The counting is done, and all appears to be in pretty good shape. What they don't know, is we are pulling our 5.5 million pounds (It was over 3 million to count and the rest was in railcars). We will be moving our business to a different warehouse and they might be getting the idea we are doing that because they weren't that happy to see us. We got through the security gate and went into the office to find the guy that was going to get us started. There was only one girl in the office and I'm pretty sure we scared the hell out of her. She was sitting behind a Plexiglas window with her back turned to us, so I knocked on the window. She turned around, but didn't ask if she could help us or even get up to come over to open the window. I may have freaked her out when I tried to slide the window open to tell her why we were there, but hell, she wasn't moving and I wasn't interested in sitting there all morning. She finally came over, we told her why we were there and she made us leave the main office a sit in a little waiting room. She got us some visitor badges, here is mine and you can see that she thought I was worthy of a James Bond badge.

John was jealous because he got 003 and nothing cool has ever been 003. We finally met Nick who got us started. When we walked into the warehouse I thought we were in Fort Knox.

These bars are some sort of metal, but not sure what. There were these:

They were stamped with Alcoa, so maybe this was aluminum. I don't think there was anyone at this warehouse that had a sense of humor, or they were terrified of us, because whenever we cracked a joke, they either stared at us or acted like they didn't hear us. In fact, the only person we have encountered that even smiled, is the girl at the front desk of the hotel. She must of had a customer service class or something because she smiles and is friendly, a novel idea when dealing directly with people.

Chad, thank you for the website. One problem, on the list of toll booths, I can't figure out which is the one I blew through. I was on I80, but I'll be damned if I can figure out which one on the list it is. I guess they won't spend too much time and energy chasing down the $.30 to $.80 I owe them.

I've got to get back to working on the spreadsheet, so goodbye for now.

I'm a fugitive from the law

So I'm in Hammond, IN, just south of Chicago, and I'm getting the idea that I might not be in the best part of town. It looks OK, but I'm staying in a Marriott property, there are 2 more Marriott's right behind mine, and there was a guard booth to enter the properties. It is currently unmanned, but they obviously felt it was necessary at one time. Now, instead of a guard, they have a sign as you walk in the front door that says they aren't responsible for anything that may happen in their parking lot. Not exactly the way to make the guests feel relaxed, but I guess if you are from a big city, at least you will feel at home. This hotel has the same thing that a hotel I stayed in with my brothers and sisters in KC. They have a happy 2 hours, with free drinks, on week nights. I'm not much of a drinker anymore, but it's nice to know I can stop in for a beer and snacks tomorrow night. The girl at the desk mentioned nachos, so I was in at that point and anything she said after that was blah, blah, blah. I will say that the temperature in the hallway was about 55 degrees, so they either keep meat in there or this place usually houses polar bears and penguins. There is no reason for it to be that cold. My room is set at 68, which is usually where I like it, but it seems colder to me now. I went to my thermostat and read the directions to raise it a degree or two, but found that the instructions affixed to the wall appear to be to something different. I tried and tried, but was unable to kick it up a couple of degrees. As I lay here, my body seems to be adjusting from the Arctic hallway, so I'll hold off on the call to the front desk. We had a little excitement at the end of our 5 hour drive here. The road we were on turns into a toll road just outside of Hammond. I saw the signs stating that the toll booth was ahead. I was following the Indiana signs, when a semi pulled right in front of me, I mean a foot from our front bumper. I was trying to stay off his ass, but of course, when he pulled in front of me, he also jammed on his breaks. In the midst of my heart failure, I must have missed the sign that said "Pay toll, stay right," so I zoomed by the toll booths in the left lanes reserved for those with the electronic pass things in their cars. I wasn't actually expecting the police to chase us down, but I did feel a bit like a fugitive from the law, sort of. Since it was a total accident, I'm hoping I don't end up with a big fine being sent to me. It's a rental car, so they'll have to really work to track me down, but I'd be happy to give them their $.30 if they can find me. Well I'm off to bed, have to count 3 million pounds of plastic in the morning and don't want to be sleepy when I try.

First day of school

Here are a few shots of the boys on Wed., first day of school.

If you look closely, you will see that Mason has lost both of his front teeth.

The first one was loose, but took forever to get out. The second one, much faster. Once it was loose, some of mom's compulsive behavior came through and he stayed up half the night working on it. The gap the 2 teeth left is huge, so I hope he doesn't have 2 Bucky beaver teeth come in. Their first day of school went well, but it's nearly impossible to get the 411 out of them. All they ever seem to remember is recess and lunch. I hope they are retaining some of the teaching, cause it's a long hard life when you don't, trust me.

