One Last Thing

This is post 22 for March...easily a new record for the number of posts in a single month. I only had 30 posts total last year, so 22 for one month is pretty amazing for me. I've enjoyed my morning blogging and at this point, I don't see any reason to slow down. So I hope that you've been enjoying the posts and I look forward to seeing what April brings.

--Paul

Trying Something Out

You might notice the new section on the right called "Paul's Shared Items". I'm pretty heavily entrenched in the Google application ecosystem. Part of that is Google Reader, Google's RSS feed reader. RSS is a method for websites to publish headlines to a "feed". You use a reader to subscribe to the feed and then when the website is updated, the feed is updated and the reader shows you the update, thus you know the latest headlines from the site without actually having to visit the site. You subscribe to as many feeds as you like and then the reader presents all the headlines in one place for you to read.

Google Reader allows you to "share" items that you think your friends might be interested in. Since Google also owns Blogger, they created a widget that publishes your shared items to your Blogger site. So now when I see a headline come across that I think might interest you or show you more about what interests me, I can share it and it'll show up automatically in the section on the right. I figure I'll give it a try and see how things go for a few days. Let me know what you think.


--Paul

One More Day...

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of March. It seems like the year just started and now we're already a quarter of the way through it. I guess time does fly when you're having fun.

We had another fairly busy weekend. DeAnne had a baby shower she helped host on Saturday. While she was off doing that, Dad came over and helped me in the flower beds. Here's a question for you. If a flower bed has no flowers in it, is it still a flower bed? Shouldn't it be called a shrub bed or a bush bed or something like that? Anyway, just something for you to ponder on today. We only got half of them done, but I was glad to get that far. I think Saturday was the hottest day we've had all year. By the time we were done with that first half we were both ready to quit. We've got one more day of work to finish the flower beds and then maybe we'll have all the yard work done, except for the weekly mowing of course.

Yesterday we went and ate lunch with DeAnne's Mom and then made the weekly trip to Wal-Mart. We also watched "Mr. Magorum's Wonder Imporium" (sp?). It was really a good movie. It was also remarkable for the fact that it's a live action movie that received a "G" rating. I can't remember the last time I saw that happen. It seems like most animated movies wind up with a "PG" these days. So consider it recommended.

Well, it would seem to be time to run. I'm hesitant to start this week. I'm on call and you never know how that's going to go. Here's to hoping it goes well. See you all tomorrow.

--Paul

I Got Nothin'

Once again, I'm stuck for a catchy title for the blog. Maybe something will come to me later like it did last time. Once again, I apologize for yesterday. Last night, the ladies were have a 70's themed ladies fellowship at the church. They were all supposed to dress up in 70's attire. The hard part about that is finding something to wear. DeAnne looked pretty much everywhere and while we were in Dothan last week she found some pants that would work. On Wednesday, with no shirt to be found, she bought a tie-dye kit from Wal-Mart. We tie-dyed a t-shirt and according to the instructions you were supposed to let it set up for 6 to 8 hours and then wash it. It was so close to time to go to bed we decided just to let it sit overnight and I would wash it in the morning. I got up the next morning and I decided that I didn't want to wash it in the new washing machine for fear that it might stain it or something. We still have the old washer out on the carport, so I hooked it to the water hose and washed the shirt out there. I had a few issues and that's why I didn't get to blog yesterday morning. I think it also qualifies as the single most redneck thing I've ever done. The kicker though is that she didn't even wear the shirt. She went looking around town one more time after work yesterday and found something else instead. Go figure.

Have a great weekend.

--Paul


PS. If you want to see pictures, check out DeAnne's blog (linked on the right). She already has a bunch posted.

Apologies

Sorry there isn't a real blog this morning.  I got "tied" up with something (that one's for you, DeAnne) and didn't even have time to eat breakfast.  I'll see you all tomorrow.

