Future Poltergeist

If you look over to your right, you'll see that I crossed the 50k mark yesterday. That's the beauty of this thing, as long as you have enough total words down the quality doesn't really matter. No one will ever read it unless you let them. Well, here's the deal, I know there has been some interest from you guys to actually read this thing. So I'm figuring out a way to do that. I don't want to clog up this blog with a huge unreadable section. Instead, I'm going to start a different blog and put up 1000 or so words per day. Keep in mind that I didn't write this as a serial so it won't be filled with daily cliffhangers. I'll try to make cut offs logical, of course. Also, don't feel like you have to go over and read it. I can't track these things, so you won't be hurting my feelings. The story still has another week or ten days of writing, so don't expect anything until closer to mid December. I'll put a post up then with...

To Hans and Rachel. Their wedding was the beginning of a new chapter for our family. Until then we were the classic nuclear set up with two parents, two boys and a girl. This wedding added Rachel and her family. Not long after that we added Josiah. Heidi brought Chad and his family into the group. I soon followed suit with the FP Gal and her clan. Annika was next. Then came Aurelia. You can also add parents and in-laws to the number. Anyway, Hans, I'm glad you brought her in (even if I did void the warranty). Can you believe that was only five years ago?

There have been about half a dozen babies born into my office this year (with two more on the way). One of the ladies that I worked closely with for about two years just had a boy last Friday. There must be something in the water or something. Even amongst my friends who blog, there has been a rush of them. There's Holly who went early. And Carrie who only has a month or so left. Laurie caught on this fall. And who knows when she'll start telling people. Anyway, I'm too busy to put together a real post, so I thought I'd put up a video of a gorgeous Kate Bush song. Yes, it's really for dads-in-waiting but maybe the rest of you can enjoy it too.

I've tinkered with the settings for this blog so that anyone can comment. It will still ask for word verification to keep the spambots away but it'll be easier for non-bloggers to say something. If you're out there and have been reading, don't be shy. Join in on the conversation!

The FP Gal is back from her trip to IA. She and Relia survived just fine without me. When she arrived back home she was all smiles. After about twenty minutes or so this turned into inconsolable crying. Wailing and wailing as if the world was going to end. The tale of the tape from the weekend? There were seven McDonalds bags in the garbage. Only three of them were from me. This was probably too much. I'm swearing off the arches for awhile. At least until Wednesday. I got to write several thousand words, enough where I'm confident I can reach 50k by Friday. Guess who else is playing ? Good for him and I hope he gets there too. With Hans in town we did some game playing on Saturday. I was competitive but didn't win anything. Maybe next time. I had two (2) nights where I didn't have to share the sheets or the comforter. Very nice. I'm glad they're home.

How could I resist this story ? Indeed, the Italian government was not even aware of their existence until a few years ago. But the 'Temples of Damanhur' are not the great legacy of some long-lost civilisation, they are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock. There are more pictures at the link. In 1977, he selected a remote hillside where he felt the hard rock would sustain the structures he had in mind. A house was built on the hillside and Falco moved in with several friends who shared his vision. Using hammers and picks, they began their dig to create the temples of Damanhur - named after the ancient subterranean Egyptian temple meaning City of Light - in August 1978. That's how these things always start, isn't it?

Yesterday was a good day. The FP Gal took Relia over to her folks to start cooking. That's her favorite part of turkey day, maybe her dad's favorite, too. That left me the house to myself and I got some writing done. I went over there at 1130a or so. That let me watch the Fox pregame special where Brettie was proclaimed to be the best person in the world. That was super fun, let me tell you! We had the game on there, but muted with subtitles. This brings a unique view to a football game. The inane chatter is about two plays behind and sometimes that's an improvement. The food was very yummy. I'd mentioned to the FP Gal that I've never had the drumstick so she made sure I got one this year. It wasn't anymore special than the rest of the turkey so I can gladly give them to someone else in the future. Then it was off to Austin to see a different section of the family. Two of my cousins were there with their nine (9) children. Having them all under one r...

So last night we went out and celebrated our birthdays. We did this last year with just our parents and it was very nice. This year we expanded it and invited our brothers and their families. That gave us a round number of 13. (With some forethought, we would have gotten a Hobbit to bring us luck.) It was a very good time, though quite active. Relia spent the entire time being passed from grandparent to aunt or uncle and vice versa. She was very tired by the time we got home. I'd hoped she'd be her regular smiley self but she spent the whole time either sleeping or trying to figure out who in the world was holding her. Back home, the FP Gal broke her new DVD, 'Help' by the Beatles and we watched some of it. She reports that the video looks much clearer than she'd ever seen it before. The plot is beyond goofy but quite fun. With her help, I may get to know this mystery band.