I'm still staying up way to late to watch the Olympics. Now, of course, the women's beach volleyball finals were on later last night and the men's is on at 10pm tonight. Since these are 2 of my favorites, I have to stay up for them. I hope you all watched Shawn Johnson win her gold on the beam. It's amazing how much I was into women's gymnastics because of her, and I don't even know her. Since she is from WDM, I wanted her to win so bad. The saddest thing I've seen in the Olympics was watching Lolo Jones trip over the 9th hurdle out of 10 when she was winning the race. I went to the send off we had in DM, I've heard her interviewed on local TV stations and I watched her at the Olympics and I must say she is one of the nicest people I have ever heard. After she fell in the Olympic finals, something she had worked all of her life for, she still had the grace to grant an interview to American TV. Then, during that interview, she stopped to hug and congratulate the silver medalist as she walked behind her. I heard her say "Great job sweetie." That about brought a tear to my eye when I thought about how disappointed she must be, but still stopped what she was doing to say good job. THAT is what the games are about and I think all of Iowa is more proud of who she is, rather than what she has or hasn't done. I better go, the volleyball match is starting soon. USA, USA, USA

We are getting ready for the boys to start school this week and not a minute too soon for mom. The problem is, since they haven't been on a schedule in several months, getting them into one is proving to be more difficult than we had figured. We are getting them to bed around the correct time, but they aren't falling asleep. No, in fact, they are still up, around and including 10pm. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if they would stay in bed and stare at the ceiling, but no, they insist on jumping out of bed with the lame excuse that they have to go to the bathroom. This might be a valid excuse for a trip to the can, but after 3 times in an hour, I start to get a little suspicious. They either have prostate problems or they are trying to pull a fast one on mom and dad. We have tried the reward method, if they do well, and the penalty method, if they do not. It works at times, but the last 2 nights have been penalty nights. Last night was the funniest. Mason loves to play the Wii, so that is threat number one. It usually works, because he doesn't want to loose the Wii that he now has to read to us for 20 minutes everyday to earn. You certainly don't want to do the work to get something, just to loose it. Wait, that sounds like taxes. Anyway, we had several conversations about them both staying in bed, but specifically with Mason because it is usually Makiah that gets out and Mason just follows. I told Mason, "Don't worry about what Makiah does, you just do what you know is right." I had this same discussion with him regarding "trouble makers," as he put it, in school. Not 2 minutes after I had this nighttime version of the discussion with him, and after being warned, I hear his feet hit the floor right in the middle of my Olympic watching. I went up stairs to find both of them out of bed and mom yelling from our room that the Wii was gone for tomorrow. Seeing as how they were being so loud, they didn't hear the last part, so I relayed it to be sure there was no confusion. I said to Mason, "You just lost the Wii," which he responded from the other room, "Dang it." I wish I could convey the disappointment in his voice when he realized it was gone. His comment was the funniest thing and if you know Mason, you can hear him saying it, much funnier. He now has lost it and the computer for the last two days, so he isn't happy. Wish us luck tonight, we are running out of time to get this down.

Olympic obsevations

I'm so tired. I've been up past midnight every night since to Olympics began, and getting up at 5:30 am for work. They really need to make this a month long competition so they can show all of the highlights at a more reasonable hour. As soon as I receive a letter back from the International Olympic Committee, I'll let you know when this will happen. I think it's a brilliant idea. Here are a few things that have stood out to me, and I'm sure you've seen them.

1. Michael Phelps, WOW! Nuff said.
2. Female beach volleyball outfits. WOW!!!! Nuff said.
3. I think along with steroid testing, they need to inspect the shoes of the Jamaican 100 meter sprinter. I'm pretty sure there are little rockets in there. He quit running with 15 or 20 meters to go and STILL broke the world record. Shit that's fast. I'm pretty sure I would just be limping out of the blocks as he finished the race, if I were to take him on. I think I'll save that embarrassment for something a little less obvious.
4. Back to volleyball, but this time indoors. I played sand volleyball (we don't call it "Beach" volleyball in Iowa, since there is no beach) for about 15 years and loved it, but if I had to play indoors with these people, they would kill me. I can't see the ball half of the time they hit it so hard.
5. I watched 2 interviews with the William's sisters after they won their gold in doubles tennis and I must say they were very happy to be representing the US and bringing home the gold. For two people that have won a ton of money, they put their Olympic gold at the top of the "favorite win" list. I was proud of them, for what ever that's worth.
6. US women's softball. Can we give the teams they play a 3 run head start? The US is crushing their opponents and I think it would be a nice gesture if we spotted them 3, so the US would only win 7-3, instead of 7-0. Just a thought.
7. I've been pretty impressed with the US men's basketball team, both on the floor with their play and their respect of the other teams and countries. It was nice to see the national anthem being play in game one against the Chinese and every player on the US had their hands on their hearts. Bravo!
8. Speaking of that, I have seen a lot of people with their hands on their hearts. I'm not sure if they were coached on that by the US Olympic committee or not, but it is awesome to see.

