Today's topic: Vacation potpour......urgh, can't spell that...spellchecker? Yeah, well I'm getting old waiting for whatever is supposed to happen when I click the spellcheck icon.....
I think about things to write while I am on my long commute. At times, actually often, I feel the desire to BE a writer. What do I mean by that? Well, I'd like to be able to put my FEELINGS down on paper so that others might feel them too or at least know how I am feeling. Do I want to take classes to actually learn how to write? Now that I put it that way, yes. I'd like to at least give myself time to say, "Oh, this is too much work! This is too hard! I don't REALLY want to work this hard." The same goes for music. I'd love to be able write and perform songs that convey how I FEEEEEEL inside. So far, I haven't taken the time out of my fairly regimented life to expore either of these adventures. Perhaps I'll do it when I retire? Oh, that sounds scary. I'll begin living tomorrow. Raaaaaaight!
Let us reflect for a moment on two songs that I have heard this Christmas season that have brought me to tears. They are "The Cat Carol" performed by Meryn Cadell and "The Christmas Shoes" performed by Newsong. I love cats. (Oh, BTW, I've gotten more comfortable with my outside kitties being OK out there even if it gets below zero. They've been out there for years and are somewhat used to it. It was unfortunate that I had to get all emotional about it on Christmas Eve day.)
When I first heard The Cat Carol on the Somafm.com feed that I listened to at work during the weeks before Christmas, it brought gentle sobbing and lots of tears. I was glad I was working alone in the basement of JMS. When I heard "The Christmas Shoes" while driving through south DePere on my way to work, I cried as hard as I had ever cried in my whole life. Yes, as hard as when I was a child and hit my finger with a hammer. I was bawling uncontrollably.

So I immediately set about "acquiring" each of these songs. The author wanted $4.45 to download The Cats Carol from his website. That seemed a little steep. I could not find it for sale on either iTunes or Rhapsody. I managed to find it "on the internet". I did purchase "The Christmas Shoes" and four other Newsong Christmas songs on Rhapsody. Why did I immediately go out and try to find songs that make me cry? Is crying fun? Well, not really. Did the Christmas Shoes cry make me feel better? No doubt! I felt like a dam had burst, a dam that had been building up for some time. What's that all about? I don't know. Best guess? Christmas anxiety. Not having that Christmas shopping done may be a hidden weight tied around my neck. Next year should be better. Since we are exchanging names, I will only have to buy one gift instead of ten.

Here's another question: Why did I stop writing in this blog for so long? My theory is that writing is a way for me to deal with depression. I don't feel compelled to write during the summer when I am busy golfing. During the winter, I am much more sedentary, it is dark and gloomy outside, and I tend to get a lot more introspective.

Boring personal department: I woke up, er went to bed with, a sore throat. Today, my head feels like it's twice its real size. I'm going to lay low, watch lots of TV and generally try to avoid work.

Ciao, babies!

It's 8 below zero this morning and my outside kitties came to eat. It's just killing me. Should I have known it would come to this?
Liz is adamant that they not come inside. She just repeats the same things every time about how they pee to mark their territory.
I promised not to bring them in. What can I do? What should I do?

Second Win in the County Golf Tournament

I have successfully defended my Second Flight Championship! I shot 38 on the front nine yesterday at Quit Qui Oc. That's the best I've ever done on that nine. But the back nine went in the toilet. I could not keep the ball out of the trees off the tee on the last 4 holes. I also wasted 4 shots with pitch shots where I hit two inches behind the ball and it didn't make it to the green. I shot 48 on the back nine to finish with an 86 for the first day. That put me in third place, four shots back of the leader who shot 82. Because there were three guys who shot 86, and because they decided to make the final group a three-some, I was not in the final group. I was in the second to last group. I think I parred the first hole today. That was a good start. But things quickly got ugly. I topped my drive on the second hole and had to hit a recovery shot just to get up to where the other guys had hit their drives. My third shot was good. Right down the middle. But I hooked a five iron on my third. Then I "chunked" a short pitch shot. When I do that, I just want to crawl in a hole. It's such a short swing and to hit two inches behind the ball makes me insane. I did hit a better pitch up to the green and made the putt for a double bogie seven. On the third hole, a 163 yard par 3, things got horrible. I hit behind the ball on my tee shot but the ball still rolled far enough to just make it on to the front of the green. My putt from there ended up about 8 inches past the hole. An 8 inch putt for a par AND I MISSED IT!!!! At this point, I was looking up at the underside of an ant. I was so disgusted with myself that I just though, "Oh, you have no chance anymore. Just play it out and go home." But I did not give up. I managed to play even enough and ended up with 43 on the Berms course. That was the same as the guy I rode with and he was the other one in our group that had scored 86 the day before. Then we met up with the final threesome on the tenth tee. The leader said he had shot 44 and that the other two guys were worse. At that point I'm thinking, "Maybe I'm not out of this after all." I promptly step up to the tenth tee and hit behind the ball en route to a bogey four. Several times, I thought about seeing how many over par I was but I decided not to look at my score and just to play it one shot at a time. We came up to the 17th hole, a par 5 dogleg right with a narrow wooded corridor through which you must hit your teeshot. I was pretty close to the guy I was riding with at this point. His name is Larry. Larry and I were only about a stroke apart I think. But he hit his tee shot deep in the woods. I hit mine on the left side of the corridor with a little bit of a hook but it was safe. I hit a PERFECT three wood from there to about 50 yards from the green. My wedge shot ended up on the front of the green about 16 feet from the hole. The putt was uphill and broke to the right. I should tell you that the two-ball putter is in my trunk. About a week ago, I decided I just wasn't making anything anymore with the two-ball so I switched back to the Ping Anser 2. Well, I stroked that 16 foot putt in the right edge of the hole for a BIRDIE. At that point, I'm thinking, "That could be the putt to win the tournament." As it stands, one could say it was or it wasn't, but read on. The 18th hole is a par 3 and it was playing about 153 yards today and the wind was from left to right. The pin was on the right edge of the green. I hit six iron to the left and it ended up just off the edge of the elevated green. I had lots of room to run my pitch shot up but I left it about 12 feet short. The putt was across the middle of the green with a slight left to right break. I stoked it right in the middle of the cup. We walked off the green and signed our cards. When we had the scores posted, one of the other guys said that I was the leader in the clubhouse at 168 (same total I shot last year.) Finally as the last threesome approached the scorers table, the guy who had been leading asked if 87 was good enough to win. I couldn't believe it!!! I asked if 87 was the best score in his group and he said yes. I HAD DONE IT!!! This year I won a nice trophy plaque and a gift certificate for $175. Last year, I only won a hundred and I thought THAT was a lot. It was so different this year, not having the pressure of playing in the final group on the last day like I did last year. But my emotions went through such a wide range. From being just so totally dejected early in my round to the time during the last six holes or so when I got this easy grin on my face and I felt like "This is my oyster. I CAN DO THIS." I don't know what is more amazing. Me having won or me having not given up. I thank God for giving me the courage to keep playing my game and regaining my self-confidence.

Here I am, sitting in my new birthdayj-gift computer chair, drinking Amaretto coffee and watching golf on TV. Life is good.
I really need to get going on organizing the golf outting for Edi's big bash. I'll send out some emails as soon as I get done with this. I'm planning on having the golf at Como golf course for lack of a better idea.
I played golf yesterday with one of the guys that was in my foursome at the Pressland last year at Riverdale. It was me, him and his 17 year old son. The kid had a marvelous swing but a questionable attitude. When I asked him about going to college on a golf scholarship, he said "With my grades?" Pity. The kid has great skills on the golf course. But more than 50% of golf is an inner thing and he looks to be a long way from ready there.
As you can tell by the infrequency of my posts, I just don't have much fire in my belly to write lately. Perhaps the creative process is fueled by pain and I just can't find any lately. Best not to manufacture any either.
Buy, bye for now.
Ciao, babies!

