Today's Highlights

I have been writing TOO MUCH today!

Spent the morning working on book options and the rest of the day was spent on an audio project for a local piano teacher friend.

At lunch time, we called my Grandma Campbell and wished her a happy birthday! She's 18 today she said. :-) (She's dyslexic, I thikn...) :-)

I have really been getting into the new news site I found, Newsvine.com. It's not open to the public yet, but if you are into internet news, and interactive at that... shoot me an email and I'll send you an invite. I can invite up to 20 people and so far I have invited five, I believe. :-)

After a quick dinner (SKYLINE!) we headed out for a walk to the library. But by the time I rounded up all the kids, it was almost time for the library to close, so we just headed up to the local coffee house! :-) I had brought along a Campbell favorite, "Pass the Pigs" to play with the kids when we got there. We finished up our evening by a visit to the grocery store, and then headed home for the regular bedtime routines.

Stop by my other blog for some more details from today and yesterday.

That's all for tonight! :-)

[Posted from our bedroom on the PowerBook in Palmyra, NY.]

My Computer Had A Heart Attack

Well, I am not certain what caused it, or even if I am out of danger from any future occurrences, but tonight, my computer had a life-threatening heart attack.

My main office computer. The one with all of my files - and perhaps more importantly - all of my customers' files. I was in the middle of several tasks (importing a CD, editing a playlist, getting mail, downloading podcasts, and several other ongoing background tasks with my 15-20 open applications) when all of a sudden - click - it was gone. The whole thing just shut off. I figured some cable had come loose, and was slightly apprehensive at the condition of my computer, but I have never had a problem with sudden shut-downs before.

Then again, I have never had a sudden shut-down with so much going on.

So, I hurried around to the other side of my desk, ready to perform computer CPR. I checked the cables, and all were connected. I checked the power strip, and it was still on. In fact, the other devices attached to it were still on and functioning. Now I began to wonder if my computer (we'll call him "MacDaddy" from now on) was OK!

I unplugged the cord and reset the power strip. After inserting the plug again, I tried to turn it on. NO GO. Nothing. So, I thought, "OK... the strip has gone bad...", ignoring the fact that everything else on the strip was still completely operational. I moved MacDaddy's power supply cable to another outlet (on the same breaker) and tried again. Nothing. Ahh!! This was not looking good!!

For a moment I stared at all of the various cables and outlets and all, just wondering what in the world had just happened. No warning signs. No alerts. Just... gone. Finally, I just started taking all of the cables out of the back of MacDaddy and like a skilled medic carefully began moving him to another location in the house to attempt to revive him.

I carried him down two flights of stairs to a surprised wife and kids. "What are you doing?" asked my puzzled wife. "My computer had a heart attack!" I explained. I think she understood. She's good like that. She knows MacDaddy is more than just a computer... he's a friend of mine.

I plugged the cord into the outlet, then into MacDaddy, and crossing my fingers, I pressed the power button.

Nothing.

A deep sadness fell over me. But, this was no time for mourning. It was getting late and we needed to act quickly to save my friend in distress.

I leapt up and dialed Apple 911. (That would be the local Apple Genius Bar.) After punching digits through the phone tree, I got to a real person, and probably with a bit of urgency in my voice, explained, "I think my computer had a heart attack." The cool part was, the guy completely understood me. :-) He proceeded to tell me that the Genius on duty was super busy, and I should try back tomorrow.

But I did not give up.

"That's not going to be good enough. I need to use this computer and the files on it tomorrow morning. Can I just come in and wait till he's available?"

"You could make an appointment," he realized, "Just go to the website and schedule one for tonight if you can."

Awesome. So, I did. And I got the next one, only 40 minutes from then.

The family was ready to go, as our typical Monday routine is a great family night at the local library. We look forward to that weekly ritual. However, you can't plan for life's sudden tragedies, so my understanding family piled in the van, ready for a speedy trip to the Apple Store.

(We did stop by the library to return books, and get three pre-selected books for our oldest, book-reading son. He loves books. Almost as much as I love my computers, I think.)

As we were speeding down the road to the Apple store, I posited, "If a policeman pulled me over, do you think he'd believe that I was rushing my sick computer to the Apple Store?" She laughed. I think she finds me a little strange, even after living in the same house with me for over 8 years.

After a pretty uneventful trip, we arrived at the mall just a minute before MacDaddy's scheduled appointment. The boys and I jumped out of the van, and made a race of it. (Little boys like to race.) We hurried through the sneaky Eckerd entrance, and found our way to the Apple store. We headed straight for the genius bar, and quickly placed MacDaddy up on the surgery table.

I spotted my name up on the queue. "Hi. I'm Greg C." I said, pointing to my name displayed on the giant flat-screen monitors behind the Genius bar.

"Hi, Greg. I'll get the Genius right out here."

Thanks. I was like a worried parent. Wishing no one else was around, so that the Genius could focus only on my hurting computer. MacDaddy needs your help!

Soon enough, the Genius arrives, and begins diagnosing the problem as he listens to my account of the previous hour's events. The funny part of the night was, when he plugged it in, and hit the power button, it started right up. :-) He said that happens. When they are given a rest, it can reset and just power up again.

The bad part of the night came next.

For the next hour and a half, he tried in vain to restore the hard drive. One of two was completely lost (thankfully that was the drive I used to archive old files, none of the important ones were on there) and the other drive - the main start up disk - was critically injured. Numerous repair attempts by the Apple disk first aid program could not repair the Catalog B Tree something or other.

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"Yes." He appeared to be a man of few words.

He sent me on my way (since they were closing) with a few programs to try (that I happened to have) to repair and restore the messed up drive. The prognosis for the other drive was far more grim. "It's dead." Not words you want to hear from a Genius, thats for sure. And, though in shock, I left with most of my composure, hopeful that I could still resuscitate my old friend when we returned home.