--Paul

Easter Sunday

So Sunday was Easter as I'm sure you are all aware. We managed to roll out of bed and be at the church at 6:30 for sunrise service and I think we were both glad we went. There was some discussion on Saturday about going and in the end we decided to try and make it. It was pretty awesome, standing there in the cool morning air watching the day get brighter around you while listening to the scripture that tells us that Jesus has conquered death and is alive. It just made me stop and thank God again for all he's done for DeAnne and I. We really are blessed beyond anything that we deserve and it just blows me away to think about it.

After sunrise service, there was a small fellowship breakfast. The food was excellent and we had a good time. We still had a few hours till time for church so we came back home and just chilled out. DeAnne took a short nap and I finally beat the last song on Rock Band on drums on hard. I was pretty pumped to beat hard. I'll never be a great drummer or anything, but I felt like I really accomplished something.

Church was just as much a blessing as sunrise service. Afterwards we went to eat lunch with DeAnne's Mom and then came home with the intention of finishing the flower beds, but after our trip to Wal-Mart, we decided just to go and hang out with Brian and Adrienne. All in all, we had a great Easter and a great weekend. You know it was good when it takes you three days to cover it on the blog, I guess.

--Paul

On and On

If Friday was our day off, then Saturday was our work day.

About 8:00, I got up and started looking at getting the lawn mower going. I had to take the two front tires up to the shop and have them fixed. While I was gone doing that, DeAnne got started trimming the bushes. She did everything she could reach and after I got back and got the tires back on the mower, she took off on it with the sweeper to pick up the pine straw in the yard.

While she was doing that, I finished up the bushes in the back of the house and then started the weed-eating around the house. After finishing that, DeAnne was done getting up the straw so I started cutting the grass, or weeds really, and she started on the bushes across the front of the house. After getting those done, she washed off the porch and cleaned up the rocking chairs. As for me, I finally finished with the grass around 2:30. The only real break we took was when my Mom came by. We stopped and talked with her for about an hour and then we were back at it.

It was a long day, but I'm glad we got it all done. We're still not completely through with the yard, we still need to redo the flower beds, but I think that can wait until next weekend. I'm also really thankful for DeAnne. Her allergies don't really allow her to do much in the yard, but she worked hard and was a huge help Saturday. I think at the end of the day, we were both really proud of what we had accomplished.

--Paul

I'm Back!

After a 3-day weekend, I'm back and ready to blog for you.

We had a great weekend starting off with Friday's trip to Dothan. We weren't able to sleep in, but it didn't matter much. We got to Dothan on time for DeAnne's appointment and we were only there for 30 minutes. He took an x-ray and listened to her breathe, said everything looked good and then we were gone. After we were done there, we hit the stores. Both of us needed some new clothes for the spring/summer so we decided to take our state tax refund and use it for that. It took a little time, but we found pretty much everything we needed and we even had some money left over, so I was happy.

We got finished in Dothan fairly early, so we decided to go ahead and go to the wake for Mike Josey. It was pretty amazing how many people were there. It was pretty obvious as soon as we pulled up that he meant a lot to a lot of people. I know that even though DeAnne's family didn't see him as much as we used to, we'll all miss seeing him around the holidays.

I'm running short on time this morning, so I'll continue tomorrow. Have a good one.

--Paul

It's Thursday and I'm Not Going to Work Tomorrow

So really, for me, it's almost like it's Friday. Which is awesome. I'm going to Dothan with DeAnne tomorrow to see her lung doctor for her annual checkup. We've already been once this year, but she was sick when we went and he decided he wanted to see her again when she wasn't sick. DeAnne's off tomorrow for Good Friday so we figured that'd be the best time to make the appointment. Only bad thing about it is that the appointment is at 8:30, which means we're going to have to be rolling out of here around 6:45. That's when I usually leave for work anyway, but DeAnne's usually just getting going good. It also means that I probably won't have time to post tomorrow, so let's just say I'm taking some well-earned vacation time. I am looking forward to checking out the new Best Buy in Dothan though. It's just too bad I won't be able to buy anything.

