Church

We are visiting my parents in Illinois. We went to their church today. They have a cute little church where when there are visitors, people notice. It is sort of aggrevating. We know we were the only visitors because they take time to introduce all visitors after the service.

My Dad gave the childrens sermon. The majority of the kids up there (5 out 8) were Dad's Grandkids.

I am used to our church where we have been members for over 6 years and most of the people there do not know us. I have never seen a childrens sermon with as few as 8 kids. I do not know if I have ever seen as few as 20 kids up for the Childrens sermon. There are probably more visitors on a typical week at our church than total members today at my parents church.

A church with so few members that you can double the kids in a childrens sermon with just one family seems dangerously small to me. It does seem to be a pretty old demographic at the church, so the membership does not have a lot of kids, but still.

A church where you can be a member for several years and still very few of the congregation knows your name is probably too big. Part of the reason is that I am not very outgoing and do not participate a whole lot, but still.

Anyway, Dad did a pretty good job with the Children's Sermon and the Congregation seemed to think it cute that most of the kids were Dad's Grand Sons. It was actually very cute.

Air Flight

We are at the concourse almost 2 hours ahead of time. It gives us plenty of time for a leisurely lunch. We got to the airport so early because of the snow we got yesterday and the nightmare the airport was last year. Last year we gave ourselves almost 3 hours to get through check-in and security and we needed almost every minute. Plus we were rushing so hard that we lost Tyler's carry-on bag.

This year we could have taken one hour to check in, one hour for security and one hour to get to our gate. Checking in took less than 10 minutes. Security took 25 minutes. And so we are sitting at McDonalds with plenty of time to spare.

It is so much nicer to not have to rush, but it sure would be nice if there was a way to know exactly how long things would take. There is a hotline you can call to get security wait times, but I discovered last year that the posted time is not necessarily accurate. Last year it was probably 45 minutes off. This year it was closer, but still underestimated the wait by 5 minutes. You can check to see if your flight is on time, but they never admit to being late until they actually are late, so that information is pretty much worthless. So between not being able to trust the published information and not knowing how traffic will be (traffic reports seem to be about half an hour later than ever does you any good.), and the x-factor of traveling with young kids, your only real option is to build in a ridiculous safety buffer between.

So this sort of begs the question: if the published information is wrong, isn't it better to not publish it at all? Ironically, it is probably fine 90% of the time... When everything is going smoothly, but it is the 10% of the time when things are not going normally that you most need the information and it seems that is when it is most off. Maybe whoever is in charge of collecting information is too busy trying to correct problems to get timely info on the website or recorded message or radio or whatever. But what good is a security wait time that is off by 45 minutes?

Anyway, I am now in Wisconsin. We had an uneventful flight. I am actually typing this while on an exercise bike close to Milwaukee. My goal today is to burn 2000 cardio calories before heading back to Tracy's brothers house. So far I am at 1632, but I am slowing down. I also lifted today so I am probably over 1800, but lifting does not count because the weights do not keep track like cardio machines do.

Speaking of inaccurate information, the scale in the mens locker room is obviously off because when I put the big weight on 250 and the little weight on 0, the scale says I am well below 250. When I put the big on 200 and the little on 50, it tells me I am over 250. I hate it when fitness club scales are not properly calibrated, but I have never seen a scale do this before. It does not matter that much, we will call it 250, but it certainly is something to be miffed about as I peddle and type.

1720 calories.

Someone who exercises as much as I do should not be 50 lbs overweight. I usually lose a good 10 or 15 pounds almost immediately after the holidays. This year I hope to make it more like 25. My biggest problem I think is the beer. I would probably be skinny without beer. And pizza. And lattes.

I published photos of the kids on http://kids.ericshepard.com This is the first addition to the website in over a year and a half. You might ask: why even have a website if you are not going to keep it up to date?

To that I answer: Shut up.

1810 calories. 90 minutes of cardio. I am getting exhausted.

This blog is already too long and boring. I am going to send it up.

Ryan

Tyler's friend Ryan is at our house.

Together, they are wild, loud and silly. Connor seems to think they are hilarious.

I think they are loud. And weird.

I am sort of glad Tyler was not twins.

Of course it has been along time since I have had the kind of fun they are having together. And at least no one is crying yet. Their laughing is loud but better than screaming and crying. Their sense of humor is sort of childish. They are acting like kinder gardeners.

It is sort of sad that as an adult, I no longer have the ability to have this kind of fun. Oh well... I will just have to live vicariously through my boys.

