with Drew back in the Telinet days... looks like someone finally did it. I don't think that anyone would ever want to pay $300 to smell an odor that someone else has e-mailed you

The daily email feature of my site wasn't working, but I have just fixed it... so if you want to get emails on days that I post my hilarious rhetoric, just enter your email in the box to the right.

Here is an interesting link from some Cal Tech student playing around with Flash and history:
Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire (with pictures)

Mike Wolfensperger got in to Norfolk last night around 7 and then came over to check out our house and go to dinner with us. We went to Machismo in a section of town called Freemason. Then we went to Jack Quinn's (an irish pub downtown) for a drink and to catch up.

Sherry and I are going to see Sarah and Heidi this weekend in good ol' Kennett Square. We are really excited to see their house and see them. I talked to Sarah yesterday and she asked me what I thought was a funny question... "What do you guys eat" ... so I guess it is as hard for vegetarians to find food for a carnivore as it is for a carnivore to find food for a herbivore :)

I will make sure to take some photos and post them to the website so that everyone can enjoy the trip. We are driving up the Eastern Shore on Saturday morning, and I will be screaming GO JACKETS all the way through Maryland (unless the Terps manage to pull an upset on the jackets tonight at 7 pm on ESPN2)

Mike Wolfensperger is coming into town on Wednesday night for two days of work in Franklin, VA. It will be good to see him... and we can show him that Norfolk is actually a pretty cool town, and get to show off our new house.

Shelley and Mike got married this weekend and it was a wonderful wedding! Sherry and I wish them both a lifetime of happiness and were honored to be there for their special day.

Here are some pictures of the Wes Clark at Virginia Wesleyan, this guy was a little in front of us, but about the same vantage point that we had.

Sherry, Regina, Shawn, Jack and I have been church shopping over the last couple of months. Sherry and I went to the first Presbyterian church today and it was the one we liked the best. The only problem is that we went to the contemporary service and I think the powerpoint presentations and all the singing was a little too different for Sherry so we are going to try the traditional server in two weeks (since Shelley's wedding is this weekend)

Sherry and I just went to go see Wesley Clark speak at her college. It was pretty cool and we got to each shake his hand. I think he had the hots for Sherry since he kept smiling at her while he was speaking. Too bad he is going to lose :(

I forgot to tell you guys that I found some stock certificates that Grandma Taylor (McDonald) gave me when I was younger (and at the time didn't really appreciate). They are now worth around $800 and they are in Stein Mart and Viacom (originally Blockbuster, but they got bought). She did buy me one loser though, Duty Free has gone out of business.

Finding these also reminded me that I had signed up for a company called Travelzoo back in 1998 (when I worked at Telinet) since they were giving away shares just for registering at their website. Well I sent them an email and they said that I was in fact entitled to some shares so I also gained 14 shares in Travelzoo last week (worth around $120 total).

That was better then finding a dollar in my pants.

I just found out that I am going to die on May 11, 2049 at the age of 73 years old.

If you are curious when you might pass away, take the Death Test!

FYI ... most likely death causes:
Cancer (28%)
Heart Attack (25%)
Alien Abduction (7%)
Homicide (6%)
Alcoholism (5%)

Disclaimer: this might offend some (i.e. my mother)

I have decided to kick up my weight loss and go on Atkins, after reading up on the science behind it, it now makes more sense to me. I started the plan on Monday and have lost around 5 lbs since then. I plan on being around 10 lbs lighter by Valentine's Day (Shelley's wedding), and 20 or so when I go to see Sarah and Heidi on the 21st. Hopefully, my mom won't recognize me when I see here at Tara's wedding in March. (Expect that to be the primary contents of my posts in the near future) I will be posting before and after pictures of myself if I am pleased with the results :)

On a sad note:
My parent's dog Tucker has been diagnosed with Cancer. Mom and Don have been getting cysts and bumps removed from him regularly and now the vet has told them the bad news. The vet says he still has a while to live, and my parents have decided to forgo the chemotherapy, and let him live out his life in peace. When I talked to her today she said that he was spunky and in a good mood.

I got an email from Uncle Charlie today. He says he is doing much better, which is great to hear. I felt bad since I haddn't emailed him yet, but it was good to hear from him and hopefully we will continue emailing each other. I told him he needed to set up a blog like this so the family could follow his journey through this tough time.

For Mom:
Famous Bipolar People

Wow... talk about Geek! This guy named his son 2.0 instead of Jr.