Here's a little thing I sent to my golf mailing list at St. Norbert today:

Here is a story about golf, Ebay and passion!
Last Friday on my day off, I suffered through and entire day of rain when I should have been playing 18 holes of golf. I watched the Golf Channel quite a bit and happened to catch a half-hour infomertial about something called The Inside Approach. Jack Nicklaus claims that they guarantee to "cure your slice" in six swings or less using this new golf training device.
For those of you who don't watch the Golf Channel, the Inside Approach is a device that is made of PVC pipe or some similar material. It is padded and extends about a foot back and about six inches above the ball that you are trying to strike. The theory is that you want to bring the club back in an inside arc and return it to the ball along that same inside arc to strike the ball. If you fail to come from the inside to hit the ball and come "over the top" you will hit the padded extension and knock the device apart reminding you that your swing plane is wrong.
Sowerwine Golf, the outfit that runs the commercials on the Golf Channel hosted by Jack Nicklaus, sells this device for two easy payments of $39.95. That's nearly 80 dollars for something you can make out if PVC pipe for less than ten bucks, but more about that later.
I became intrigued with this device because I've been slicing the ball off the tee on the first three or four holes in each of my last three nine hole rounds. I felt it was time to do something about my slice.
But, though I am a developing golf training aid junkie ( I own a clone of the Medicus Trainer)I am not fond of paying full price when I can avoid it.
Thus, I went to http://www.ebay.com and searched for Inside Approach. I quickly found many people selling clones of this device for as little as 8.99 and as much as about 40 bucks. What caught my eye the most though was a guy selling plans to build your own for $4.99. This sounded like the way to go. His product description includes a quote from a "satisfied customer" who built two of them for $7. I thought that the prospect of making my own sounded like a fun little project. Though I do not fancy myself a handymand and I hate the concept of DYI, it sounded like something I could accomplish and be proud of and make use of.
So today I went back to Ebay and searched for Inside Approach. Lo and Behold, I found a guy selling plans for a "buy it now" price of $4.50. I decided to buy it now. The seller accepts PayPal (this is a service which I subscribe to (it's free) that lets me send money to others via the internet directly from my bank account)and the product description promised that the plans would be immediately emailed to me as soon as I paid. I used PayPal to send a payment to Ebay user sdake at about 12:15 p.m. I waited an hour. No plans arrived. Another hour passed and no plans arrived and my PayPal payment had not been "accepted" by user sdake of Pekin, IL. I began to get nervous. I checked the product description and it says "We email the plans. No waiting!" This does not make sense so I check eBay again and find another guy selling plans. Wait! His product description is exactly, word for word, the same as that of sdake. This guy is Tnielmo. I check tneilmo's feedbacks and find that sdake has purchased from him yesterday! Can this be? sdake bought the plans from tneilmo yesterday and then proceeded to sell them on EBay today using the exact same product description? Indeed it is true.
I proceeded to buy the plans from tneilmo for $4.99. He sent the plans within a few minutes. I noticed they were in a .pdf document with a copyright notice stating "Sole property of Terry Nielsen. Not to be Resold or Distributed". I told him that sdake was ripping him off by selling his plans as if they were his to sell. I then attempted to cancel my PayPal payment but I could not.

Are you still reading? I'll get back to the eBay stuff later but now it's time to talk about Golf and Passion and training aids.
If you read this list, you know I asked if you wanted to play Wander Springs with me after work today. Only Chelvan took me up on it.
I've been thinking about that inside out swing thing for a few days now and dying to try to hit a golf ball with that thought in mind.
Could I cure my slice just by imagining a training aid above my ball?
Do you remember when I bought the Refiner, my Medicus clone swing trainer? I seem to recall shooting my best round in quite a while just thinking about swinging without breaking that collapsing club even before I bought it. If memory serves me right, I think I broke 40 at Irish Waters with that swing thought a couple years ago.
Well, Chelvan and I played the Spring course at Wander Springs today and here's how it went:

Hole 1: I tee off with a 3 wood because I fear hitting in the creek if I use driver. I think about not hitting that imaginary Inside Approach device and hit a screaming shot up the right side of the fairway and farther than I've ever hit a 3 wood before on that hole. My second shot is an inside out Gap wedge to the middle of the green. I hit my first putt about 5 feet short and can't make the 5 footer so I three putt for a bogie. (oh, I changed my putter grip after watching a Dave Pelz video in Golf Channel On Demand last night. I was overlapping the index finger of my right hand over my left hand in my Left Hand Low grip. But the little finger on my left hand seems to be getting arthritis in the end joint and it hurts to press on it. Thus I decided to wrap both hands completely around the grip only sticking my right thumb inside my left hand.)

Hole 2: About a hundred sixty yards into the wind. I hit a six iron and it's a thing of beauty. It rises slowly and has a small right to left curl at the very end. My goodness, I've been desperate to hit the ball like this all my life! That shot came up a little short of the green but I got up and down for my par.

Hole 3: First chance to use my driver. Can I imagine the Inside Approach with the driver? I try to. I don't hook the ball but I do hit it right down the middle of the fairway and fairly long. It wasn't really a very solid hit though. I'm about 150 out so I take the seven iron, think inside out, and just STING the ball. It's another low riser with a little right to left curl at the end, A THING OF BEAUTY! But it's a little long. I three putt from the back of the green for another bogey.

Hole 4: Seven wood off the tee. Low riser that is struck dead on. It hooks just slightly at the end. Second shot is another well-struck, inside out swing that lands pin high and about 15 feet away from the hole. My birdie putt is about four inches to the right of the hole and I tap in for my first par.

Hole 5: Another chance to hit driver. This time, I bounce the driver off the ground behind the ball and end up in the center of the fairway about 200 yards from the center of the green. I hit seven wood on my second shot. It starts right and stays right. My sand wedge is too long and I two-putt from the far edge of the green for another bogey.

Hole 6: Par five! This time, I come over the top with my driver and slice it on the the right rough. My second shot is stung with a 5 iron well down the fairway but a little on the left hand side. Third shot is a pitching wedge from about a hundred nineteen yards. I hit it inside out and it is straight and right at the hole but lands just short of the green. I have about 5 feet of apron to putt through and I leave the putt 5 feet short. I miss the second putt and tap in for another bogey.

Hole 7: I hit a relatively wild hook off the tee into the right rough. The inside out swing with the driver isn't happening. My second is a five iron out of the rough that is hit well but ends up short of the green on the right side. My seven iron chip comes up about 20 feet short and I two-putt from there for a bogey.

Hole 8: This is a par three into the wind and about 135 yards. I decide on an easy seven iron. I sting it sweetly, it has the little right to left curl at the end and lands about 20 feet to the right of the hole pin high. I two-putt for a PAR!

Hole 9: I like to draw a five wood on this hole down the wooded corridor that is the narrow fairway. This time, I pull-hook it and it lands in the woods. I can only chip out into the fairway but manage to do that poorly and get too far to the right side. Next, I punch a five iron under some limbs and over some trees to a lovely position about 40 yards from the pin. I hit a sweet sand wedge into the low sun right at the hole but it's too long and ends up in the deep grass down the slope near the pond. My chip shot is way past the hole and I two-putt for a double bogey seven.

Where is the passion you say? You are experiencing it right now! Who else would bother to describe every shot of his golf game except someone who is PASSIONATE about the game.

The experience today suggests that the swing thoughts encouraged by Golf Training aids may be more important to me than the actual device. I have found, however, that actually practicing with the training aid helps my swing and my game.

When I got home tonight, I got email from sdake. He said that he didn't send the plans right away because he "works for a living". Well, aren't we all just so proud of him? Very few of us actually WORK for a living. He must be a great man indeed! Indeed? He steals for a living and I told him so. He rejected my PayPal payment and it's good that he did. I told him in an email that, for the $4.50, I'd have been happy to rip him a new one in my Ebay feedback to him. People like him give EBay a bad name. But, it's always "Buyer Beware!" EBay is no place for the faint of heart and the uninitiated.

So, where are we now? I stopped at Fleet Farm and tried to buy the 3/4 inch pvc pipe needed to make my Inside Approach trainer. Fleet Farm does not stock three quarter inch PVC pipe to my dismay. I'll have to get it at Home Depot. I'm sure they have it. I'll be sure to let you know when I build it and how it works.

In the meantime, I can't wait to go out again and try this swing thought. Hitting those sweet shots that have that little hook at the end just makes my blood pump happily in my veins.

Have a wonderful day and if you are Tripp or Bad Bob be afraid. be very afraid.

- Geo

It's Saturday. Friday it rained ALL DAY! I should have gone to work. What good is being on vacation when it rains all day? Would this be a good time to stop whining? We'll see.
Geoff and I have a 9:30a.m. tee time on the Glacial nine at Quit Qui Oc in Elkhart Lake today. We may not see the sun but playing golf under cloudy skies would be better than sitting inside another day.
I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I did when I first started. I envisioned blogging every day when I first started. That was back in the dark days of late winter-early spring though. Sunshine tends to make me feel better.
Being inside also tends to make me unhappy because our house is such a mess and has been for so long. There's nobody to work on the remodeling of the living room. Stuff is still piled all around from Memorial Day camping. This place just gets closer and closer to a series of "walking channels" amidst piled up possessions. I get so sick of not being able to turn around without bumping something, of having to reach and strain to get close to a light switch or put a coffee cup away. I'm so sick of having to tiptoe around the bed in our bedroom holding the wall to keep from falling over. Liz promises to pick up the "stuff" and clean up the piles of clothing but she doesn't have time. I understand that her graduate school studies have to come first now but that doesn't make it any easier to live in this mess.
I'd hire a cleaner to come in but that's not even the issue. There is just too much "stuff" laying around here and I'm afraid to throw it out for fear I'll hurt someone's feelings.
I'd better wake Geoff up so we have time to get to the golf course in time for our tee time. Looks like we might have to play in the fog.......yippee (can't make the text small enough to show how I really feel).
Buh, bye.
Ciao.