I'm sure I will have more, but I need a nap before the evening sesion begins.

Olympics and poo

So I'm watching the Olympics and I have a few observations.
1. The opening ceremonies were unbelievable. My favorite part were the drums. I can honestly say that I have never seen 2008 drums all playing at the same time. The precision of the drummers was awesome. The rest of the show was great as well and the Chinese should be proud of it. They said that 15,000 people participated in the performance. WOW, that is a lot of people to get to go in the right direction at the same time. When you watched all of the "actors" run off the field, I was just waiting for 2 to crash into each other, but I didn't see it happen. I read an article about people who were pissed that the Chinese government would spend that much money on a show, when there are so many people who need the basics in life. Agreed, there are much more important things in life other than a good show for us to watch, but lets not forget how the Olympics pull the world together, all be it for 2 weeks. I know the conflict in Georgia is going on, but most of the news you hear now is positive things about the Olympics. I'm even hearing less about the pollution than in the beginning, even though the air still looks like a "dark and foggy night" in a thriller movie.

2. I saw the most exciting swimming race I have ever seen. I like to watch swimming in the Olympics, but the 4x100 free was the best. I'm sure you heard, but just in case you haven't, let me tell you why this win was so good. The top team going into this race was actually the team from France. One of their swimmers decided to run his mouth and say "we will crush the Americans." Apparently this dude has never heard of giving the opposition incentive. The french got out fast and were ahead by 3/4 body length, or more. The guy who made the comment was the anchor leg of the race. Well I'm sure you did hear that the Americans passed the french and won the gold. I've never cheered so much for a swim race as I did that night. I remember my days of volleyball and I liked nothing more than to beat the team that either whined about everything or were cocky. Go USA!!!!

3. The women's gymnastics was on last night and the Americans took silver. It was sad to see Alicia Sacramone fall twice, but the girls did great and we should all be proud. To see them hug and smile at the Chinese team, after they had just lost to them, shows what the games are supposed to be about. Not running your mouth, but doing your thing, and then, win or loose, smile and keep your head up. Keep watching and rooting for Shaun Johnson, our local girl. She did great in the team competition and will compete in the all around and individual apparatus.

4. While looking at some Olympic pictures on the web, there were some photos that came up after the Olympic ones ran out. There was on of a guy with a bushy beard that caught my eye, so I clicked on it and read the caption, and I'm not making any of this up. In fact, I will include a link to an article so you can see it if you want, but here is the story. The guy is an "artist" who had a piece of his "art" in a gallery in Switzerland. This "art," was an inflatable piece of dog shit. Apparently, this piece of "art" broke loose, as large inflatable pieces of dog shit are prone to do, tore down a power line and crashed into a children's home. The "art" piece is called "Complex Shit." Where has are school system gone? Can we get some federal funding back into the arts so we can teach people that Macy's Thanksgiving day parade balloon rejects, do not constitute art. I haven't found a picture yet, but the article says the turd is as big as a house. Of course it is, it was made by an American and we go big or we go home. This still makes me laugh every time I read it and picture those poor children watching a huge turd smash into their home. The smell must have been horrible:) I can only imagine the phone call to the electric company to tell them their power lines were taken down by a piece of shit. Oh to be customer service that day.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318241/1997763

And another

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Today is my lovely wife's birthday, so if you see her, wish her a happy birthday and tell her she looks great for 45 years old. In reality, she is much younger than that, but I'll refrain from giving out her actual age in case this is the birthday that she becomes sensitive to her age. Since her birthday is today, that tells me that our anniversary is a mere 3 days away. We will have been married nine years on Thursday, and since my first marriage only made it a year, I have smashed my record and hope that I'm just in the early stages of the final out come. We have had a whirlwind of time together, starting with only knowing each other for about 3 months before we got married. I've been told I'm crazy, for more than one reason, but this is the one gamble that has paid off. We had Mason soon after we married, no she wasn't pregnant when we got married, but it was pretty quick. While we were figuring out the parent thing, along came Makiah. With much discussion, we decided that our lives weren't crazy enough, so lets have another, and Max makes us 5. We have done so much in our 9 short years together, travel, kids and all the little things to go by so fast. I hope the rest of our lives are just as much fun.

Happy Birthday Marcy!!!!

Grandpa is in the Olympics!

This is the Russian delegation coming into the Olympic stadium. What events are all of these old guys in, horseshoes? Is there a checkers event now? Can you win a gold in early buffet dining? Sorry, that was probably uncalled for, but in all of the other photos of teams coming in, there is a smattering of older people. Somehow, the Russians have emptied out the old folks home and shipped them to China. If one of these dudes wins a medal in anything other than shooting, do a drug test, they have been scarfing steroids.