Looks like the weekend is going to be all about yard work. The weeds have finally gotten to the point where I should have cut the yard a week ago but didn't and now I regret it. Before I cut the yard though, I need to pick up all the pine straw and redo the flower beds. On top of that, Saturday is Mike Josey's funeral, so we'll be going down to Crestview for that. It's going to be a busy weekend, that's for sure. I hope you all have a great one.

--Paul

Runnin' On Empty

I really don't know what to talk about this morning. I don't know if it's that I've already covered everything over the past couple of weeks or if I'm just tired. I don't think either I or DeAnne have recovered from last week yet. We've both been tired and a little grouchy.

We're still trying to catch up on the chores around the house. I finally got all the laundry caught up but here we are on Wed, so I'll just have to start all over again in another two days probably. We're hoping to get our new washer and dryer this week. We decided to use our tax refund this year to get a new washer and dryer. We wanted to get something that had more capacity and would dry faster than the ones we have now. We decided on a set of Whirlpool front-loaders. We even managed to get enough back to be able to spring for the pedestals to go underneath them. DeAnne says she's looking forward to getting them, but since I'm the one that always does the laundry, I don't think her excitement can match mine.

I guess that's a sure sign that you've reached adulthood and are a full fledged grown-up. You get excited about getting a new washer and dryer. Oh well, happens to everyone, I suppose.

Have a great Wednesday.

--Paul

Confirmed: I Have a Brain

Well, I do indeed have a brain in my head and from the looks of things, there's nothing wrong with it. The MRI results showed no tumors or any sign of a stroke. While this is great news, it also means that we're back to square one on what caused my blind spots. So I guess I can mark stroke off the list of things that I've had happen to me.

Not much else is going on. We're so far behind on house-hold chores that it's not even funny. We went to Kinston almost every day last week and it really put us behind on things. We hadn't even made the weekly grocery run until last night.

Butch Walker has a new live album and dvd out. You can actually go to his website (linked on the right) and download the entire live album for free or if you're feeling generous, you can get it off of amazon or itunes for $7.00. He's kind of doing a Radiohead type move and bypassing the labels for the release. I don't think that he even plans on doing a physical version of the album. The record labels really need to start paying attention to this trend. With more and more artist releasing music on their own on the internet, the need for labels is really starting to go away. I'm not saying that they'll ever go completely out of business, but I don't think I'd be investing in one right now.

That's all for today. Have a good one.

--Paul

Man What a Weekend

We had a great family reunion this past weekend. I'm going to hold off on talking about that though because there's a lot that happened yesterday that I want to cover.

Sunday proved to be a hard day and a sad day and just all around sad.

While walking Emma yesterday morning, I found Romper, our youngest cat, dead in the front yard. I'm not entirely sure what happened to him, but I think another animal got him. His face was beat up looking, but the rest of him looked okay. It was pretty sad. He's the first pet that I've ever had that's died. We buried him in front of the bushes on the back of the house that he always liked to play in. He was a sweet cat and was always running around and active. He's really going to be missed.

So after the events of the morning, we headed over to Kinston one last time. We ate lunch and just hung out with the family that was still there. Then at 3:00, Sara left to go to the Pensacola airport to head back home. It's been a fun week and we hated to see her go back to Utah and I really don't think she wanted to go.

After Sara left, we came back home and got ready for church. After church, there was a small get-together at the Cox (Mr. Jimmy and Mrs. Tammy's) house to say good-bye to Andrew, who was moving back home to New Jersey for his new job. While there, we got the news that a relative of DeAnne's, Mike Josey, had been killed in a motorcycle accident. He was the ex-husband of DeAnne's Mother's cousin. I know that sounds distant, but they were close to the family and everyone liked Mike a lot. He was an extremely nice guy and what little I knew of him made a great impression on me.

So as you can see, yesterday was pretty hard. We lost not only a cat, but a family member as well along with seeing Sara off until the next time we can get her back down here. I go to get the results of my MRI today. Hopefully the bad news is over and done with. I have to admit that after yesterday, I'm a bit nervous. Something to look forward to this week, though, is that I'll be off Friday to go with DeAnne to Dothan to see her lung doctor. We're also supposed to get our new washer and dryer this week, so I'm looking forward to that too. I'll see you tomorrow, have a good Monday.