Ah, another work week nearly done!! I leave for golf in a few minutes. It's been so long since I've written anything here......
Played golf with Chelvan at Highland Ridge last night. Shot 51. . Ground was really wet. Thank goodness for water proof golf shoes. Hilly Haven should be better tonight. It's lots more, um, hilly.
Deen and Gloria are putting ends on Cat 5 patch cables. They should be blissfully occupied in that pursuit for some time. Muhahahahahahah!!!!
Nearly done with the "install hubs in the dorms" project. Only 40 more hubs to install right across the street in Madeline hall. Since I only have one hub in stock, think I'll wait till more come in.
We spent a very nice Memorial Day weekend camping at Peninsula State Park. It rained on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and lots on Monday but we still had a great time. Chris Wolfert, Geoff Possley, Bill DeKeyser and myself played 18 holes of golf at the Peninsula State Park Golf Course on Saturday. I shot 46-44, 90. We had long drive, long putt, closest to the pin and Bingo-Bango-Bongo competitions. Geoff won by one point over me. He won a cap of his choice (Titleist) from the pro shop. The boys seemed to enjoy my direction of the competitions.
Oh, my!!! It's 2 p.m. Time to go to golf.

Buh, bye!

Ciao, babies!!!

Wow! A whole new look to Blogger.com. Very cool!
My weight is up to 201 again. Guess that giving up stuff for lent had a backlash. I've been eatting all the Cake, Cookie, Candy, Pie and Donuts that I see. I haven't exercised for the past several months either. BUT....Liz and I walked 2.25 miles this morning before work. We didn't get rained on. I only had to get up a half hour earlier too.
I've already played three rounds of golf this year! I played twice last week. I went to Wander Springs on Thursday and got in 9 holes on the Spring course. A couple of really bad holes, an 8 on the first short par 4 and a 7 on another easy par 4 led to a 49. I have been hitting the heck out of the ball from the tee though. Must be because of my shopping for a new driver. I hit the Ping Si3 380cc and the Titleist 983 at Quit Qui Oc golf course last Tuesday, I think. I didn't care for the Titleist but liked the Ping. The next day, I went to Best Golf, formerly the Golf Shack, in DePere over my lunch hour. I hit the Ping again and also the Nike Ignite. The Ignite reminded me a lot of the Titleists. I hit the heck out of the Ping and decided to keep my bag all Ping except for my two-ball putter. I called Quit Qui Oc and ordered the Ping Si3 380cc driver with the blue Graffaloy stiff shaft and a standard Ping grip. I got the Black Dot model which doesn't encourage either a hook or a slice. Since I do both, I thought I should have a driver that hits the ball straight when I swing correctly. I hit a fair number dead-straight when I demo'd the club at both Quit Qui Oc and at Best Golf. Oh, yeah, I'm getting the 9 degree loft. I did the fitting on Ping's website and based on my physical characteristics, 9 degrees is the recommended loft for me. My current driver is 11 degrees. I seemed to hit the ball just as high with the Si3 as I did with my old 11 degree Ping driver.
So, the new driver should arrive this week. Christmas may happen on Thursday or Friday or maybe later. I guess I'll live. I look at pictures of it on the web every day.......I am gonna kick some major ass in golf league in the long drive contests this year.
We are going to the Area 75 Spring Conference at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends. It's a blessing from heaven to have them.
We went to a party at the home of one of Lizes co-workers on Friday of last week. It was nice. Lots of good food.
Geoff and Theresa and Robin came for Mother's Day yesterday. We went out to dinner at Sheboygan's Family Restaurant. I was stuffed.
Just in case you didn't notice, gas costs two dollars a gallon nearly everywhere. Diesel fuel? Oh it's about 20 cents a gallon cheaper. It's not nice to gloat, so I won't.
Guess I'll stay off the soapbox today.
Ciao babies!

Buh, bye now.

Tip of the day? Try Slim Browser. It's free and works pretty well. Tabbed browsing is addicting.
Well, I'm finally out from under. Since the beginning of this month I've been under the gun.
First, I had to deal with the taxes. Why didn't I do them earlier? Oh there must have been reasons. When it came down to it, I took them to an accountant and she gave me some help but not much.
Then I had to get the minutes done from the March 28 Area 75 Assembly. I only have 30 days to get those done. Once those were done, I had to enter data for updating the directories for the hundreds of groups in southern Wisconsin. I had to have that done and a disk in the mail by today. Done!
Gosh, I hate deadlines!
I picked up Outside Kitty today and reeked afterward. Wonder what she's been sleeping in? "Bad Kitty" the little white and spotted kitty that also hangs around the front porch comes close enough for me to touch now and then. She's still pretty wild though. I don't know much about feral cats as opposed to domesticated cats. Spoze I should do some quick research on the web.
The two kitties are funny. When I walk the dogs down the road at 5 in the morning, those two kitties, Outside Kitty and Bad Kitty, meet us when we get to Eunice's house. They hide in Eunice's flower garden and run along Eunice's lawn pretty much even with us as we make our way back toward home. Of course, I feed them shortly after I get the dogs back inside so they are waiting on the front porch when I come out to feed them. Outside Kitty is definitely getting plump. Bad Kitty has a smaller face and she is overall smaller than Outside Kitty.
Opinion of the day: No smoking in any public buildings! Bars! Restaurants! All of 'em. Have you read the research that was conducted in Helena, Montana? When smoking was banned in all public buildings, heart attacks went down significantly and when the law was reversed, they went back up again.
GET A CLUE! YOUR SMOKING IS A DEFINITE THREAT TO MY HEALTH. Why the hell would I want to frequent a place where I might catch tuberculosis? Would I hang around the hospital knowing full well I might catch SARS? WHY THE HELL SHOULD THE PUBLIC NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SECOND HAND SMOKE ANYWHERE? Enough.
That's all for now. Maybe you'll hear from me more often now that I have a little more breathing room?

Ciao, babies!

Buh, bye!

I'm in Superior this morning at UW-Superior at a conference. I'm the first one arriving for breakfast. I will just jot a few quick notes before the others arrive.
Beautiful drive up here. Could not believe how deserted Hwy 53 was on my way up from John's yesterday. No cars as far as I could see ahead or behind in either direction most of the time.
Oops.! The others are here. I know I haven't written for a long time....been way too busy.
This conference has been a wonderful, peaceful, break.
I'm looking forward to taking the scenic route home on Hwy 2 through northern Wisconsin and wherever it goes.
buy bye.
Ciao, babies

The following is the beginning of an email I meant to send to my lab consultant listserve. As I got more into it, I realized it was one of those letters where pressing "send" is not the best idea.



I noticed that the printer log over in Bemis has not been used since December of 2003. That is 4 months ago.

I have asked you all to read the Student Procedure Manual. Apparently, many of you do not.

There is a job to be done here. Can you not figure out what it is?

Why can you not be as responsible as I am? I cannot do this job all by myself. That is why you have been hired.

I have met with many consultants and have been very very generous with "merit increases". I suppose some of you should feel guilty. I know I feel really stupid and angry when I walk through the labs and see monitors that have days and days worth of fingerprints on them. I see mice that are all mucked up on the bottom and haven't been cleaned in weeks. I am deluged wit

h messages about not having any paper. I am informed last night that there is only one toner in Cofrin 101 when there are 4 different printers. There should be one spare for each type of printer. Then two different consultants don't have the common sense between them to determine that the cartridge they have taken out of the wrapper is not the one that goes into the printer that needs a cartridge. BTW these cartridges are nowhere near each other in shape and appearance.

When I came to SNC 7 years ago, I thought I'd be dealing with adults. I taught middle school and high school for 27 years before I came here. My opinion of the adulthood of SNC students continues to slide.

It appears that one would have to spend a whole lot more time supervising, training and testing student consultants in order to get the kind of workers that I currently expect.
It is clear that I do not have the time to do that supervising, training and testing.

Maybe I'll write more later. I am so very very angry right now.

I've got a few minutes.
Today was about watching the Masters. What a tournament it was! I watched all the TV coverage and I was rooting for Phil Mickelson from the start. I told my brother in an IM earlier that Phil would NOT win but that was all about superstition. I've often said I'm not superstitious but I really did want Phil to win really badly. He did it in such a dramatic fashion and watching was so enjoyable. No commercials!!! How good can you get?
Reminder: Erections lasting more than four hours require medical attention! Well, either that or one heck of a lot of willing women.....
Watching 60 minutes about Michelle Wie right now. Glad I'm not teaching middle school anymore and had her in my class. 56 year old men aren't supposed to have thoughts like that about 14 year old girls....As Michael Stipe wailed, "oh no, I've said too much".
I am really psyched for golf. If there's time tomorrow, I may just hit a few ball on the range or even play nine. I'm going to buy a new driver this year and I'm anxious to start shopping. Ping? Titleist? Nike? Callaway? Taylor Made? Gonna hit me some balls and consult with a pro. Still have a $100 gift certificate at Quit Qui Oc that I won last year for first place in the Pressland second flight. Hope I can apply it to a new driver.
I have to take tomorrow off to get the tranny fixed on Geoff's Explorer. He took my Jetta to Milwaukee and I may have to rent a car for a few days.
We are looking forward to going out to dinner with Geoff and Theresa and Robin on Wednesday to celebrate our 31st anniversary. I really need to get Liz a nice coursage or something like that. Gotta call Red Lobster and see about a reservation too.
Glad that lent is over. Candy, Cookies, Cake, Pie and Donuts here I come!
Easter is here. A veil has been lifted. Spring is here. Summer is around the corner. Thank you God!
Helped Geoff buy a 2003 Buell Blast yesterday. That's a little 500cc motorcycle. He's excited. I hope he is able to drive it safely.
Gidget is fussing. I don't know what she wants but she won't give up. So that's all for now.
Ciao, babies! and Yay Phil!!
buh, bye!