Downtown

I am finishing up Christmas shopping downtown during what some people would consider lunch time. I do not usually take a lunch hour. I usually just eat at my desk. I probably should take some time during the day especially on nice days like today because it is unhealthy to stare at a computer all day.

It is a beautiful day.

On Hold

I am on a web-ex with Captaris tech support. It seems that I have talked to them a bunch over the past couple months and I am getting sick of it.

Right now I am on hold. They are having trouble giving me a key that allows me to use their Teamplate server product. I am trying to upgrade from an old version to their newest and it seems like it had been one trouble after another. Now I am on hold and it really seems this should be easier.

The guy forgot to ask me for my system id. I am back on hold.

So, I recently discovered in my last blog that attaching JPGs to a blog email now works. I have thought for some time that it should work and now it does. I do not know when they made that enhancement. Maybe they read the blog where I mentioned that it should work. Yeah right.. Only if Derry or Tera work for Google. (they do not)

The phone CHFA has in here is not ideal for being on hold. It does not have a speaker phone. I cannot mute. It is also a bit of a stretch to get it by my computer and it has to sit in my lap. I am glad I did not have Caparis call my cell phone. I would be pissed to waste my minutes like this. My neck is getting a bit sore holding the phone between my shoulder and ear. I might have to stop blogging because of the pain.

Why is this taking so long?

The guy is doing something on my computer without talking to me. I hate that.

I share this room with 4 other consultants. They are not very courteous about phone calls. This is part of the reason I hate being on Caparis support calls. At the moment all 4 are talking. Does not matter right now since I am ON HOLD. But, it is annoying nonetheless.

My neck cannot take this anymore. I am going to stop blogging.

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Well between yesterday and today I spent almost 2 hours just getting a license key for our development server. It sure seems it should have been easier.

Pool

My biggest son is taking swimming lessons while I sit next to the stroller containing my youngest son. I cannot tell what is going on for the lesson. It seems to me that he has had enough lessons that he should be able to swim better. I am proud to say that he is not afraid to go under or get his face wet. He does not take after his mother on that regard. Thank goodness.

Last week I was angry at Tyler for horsing around and not paying attention. After my talk with him, he is being much better today. A big part is probably that his partner in crime is not here today. It is just Tyler and a little girl, so he has to pay better attention and there is really no one else to horse around with. The teacher is either with Tyler or with the other child and so there is no real opportunity to get in trouble.

I hope my talk with Tyler did some good though.

I am probably expecting too much for Tyler's progress. This is the third swimming course he has taken. He is five. And it seems to me he should be able to swim. I feel sort of ripped off. And I feel like I do not work him enough. We do not go swimming that much as a family. Given that Tracy does not have the same disappointed feeling towards his progress, it is probably going to be up to me to get him taught. Because obviously swimming lessons alone are not getting it done. And it makes sense to me that some 'homework' should be part of the learning process.

And like I said, I am probably a bit unrealistic on where he should be. Oh well, at least he seems to be having fun.

Christmas

So why do I say Christmas is not really a Christrian holiday?

Obviously it should be. It celebrates the birth of Christ. Churches are packed Christmas Eve. All the best Christmas Carols sing of the baby Jesus. Religious Christrians use the day to celebrate their God and how He so loved the world He gave His only son. It is a religous Holiday.

Sort of.

The thing is, though, Christmas is so ingrained in the materialistic American culture that it does not seem you have to be a Christrian to 'celebrate' the holiday. I certainly know several people who never go to church but still have Christmas trees and give / receive Christmas gifts. I guess you do not necessarily need to go to church to be a Christrian, but in fact, I specifically know of at least one guy who says he does not believe in God. He still does all those Christmasy things. I also once got a Christmas gift from someone of the Jewish faith.

So, we have all heard or read the saying: 'put the Christ back in Christmas.' Obviously whoever says that would agree that Christmas as currently practiced (generally) is missing a necessary part it needs to be an actual religious holiday. Given the number of commercials and ads, you might even call it more of a holiday for retail and commercialism.

And maybe the vast number of non-Christians or semi-Christrians is not necessarily a bad thing. Whether or not everyone goes to church or consciencely honors Jesus's birth, it still is a season of giving. Charitable giving is up this time of year. More people volunteer at soup kichtens and so forth. Lots of people spend significant time with family over the holiday. So even if Christ is not in everyone's mind, his Spirit is still around.

But still, I think a lot, maybe even most people celebrate the Christmas holiday without celebrating, or even thinking about Christ. Maybe that is cynical.