--Paul

It's Friday - What Else Could You Ask For?

Friday has come at last. I say that like it's been a bad week, but really, I think this week has been better than last. I'm finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel on a project at work that's been dragging on for over a year now.

It seems like we keep running into one problem after another. It also seems like every time I turn around we're adding some new aspect to the project that means taking more time to research the solution, find good software, try the software out, get it configured right, and on and on and on. I think the full scope of this project has changed 5 or 6 times. We'll get close to being done and then someone will say "Well, what about this. Could we do this too?" and it just tacks another 2 months onto the project. I think we've about got everything covered though and I think we'll actually be in production by the end of the month.

As I told you earlier in the week, we've got the family reunion thing going on this weekend. I really need to cut the weeds down in the yard and get some other yard work done, but I'm dragging my feet. I know once the lawnmower comes out, it won't get put up again until October and I'm just not ready for that yet. I'm glad that the weather's finally getting a little warmer (global warming, my tail. It's been a cold winter if you ask me), but man I despise doing yard work.

Lost was awesome last night. I really feel like the show is moving towards the end now instead of just trying to put more mysteries out there for us to wonder about. I'm really looking forward to the next two seasons.

That's it for today. Hope you all have a great Friday.

--Paul

I Know You're Out There

Everyone knows how much I like gadgets and technology and stuff like that. Well, I've found an old tech that I've never known much about until recently. Satellites.

Back in August we dropped cable and bundled our phone, internet and tv through CenturyTel. The tv portion is provided through DISH network. We both love the DISH system. HD is pretty awesome and we're getting some channels now that we didn't get with cable that we've been enjoying. What's amazing to me is how much tech there is behind the satellite. I got to looking around and found a great community called SatelliteGuys.us (http://www.satelliteguys.us). They have a massive amount of information ranging from what you can do, what it will cost, what changes are being made to what's up on the satellites, just all kinds of information. It's become a site that I visit every day. If you look around, you may even see some of my posts, I'm "jpdubose". So I wanted to give a bit of space to my new tech obsession and point you to a great resource if you're interested.

As to American Idol, I had forgot that the gay stripper was even still on the show, so I'm fine with him getting the boot.

--Paul

I'm the Next American Idol

It's a lot harder to come up with a snappy title for your posts when you do this every day.

DeAnne finally bit the bullet and started a blogger page. You can find it at http://thedubosefamily.blogspot.com. I'll post a link to the right also.

American Idol, for me, is one of those love/hate type things. I hate the corporate sponsorship, we're just here to make money, over the top cheesiness of the show, but for whatever reason, I can't turn my head away. This year has been especially strange. The best singer in the competition, to me at least, has only been in America for three years. (I don't know any of their names, so you'll have to bear with descriptions) The girl from Ireland is probably my pick to win. I also like the guy from Australia. My other favorites are the dread-lock boy, the "Carly Simon" blond girl, although I should probably call her the "Let It Be" girl after last night, and the guy that played electric guitar a couple of times and sang Elinor Rigby last night. Everyone else can just go home now. Especially if you're a nurse with two-tone hair. Just go back to singing Janis Joplin songs in bars. Please. Of course, the country girl was the one that really murdered her song last night. I wasn't too crazy about the young boy either that went last. Or the girl that went first for that matter or the little asian girl.

Overall, I think that most of them did better with the Beatles material than I thought they would. I wasn't looking forward to it, but the high points were enough to make up for the ones that slaughtered their songs.

Well, past time to go already. I still haven't adjusted to the new time, but it's getting better. I'm not quite as late this morning as I was yesterday. Till next time.

--Paul

EDIT: I changed the title. Originally, it was "I'm Running Out of Titles". While I was getting ready for work, I came up with something a little more snappy. I hope you enjoy.