Ah, denizens of the sometimes dark, sometimes goofy! Here we are again.
I'm going over to my tax preparer in about a half hour to have her do my taxes. It's such a relief to get that task off my plate.
I got the dishes washed yesterday too. I'm a totally different man. Life has meaning. I'm not sad. Could it be that something else also happened in the moonlight last night. Maybe!
We watched a couple interesting movies yesterday and the day before. We watched Lost in Translation on PPV Saturday. It was not bad but not great either. I'd give it about a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being GREAT and 1 being OH MY GOSH, I PAID FOR THIS?
Yesterday, Liz watched Beavis and Butthead Do America. Believe it or not, I fell asleep in the middle. I still have plenty of background though for my Beavis imitation. I need TP for my BUNGHOLE!! I HAVE NO BUNGHOLE!! I AM CORNHOLIO!!! BUNGHOLE, BUNGHOLE, BUNGHOLE!!!
Then I watched this thing on Cinemax called "All the Real Girls" or something like that. Kinday artsy. Pretty photography or so I thought. It's about this guy who has bagged nearly all the eligible girls in this little factory town who falls in love with the 18 year old virgin sister of his best friend. He refuses to sleep with her because he wants to make up for his past sins. Then she goes off for the weekend to visit a friend, gets drunk and loses her virginity to some casual aquaintance. Mister "I've been around" can't forgive her. It's an interesting study of their feelings.
Liz has to work tonight for somebody who is sick so I won't see her till after 9:30. Since 5 a.m. happened at 4 a.m. this morning, I'll probably be asleep by 9:30.....what else is new?
Oh, for all my brothers and sisters who read this, my preliminary findings seem to indicate that you will all be getting some kind of final cash payout from the money I kept back to cover the tax liability for selling the house. It doesn't look like it's going to be the whole amount. So get out those charge cards! Yer gonna have a little nugget to go to the mall with. Woo Hooo!!
Election day is tomorrow. What a relief to be rid of all those political ads. They are back to back and stacked about 5 deep lately. Milwaukee is electing a new mayor and the race is very close.

I might be moving to Montana soon. Just to raise me up a crop of dental floss. Razin' it up! Waxin' it down! In a little white box that I could sell uptown. By myself, I wouldn't have no boss but I'd be raisin' my lonely dental floss!! - Frank Zappa

Had a double cheezburger and fries from Mikey D's tonight. I really gotta find something else to eat. When lent is over, it'll be Candy, Cookies, Cake, Pie and Donuts!! I can feel the belly ache now!! Yum!!

For now, it's back to that bag of brown sugar and maybe some rapidly drying out deer sausage......

Later, doodz.

buh, bye. Ciao, babies!!

Hello spellbound readers!
I've been up since 5 and working on my tax return since 6 a.m. The bad news is that since I didn't actually LIVE in the Thorp house for 24 of the past 60 months I will have to pay Capital gains on the sale. Good news is that it looks like the tax impact is less than the amount that I've held back from the proceeds. I have made an appointment with a very nice-sounding accountant in Adell to do a professional job of preparing my return. I'll be meeting with her(?) on Monday at 6:15.
Temp outside at the moment is 41.0 degrees F. Inside, it's 71.1. I'm still in my jammies. There's a candle burning. My phone is charging in the cradle in front of me. John Belushi just introduced Matt "guitar" Murphy.
Now that the tax thing is in hand, I can start worrying about preparing my minutes from the AA assembly in Madison last Sunday. I gotta have something to worry about not having done. Or do I?
Think I'll go watch a movie. Or maybe make popcorn? But then I'd have to go into the kitchen and look at that mess that is every pot and pan we own. It's my job to clean them. Maybe later.
I really would like to do something interesting and different. What?
Had trouble opening the s*a*f*e this morning. Fortunately, Liz had a paper-based record of the combo.
Liz wants to go to Red Lobster in Milwaukee for our anniversary coming up soon. I'm there. I'm always there when there's any possibility of incorporating the word "feast".
Think I will make some popcorn. Oh, I had my usual feast (ding, ding, ding, ding!) of pancakes and pure maple syrup for brunch today. Too bad Liz doesn't eat pancakes. Oh, I should call them something else. Um, what is the other name for pancake? Geoff reminded me last week that I shouldn't be eatting them. I gave up CCCPD for lent. Cake, cookies, candy, pie and donuts. Ah, I've got it! I had FLAPJACKS for brunch today. NYa, nya, na, nya, nyaaaaaaaa!!!
Jorn's pure maple syrup made in Door county. Oh yum!!
The lenten sacrifice has, of course, changed my habits somewhat. I still crave sweets so I have already eatten a bag of mini marshmallows that were nearly as hard as marbles. Last night, while Liz was at the play with Shirley, I cozied up to a bag of brown sugar that is also old and very lumpy. I didn't eat the whole bag though. There's more for later when the craving hits me again.
So how about that poor lost girl from Madison who claimed she was abducted. I feel bad for how this thing has snowballed out of her control. Not sure, of course, why she did all this. I mean to pray for her and her family. I'm so glad that she was not really abducted. These young girl disappearances so often end up with a corpse.
I'm still feeding the Outside Kitty. She comes running when I come toward the house from the garage. She often sits inside an empty charcoal bag that I left on the front stoop. Without any claws I worry that life must be hard for her. There are at least a half dozen feral cats in our neighborhood. Some of them look really scruffy. There's a little white spotted cat that comes to eat whenever I bring out food. She comes a little closer to me every day but she is still afraid to get too close.
Golf. Soon, I hope.
Easter is next Sunday. I won't miss lent but aside from giving up stuff I haven't done too much.
Guess I'll go make that popcorn and watch some TV. I haven't written on this thing as often as I've planned to but I guess that's ok. It's still the realization of a desire that I had for a long time. I'm so glad that Google made it so easy.
buh bye, now! Ciao, babies!

um, ok, it's 4:33 p.m. so I can write from work. I'm working on a new lab image and need to wait till the DVD is burned and then I hafta try it on a machine.
Got Lizes car in for an oil change. The people at Saturn treated me like the son who squandered his inheritance in a foreign land and then returned to his father. And I even used a card for a free oil change that I got over a year ago there. Heh. Nice work if you can get it.
I'm still feeding my Outside Kitty. She crawls into an empty charcoal bag that I left laying in the corner on the porch. I'm thinking of making her a little bed out of a cardboard box. Liz is adamant about projecting a firm refusal to warm up to any aspect of this cat. Not sure what that last sentence means except that she wants no part of that affectionate darling kitty.

Gosh, this would be the first post that spanned two days. I left this open when I took the laptop home last night as I always do and found it again today. Yes, I am goofing off at work now. I'm the help desk and the phone is not ringing at the moment. Just a lot of boys stopping to talk to the cute girl who is working at the consultant station.

Each day seems the same. And the taxes still have not been done.

Oh, and this is not a complaint. It's a description. The first joint on my left little finger has been inflamed and sore for several days now. I don't remember jamming it or anything like that. It just hurts.

I realized that I wasn't depressed this morning. I was ANGRY. I guess depression is a form of anger. I realized it when Ben Folds sang about the Army and said something about f-ing high. Of course, you want to know WHY ARE YOU ANGRY? I can't tell you cuz I don't know.

We had Chinese food for lunch today. I made the boys go there. It was good. I am full. Think I'll make a pot of coffee.

Enough for now. buh, bye! Ciao, Babies.

Saturday. Hmmm, was that a maggot in my Diet Coke? Not sure. It wasn't wiggling but........maybe........

And what am I doing drinking a Diet Coke? It was left over from our wonderful vacation. Jim gave us a few to drink on the way home. We didn't drink 'em then.

What a glorious day today! The wireless thermometer I bought this week (Liz accused me of trying to keep up with the Joneses :-( ) said that it was 64 outside. Really it was only in the lower 50's but glorious nonetheless.

My beautiful wife suggested we go to Dairy Queen last night for dessert after we had supper. I didn't have Cake, Cookies, Candy, Pie or Donuts. But that Turtle Sundae? TO DIE FOR!! Thanks, Dear!

So, in the Sheboygan Press yesterday was a letter from a lady in Oostburg complaining about the Press'es coverage of the bar in Oostburg being open for the first time ever on a Sunday. She emphasized the "Keep holy the Lord's day" commandment. I don't have a problem with the commandments. I do have a problem with people playing "holier than thou" though. This lady who criticized the bar owner didn't mention anything about other businesses that are open on Sunday. Take, for instance, the Kohler Company. I suspect that they operate 24/7/365. I would imagine that there are plenty of good, church going, family-oriented people who have to work Sunday shifts because their job depends on it.
How about those people pictured in the bar who stopped in the bar that Sunday. They got off the highway at Oostburg looking for something to eat. That bar is the only place in town that was open that day. Does our lady letter-writer expect that nobody should travel on Sundays? If so, she's so far off kilter that I shouldn't even bother with her. So, I'm done.

I've decided to start a new feature of my blog entitled "I should". It's things I'd like other people to do. It's just that I know that I can't control them.