It was a silent trip home. I was thinking about all the things I could try to get MacDaddy back to his old self again. When we arrived home, I went straight upstairs and plugged him in and loaded the DiskWarrior CD in the drive, ready to make the repairs. I knew it was going to work. Genius said it should!

As the computer booted up from the CD, I was only confident. I knew after a few short hours, MacDaddy would be good as new. A couple clicks and I was in the DiskWarrior program. There was the start up drive. Ready to be repaired. I clicked on repair, and it went through the initial procedures.

Then, a big nasty window with big bold font came up.

"This disk is toast." (That is a paraphrase, but, basically, that's what it said.)

I was not about to give up. I tried again. Same thing. And again. Same thing.

I WAS NOT going to lose this computer!

I had a hunch.

I went into the start up disk and attempted to boot my system in the older OS 9 software. MacDaddy is cool like that. He's Dual-Boot. So, I set him up to restart in OS 9, and hoped for the best.

When it shut down, I heard the wonderful Mac start up sound, and was greatly encouraged. This might just work, I told myself. Everything went according to plan, the system booted up in OS 9. I checked for a few of the files I knew were "in progress" when the heart attack first occurred. They were there. So, it looked as if the data was still all there. The problem was that pesky "B Tree".

I ran disk first aid again, and got the same results as at the Apple store. No results. I was definitely encouraged to find all of my data there, though.

So, I took a risk, and started it up in OS X. My regular operating system.

Shut down. Mac startup sound. Happy Apple in the middle of the screen. All was well. But, the process was taking much longer than normal. That didn't bother me yet, though. I had some trouble with that 40GB drive before. And sure enough, there was the circle with the line through it, meaning the drive was dead. Flat lined. Kaput.

No problem. The whirr of the other drive was promising. And, within a few minutes, I was looking at my familiar surroundings again! I had revived MacDaddy!!! I poked around, checking files and directories... all data seemed to be there.

But we're not out of the woods yet. Isn't it usually the second heart attack that kills you?

A Mac computer friend from Australia was online, so I asked him a few questions. Wanted to get a second opinion.

He confirmed what I was thinking. The drive was in critical condition, and I need to get all of the data on to another drive ASAP. We went through several options, and I asked many questions, but in the back of my head, I knew I was going to have to finally pull the trigger on something I've been needing to do for a while. My Aussie friend agreed it was a good idea. So...

I bought an external hard drive.

It will be here within seven days. At that point, assuming MacDaddy is still operational, I will transfer the contents of the 160GB drive to the new 500GB drive, and reinitialize the current hard drive, then do a transplant and the drive should be good as new. AND, I'll have everything backed up to the new firewire drive.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Let's hope MacDaddy can last that long on this failing hard drive!

So, that was my Monday night adventure. The rest of the day pales in comparison. Perhaps I will chronicle those events tomorrow. For now, I must work on a project that will free up space on this PowerBook, so that I can copy important client files to this hard drive, just in case!

I'll keep you posted on MacDaddy's status. Thanks for your concern.

[Posted from the the healthy PowerBook in Palmyra, NY.]

Sunday

It's late, and I am tired after another great day off! But wanted to get the days events down here so I can remember it later. Perhaps. :-)

When we got up this morning, I decided to do something a little more fun for breakfast. I couldn't decide what to make, so I set up our kitchen like a little restaurant (complete with a menu and all!) We ended up picking French Toast, sausages and some cinnamon roll oatmeal for Ian. It was a lot of fun, and good food too! :-)

The rest of the morning, Jen and I worked on getting our taxes together for this year. We were also getting ready for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa (Jen's parents). They came over around 4pm or so, and we played some games and had Skyline Chili together! Grandma made a cake (Jen had been craving one of her mom's cake for a while!)

It was a nice full day! I might add more tomorrow, but for now... gotta go!

[Posted from the PowerBook in our bedroom in Palmyra, NY.]

Trying To Pretend It's January

I am sitting in Coffee Creek again, working on my book for a few hours. I have a nice big cup of Raspberry Chai Latte. I even still have a sweatshirt on. But, the open windows and wide open door - not to mention the blinding sunlight - make it pretty hard to deny it's been a very strange January. :-)

Currently, the temperature in Palmyra, NY is 48ºF, with a high of 52ºF expected. That's nuts.

Today we were awoken by several telephone calls, and then the rather insistent pounding on our front door. It was slightly jarring as we were all sleeping, but I remembered that I still had my friend's laptop that we were supposed to get back to him yesterday! So, I got up and gave that to him. It was just after 9am, so I just figured I should stay up.

(Now, before you give me a big, HMMMPH! please remember that I did not hit the hay till after 3am. :-)

I read a bit through my Galatians writings. That was actually really cool. It was still quiet in the house, since everyone else was sleeping, and the content was pretty amazing as well. I don't mean my thoughts. I mean, Galatians 1-3 has some really incredible stuff in it!

After we ate breakfast, we went to pick out some carpet to put on our stairs. We found some stuff, and sometime in the next week or two, our friend Ed will install it for us! Pretty cool.

Then, when we got back, it was time to start on our TAXES!!! ARGH. That is just really no fun at all. Too much to keep track of. And we already do a pretty decent job of tracking all the sales and inventory and costs and such... it's just a really big job. And not one that we necessarily are looking forward to.

Though the return checks are pretty nice. :-)

So, now here I am getting to work on my book.

Guess I better get started. :-)

OH! One more fun note... iTunes just added the A-Team to their list fo TV shows you can purchase... so... we did. :-) Last night we purchased annd watched the first episode (which was actually a two parter) - and officially introduced our kids to Mr. T. :-)

More to come...

[Posted from COFFEE CREEK in Palmyra, NY.]