To the FP Gal. It's been quite a year and you've handled it all marvelously.

Yay, a random post! (These are some of my favorites to write. Unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between how much I enjoy them and how easy they are to understand.) Very foggy today and I liked it. The forecast calls for cold and possibly snow starting Thursday. I remember when I was young it seemed that we always had a white Thanksgiving. It must be drier now because they've been green/brown for the most part. Kind of sad. Being a sports fan means seeing the same commercials over and over and over. This leads to some obvious questions. Is there a construction company in this country that expects it's employees to use their own trucks on the site? And are you really telling me that any sizeable number of the truck owning population would ever risk their very expensive new vehicles by just throwing concrete blocks in the bed? How stupid do you think we are? Speaking of trucks, there must be some way to angle their headlights so as not to blind car drivers...

When we put Relia in her Viking sleeper she immediately started crying. Under the rule that babies can sense oncoming thunderstorms, earthquakes and embarrassing football games that probably doesn't mean good news for the Purple today. I've picked them to win (another bad sign) but it's easy to see where today could go badly for them. A few T-Jack interceptions and a missed receiver or two and the Raiders get a couple of touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Vikes of last week looked like they may never score a point again. Yuck, I feel sick just typing that. Hold on Relia! The Vikings really are more fun to watch than they've shown this year. Really, I promise. (Does anyone have tape of the '98 Vikings that I can show her?) Update: Maybe I should make a cynical prediction about the Vikes every week. That seems to almost guarantee a victory.

That's what this picture made me think. More pictures from this artist here .

(While 'Dear Prudence' by Siouxsie and the Banshees comes on the music station.) FP Gal: I didn't know anyone else did this. Me: This is the only version I know. Who else did this? FP Gal: Um, the Beatles (duh!). Me: Oh. I've heard of them. Guess we just come from different musical backgrounds.

Back in high school our small show choir group would start rehearsing Christmas music right after homecoming (sometime mid-October or so). Our group would sing about 30 times or so between the beginning of December and mid-January. Do the math; three years times three months times about 90 performances = a guy who couldn't stand Christmas carols anymore. Mr J did his best by choosing interesting music. He introduced me to the Coventry Carol (which I sing as a bass). He had us do so P.D.Q. Bach . Frankly, he did his best but it was just too much for too many years. It is only in the last few years that I've been able to enjoy it again. In fact it's become kind of a sign of the season the first time a commercial gets 'Carol of the Bells' gets stuck in my head. So, you can have it stuck in yours too. BTW, I know that it's too early for holiday music. I was raised to believe that it shouldn't be around until after Thanksgiving. That ship has apparently...

Well, the computer is anyway. Had to get a new graphic card for the poor thing. Anyway, that should solve the problem. Wish I had more to say. The FP Gal and I have been pretty much floored with a cold (or flu or something). I came home early Tuesday because of it. We both stayed home yesterday. I think we're past the worst of it. My voice is still funny but I can think straight now. That was the worst part of the work on Tuesday morning. Every problem call I got felt like something completely new and incomprehensible. It was like they were speaking in Greek or something. Not a good thing when simple mistakes can cause hundreds of dollars to fix. Anyway, I'm confident I can tackle the usual stuff tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well. It's strange being cut off like that. It's like I'm used to talking to a couple of dozen people everyday and then they were just...gone. That probably means that I've got a problem or something. Anyway, it's good...

Very limited posting until I get the video card sorted out.

On the drive home tonight I saw a long gliding shooting star. It started white and turned green before fading. Very beautiful. Did I make a wish? Of course. Can't tell you what I wished for because that would ruin it.

That's the status at the FP household. Well, the maybe not Relia, but the rest of us. The most she has is some snuffling in the morning. The FP Gal and I? Both up at 3a with body aches and strange feverish dreams. Great fun! Today, my firm wish is that I was a stay at home dad. [Looks down at green fuzzy slippers] "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home!". Rats. I'm going to work.

Hugh Grant plays the failed half of an 80's pop band (think the other guy from Wham!). He gets an offer to write a duet with a Britney clone. The trouble is that he can only write music. He needs someone else to give him the lyrics. In comes Drew Barrymore to water his plants. It turns out that she's a writer and the two click. If they can overcome her literary demons. And if they can get past his lack of confidence. This is a very charming movie. Grant plays a wonderfully befuddled man. Barrymore stretches her acting chops here a bit and does a very nice job as a complicated woman. She could honestly have come from the pages of a Woody Allen script (and I mean that as a compliment). The story works well. And the music? Plenty of fun 80's pop. It's well worth watching.