I SHOULD remember to keep my headlights on when I drive, especially when it's near sundown or sunrise or foggy or rainy. I need to remember that it's important to be seen not just to see.

I SHOULD remember to use my turn signal when I'm turning. That way, a pedestrian knows whether to cross the street when I'm approaching.

I should remember to ease up and have a good day.

Ciao, babies!

Yes, it’s been a few days. You see, we’ve been on vacation.
We drove down to Jackson, Tennessee last Friday, leaving at 4:10 a.m.
We stopped at an oasis off 294 in Chicago and got diesel fuel and made a potty stop. At about 9:30 a.m., Liz took the wheel for a few hours. We stopped at Boomland, a huge building that housed a “family restaurant” and a store that sold fireworks (that great American staple) and lots of other “touristy” things. We each had a fish lunch but were not brave enough to try the hushpuppies.
We arrived in Jackson at about 3 p.m. and Jim DeKeyser was here to greet us. He had been working on putting in a new screen door on their screen porch.
Jim cooked salmon on the grill and we watched “Under the Tuscan Sun”. I had already seen the movie so I slept through much of it.
Saturday we had a breakfast of bacon and eggs and then left to see Chickasaw State Park. First though, we had lunch at a bookstore. I had a Mocha Java and managed to get my coat full of chocolate syrup. Don’t ask.
At Chickasaw, we hiked around the lake and through the woods. It was a mild day and I tied my jacket around my waist. It must have been in the low 60’s. We went out to dinner on Saturday night to a nice restaurant. Liz and I both had the Seafood Pasta. It had shrimp and oysters on pasta with a creamy sauce that was a little on the hot side.
Before supper, I forgot to mention that we went to Mass at the 5:30 p.m. mass in Jackson’s only Catholic church.
Sunday, we had coffee and English muffins for breakfast and then headed over to Memphis, Tennessee. We walked around for a while, taking a look at the famous ducks at the Hotel Peabody and then visited the Peabody Mall where we ate lunch at Isaac Hayes’ Barbeque place. I had a pulled pork sandwich and it was pretty good. After lunch, we walked down Beale Street and then over to the Gibson showcase for a tour of the Gibson Guitar factory. The tour was very interesting. They only make the jazz style guitars used by people like B.B. King (Lucille) and Chet Atkins. The Les Paul style guitars are made in Nashville and all the acoustic Gibsons are made in a factory in Wyoming.
After the Gibson tour, we went over the the National Civil Rights Museum. It is located adjacent to the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. We sorta had to race through the very extensive displays because we were bumping up against closing time. There is so much to see there and I was very moved by much of what I saw. It is an excellent place to visit and I highly recommend it for anyone visiting Memphis.
We drove back from Memphis and then ordered a pizza from Domino’s. I’ve had better pizza. No offense to Jim and Kathy. They were excellent hosts in every way!
Sunday night, we watched Secondhand Lions. I enjoyed it very much. I even stayed awake for the whole thing. I fell asleep while they were watching “Mickey Blue Eyes” on TNT later on.
This morning, we again breakfasted on English muffins, coffee and fruit. Kathy went to work so Jim, Liz and I took off for Jackson to see the local sights. First, we went to Cyprus Park and walked along a long boardwalk in a Cyprus Swamp. They had several eagles, hawks and owls in large cages along the boardwalk. The trail took us right out on a lake and over to a tri-level observation tower. While walking on the boardwalk, we came upon a pileated woodpecker thrashing around in a falled log. It’s the first one of those I’ve ever seen and it was quite a sight. It was raining a little when we started but that let up and we were able to tour the park in comfort and stayed dry.
Next on the agenda was the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in downtown Jackson. We saw memorabilia from Carl Perkins, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and other lesser known Hillbilly Rockers.
Finally, we ventured out to Pinson Archeological Site, part of Pinson State Park. They had a nice museum which we toured before walking up their featured 72 foot mound. The mounds in this park were built between 1-300 A.D. by native Americans. We walked around the park for another hour or so before heading back to Jackson.
Now, we are waiting for Kathy to come home from work and Jim is starting dinner. We rented “Mona Lisa Smile” from Blockbuster and I hope I can stay awake to watch it after dinner. We did a lot of walking outdoors today.
Tomorrow, we leave for home, probably by 9 a.m. It looks like we may have to drive through some snow so it might take longer than the 11 hours it took to drive down here. I think we’ll come up through Rockford and take I-43 so we do not have to go through Chicago. We don’t want to mess with rush hour traffic.
It’s been a very quick and wonderful vacation. I’m so grateful to have found some spring down here. It was in the 50’s every day and in the 60’s for some time too.
Jim and Kathy have a lovely home and they are the best hosts ever. Friends like this are more precious than gold.
I’m going to log in to AOL now and post this using cut and paste from Word 2002.

Ciao, babies!

Yeah, It's been a couple days. I'm going to sneak that second cup of coffee this morning and write a few things.
How about a few quick themes?

It's so hard to hear these people trying to legislate marriage as being between a man and a woman. Gay is here to stay. I believe that gay is not a choice. We, as a society, do not empirically know that it's a choice to be gay. I think it's genetic or due to some other reason that's not a choice of the individual. Gay people should be able to join into the same kind of legitimized emotional and legal union that heterosexual people have.

Get this: The gun lobby has convinced many legislators to veto a bill that would have banned certain kinds of armor-piercing bullets. Why do these people refuse to ban bullets that kill cops? Do deer or bears wear bullet-proof vests? I'll tell you why. They are AFRAID that this is a step towards taking their guns away by taking their bullets away. This is incredible hooey!!!!!

Liz and I are looking forward to visiting Jim and Kathy DeKeyser in Jackson, Tennessee this weekend. We drive down on Friday and will return on the following Tuesday. I printed a color Trip-Tic off the AAA website yesterday. Cool! No more having to visit the AAA office.

The moon was bright this morning when I took the dogs out. My motion sensor lights outside annoy me. I turn the light on and as soon as we walk out the back door, it goes off. And our subsequent motion does nothing to turn it back on. This morning, the moon thumbed its nose at my motion light. It was lovely out.
God has truly blessed me with moments of serenity when I take the dogs out. I don't exactly jump for joy at having to get out of a nice warm bed at 5 a.m., bundle up and walk outside. But soon the birds will be singing. Spring is in the air. God is kind and generous to me.

How late do I want to be for work this morning? Not that late. Buh, bye.

I left my credit card at the Five Pillars last night. I realized it as I filed Geoff's taxes and needed to pay for electronic filing.
It's been a wonderful day. Geoff and Laura, Theresa and Robin are here and working on the living room. They are using power tools to sand and prepare the woodwork for staining. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast and I grilled pork chops for dinner. We also had Rice-a-roni for dinner. I'm grilling brats and deer steak for supper.
While I drove down to Five Pillars to get my credit card I thought about a topic to write about today.

Topic: Going back to college

Since shortly after spending some time in the real world, I'd longed to return to my college days. The thoughts and feelings seemed to be there for a long time. I remember college as being "the best years of my life". I suppose that thought is from mostly a purely selfish standpoint.
College was better than high school. While I was in Thorp, I lived in a world where I was seldom "good enough". I was picked on. I'm beginning to believe that the bullying I endured while I grew up in Thorp has a lot to do with problems I have in my life today. I wanted to be a varsity athlete in basketball and football. I couldn't make it. I was picked on by older boys for much of my life while growing up. Some of them probably thought they were being cute or funny. It hurt me and it hurt me bad. I think of some of their names and I don't want to write them down.
When I went away from college, it was like entering a new life. I was accepted for who I was. My past stayed in Thorp. It was OK that I wasn't an athlete. Eau Claire was known as a "suitcase college" but I didn't go home much. I took advantage of lots of activities that the college provided on weekends.
I didn't have many "steady girlfriends" in college but I dated a fair amount of girls. There was always some girl I was pursuing or sometimes just groups of friends of both sexes that I socialized with.
I got better grades in college than in high school and I learned how to work hard. College built my self esteem.

After teaching at the middle school and high school level in a small, conservative town for a few years, I began to long to be back on a college campus. I saw college as a place where diversity was encouraged and where thinking was progressive and liberal. I wanted out of the small town prison that was Cedar Grove.

The problem was that I didn't like math enough to get an advanced degree and be a college professor. I don't think I have that kind of ability. I was getting C's in most of the math courses in my later years in college and I don't believe that I could have gotten an advanced degree in math. I had no idea how else I'd get back on a college campus.

Then, in 1996, the good and bad people of Cedar Grove told me to go away. The thing I wanted to do was to get a job working with computers but I wasn't sure I had the knowledge or experience to do that. I was wrong. (this theme will occur frequently in the story of my life). After interviewing at a few businesses and taking a temp job that I qualified for because of my experience with a piece of software that I threw on my resume at the last minute, I finally got a second interview at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Their IT department wanted me! This blew my mind! He who had little faith in his computer skills was wanted at a school where they teach computer engineering! My second interview with the college president proved to be my undoing. He suspected that I was forced out of teaching for some dark reason and refused to hire me.