Keepin' 'em Coming

Going to be a short post today that's pretty much about nothing. I'm running a little late this morning. Somebody really needs to decide what time they want it to be and just leave it that way. Everything we do at work deals with time so every bit of code that we write has to take into account the DST changes. There's no telling how much code we have just to make sure everything works right for 2 stinking days out of the entire year. And that's just work. It'll be 2 weeks before I get used to this. Not to mention that going from waking up with full daylight to waking up in pitch darkness really throws you for a loop. Sorry for the rant. I've got to get going or I'll never make it to work on time.

--Paul

What Time Is It?

I really can't stand the DST change. I don't dislike the concept or the results so much, but the actual change and the week or two following it drives me crazy. I was on call for this one which meant that I had to go in at about 1:30 Saturday night (Sunday morning) and do a few things to help everything along. It's pretty harsh to watch the clock go from 1:59 to 3:00.

The MRI went well. I won't know the results for another week. It was an experience I hope I don't have to repeat too many times in my life. It was an "Open" MRI, but that just meant that my legs were sticking out of the machine and the sides were open so that I could wave my arms out if I had wanted to mess the test up. The top of the machine was still only an inch or two above my face. It was a little freaky, but I just closed my eyes and tried to relax. All totaled, it took about 20 minutes inside the machine to do the whole test.

DeAnne's sister, Sara, is in town for the week from Utah. She came back to Andalusia with us last night, went to church, out to eat and then spent the night. We had a good time and DeAnne was glad to get her out of Kinston for a day or so. The big annual "Snell Family Reunion" (DeAnne's mother's family) is this coming weekend. It's always a good time. There are some real characters in DeAnne's family and it's always interesting when they all get together.

That's all I've got for this morning. After a strong week last week, I hope to keep the streak alive this week. We're off to a good start at least.

--Paul

It's Friday, A Good Day...

...For taking pictures of your brain. I saw the doctor yesterday and we got my MRI scheduled for this afternoon. I know this sounds weird, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. I've seen my Dad's MRI of his shoulder and neck and I've seen DeAnne's of her lower back, but this is a frickin' BRAIN we're talking about here. I mean, yeah, you're a little worried they might find something, but you get to look at a brain. I'm just constantly amazed by what God has allowed humans to accomplish with technology and this is just another example of that. I mean, it's really just jaw-dropping the thing that we're able to do these days.

After the MRI, I'll see my doctor again on the 17th. I know it seems like a long wait, but the eye doctor that I saw on Monday works out of Dothan and only comes to town a couple of days a month and that's the next day he'll be here and my doctor wants to be able to get up with him to discuss the results.

Anyway, I'm running a little late this morning, so this post isn't going to be quite as long as the last few, but hey, I made it four days straight. That's got to be some kind of record or something. Don't know if I'll continue the run through the weekend though. If I don't, then I hope you all have a good weekend and I'll try and make it back on Monday at the latest.

--Paul

Well, Crap

I just thought I hadn't covered TV. I was looking at the blog after the last post went up just to make sure everything looked okay and just happened to notice a paragraph in Tuesday's post that covered some of the same stuff I said this morning. I had a little more detail this morning, so I guess it won't hurt you, but sorry for not being able to remember something from two days ago.

--Paul

Let's Keep the Groove Alive

Look out, 'cause here comes post #3 in 3 days. That may be an new all time streak since I archived the surgery blogs and started the new one. I haven't talked about TV lately, so I figured I'd run down that subject real quick.

24 got axed by the writer's strike. I feel like a little piece of me has died inside. Right now, they're saying it'll be Jan. 2009 before we see it on again. At least maybe by then, we'll have our local channels in HD. Until then though, I guess I'll have to settle for A&E reruns and watching the season 1 DVDs.

Lost is back on and better than ever. I feel like they're actually starting to move toward giving us some answers about everything. Both me and DeAnne have really enjoyed it this year.

American Idol is also back on. It's funny. The show's called "American" Idol, but two of my favorites this year are the boy from Australia and the girl from Ireland. I also like the David guy that's been playing guitar (not the David that's a gay stripper) and a couple of the others have been pretty good. I've really enjoyed that they're letting the singers play instruments. I think that it's really helped make the show a touch more interesting than it was when it was just singing back to back to back.