I'm Becoming So Normal

Well... not really. :-)

I was just thinking, I have a job that I do Mondays to Friday, mostly 9 till 5 (sorta...) and I have crazy Mondays, and pretty relaxed Fridays that I enjoy, and look forward to. Then I have weekends free. That's so odd!

Today started off with some work on our Bills site, followed by a nice lunch with my wife - a "date" if you will - after which we played a quick game of Life (you know that game? We have a version from 1960!! How cool!) It was a nice break for us. Me to be with my wife, no kids and Jen to not have the kids. :-) We love our kids, but breaks are nice. Thanks to Tamar for watching our kiddos. :-)

The afternoon in the office has been full of little maintenance things, answering e-mails, little up-keep things for several different clients, and all sorts of little things. I am hoping to get through all the emails in my inbox before I leave the office for the weekend! (That's gonna be tough...)

Last night was a blast. We had friends over and shared the Venezuelan meal. We all ate WAY too much! But we had fun playing Apples to Apples (A cool new game) and just enjoyed hanging out together. They're fun folks. :-)

We are hoping to finish preparing our taxes this weekend, and I am hoping to get some work done on my book. Perhaps I will head up to the coffee house again. That was very productive last Saturday. Maybe that will work again. :-)

So, it's been a very normal week. How odd. :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

One Step At A Time

I can't emphasize enough how much my personal week has been dominated by the overwhelming volume of work I have to do these days. That's actually a really good thing, and just five minutes ago, I had an extremely rewarding experience on one of the projects. I actually finished the whole thing in UNDER five minutes! (It could have been a daunting, hour-long project.)

But, besides work, it's been a nice day so far, and I am looking forward to the evening. I put some meat in the crock pot last night so that I could make Pabellón Criollo. Everytime I make that, I must invite friends, so our friends the LaBarges are coming over tonight for the Pabellon, as well as arepas and something called tequeños! Mmmmm. That will be AWESOME!

The LaBarges are gamers, too, so perhaps we'll be playing some games tonight. :-)

Our friend, Ed, who lays carpet for folks, came over today (on his birthday) to measure our stairs so that we can put a little runner on them. There have been a few accidents of late, so, I guess it's time to put the carpet on there. I told Jen it's a little "new baby" gift. :-)

Speaking of Birthdays, this day's entry would not be complete without saying a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Mom, Shirley Campbell.

Without her birthday, I'd have none. Right? :-)

Happy birthday, Mom! Hope you had a great one!

[Posted on the PowerBook from the soon-to-be-carpeted stairs in Palmyra, NY.]n

Prioritizing

Today I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to prioritize. 14-15 open projects, all needing to be done... soon. I got a good bit of work done, but still feel swamped. I'll let you know when I can breathe again!

Speaking of that, got to do some heavy breathing, (more like gasping for air) trying to keep up with Scott while playing basketball at 8am this morning! That was fun.

Had a nice evening with the fam. Went grocery shopping, gave the baby a bath, and then played Uno Attack with Jen and boys. Nice night.

Now, gotta go, as my ice cream is melting!! :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Two Times In One Day?

Well, since I missed yesterday, I figured I'd get two posts in one day here. :-)

We just got back from a FUN night with some of our closest friends. We celebrated Ian's birthday (since his real birthday is Christmas, we have a birthday party in January for him) by going bowling and a great dinner at Pizza Hut! And, all of that with his family and great friends!! A super night of fun.

I can't say the same for my day in the office. Wow. It was bad. Not bad. Kinda good. Just overwhelming. Way too much input (to quote Johnny #5.) My to do list grew WAY more today than I was able to whittle down. So, again, that's good. But my head was spinning. I play basketball at 8am tomorrow, then in the office not too long after that. Looking forward to tackling all those projects anew.

Now, instead of a Star Trek tonight, we're watching one of the Knight Riders we got from my parents! :-)

Fun!

More later...

[Posted from our living room couch in Palmyra, NY.]

Mission Failed?

Well, only 23 days into the adventure, my mission failed.

My intention was to post even just a few sentences once every day in the calendar year of 2006. Yesterday came and went with nary a post.

I could have posted before I headed out to help some friends move in to their new home about a mile from us. OR, I could have posted when I got back from that and before I began baking some bread to take to some other friends who just got back from the hospital the day before with their brand new baby boy. But I didn't.

I could have likely posted a blog when I went upstairs to my office to sort through all of the stuff that had built up in the ol' INBOX before I had to go back downstairs and shape the bread for it's second rising stage. I did spend about 45 minutes reading through and answering e-mails. One of which determined how I would be spending a portion of my afternoon.

I could have just skipped lunch with my family so that I could have posted an account of the day here. That probably would have worked. Or, skipped out on finishing the bread as I watched the Buffalo Bills press conference on the laptop, so that I could report on it for the BBR website.

Oh! OR, I could have written something inbetween the article for the website and heading out again to help unload the second truck at our friends' house. Especially since, they didn't show up, and even after returning from a few errands, they still had not shown up! So, by about 4:15 or so, I returned home, and that's probably when I should have posted a blog here.

Then again, I could have posted after moving some furniture from the downstairs to the upstairs. Or even after taking a shower to clean up. OR, maybe while I was cooking the spaghetti for the meal we were bringing to our friends' house.

I did bring my laptop with us... So, I could have taken a moment and posted something from their house once we brought them their food... or, I could have even used their computer. But I definitely could have posted something during our dinner at Taco Bell - they have to have free Wi-Fi, don't they? Maybe I could have looked around for something before we went to visit some other friends who lived nearby. A coffee house or something?

Our friends live in the middle of nowhere.... but I know they have an internet connection. Probably should have posted something from their house - you know... just a quick 5-10 min or so.... either before we went out to feed their horse, or after the game of Dukes of Hazzard (a cool card game from my youth...) I could have fit it in there somewhere. Right?