But I got an interview at St. Norbert College and, after praying in their church to be hired, I was! Oh, my goodness! Here I am. Pinch yourself, George! And I did. It was a beautiful place. The people were nice. The work was what I really enjoyed doing. I had my own office. I had my name on the wall. I had my own business cards! For the first 5 years, things were mostly incredible. I was grateful! I was innocent. I was naive. The place was bigger than I was. I eventually swelled.

So, after all those years of longing to be 18 again, I have had the chance to learn first hand that you can't go back. I'm married. I can't chase all those gorgeous girls. I'm an alcoholic. I can't go out and act crazy with those testosterone-gorged college boys. And it's ok.

Further though, it's not that liberal, wide-open, atmosphere I thought it would be. Maybe it's liberal and wide-open for those 18-22 year olds who go to school at SNC. But for me, it's the real world. It's a job. I have to behave. I like to misbehave. Is it possible to teach this old dog better tricks? I think so. I hope I'm learning.

What can I tell you? I can tell you that you can't go back. My unsolicited advice is to enjoy today! It may be the "time of your life". While the thought of being 18 years old again still brings a wistful smile, I figure I've got it pretty good today. I have a wonderful, hard working, pretty, sexy, warm and loving wife. I have a job that makes me think and that gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I have all the material things I can play with. I have my health. I have children that make me swell with pride and satisfaction. In less than two years, I'll have to figure out how to start dealing with the money from my pension. Yes, I will start drawing my pension at age 58. Life is good. Thank you, God!

Ciao, babies!

Today is Liz's birthday (y'know? 30 years of marriage and I'm still not sure how to spell the plural of my lovely wife's name.) Geoff and Laura came up and we went to the Five Pillars for supper. I had the lightly breaded walleye and fries. The fish was good but the French Fries sucked! They were all "bubbly" and yucky. If you eat there, I warned you. Skip the fries.

Theresa and Robin are at the Badger hockey game tonight. They'll be here tomorrow. We're going to try to make a little progress on the living room remodeling.

I actually spoke into the recorder the day before yesterday. Now I just have to bring the recorder in, listen to it, and write about what I thought about and spoke about. I'm the man with a plan.

I finished listening to The Cold Heart (?) by Jonathan Kellerman today. Geoff burned it on to CD's for me. It's just that the tracks somehow got mixed up. I never could follow from one CD to the other and there were 6 tracks that played after the one where the story ended. I still enjoyed it but not as much as the Steve Martin books. I'm gonna listen to Shop Girl as soon as Matt gives me back the CD's I burned for him.

I'm feeling kinda wierd today. Not excited. Not depressed. Sorta waiting for something fantastic to happen. Been thinking about buying a new Titanium driver (that's a golf club). I didn't want to spend the money ($250-$500) at the time I bought my woods several years ago. But I've come to understand that I could get 15-30 more yards off the tee with a Titanium driver as opposed to my steel one. I won a $100 gift certificate last summer for my win in the Second Flight of the Pressland Golf Tournament. It's redeemable at Quit Qui Oc pro shop in Elkhart Lake. They don't have as extensive a selection as the pro shop at T&C but can probably order anything I want. Maybe I'll get fitted at T&C and then place my order at QQO. That will have to wait till golf season though.

The belt clip on my phone broke the other day. It took a dive on the pavement. That phone has been pretty resilient. Guess I better keep it. I would like the cool color screen and neet ring tones of the i330 but can't justify spending a couple hundred bucks for that little bit of extra functionality, er, coolness.

Enough for now. Ciao, babies!

Ok. Today I am better. I made it to bedtime without exploding, imploding or otherwise self-destructing.
Today, the anger is mostly gone. I'm even tempted to send Beck an email and thank him for helping me learn proper communications skills. I have decided I can accept not sending emails to broad campus lists. My penchant for frivolity, cuteness and other forms of amusement cannot get me in trouble if I don't send stuff out. I've committed myself to just send the technical details of any communication to Tech Babe and let her rewrite it and send it out. Problem solved.
Yesterday, Rob told me to do that and I could not accept it.
I have an appointment with a trusted professional and, once again, I will attempt to learn more about why I'm angry and how to deal with it. I am skeptical. After all, I did go to counselling on several occasions several years ago. I can't say that I learned much. I have to have faith though. I know that if I don't get better at handling anger it is going to cause me and my loved ones great pain.

Switch gears!

So why do I call myself a child of the 50's? I used to think I was a child of the 60's but now I know better. I joined "the establishment" well before I started my teaching career. I had to smoke pot at least a dozen times before it ever did anything for me. I never got in on ANY free love. I graduated from college in 1969, a virgin, and I never came close to getting laid. I am not remotely interested in any social causes like protesting the School of the Americas. I have no interest at all in groups like PITA (that outfit that protests using animals for testing cosmetics and that raids mink ranches freeing all the mink). I'm not a radical and I never have been.
What I am is a child of the 50's. I'm more into Norman Rockwell. While I have not always been a good family man, family is one of the ideals that I hold dearest. I realize at this point in my life that there is nothing I value more.
My parents taught me to conserve things. I've been known to eat most of the core of an apple because that's the way my mom taught me. My dad taught me to eat chicken wings and the "last over the fence". Lots of people would turn up their noses at the neck of the chicken. Dad taught me not to waste.
I'm Catholic and though there is a lot that I don't agree with, I think it still enriches my life and I consider myself one who is faithful to and values religion. It's so wonderful to work at St. Norbert where the Catholic tradition is emphasized. There are many cool priests that are my friends. There is noon mass on holy days. It's so different than working all those years in Cedar Grove where Protestantism is the norm and parents forbid their children to date Catholics. It's no fun being in the minority.
I do owe a lot of my observance as a Catholic to my wonderful loving companion of 30 years, Liz. She is strong where I am weak. I would have laid in bed many mornings rather than attend Sunday mass were it not for Liz. She doesn't make excuses. Now, Sunday morning is one of my favorite times. Liz and I go to mass, then we go grocery shopping. Sometimes we go out to dinner before we buy groceries. Then we come home, put the groceries away at 2 p.m. and proceed to take a nap. Sunday morning is magic. I am reminded of that Kris Kristofferson song, "Sunday morning coming down". I hope to learn the words and music someday. And one of my favorite moments of all time? The feel of Lizes hand in mine as we say the Our Father during mass.

I suppose it's easy to proclaim myself a family man at this stage of my life. I admit, I didn't always enjoy going to soccer matches, basketball games, swimming lessons, wrestling meets and band concerts. I hate to admit that I was selfish. That, however, was yesterday. I can't change the past.

I know that today, the values that are associated with Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver and Norman Rockwell are more important to me than Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll that were the buzzwords in the 60's. Oh, I wanted sex, I took a few drugs and I love Rock and Roll. I find though that I can still like these things but have, as my bedrock, the values of a simpler, gentler time. That time was the 1950's. We didn't have television. We listened to Chicago radio stations. We heard rock and roll for the first time on stations like KOMA in Oklahoma City, WLS in Chicago and KDKA in Pittsburg. None of the local radio stations would play Gene Pitney, Chuck Berry or the Coasters.

That's all for today.

Caio, babies!

Today I'm wondering who reads this and how careful I need to be. Am I oozing with self-pity? Just a really tough day today. I have an angry knot stuck about half way down my chest. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of molehill. I don't know. I don't know.
It's the boss again. I can't handle his correction. I want to talk about him but I know the problem is me. I'm so angry inside. Words just don't cut it. I can't or won't understand what he is talking about.
I have asked for help. I will talk to someone who can help me. I so loathe admitting that I need help. Yet, this is out of control. I can't make the knot go away. I can't stop my mind from fixating on this situation. I feel so bad for those who love me and are concerned about me. "Why are you so angry?" they say. "Why are you depressed?" I don't know why I get depressed but it's probably about anger. Why am I angry? I think it's because I think I should understand and agree with the criticisms that Beck has of my actions. Yet there is something in my gut that won't let me. I am so sick of him picking on me. And I allow my self-esteem to be affected. I'm so upset that I can't control this thing.
I don't want to feel this way. I don't know how to stop it.
Did these words do me any good?
Did they bother you? If so, I'm sorry.

Hello blog fans! Today, I went to a demo of a help desk software package called Help Trac at Carthage College in Kenosha.
I drove down with Jay Cook and Michelle Manke. We stopped for lunch at Bublitz's family restaurant in Saukville but due to the fog, we were a half hour late. There was a big thunderstorm while we were sitting in the demo.
The demo was conducted by the president of the company via telephone and GoToMyPC, a cool remote control package.
We probably won't adopt this package because of the server requirements (IIS) for the web package. It should get us off and running on our evaluation process of help desk packages though.
Next Monday, I go to Carroll College in Waukesha for a workshop on student help.
Nothing burning a hole in my soul today. Don't feel like writing.....will stop.
Buh bye.