Yes, I'm jealous . I'm sure we'll catch up in a couple of years when availability goes up and the price comes down. Rachel, try and sing their praises to the FP Gal, would ya? A quiet day at the FP household. Relia and I just stayed in and watched some TV. Well, she did some time in the swing while I did my own stuff. Do I feel guilty about that? Some. But I'm getting better about it. Meant to tell everyone that 'Amazing Race' was starting again. This is probably our favorite TV show. I keep hoping that the FP Gal will try out for it with me but she won't. She thinks that the stress would be too much. Hey Jodi, you up for a trip around the world? Seriously, it's a great show and you should treat yourself and watch it. It's on Sunday nights on CBS, right after 60 Minutes. You can treat yourself to a double dip and watch Andy Rooney's Decent into Madness, too. Where are the new Relia pictures? The truth is we don't have any good o...

I don't have the little bug working on the blog yet, so I'll just tell you that the novel is going fine. After six days you should be at 10,000 words and I'm only a couple hundred short of that. This year isn't going quite as smoothly as last. I'm still getting to know the characters and that takes more time. Don't worry, I won't fill the blog with updates on this all month. Here's the beginning (which is certain to be rewritten once I know the people better). “So, what do you think?” The servants had all cleared the room. There was no more evidence of the fine meal they had enjoyed. The cards and chips were packed away, too. The card game was finished and a new winner had been crowned. All that remained of the earlier festivities was the cloud of smoke from the lone smoker. From out of this he had brought forth his idea for a different kind of contest. The other six looked at each other, no one sure that they really wanted to commit...

On your degree. I know you worked hard for it. Details here .

Meant to mention that we had our first flurries of the season yesterday. Nothing that stuck to the ground or screwed up traffic or anything like that. But it was real actual white stuff blowing around for a bit. It came with very strong winds and it felt like we'd been picked up and dipped into the Arctic. Today looks like more of the same. It's like the narwhal saw his shadow and now we're in for six months of winter. Joy.

Got a call today from a client who needed to fly from Kenai to Skagway. This was part of his regular territory so he knew the schedules and the airlines. Alaskan Airlines is the dominant carrier of the area but they don't always fit the times that are needed. When that happens we go to lesser known carriers. In this case we went with L.A.B Flying Service and Wings of Alaska . The smaller airlines don't work well with our booking systems so we often have to call them. I didn't have 'Wings' phone number so I had google around for their website. While there I found a link to 'Employment Opportunities'. (Don't worry, I doubt I'll ever convince the FP Gal to move to Alaska. It never hurts to look around though, right?) Under customer service I found the usual requirements: experience, able to use a computer, reservations and...able to lift 70 lbs. Needless to say, we don't do a lot of heavy lifting at work. I can't imagine what the ladi...

Answer in comment section.

Most airport codes are formed from the name of the city that they serve. The results are obvious; DEN is Denver, MSP is Minneapolis-St Paul. Other airports are much harder. I thought it would be fun to throw some of those unusual ones out there and see how many people can get. The first list is the codes and the second is the cities that the airports serve. (Heidi, I expect you to get a perfect score!) The codes: 1.BDL 2.BNA 3.CVG 4.MCI 5.MCO 6.MSY 7.ORD 8.TYS 9.XNA 10.YYZ The cities: Chicago Cincinnati Fayetteville AR Hartford Kansas City Knoxville Nashville New Orleans Orlando Toronto Answers tomorrow!

Sorry for the light posting this week. The stress of job schedules has left us both tired and non-creative. Let me try and make up for it and hit the high spots that I left out. Costume for Halloween? Nothing much. In fact I'm ashamed to call it a costume. My team at work decided to go with a theme and all dressed as 'Alice in Wonderland'. When this was first discussed I quickly grabbed the spot of the Cheshire Cat. When der tag came we hadn't prepared anything. As a result I wore a crazy colored poncho and a paper smile hanging from my glasses. Didn't even wear the smile that long because it kept getting in the way. Halloween highlight? The FP Gal brought Relia into work dressed in her tiger costume. She was adorable! We did a quick tour around the office so everyone could see her and then mother and child ran off. (I'd share pictures but our camera is off visiting her brother.) Wednesday night we fought the squirrel. This little critter had gotte...

Thank God, everyone is ok . At least everyone that we know personally.

So the FP Gal added an attachment to Relia's bounce chair. It stands at the foot of the chair and has legs that put it about 10 inches up. It's motion sensitive with the result that every time she kicks or lunges, she sets it off. It lights up and has things that twirl. It also laughs and cheers. Frankly, we wish it came with a volume control because it's incredibly distracting. The only reason we turn it on is because of the incredible cuteness that comes from it. When it starts to go her little eyes just light up and she becomes very still. Then it goes quiet and she stares at it. Finally she kicks again and sets it off. I think she has some idea that she's doing it. I'm sure the FP Gal will provide video at some point. (And yes, that's the excitement from our household today.)