Or, after the 40 minute ride home, before getting the kids in bed, or at least after that, before Jen and I started our Star Trek Voyager episode. I probably could have do it then. That was around 11:30pm. I still had time. I probably could have kept the dream alive at that point.

But I didn't.

:-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Does This Count?

Hey. It's 1:41am on Sunday night, and I am about to head to bed, when I remembered my Everyday blog. Now, since this is still Sunday for me (despite what my computer clock is trying to tell me) I thought I would fudge the post time and stay on track for my one blog every day in 2006.

Thanks for allowing me such a freedom. ;-)

Today was great, as most day-offs have been recently. Our life (and perhaps me?) is much more relaxed these days, and I am so totally enjoying it. I wish Jen could enjoy it more. She's tired of being pregnant already. Only a few more weeks to go...

We had all sorts of great family fun today, and then had dinner with some friends we have not connected with in a long time. That was really cool. Very much enjoyed that. Afterwards, we came home to another episode from season three of the Dukes! (Yeeeeeehaaaa!!) Then, the boys and I played a little Sega Genesis before bed. :-) (Add to all of this sleeping in till almost 10am, pancake breakfast, and creating a program in BASIC for my TI-99/4a computer today... it was one super fun day!) :-)

But, definitely the coolest part of today was breaking out some old letters from family and friends. There were a few from my Mom from my freshman year of college. There were a few from friends over those same years of college. A couple were short, a few were a bit more in-depth - but all just very cool encouraging words. Words to save for a rainy day. (Though today was not rainy, it was still very nice to read them.)

Best part of that best part of the day? Reading through several letters from my best friend - and now wife of eight years 3 months and 4 days - together to end our day. It was great to remember some of the fun stuff we did together. It was even way cooler to remember how much I love her. And surprising to remember how much she loves me. I am quite a lucky guy to be her husband. :-) I am still amazed that God hooked us up. :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Coffee Houses

I am sitting here in a nice comfy couch in an empty (mostly) coffee house about 3/4 of a mile from our house with almost complete silence around me, and I am feeling very thankful for my wife who let me come do this. :-)

There was a lot of commotion about the house today, between the kids, and new loud music playing, and Jen's nesting projects, so I asked if I could slip away to the local coffee shop for a few hours. She said yes. So, here I am.

It's a nice place. They make a good cup of chai. And they have free wi-fi. :-) It hasn't caught on very well yet, but hopefully after a little while people will start hanging out here.

It's a cool place for me. Nice relaxed environment. Great warm beverages (chai being my favorite) and of course, the free wireless access. That's nice too.

I'm here working on my next book for a while. Reading through the blog archives and selecting posts that might be worthy of a book. Stay tuned for details on the formation and publication of that next textual release.

We watched another episode of the Dukes of Hazzard last night after a pretty serious cleaning of our entire downstairs. Put away all the Christmas decorations and I finally vacuumed. :-) That was cool and relaxing. Then after everyone went to bed, I figured out a few tricks for navigating the refueling tunnels in the TI-99 game Parsec, and then hunkered down to watch the Fantastic Four movie. It was really better than I expected. Had me stiflling many a laugh as I watched on my laptop with Jen sleeping next to me. We might watch it with the boys later today.

For now, I must get back to my book compiling. :-)

And, my chai... :-)

[Posted from Coffee Creek in Palmyra, NY.]

Week's End

Here I sit, in my nice comfortable easy chair (is that what you call it?), after a long day, a long week of pretty good days of work. Seriously. Except for a blip, (was it, yesterday?) I completed a good amount of what I was attempting to accomplish and there is plenty of new business to start on next week. Very good.

But I am still trying to figure out why I feel like I didn't accomplish anything? Why are there so many projects I feel I must do? Why are there so many fun things to work on, or to play at? Seriously...

It was a good day, though, and I am looking forward now to a good weekend. We'll be cleaning up around the house tonight and tomorrow, then hanging out with some friends on Sunday evening, eating and watching football together. That will be cool. I hope to work on my next book a bit tomorrow as well.

All in all, should be a nice week's end.

Oh hey, I posted the first article in a new feature over at the Buffalo Bills Review. Stop by and check it out if you are so inclined. It will be posted every Friday - likely in the morning.

Till tomorrow...

[Posted from my comfortable chair the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Sometimes, It's Not What You Expect

Today was crazy.

We had a great time last night with our friends - except for Ian horsing around and putting a pretty deep hole in the side of his head. That was an adventure. But it was nice to hang out with friends all evening. Good chocolate waffles, too. :-)

But, today was crazy.

So far this week, I have been pretty efficient in the office, but today I didn't even get there till almost 11:00am!!! I slept in a bit (after not too much sleep earlier this week, I thought it best). Then I made dinner for tonight (Skyline Chili!!) and some bread for our friend who just had a baby. (His name is Lake.) And by the time I had done that, it was almost 11.

Then, most projects I was working on today were not cooperating. It was weird.

So, after a mostly unproductive day in the office, we headed out to meet the new baby. He was cool. Just... ya know.. a baby. :-) His full name is Lakeland Matias Jones. But they'll call him Lake. When Jen told Alex the baby was going to be called Lake, Alex said, "Lake?! That's like a river! He's a lake!" That was funny.

We returned home to eat dinner for ourselves - at 7:30pm!!! But, any time is a great time for SKYLINE!!!

And then, for the nightcap, Ian and I went to the local coffee house for some one-on-one time. That was very cool. I need to do that more often. I love him. :-) (It's cool that he loves chai, too!) :-)

Now, Jen just finished her shower, and we're going to watch Star Trek Voyager!

Night!

[Posted from the PowerBook in the BATHROOM in Palmyra, NY.]