Yesterday, we had a departmental outting at Manhattan Lanes in DePere. I bowled a 121, 136 and 154. Not bad for "can't remember the last time I bowled". We had a good time at the lanes and then moved to Legends sports bar where 11 of us had dinner. I had the beer-batter walleye. It was not very tasty and my stomach felt queasy afterward.
I drove home after dinner but some of the staff partied until 3 a.m.
Today, we are at Geoff's apartment on Oakland in Milwaukee. Liz is making curtains. We went to Home Depot to buy some dowels and mounting hardware. We had lunch from William Ho's. It was exceptional Chinese food. Now we are ordering pizza from Mamma Mia's.
We watched movies. We saw American Wedding, Daddy Daycare and now we are watching The Bosses Daughter.
That recorder idea from yesterday still sounds good. I'm thinking of getting my own recorder rather than using the one that belongs to a group I serve.
I'm feeding the outside kitty twice a day. Liz doesn't approve. This kitty has no claws at all. She is nice and she purrs and she sits on the front step and greets me when I leave and when I come home. You might feed the outside kitty if you were me too.
We need to get the pizza in 15 minutes. If you think this is boring. Don't read it! It's my life.
Ciao, babies.

I've decided to carry a mini-recorder with me in my car for my commute. Thus, I will be able to speak my thoughts into it so that when it's time to write, I have a handle on all those ideas that seemed so wonderful while in my car on the way to work or on the way home.

Whoa! Really foggy this morning. I waited until almost 7:30 a.m. to leave for work. I drove slowly, 45 miles per hour. When someone got behind me, I pulled over to the shoulder and let them pass. It's hard to be patient when someone is breathing down your neck. I just took it easy. One fog-related tragedy in our family is too many.
OPINION: Should people be able to sue the gun manufacturers for damages because of the use of their products. Gosh, NO! That's all this country needs is more license to sue. The whole "victim's rights" scene in this country is way out of hand. It's time we stop allowing victims to reap obscene financial benefits via the court system. No amount of money can bring back a life. But obscene settlements can skew the health-care system. They already have.
Guns? I have no use for them and don't care to support their use. But my loved ones, my son, my brother, my nephew, my brother-in-law, enjoy hunting. I see no reason to keep sportsmen from enjoying their pursuits. Gun collectors, target shooters, hunters, should all be encouraged. But there should be more controls on the kind of handguns that are used for crime.
Enough on that.
Basically worked on cleaning student computers all day. Yadda, yadda, yadda!
Time for bed. Ciao, babies!!

Ash Wednesday. Staff meeting this morning. Didn't have a donut. Had to give my annual explanation of what Lent is. Scott Crevier, our new Web Master, is a practicing Catholic too. It's nice to have another one of us on the staff.
I went to mass at 12:20 p.m. Sat next to Scott. He has a good voice. He sings in a barbershop quartet.
Spent much of the day trying to clean two student computers. I've never seen so much spyware on two computers. Both were infected with Netsky and a host of other viruses too. They are both still on my desk. Both will require much more time. These girls have no clue about taking care of a computer......
Liz went to church at 5:30 P.M. so I made supper. I was so hungry when I got home that I started by attacking a package of string cheese. Then I prepared a couple sweet potatoes in the microwave. Then I started making the haddock that Liz had thawed. I rolled the fish in flour and then put it in a frying pan that had a half cup or so of water. I covered it and cooked it for 10-15 minutes or so until it was coming apart. Liz told me that she browns the fish in a little oil before she adds the water. Next time I'll do that. She was very happy to find that supper was ready when she got home.
I watched Office Space on DVD after supper. It was on TV and there wasn't anything else worth watching on at the time so I watched the DVD instead. I fell asleep.
I'm feeding the outside kitty twice a day now just like Smokey. The other, wilder kitty is around too but I think the friendly one is getting plenty of food now. She doesn't have any claws at all on either front or back feet. She is there to greet me when I leave in the morning and when I come home in the afternoon. She hides under the front porch.
Liz had the doors open because of the sewer gas smell that permeates our house for some reason. Gidget was sitting on my lap while I tried to maintain my snoozing but she kept jumping up and barking every couple minutes until I finally had to close the inside door. Then she kept jumping down to chase Smokey every time Smokey came in the room. I had to put Gidget in her bed and cover her up with her towel. Then Smokey finally was able to come over and sit on my lap.
OPINION:
Those stupid drug commercials have got to go!! These idiots actually expect me to call my doctor and ask about VIOXX or any of a hundred other drugs just because they say so in a commercial? I believe that the big drug companies are inflating prices with the assistance of the Republicans. I don't know why the American public should have to pay for this relentless, inane advertising. It's just not right!
Now, if you want to see someone who is REALLY ANGRY go to http://maddox.xmission.com
That's all for today. Ciao, baby.

Today was Fat Tuesday. I decided to buy donuts from the new bakery in Kiel. They were really good. Everyone liked them.
I wore my Genuine Hawaiian shirt and all the beads I could find. I ate three donuts or was it four? I gorged at the caf for lunch. Used my last meal.
Today would be the day of another new virus. This one, called MyDoom.f, carries a nasty payload unlike the previous email-born viruses we've been dealing with. It deletes all files that it has access to on mapped network volumes of type bmp, avi, doc, xls, jpg, sav and mdb. So the first student, a girl from VMC wiped out scads of files on the G-drive. It took Rob all morning to restore them from backups.
I spent a lot of time walking around campus connecting and disconnecting dorm rooms of students who had cleaned their viruses or who had become infected.
I finally downloaded the new version of DeepFreeze and put it on the network where others could get to it. We will be trying to use it to auto-thaw, patch, and re-freeze a computer in the middle of the night.
Went to the Sheboygan County Jail for a meeting tonight.
Liz is at class tonight. Bucky fussed so he's already in the utility room.
Ciao, babies.

I meant to post yesterday but, alas, it didn't happen. Liz and I went to mass at 8 a.m. and then went to the grocery store. We bought stuff for dinner. Geoff and Laura arrived about 11:15 and Theresa and Robin arrived a few minutes later. I grilled Dad's Famous Chicken, legs and thighs only, and we ate chicken, angel-hair pasta and green beans with creme of mushroom soup. We had banana creme pie for dessert in honor of Greg. He used to ask for it for his birthday.
Feb 22 marked the 10th anniversary of Greg's death.
We sat in the dining room after dinner and watched video tapes of Greg. First, a tribute tape put together by Tom O'Brien, then speech class tapes from Greg's senior year speech class, and finally, the Christmas 1992 video. That was special to me because it is the last movie we have of us as a family. It's hard to watch because it reminds me of the tremendous hole I feel in my heart because of Greg's passing.
It was nice to give Robin and Laura a chance to see movies of Greg. They can't know how we feel but at least they know a little more of how he was and who he was and why we loved him so much and why we miss him so terribly.

Well, now about today. Realized I forgot one section of road in my description of the first half of my commute. I'll edit that blog later...yeah, that's the ticket.
Hwy 57 was pretty clean but the town and county roads were really slushy. There were two vehicles in the ditch just north of Reedsville on Hwy W. I took it easy and still got to school about 10 after 8.
Proudly displayed my new "Who farted?" hat. Spanky didn't show up until just before his 12:20 class....the slacker!
Had to fix a couple Mac problems today. Bob Kramer couldn't print. I reset the printing preferences and reinstalled his printers using the proper driver for that Laserjet 4200 they have in Boyle 327.
Went over to visit Ikuko's Mac twice today. She was trying to print some picture from Netscape 4.7 and it kept hanging her computer. I told her to use IE when she wanted to print web pages. That should help.
Had to disconnect and connect students in VMC, Townhouses 10 and 12, Sensenbrenner, Burke and Madeline as well as an improptu connect over in MMM.
When will this round of viruses end? This last one is so clever that lots of people are getting it and infecting others. Too many users are too oblivious to their responsibilities as a member of our campus network. Wonder which will happen first? The network hardware upgrade or draconian measures needed before connection to the network is allowed. Probably neither will happen any time soon.
Stuck to my Slimfast and fruit today. Walked for a half hour in the campus center gym. I weighted 200 yesterday. That's seven pounds more than I weighed right after Christmas. All that candy in the office has been kicking my ass. All I had bad today was about a dozen little jelly beans. I'm still trying to decide what, if anything, to give up for lent. Coffee? A sacrifice but probably not too significant as far as health benefit. Sweets? Definite health benefit, but can I really do it? Guess I have to pray on it.
Till tomorrow......