I probably did not explain myself well, but in a nutshell that is why I say Christmas is not really a Christrian holiday.

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to it. I'll try to remember to thank God that I get to watch my kids open their gifts and spend time with family that I have not seen in almost a year.

Hair on my head

I wonder if bald people feel short-changed when they hear 'But not a hair on your head will perish.' Luke 21:18
Or
"Indeed, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Luke 12:7
Of course they don't. That would be silly.
I heard on the radio that Lowes put out their "holiday" catalog. According to the person giving the report, Lowes sells Christmas trees, but in the catalog they called them "Family Trees". They apparently were trying so hard not to offend non-Christrians that they called Christmas Trees "Family Trees".
Christmas today is not really a Christrian holiday, so I am not sure why Lowes felt compeled to rename the tree.
According to the scale at Bally, where I work out, I was 6 pounds heavier than I was just 24 hours before. Thanksgiving was between those two weighings, so I ate a lot with not much exercise. But, how is it possible to gain 6 pounds that quick? Then, I did cardio for 50 minutes. I weighed myself again and was 3 pounds lighter. How is that possible? It cannot all be water weight, can it?
On the way to Bally, I saw people waiting in a huge Friday after Thanksgiving line outside Circuit City. I swear there were more people in line than would fit in the store. I do not care what kind of bargains someone would be able to get, it is not worth that kind of shopping hell. I do not know anyone who admits being one of those people. But obviously they are all over the place. I just do not understand it.
Of course I saw similar lines at Best Buy and at the mall as I drove past.
There was no line to get in to work out at Bally.
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It has been a couple weeks since I last added to this blog entry. Right now I am waiting to give blood. Tracy's Christmas party was last night and I drank. For some reason I feel like my blood pressure is up. I feel stressed. I am not sure why. They do not have as many beds today as usual so the wait is longer.
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It is now Tuesday. I am riding the light rail to work because of snow on the rodes. Apparently a light rail derailed South today so I got on further North where all the trains come together. I was not delayed other than slow drivers because of the snow but I cannot imagine the people who rely on the system being able to go South if I were on of those people I would probably just worked at home today. The highway that runs North into downtown was shut down too, so it was really a mess.
Wow the ride is much shorter coming in from where I got on. I am almost there.

4:30 AM

Lately, I have been waking up at 4:30 in the morning. It is almost always within one or two minutes. I am not sure why. It is probably some sort of witching hour signifying some good fortune coming my way. Or maybe it means I just can not sleep.

I have tried going to bed eariler. I have trie going to bed later. I've tried exercise. I've tried making sure I do not exercise before bed. I have tried getting up and reading. I have tried getting up and working. I've tried just laying in bed.

Usually I end up getting to sleep (no matter what I do) about the time I should be waking up. That sucks.

It does not seem to be causing me major problems. I get over being tired relatively soon in the day. I am not exhausted going to work. It is just getting up in time to get the kids to school that seems to be hard, and not THAT hard because I do it everyday.

I just wish I could sleep.

It makes me cranky that I cannot sleep. I do not think it is sleep deprevation that is causing the crankyness. It is just that I am pissed off that I cannot sleep past 4:30. And being cranky does cause me some problems.

So here I am sitting on a bench being cranky while I should be inside working a
Problem on the computer.

I caught myself getting annoyed at people today, when I know the reason is that I have this 4:30 am problem. It is not their fault. So, I know I should not be getting annoyed. I just cannot help it.

Anyway... I wish I could figure this out. If not, maybe I can just accept it.

Yeah right.

HD Hockey

Oh my GOSH !!!

If you have not seen hockey on a big TV in HD, you do not know what you are missing.

I do not know if I will ever be able to watch hockey on a regular TV ever.

TV

Well.... I did it.

I went out and got myself a 50 inch HD TV.

Do I need a HD TV?

No.

God knows how many starving children someone could buy with the money I spent on this monster, but I saw it on sale for a price I liked and I bought it.

It is much nicer than my old 25 inch TV. It is also ridiculously bigger. I think my family room may be too small now. I guess I will get used to having it n there, but right now it seems out of place. But it is so cool.

So now I have a bigger TV and have to get furniture to hold it. Right now it is on the floor in front of the old entertainment center. It needs to go on something. That will be another expense. I do not have a HDMI cable yet, so I will have to buy one or two. I need the HDMI because at 50 inches of screen, you actually notice the difference between non-HD and HD. I never really saw the point at 25 inches. Eventually I am sure I will want real-surround sound. I'll need blue-ray or an HD DVD player. It is endless. The 50 inch TV is ruling my life. I'll bet Tweedle Beattles invented big-screen HD.