Hit The Wall

Whoa. I just hit the wall. Was going along just fine - completing some work on a project I have been working on for a while, talking with folks, getting stuff done... and then after one conversation with another client, I just crashed. Hard. So... I thought I'd head on over to blogger and catch up on what's goin' on...

Well, the keyboard saga continued this morning. I was attempting to check our bank balance online when I found out that the T key was sticking. Bad. It would not come back up. I tried to get it to work without taking the whole thing apart again (did you know there are 36 screws to remove when taking apart an apple keyboard? And that now, there are only 35? :-) I was unsuccessful, so I spent a few hours this morning scraping dried milk off a couple of keys on Jen's keyboard.

I hope that doesn't happen again...

I woke up this morning a little after 7:30 to go play basketball with Steve (which I do every Wednesday) and today, my friend Scott joined us for the excercise. It was defintely a good time, though I was feeling more out of shape than ever. I am definitely getting old!!

Today I continued working on a pretty involved project for a local RV reseller. It's coming together nicely, actually. It's nice when things come together nicely. :-)

Also, the friend I mentioned yesterday who is due to have a baby... she's having it as I type! Went in this morning, and the baby should be coming out within a few hours! That's cool. Even cooler is, we are due to have our baby not long after them! Soe we're getting close!!!

We're going over to Scott & Leah V's to hang out with them tonight. Getting the "Beat The Clock" deal at local pizzeria, Leonardo's, and sharing an evening together. Looking forward to it.

That was my Wednesday so far. It's only 4:30, though... so I imagine there will be plenty more Wednesday to come...

[Posted from the PowerBook in the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Waiting...

I am sitting at Jen's computer in our kitchen, waiting for the rest of the family to return from some errands. The food I made is getting a little cold, but it will reheat. The quiet is certainly nice, but I look forward to their return.

In the meantime, why not catch up on today's events?

Surprisingly, I awoke at 8:10 or so, and felt awake as well. It's suprising since I was awake the night before till after 3am! Playing vintage video games, and working on various projects. Not sure exactly why - just wasn't tired. Still am not. Very strange.

Today was so great, though. Seriously. I made some good progress ona few current web projects, which is always nice, and I got to connect with lots of folks via e-mail, IM and the phone. I love that. That's what make a day good or bad many times. Not always, but often that can brighten an otherwise not so good day.

We went up to the library at lunch time. That was a break from our Monday night routine. We thought they were closed last night, but it turns out they were not. :-) Oh well. Made for a fun lunch time today. :-)

Tonight we'll visit with some friends, and tomorrow night, and Sunday night. It's a good week for reconnecting. Very cool!

And, the title of the blog... was talking with a friend of ours today who is very pregnant (due any day probably) and we were talking about waiting. She's waiting for a baby. They still don't know what they will name him. :-) So, they're waiting for that. I am waiting to buy a computer system that we really want. Another friend is waiting to see what his next employment will be. Waiting.

Waiting is not fun... but God can remind us that we need him more than ever when we have to wa...

---

Strange but true story... as I was typing that blog on my wife's computer, I noticed the space bar periodically not working. Eventually it stopped altogether. Then some other strange things started happening. I couldn't figure it out until I called Jen to find out when they would be home, and she said, "Oh, I spilled milk on the keyboard." She meant like the keyboard was floating in milk!!! Ha! For the last two paragraphs above, I was pasting in a space with the Command-V key sequence for EVERY space. That was really, really annoying. :-)

Well, unless it works after drying out overnight, looks like we're going to have to buy Jen that wireless keyboard we've been wanting...

We'll just have to WAIT and see... ;-)

[Posted from Jen's "milky" keyboard, then the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Two-Minute Blog

When I began this, my intent was to blog once (at least) every day in the year 2006. Well, it's 11:58 and I have two minutes!

Grandma Walker came over today, and she and the kids (and Jen) spent the day sorting through some items she collected from her basement. Then they took the leftovers to a thrift store. She also made some great soup for lunch!!!

I had a great day in the office - able to get a lot done. That was good.

Spent a nice evening with the kids, making chocolate chip cookies for Jen and watchin the Knight Rider!!! The kids (and mom and dad!) love that show!!

That's all for today! More tomorrow...

:-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Sundays

I sure love Sundays. :-) Today was another nice full day of fun with my family. These days, Sunday is that day.

We started off with pancakes for breakfast, followed by a little clean up of the house. I went up to a the Baptist church on the corner to help a friend record her piano students today (I just set up the system for her, so I could continue to enjoy my day off) :-)

When I got back, we watched an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard! That's a favorite in the Campbell house! :-) After a quick visit to Hazzard county, we set up to watch football. There were a couple great games on today! We caught most of the first one. Amazing. How could the Colts lose?!?

Later this evening, the kids and I went to WalMart to get some things while Mom got a break from the kids (and Dad, too, I guess...) :-) That was fun! We had a good time, and finished it off with a visit to our local McDonald's (with the great PLAYPLACE!) :-)

We got a fun little bonus when we stopped there. As we were getting our food, another family with three kids came in, and headed into the Play Place with us! We played for a while with them and found out that we live pretty close to each other. That was great! They might come out to a concert we're doing in February. That was a neat little bonus.

Now we're finishing off the evening watching an episode of Voyager. :-)

All for now... it's almost tomorrow!

[Posted from the Living Room Couch in Palmyra, NY.]

Gall Bladders and NFL Playoffs!

In an e-mail from my Dad today, I was reminded to mention my sister's recent surgery. Yesterday morning, she had her gall bladder removed, and she got to go home with two grape-sized stones that were lodged in there! Crazy. Apparently this is something fairly common in women in general, but it has definitely been common in my extended family. Many of the ladies on my Mom's side of the family have had such a procedure performed on their bodies.

All is well, and she is recovering at home since yesterday afternoon.