Yeah, so I just copied all those thoughts from my web page. You read all those? Congratulations!
So do I have any new thoughts today? Sure! But I can't think of them right now. I think of them when I drive to work or home at night.
"My Commute as Close Friend"
Highway F from Hingham to Hwy 57: That sharp curve is a pain in the browneye. I once put the Honda in a snowbank on that corner. The Jetta isn't sure if it wants to take it in 3rd or 4th. 3rd is probably overkill but 4th leaves no acceleration to get over the first little upgrade.....
Hwy 57 to Plymouth: Kinda blah. Heater finally starts working. Slow down for Waldo. Don't blink. Or do. Lots. Nothing remarkable here.
Plymouth: Slow down to 45. Check price of diesel fuel at BP station on the right....usually higher than DePere but always the same as Fleet Farm up the road. Ah, Wal-Mart, my Wal-Mart. I love you.
Plymouth to Lax Chapel road: Watch out for the county mountie near Hwy J. Got pulled over there once. Got a warning.
Lax Chapel Road: Up a steep hill....ugly gravel pit on the right then a beautiful expanse of the Sheboygan River on the left. When I cross the Sheboygan River on Hwy 57, I often wish I could take a picture from that bridge. Just the other day, there was steam coming up from the bridge and I wanted to capture that steamy beauty.
After going around a slight right turn, we hit the first of many stop signs, a fourway stop. Expensive lots on the river at the left and a cheapo prefab house on the right.
Next: A short mile or less drive past another gravel pit to another stop sign.
Now up a little hill then my friends, the big draft horses. There are three of them. They are magnificent!
Now a few houses, a roadside memorial and then the Bethlehem UCC. It's 35 through here. Past the church, down a hill and then up to another stop sign at Ucker Point Creek Road. Not much to see here except farm fields till we stop again in another mile.
Now up a slight hill and the real treat of Lax Chapel Road begins. We proceed along a high ridge. There is a good view to the left and a farm on the right. Now a few ponds on the left as the woods begins on the right. We pass a road WHERE WE DON'T HAVE TO STOP and then it's up a slight rise. At the top of the rise is a pretty little chapel on the left. It is unused because no tracks were ever made through the snow. There is a huge cedar tree on each side of the chapel, a small back lawn with a wire fence and gate and his n' hers outhouses on the east side of the road. They are crumbling in ruin.
Next a trailer house where there used to be an old house, a farm and a new machine shed (yuck!!) There should not be a farm here. It is such a beautiful, rolling place. There are woods on the east side and now, a cedar swamp on both sides of the road. I drive through a lane bordered by cedars on both sides. I always watch for deer here but have only seen them once.
There is one lane going into the cedars on the west side. I long to drive down it to see where it goes. Is there a beautiful home there? An old cabin? I want to live there. Or do I?
Now a few homes nestled in the woods, up a hill and we stop again.
I turn right on Highway C and drive past a field where I frequently see dozens and dozens of wild turkeys.
I turn left on a road whose name I can't remember at the moment. A half mile up the road I once saw a fox. Lately there have been many pheasants here.
It's up a little hill, past several nice though unpretentious homes and a bunch of deer stands in relatively open fields.
Now I pass an old dilapidated farm where the barn is slowly falling in. There is an old chevy parked in the decaying barn and an old person is occasionally observed walking from one beat up house to another not too far away.
Now up a hill and past an Elk ranch. The house has a beautiful southern view on the edge of a hill.
Next, we pass an old abandoned schoolhouse behind a wall of pine trees and then we are at Highway 151.
I turn left and pass a run-down mysterious farm on the right. The house and barn are near the road in the woods and have not seen paint in decades. Yet, I've seen faint light in the upstairs windows and saw a pickup truck drive in one day. There is traffic in and out of the driveway. Does someone live here? There's smoke coming out of the stack. But who would live in such an old dilapidated house? I'm fascinated with it.
Now a left turn and I'm half way to work. I'm now on Highway W which takes me all the way to just a few miles south of DePere.
I'll take you the rest of the way to work some other time. I do have a life, you know? Ciao!

Oh, one more thing! I got my "Who Farted?" hat in the mail yesterday! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

1. Why do you insist on driving with your high beams on during the day? And those double sets of lights on some cars should be banned! How much more can you do to make me blind as I approach?
2. Abortion is wrong but making it illegal is poor public policy. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol. Making abortion illegal would be a horrible step backwards.
3. People who drive slow in the left lane and refuse to move over ought to read my mind and get out of my way.
4. I love rooting for the Green Bay Packers!
5. It's sad that so many babies are being born to people who don't share the same last name. It's just sad.
6. When are we going to stop putting people in jail for using and selling marijuana? We need to stop stuffing our prisons with people who use and sell drugs.
7. If I was king of the world...............I'd stop people from trying to make every holiday into Christmas. Trees full of little ghosts? Full of Easter eggs? Forbidden!
8. That can of butter-glazed Macadamia nuts was delicious.
9. If you use the word "awesome" one more time, I'm gonna blow chow!
10. I don't want to take away your hunting rifles and your ammo, but I do believe in some kind of gun control. This is not an all-or-nothing issue like the conservative right would like you to believe. More needs to be done to keep the circulation of deadly weapons down in this country.
11. The intimidation factor should be legislated out of pro sports. Hockey players who fight should be thrown out. Pitchers who hit a batter in the head in baseball should be immediately tossed out of the game. Anybody who tries to run into the second baseman to break up a double play should cause both runners to be automatically out. Any behavior that tries to intimidate an opponent by the threat of physical harm should be denied the ability to participate. Pro sports should not be allowed to capitalize on the "blood lust" of the public.
12. Pro football players who dance and demonstrate excessively make me ill. When you score, you should be allowed to express joy and happiness. Dancing and other choreographed expressions are disrespectful to one's opponent.
13. Garbage pickup is a beautiful thing!
14. Your question might be quick. The answer, however, rarely is.
15. School choice? Bad idea! Public money should not be spent on private schools. Use the public money to make public schools better!
16. The only thing I have to fear is fear itself.
17. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time. Enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking as He did this sinful world as it is not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to his will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next.
18. Sex? I can't talk about it. Would anyone love me if they knew what goes through my mind? Why must I wonder?
19. I like movies that make me cry but I don't want you to know that I am crying over a movie.
20. Gee, I had 20 thoughts. And you thought I was brainless!

22. People should be allowed to smoke, just not where a non-smoker might EVER go. Why don't they understand that second hand smoke ABSOLUTELY causes cancer? Why do otherwise intelligent people start smoking? Peer pressure? Desire to "just try it"? Why not "just try" shooting heroin into your vein? Smoking makes you and me sick and it costs us both money. I'd prefer that you not do it, especially around me.
23. Very few things are as good as golf on a calm 68 degree day.
24. Laughter is wonderful and farting makes me laugh. Judge away!
25. What the hell is carnay asada?
26. My children are the Joy of my Life!
27. I NEVER forward stuff that comes to me with an admonition at the bottom to forward it to everyone I know. NEVER! And I'm not comfortable with the fact that you forwarded it to me either.
28. I wish I could think of all those thoughts that I think of when I'm driving to or from work.
29. Mom said, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."
30. Why do Republicans act as if all taxes are bad? Government can't exist without taxes. Deciding how taxes are used is the responsibility of government. Not all government is bad. Most government is good. It is every citizen's responsibility to make government as good as it can be by participating in it.
31. Diet Pepsi. Uh, HUH!
32. Unrealized dream: Be in a band and sing harmonies with smart, experienced musicians who figure out all the notes and write all the beautiful harmonies. I just wanna play and sing 'em. Music is so SPIRITUAL!
33. The falling leaves drift by my window. The autumn leaves of red and gold. I see your lips. The summer kisses. The sunburnt hands I used to hold. Since you went away, the days grow long. And soon I'll hear old winters song. But I miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall.
34. Capital punishment is wrong. We do not have the right to end a life under any circumstances. God loves us all and He has made us all in his image and likeness. Even murderers and child rapists are worthy of love. We have put many innocent people to death. Our courts are only human. We should not mess with life. Only God can give it and only God should decide when to take it away.

12/10/2002

35. If God didn't mean for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?
36. Why don't we just spend ALL of our time trying to prevent bad things from happening before they do? BECAUSE WE HAVE A LIFE, THAT'S WHY! The word Proactive is just like professional. They are both used by people who want something from you and it's usually something you don't want to give them.
37. Jennifer Lopez
38. Why doesn't HBO actually show some new movies once in awhile? They've been recycling movies for the last decade....

40. Frank Zappa! A truly interesting man. Thanks to Mary Stephens and Teri O'Connell, wherever you are, for turning me on to him.
41. How much can you test a piece of software? To TEST every feature of a piece of computer software is impractical. How do you even document all the permutations and combinations much less explore them all? Oh, but of course, if you work with computers, particularly if you repair and maintain them, then you must know everything about the way they operate! Yeah, right.

2/12/2004

42. Gay marriage is RIGHT. All people should be accorded the same legal rights to share property, and insurance and such. It's not a choice to be gay. Gay people should be allowed to marry. Those of you who choose to quote the Bible on the homosexuality issue should go live in the desert and wear a toga or whatever the Jews wore in Biblical times. A bumper sticker I saw the other day said "If we lived by "An Eye for an Eye", we'd all be blind." What would Jesus do? He'd act with love. He'd accept people as they are.

43. Super Bowl 2004: Janet Jackson's right breast? It's just a breast for goodness sake. Get over it already!!!
44. Frank Lasee, President of the State Senate. Go away! Your death penalty proposal is just as bad an idea as are most of your others. Go back to taking care of your llamas!!
45. This state does not need the right to carry concealed weapons. I think the "gun people" keep pushing stuff like this because they are afraid that if they don't, their precious rights might be eroded. Good job, Governor Doyle!

46. How about getting some talk shows on Wisconsin radio that aren't dominated by insufferable Conservative Republicans. Mark Belling, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Charlie Sykes? Am I living in liberal Hell or what?

47. The Bishop of LaCrosse told local legislators that they would be refused communion in the Catholic Church unless they voted the Churches position on abortion. I think that's wrong. Church and state should remain separate. Is the church going to have us sign a "loyalty oath" at the door and not allow us in unless we profess totall allegiance to every one of its tenets? That's when I walk away.

48. Russ Feingold is a great US Senator. I like what he stands for.

49. Who farted?