I watched the Rockies lose game one on the big screen last night. 13 Red Socks runs probably looked even worse. It was depressing. Actually I saw most of it on the TV at the health club and it was just as depressing there.

I am a bit cranky today. It is not because of the Rockies. I knew that eventually they would lose and I almost think it is better to get blown out and embarrassed when they lose because they want to win game 2 that much more. If they win game 2, they are back in control of the series and the pressure is on Boston.

Anyway, I am not sure why I am cranky.

I have not been sleeping as well between the hours of 2 and 5 AM as I would like, but that is not it either.
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I have been without my phone for about a week now. I thought it was lost and we just found it in the Auction Automations trailer. I even order a new Q. I got it on EBay so I do not think I can return it. Maybe Tracy wants a Q. I was pretty lost without a cell phone and I really missed its internet access. It is amazing how fast this little thing made itself indespensible. I actually probably lasted longer than most would have been able to. It is scary how much I feel I need someting that I was able to last most of my life without.

Speaking of not being able to live without, HD is awesome. Now I am pissed how most of the shows are not in HD. I am disgusted to watch hockey on regular old resolution. It sucks.

I did watch the Rockies in the world series on HD. They lost but the picture was fantastic.

Well, I am going to send this. It is so nice to have my phone back.

Brooms

I saw a guy selling brooms on my way to the light rail station today.

Can you guess why?

A little hint: he was a few blocks away from Coors field.

You probably do not need it, but here is another hint: the Rockies play the Diamond backs tonight.

The Rockies are up 3 - 0 in the series and will probably sweep the Snakes tonight.

This guy was selling used brooms.

I sort of think maybe letting people into a packed stadium with sticks might not be a great idea. So, I do not know if once you bought the broom if you would have to sneak it in. Maybe security woud look the other way, or maybe brooms are just allowed.

Even if it was no problem getting the broom into the stadium, I do not think I would buy a used broom on my way to Coors field. I probably would not even buy a new broom.

I probably would not even bring one from home. I hope the Rocks win tonight so that the fans who went to the trouble do not feel foolish.

Go Rockies.

Blood

I gave blood this past Saturday. The guy who processed my paper work and the girl who took my blood told me that I am up to 3 gallons with Bonfils Blood Center. They were very appreciative. It made me feel sort of good to hit another gallon milestone.
My church has a blood drive 6 times a year and I go whenever I get a chance. I have probably only missed 3 opportunities to give over the past 3 years. So, there are probably some people who give more often than I do, but certainly not many. 6 times a year is the most they will take your blood and I have done it 5 times each of the past few years. At my rate it still takes awhile to get up to another gallon.
For some reason, every time I get to another gallon, I picture milk gallons in our fridge filled with blood. It sort of grosses me out. That is a lot of blood.
Most people I talk to who have not recently given blood seem to be scared of doing it. I try to explain that it really is not that bad, but most people do not believe me. I actually enjoy giving blood. It makes me feel a bit heroic knowing that I may be saving lives. Actually, in my head, everytime I give blood, I am saving 3 people. That is the number of people Bonfils publishes as people I could potentially be helping. I translate that in my mind from potentially saving to absolutely saving lives.
My wife does not give blood anymore because she has had a bad experience. The last time she tried to give they kept jabbing and jabbing and eventually gave up. I guess her veins are a bit difficult to find and tap into because she has had this problem giving blood samples to doctors as well. I think if I had an experience like that, I would probably stop too.
But the worst experience I have ever had giving blood was that the snacks were not quite the selection as usual. They have never had trouble finding my veins. I have never fainted or even felt the least bit woozy. Nothing the least bit unpleasant has happened to me while giving. I never even feel worn down or feel I should take it easy the days I give blood.
If they let me, I would probably give blood more often. Probably not a lot more often but 7 or 8 times a year.
I have heard that it is healthy to give blood on a regular basis. Some of the things I hear sound sort of urban- legend - like, but at least some of them I think are legitimate. The one I can think of right now is that there are studies which show a decrease in prostrate cancer (in men) for those who give blood regularly.
So, it is apparently good for my health for me to give blood.
But that is not why I do it. I do it for the glory that I have built up in my mind.