I like all my organs where they are, thank you very much... :-)

We're watching the Seahawks play the Redskins this afternoon. Jen's feeling big and pregnant, so she's mostly just relaxing. I am getting some work done while we watch and the boys are enjoying some great football. It's fun that they all like it. Especially Alex. He has been counting down till kickoff all day long! :-)

The date went well last night. :-) We went to a coffee house for dinner, then to the mall to pay a visit (sans kids) to the Apple store!!! That was great. We also made a stop at JCPenny's for Jen to check out some post maternity under garments. That's always funny. There I was, just hanging out in the ladies underwear section while Jen was in the fitting room. That's when you know you've been married a long time, and you love your wife very much. :-) But after that we spent time at the Apple store and hung out on a couch sipping a Chai from Starbucks! Very nice evening.

I am already looking forward to the next one.

Today has been erratic. Jumping from task to task - mostly maintenance jobs on my various websites, including a new one I am working on. Will probably post a link here once that one is complete.

Just for fun, here are my predictions for this weekend:
Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Indianapolis (how boring... all the home teams/favorites...)

[Posted from my LIVING ROOM COUCH in Palmyra, NY.]

Unseasonble Weather

Now, ordinarily you would not find me talking about the weather. That's a topic for the longer moments of silence during a conversation with my Grandma Alta. (She likes to chat about the weather...) But given the circumstances, I figured it was a good piece to start off with in a daily journal about the days.

I am not certain at this time what the highest temperature was today, but I am typing this blog from my PORCH in a T-SHIRT on January 13th in Rochester, NY. Um... that's warm!!! My weather widget tells me it's 59ºF here in Palmyra. It's been warm like this for a while now. I woke up the other day, and the sun looked really weird. The light was coming from a strange angle or something. I couldn't figure it out until I realized, "Dummy! It's JANUARY and I am seeing THE SUN!!! We don't usually see the full-on sun in Western New York in January - unless it's shining off 3 feet of new snow!

So, besides the weather, I did catch up on a few things today. The website is back up, emails came through (giving me more to do) and the new loan process continues on pace. I got to go for a brief walk with my daughter up to the bank to deposit another check from AmeriQuest.

There was also Bills news today. The head coach, Mike Mularkey just up and resigned. Last week all was hunky-dory, but now he can't take it anymore. Very strange. Oh well.

But, by far, the best part of today is our great friends, the Stupins, will be watching all three of our outside-the-womb kids so that Jen and I can actually have a just-the-two-of-us date night! Yes!!! Can't wait. I'm taking her out to a fancy little coffee shop. :-) These dates seem fewer and farther between the more kids come along.

Soon enough, though, Ian will be baby-sitting age, and then we'll be out on the town all the time!! :-)

We'll see...

Anyway, that's the news from here. More later...

[Posted from OUR FRONT PORCH in Palmyra, NY.]

Woe Is Me :-(

Today has not been a good day so far. I actually found out yesterday that my main business domain (bwd-graphics.com) had EXPIRED, and this time at no fault of my own. :-( That was sad enough, but so far today, I have not been able to contact my domain guy in any way to reinstate it. So, my business e-mails are going to oblivion, and now actually, ALL of my domains hosting are not loading!! :-( :-( :-(

On a more positive note, our debt consolidation loan through AmeriQuest has gone through, and we now have no credit card debt at all, and enough money in the bank to just pay the bills when they are due! Quite an extraordinary experience, let me say! We'll see how long that lasts... (The bill paying, not the credit cards! That should last for quite some time!!!)

This week has been great because there have not been a lot of extra things (despite what I wrote yesterday, it does appear that perhaps even by next week, there may be a bit of routine!) So, we're enjoying that.

Jen and the kids head out during the day for a little errand running, and even some thrifting, and then we usually have some fun family evening activity. Last night was a trip to Save-a-Lot for some ground beef (and other stuff) for dinner. We made tacos!!! (Even made som Taco Dip - my favorite!!!)

It was a fun night. :-)

Hopefully this domain thing will go through quickly, and I can report tomorrow that today was a "fun day" as well... :-{

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

My Week Days

I am still trying to figure out what "normal" week is for me. I am almost certain there is no such thing! I thought after the holidays things might settle into some form of a routine, especially with the Buffalo Bills Review not being a weekly thing. That show was really messing with my body's schedule! :-) I was staying up every Monday night till 5:30am or later! Then, I would try to do the rest of the week like normal... that wasn't working.

So, last week was not normal due to returning from vacation with family - just getting life back in order here. Then, this week has been interrupted by a speaking engagement at the library in the middle of the day (Monday) and then the big Apple day yesterday. (A friend said it's like the guys who stay home from work to watch the NFL draft. Yeah... that's kinda like it.)

I am still trying to get back into a normal routine. I do take a lunch break everyday with the family. That's nice. Usually that is from 1pm-2pm. But between answering emails, phone calls, IMs and taking care of various personal things, it seems like it's kinda hard to get to the bigger items on my lists to do sometimes!!!

Oh, and I guess blogging does take a sec or two...

;-)

(My ultimate dream - I think? - would be to be able to "blog" or write or something all day long, and not have to worry about whether I was paid for that or not. That would be cool. But, until then... BACK TO WORK!)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Apple, New Services, and Dad

Today was a big day for Apple computer! Every year at the MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco they reveal some amazing new techno-gadgetry over which every Apple enthusiast drools, slobbers and repeatedly breaks the 10th commandment. (That's the "Thou Shalt Not Covet" one...) :-)

You can read all about that one on my regular blog at GregsHead.net.

Since yesterday we have made many changes to our financial accounts. We took back our cable box, and downgraded to basic cable (first 19 channels), and we are in the process of downgrading our cell phone to a pay-as-you-go sorta thing. We also switched our land line from MCI to Vonage (the digital phone thing) and I cancelled our basic merchant account and began using another service to process credit card orders at our gigs.