Nice try!

Todays winner

You can see that they are pretty much in their space, but the angle worried me that they would hit my car when they were backing out. I think the only way this could be worse, was if they were completly sideways, which they were oh so close to being.

What have you seen today? Nothing good.

That is a movie quote, first one to guess the movie and post it in the "comments" section, gets a big fat nothing, but the knowledge that someone else memorizes useless movie quotes will make my day.

There hasn't been a lot going on here on the west side of Des Moines recently. I would like to say our schedule is slowing down, but why lie when there is nothing to gain. The boys have been busy with 2 camps and swim lessons, plus they went to Adventureland (an amusement park here in DSM) yesterday and school is just around the corner. I can hardly believe that Mason will be in second, Makiah in first and Max will start preschool. I'm all ready trying to figure out how to pay $90 in school fees, $80 in school supplies, lunch money and Max's school tuition. How much can you sell a kidney for? We are having Makiah's 6 year birthday party next weekend, so that should be fun, if you like a bunch of screaming little kids, cake in the carpet and every toy we own dumped out. I hope we have good weather and we will have them in the pool and killing my grass with a slip-n-slide. We broke it out the other day and I tried to teach Makiah and Max how to slide. They must have thought it was a slip-n-run, because they would run the length of the plastic, not one dropping to a knee or butt. Max finally fell, therefore getting a bit of the "slide" in slip-n-slide. Makiah finally started sliding on his knees, then moved to his butt, and finally to his stomach. They really liked it, even though the hill is not exactly Everest, or even Everest's tiny cousin, slope. No, our hill is more like a gradual slide that has the elevation change of 2 to 3 feet. I remember when I was a kid, playing on one at a friends house all day. When we were done, we pulled it up to reveal a bright yellow strip right down the middle of their front yard that didn't go away for months. After the boys were done, I pulled ours up to reveal a strip of grass that is smashed down, and after 5 days, has not fully recovered. We are also planning on getting the bounce house out, which will kill another part of the yard, but hopefully will keep the kids occupied.

A little update on the board I'm on. I'm still not 100% sure what my role on this board is. There have all ready been some big changes in personnel and the music has been fine tuned. I like the sound of the station, we will see if we can get it, financially, back on its feet. I think the mission is a worthy one and I think our plan is valid, now we need to get the word out and look for people who believe in the mission as well and can help in the recovery.

I found a homeowners worst nightmare the other day. I was moving a piece of furniture and found the carpet had something all over it. It appeared to be mold or a stain, so I looked behind a piece of the trim and could see some mold. I pulled the trim off and cut into the wall to see the level of damage and found the insulation inside the wall was soaked, along with the floor plate and a few of the studs. Not exactly what I had planned on when I started the day. I called the insurance people, who reminded me that my policy, and yours too, doesn't cover mold damage. I had seen that before on TV, but was hoping they would make an exception for me, but no such luck. Now the question will be, what is considered water damage, which is covered, and what is mold damage, which is not covered? My opinion, the mold was caused by the water, so it should be covered, but insurance companies don't make millions, or billions, of dollars by being nice guys. They charge you as much as they can and fight paying every claim, but by law, you have to have it. That's a good racket if you can get it. This would be my first claim ever on my homeowners insurance, but my guess is they won't cover enough to make it worth paying my deductible and having my rates go up. I'm sure I'll be trying to figure out how to come up with the money to fix this on my own. How much for that kidney?

Last weekend our church had what it calls Taste of Hope, which is an event for anyone, member or not, to come to our church parking lot for free food, free games, music and fireworks at night. The kids love it, even though the lines are long. They have a petting zoo, that this year had chickens. Marcy was inside the zoo with Makiah and Max, the animals would probably kill Mason with his allergies. I was outside the fence trying to get pictures of the kids petting the animals, and failing miserably. I really suck at photography. I was watching Max try to pet some medium sized chicken when all of the sudden he tried to pick it up by its neck. He had a hold of it and was lifting when I yelled at him to put it down. He did and I told Marcy to turn around and get Max before he killed a chicken and we were banned from petting zoo's across the country. The last thing I want to see is a family picture with one of those red circles around us with a line through it. We got out of there without any fatalities, so there are petting zoo's in our future. When I told Mason the story, I realized that Max was "choking the chicken." Now, whenever I tell the story, I get an extra laugh that the boys don't understand yet, but they will. The fireworks they have at night are some of the best fireworks we see all year. I'm amazed at how good they are. The guy who owns the fireworks company goes to our church, so I'm sure we get extra special treatment for less cost, but it is impressive any way you look at it.

Hope all is well with everyone. Maybe something exciting will happen next week and I will have something to write about. The insurance guy comes on Wed., so maybe a argument and/or fight will occur as well.