Guess Who

I am sitting at a silent auction waiting for remainding people to come by and CheckOut. I am also watching GameDay on MLB.com of the Rockies and Philly. They are tied 1 to 1. It is a good thing I am able to use my phone as a modem because people are really interested in the game, and it is easier to tell exactly what is going on from the real MLB site rather than the mobile site. I am glad I got the ability to use my cell phone as a modem because it adds allows me to do stuff during the slow times of these darn things.

It is weird how many more Rockies fans there are now that they are in the playoffs. I have probably written that before in this blog.

In fact, look at me. See how many Rockies blogs I have this year. I have had none in previous years.

Now, the Rockies are up 2 games to 0 in the NLDS and are probably the best team left in the NL. It would be crazy to see the Rockies go to the World Series.

Auction Automations is getting a bunch of business. This is good. We still do not have employees to run our events. That is bad. I am so tired of doing these events and we are still undercharging. But, we are doing well for a company that I thought would never do much. The guys who do our selling do not have real jobs and do not take into account the fact that the rest of us do have real jobs.

One nice thing is that we are using our main competitors to re-sell our solution. They are going to use our software and give us a very nice cute. I love the deal they gave us. Obviously they must think our solution is awesome.

The lady who is running this event (The Hispanic Chamber of Education) just told me "You are the best". She was refering to our company because I was able to give her a list of items that were not bid upon. The old-style silent auction was such a pain for her that this thing is a real relief for her. This is like the 10th time tonight that she has told us that we are the greatest or the best or just plain awesome. She loves us.

I wish we would have charged her more. Tear down should be pretty easy tonight. I hope.

Well, the Rockies won 2-1 and swept the Phillies. Sweat.

I need to start helping with tear down.

L8R

Rocks Win

13 innings into the game, Matt Holiday scored the winning run. He did not touch the plate, but the ump screwed up and called him safe. Rockies win Rockies win Rockies win.

And the fans went nuts. And the players went nuts. Holiday was bloody and led off the field, but I think he is ok. The Rockies are playoff bound.

And they go into the play-offs winning 14 out of 15, by far the hottest team in MLB. I do not think it is that far fetched to say the Rockies have a chance to go to the World Series. Denver is caught up in the excitement.

Talk about a magical run. Hopefully they can keep it going.

Wow

Wow. It is crowded in Lower Downtown Denver. The Rockies seem to have thousands more fans today than they did just last week.

It makes me a bit jealous that all these people get to go to the game and I do not. This is easily a sellout. I have never seen this many people in the 3 block radias around Coors field and the game is about to start so surely there must be even more inside.

Anyway, I guess we will have to see how things go.

Go Rocks!!

next

I have a problem with the movie NEXT. I will not Blog specifically what my problem is (in case you have not seen the movie), but the logic of the story is completely flawed.

Play - in

So, I guess that the Rockies were absolutely not out of the race. Somehow, this team has won 13 of the last 14 games to tie for the wildcard spot. Today they play a one - game tie-breaker to see if they are in the play-offs. I do not know how they decided who gets to play this game at home, but it is at Coors field in Lodo Denver, right across the street from where I am working today.

I am riding the light rail so that I do not have to worry about parking. I have a feeling that even though this is a night game, parking will be expensive today.

And, Lodo will be nuts.

I am not a huge baseball fan. There are Rockies fanatics out there who have had to suffer a team that for the past 10 or so years has not finished out of 2nd to last in their division. These fans deserve to get a bit crazy with joy. And they will.

And to be honest, this run came out of nowhere. The Rockies seemed better this year and had a couple of decent streaks, but there is no way anyone (except maybe some insane fan) could have predicted such a finish to the season.

The whole thing is really remarkable. I hope they win tonight.

I hope the Rockies can keep this going for the next couple years.

Rockies

The Rockies are back in the race. I suppose they were never really out of it.

I guess I blamed the Tweedle Beetles too quickly for the Rockies being out of it.

Sorry.

Subdomains

l am a geek.

Obviously this is true considering that I have a blog in the first place. But, here is even more evidence: I could not sleep so l got up and setup sub-domains on EricShepard.com.

http://blog.ericshepard.com/

http://kids.ericshepard.com/

http://colorado.ericshepard.com/


I also started Trashfund.com and some other geeky things Including this blog.

By the way, yesterday l went to Oktoberfest in Denver which was extremely disappointing. the website mentioned kids activities of which there were actually none. The food and beer was ridiculously expensive and the kids really did not like the beer very much.

I am sure the Tweedle Beetles had something to do with it.