All in all, we will save over $140/mo. On stuff we don't need anymore. That's really, really good.

Also in the news today, my Dad is once again under the knife. He messed himself up really badly in November (falling off a roof, while attached to a ladder) and has been recovering since then with pins in his foot. Today, they removed those. We should hear from Mom in a little bit with an update.

Much going on, but now I must get back to work!!

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Local Author...

Today I got to speak to a small crowd of friends of the Palmyra library. (Really, that's the name of the group - Friend of the Library!) I was allowed to bring a guest, so I brought Ian along for fun! It was well received, and a good lunch too! Got to speak with several people who have lived far more than twice as much life as me. That is always fascinating. It was fun talking with them about blogs and internet publishing and distribution as well. Several of them will be hopping on their computers and reading my various blogs! How bout that?! :-)

After that, it's been a good day of getting many little detail things done. Working on my next book, changing some services we have to save money (lower cable service, cell phone, home phone, etc) and just plugging away at some more web work. All in all, has been a good, efficient day.

Also carried on a few interesting conversations via email and IM. Was a very full day!

Looking forward to our first Monday in a long time with no Bills show! Love doing it, but it's nice to know I don't have to work again tonight, and stay up till 5:30am doing that work!!!

More later...

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

What A Finish!

I don't know how much you might follow football, but if you have been following the NFL at all this year, you have undoubtedly heard that the Bengals made the playoffs (even got to host a playoff game in Cincy) for the first time since 1990. That's 15 seasons. Fifteen. That's a lot. So, being a good Ohio boy (and with my Bills not in the playoffs) I had kinda latched on to them as "my" team this January.

It started off bad. And got worse.

On his first pass, the starting QB, Carson Palmer, completed a 60-something-yard pass, and tore his ACL in the process. See ya in training camp. Bad news. But, backup Jon Kitna faired well. Leading 17-7 at one point, and holding that lead at half time, I figured the Bengals could pull this one out.

I was wrong.

Twenty-four points later they had lost the game 31-17. Ouch.

So, I will pick another favorite or two, and continue to root for a substitute football team as the playoffs progress... anxiously awaiting next season, when the Bills return to power! We hope. :-)

As for the rest of the day, our friends could not come due to their 3 year old daughter's strep throat! Ouch! But, we had a nice morning anyway, and watched football for most of the day until our neighbor's birthday party at 6:30. We went over (across the driveway) and celebrated Matt & his brother Chris' 32nd birthday with the rest of their family and a few close friends. Nice to celebrate with them. They're great people. They made my Top 50 list on my other blog. :-)

So, next week is supposed to return to normal. Let's see how that actually turns out!!! :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Friends

Well, I just finished switching the laundry for Jen, and I figured I would take a moment and recap the day.

A lot of today was spent visiting with some friends we rarely get to see. John & Jaime Towner and their son Aaron were over today for a waffle brunch and just some time catching up. It was a lot of fun (there were lots of kids to take care of) and Jaime brought some amazingly rich Chocolate Lime Cheesecake. Wow! :-)

After they left, we watched the first of two NFL games (the second is going on right now, so this post will be short!) and during the game, I made a call to some other friends we had not connected with in most of a year. They live near Jacksonville, FL, and through their friendship, we have become closet Jaguars fans. (Their whole family are HUGE Jags fans!) That, too was a great conversation about what God is doing in both of our lives. Nice to connect with people and hear the sorts of things God is doing.

During that call, we got another call from some other friends who are scheduled to come over for a late brunch tomorrow morning, saying that perhaps they might not come due to their daughter's tonsels being swollen! Sounds painful, but we are hoping to still get together with them tomorrow. They are going through a crazy, scary time with losing a job they have had for quite some time, and yet very peaceful and hopeful at what God is doing in all of this. Will be great to chat with them if we can tomorrow.

Friends are great. Sharing your hopes and your fears, learning from each other's... life is meant to be shared (or so says my book...) and we are blessed to be able to do that.

Speaking of sharing life, a verse from the Bible came to mind tonight...

A man's greatest treasure is his wife-- she is a gift from the LORD. (Proverbs 18:22)

I think that's true. Of all the great friends God has connected me with - she is the greatest. :-)

[Posted from my wife's computer in Palmyra, NY.]

Happy Three Kings Day!

Today is Three Kings Day! Or, Epiphany, if you prefer. It's the day that many children around the world celebrate the "Three" kings who traveled a long distance to visit the baby Jesus, and bring him gifts. So, if you leave your shoes out by the door, or window, at night, the kings swing by and leave little gifts for you, too! Very nice.

So this morning, we woke up to shoes full of gifts and enjoyed a little holiday time together. It was fun as always. :-) The kids are still playing with the toys and I am up in my office trying to get all that started today :-)

One thing I noticed, and may have mentioned already, it sure is hard to get back in the swing of things after 1) a holiday or two and then 2) being on the road for over a week. We're still sorting, organizing and getting back into the swing of things. Last night we spent the evening cleaning up, organizing toys, and just getting life sorta back to normal at the Campbell home.

Our January is looking pretty open, which is exciting. Looking forward to either reconnecting with friends and family or, whatever God might have planned for our open schedule! Stay tuned here for details. :-)

More later...

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Long, Long Days

The Buffalo Bills season is over. And, thankfully, so are my long, long days. Or, rather, nights.

Last night we recorded our last show and I edited and posted it by 5:00am this morning. So, I was up most of 24 hours since I was up before 9 the day before... I have done that for the entire football season once a week. That begins to wear on you after a while. :-)

We'll keep doing shows, but only once a month, and perhaps I'll edit in the daytime, instead of over night? We'll see. Looking forward to some innovative change next year to make it a little easier on my body!

For now, I attempt to get back into the world of web design.

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

In Addition...

Jen went to the doctor today for a regular check up, and despite a spill down our top 4 basement stairs that left her with a couple nasty bruises... baby is doing JUST fine! That's great! We're getting closer to meeting this excitable little Campbell! (Jen says junior moves around a lot in there...) :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Getting Back To Work

I always forget to plan buffer days when we return from any trips longer than a day away from home. I did it again. We got back late last night, and I was ready to hit the ground running this morning. I had a big list of what I was going to do today. I really thought I could do a bunch of it. But, all I have done today is get our finances in order, go through some more mail, catch up with e-mails, and basically get back in order so I can actually get something done ... tomorrow! Crazy!

It is great to be back home, though. We all slept quite well in our own beds last night. :-)

Today I am working on the season finale for our first year of doing the Buffalo Bills Review. We'll record tonight, and it will post tomorrow. We'll still do shows once a month for the offseason, but I am looking forward to the break. If you read my other blog you know that I do the Bills show over night on Mondays - I go to bed at 5:30am on Tuesday! That wears on you after a while...

So, the show concludes our first official season tomorrow! Stop by BuffaloBillsReview.com and take a listen! :-)

[Posted from the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Drivin'

Today was a DRIVIN' DAY. We traveled from Spring Valley, OH to our home in Palmyra, NY in just under 10 hours! The amazing part of that feat is that one of us is pregnant, and three others are 7 years of age or younger! All in all, it was a good travel day, especially considering a few of us are sick, including our 22-month-old daughter, who was a trooper, despite a fairly miserable trip for her! Poor Kirstie! :-(

We did get to stop for lunch at one of our favorite Skyline Chili restaurants! It's just off of Polaris Parkway, off 71-N just north of Columbus, OH. We highly recommend them! Great prices (better than most other Skylines), great service, and just a fun Skyline!

It's great to be home. I am using my nice high-speed wireless network to download, and to transfer files back to the home computers! I have missed high-speed in the land of dial-up! My parents house is in the middle of nowhere and would cost mucho dinero to get a line run up to their house. So... they endure the trials of dial.

All of us will sleep very well in our own beds tonight. Kids are already asleep. Poor sick Kirstie was very happy to hit the hay in her own little bed! She was so cute! We love visiting with family, as I have mentioned, but there's just nothing like being HOME! :-)

More later...

G'Night! :-)

[Posted from the basicmm studio computer at the HOME OFFICE in Palmyra, NY.]

Family

Well let me tell you, even though I loved most every bit of the past two days, I am tired! I am sitting here taking minutes to form each sentence! Crazy!

I can't capture everything here, I don't think, but, to continue with my experiment, I'd like to catch most of the big details. :-)

After I went to bed early on New Year's Day, we got back up at 7:00am! Argh. That was definitely something unique about this year. We noticed near the end of the day on Sunday that it really didn't even feel like New Year's Day! It sorta just felt like a normal Sunday. That was kinda sad...

Anyway, we left my parents' house at 8:00am with all three of our sleepy kids to go and set up for singing at both the 9:00 and 11:00am services at Crossview Christian Church (where my parents attend services). Except for a few technical glitches, it was an enjoyable time, which ended with a quick trip back to my parents' home to watch the Bills' game!!! We all got dressed up in our Bills' gear and readied our selves for a season-ending victory in New Jersey! (Playing the Jets).

My sister and her family were also in the house (she has three girls 4 yrs old and younger!) as well as Grammy & Grandpa and all our family. Needless to say, it was busy. And sometimes hard to catch the game. But, we managed, and had a blast! Only problem was, after the Bills took the lead late in the 4th quarter in a great back-and-forth game, the kickoff following that score was returned for a touchdown, and the JETS took the lead! Argh! So, the Bills lost 30-26, but, we still had a great time. :-)

For the rest of the day we hung out, played with kids, ate LOTS of food and enjoyed time together as the larger Campbell family. Fun. But again... tiring. At the end of the day, we watched the final NFL Primetime with my parents (via TiVo) and then caught the end of the final ESPN Sunday Night game. A little piece of history there.

Today we woke up around 9am to get a project done for my Dad (who is still recovering from a broken ankle and other breakages) and then headed down to Cincinnati to spend a bunch of today with my sister's family. :-) Fun. We had lunch at CiCi's Pizza (one of our faves) and played for an hour or so at their church building with lots of fun toys, and then went to check out the improvements to our old college campus with a quick self-guided (well, Tara-guided) tour of the new stuff.

We ended the day with dinner at Skyline Chili (the Price Hill restaurant, where it all began!) and then a trip back to Mom & Dad's for one more evening of fun with them. Packing tomorrow, then a long trip home.

Tune in tomorrow for all the exciting details! :-)

[Posted via DIAL UP! at my parents' house in Spring Valley, OH.]

Happy New Year

You know, it's just funny... I do it every year, and every year I think, "This is so silly..." but here I am again, heading to bed after staying up to watch a ball drop! :-)

It's not the ball. It's not the tradition. It's not really even New Years. :-) Actually, all the strange traditions and the whole "everybody doing the same thing" thing aside - I love that everyone else stays up late with me!

I am definitely a late-nighter. So, midnight is early evening for me. That part is no trouble. But the ball, the toasts, the champagne, the kissing... sorry folks, that's too much uniformity for me. :-) :-) I mean, it's just a day we flip open a new calendar? Right?

I sound like I'm mad (perhaps?)... but I am not at all. Happy to be with my family, and looking forward to another year. Can't wait to do this again next year (yes, I am sure that I will!) and look back on this online journal of the year that was.

Thanks for joining me. :-)

[Posted via DIAL UP! at my parents' house in Spring Valley, OH.]