Other than that, we've been watching Jon & Kate Plus Eight. I think I would loose my mind if I were in their situation. DeAnne loves the show and I like it, but there are times when the kids are all screaming that it can be slightly annoying. At least it doesn't last too long before they cut to commercial. We also like Little People, Big World. I know there's a lot of people freaked out by it, but we enjoy the show.

The last show that we've been watching is an old one that we found channel surfing one day. It's called Coupling and it comes on the BBC America. It's a British comedy and there was even a short lived American version that NBC ran right after Friends ended. The American version wasn't very good, but the British version is absolutely hilarious. We record every episode that's on and I don't think there's been one yet that we haven't nearly busted a gut laughing at. I know a lot of people don't like British humor, but this has got to be one of the funniest shows I've seen in a long time.

So there you have our TV viewing summary for the winter/spring 2008. Hopefully, new episodes of some of our other shows will start up soon now that the writer strike is over. I understand why they went on strike, but man it's frustrating that it had such a huge effect on so many shows we like. Maybe in the fall everything will get back to normal.

--Paul

Floaters - Or So I Thought

So for about 2 or 3 years now, I've had this spot kind in my right eye, kind of to the left of center and slightly down from center, that I can't see through. This spot has been attributed to being a "floater". A piece of eye junk that breaks loose and can move around. Nothing to be worried about, and not really bothersome, just there. I quickly adjusted to it being there and can see fine.

So it came time for me to go to the optometrist a few weeks ago. While there, they do a new test that on me that's kind of like taking a cat scan of your eye and it shows up a spot that's abnormal in my right eye. He then refers me to a specialist that comes to town a couple of times a month from Dothan. I went and saw this guy on Monday.

He did the same cat scan test and got the same results. Then he did a field of vision test. Basically, you stick your head in a dome and close one eye and stare a central point with the other eye. Then they flash these little lights all around your field of vision. When you see a flash, you press a button on a little clicker. When you're done, the machine prints out a little picture of your eye and where any blind spots you have are.

The test showed up the blind spot in my right eye exactly where it really is. It also showed up a spot in the very top corner of my left eye next to my nose. The doctor said I've probably never noticed it because it's so far on the edge of my vision and in a place that people don't look very often.

So what all this boiled down to is this. He said that he usually sees these kinds of things in older patients that have had strokes. Since I first noticed the blind spot before I had my surgery, he think that I may have had a very minor stroke and not even known it and the only sign that it left behind was a couple of blind spots in my eyes. The good news is that since it was prior to my surgery, it's very unlikely to happen again, now that I have a good valve and I'm on blood thinner, but he wants to get an M.R.I. on my head just to be safe and to get a baseline in case something does ever happen again.

Crazy, huh? 2 heart surgeries, 4 heart caths and one stroke all before turning 27.

Oh, and two posts in two days. How do you like them apples?

--Paul

Whoa

Over 2 months now without a post. I've been distracted by many things, well, mostly Rock Band. I apologize to those of you who are still out there. A better effort on my part is coming your way, I promise.

Not much has been going on, really. We've just been going along at the usual pace. We both had our annual checkups with our specialist and everything is looking good for both DeAnne and I. There's some concern about my thyroid possibly being overactive, so we're going in April to have that seen about. The number is borderline and I don't have any symptoms, so it's probably nothing, but they want to be sure.

Other than that, we've just been rockin' the house with Rock Band. I've also started playing one of the free games that came with the xbox. If you look on the right side of this page, you'll see my xbox profile. I have to admit, I've become slightly addicted to the achievement system and getting gamer points. It's like crack. After the first time that little message comes up you can't wait to see it again. Achievements were a stroke of genius on Microsoft's part.

Lost is back on and better than ever. Unfortunately, 24 suffered at the hands of the writer's strike and now we have to wait until January of 2009 for it to come back. I wasn't sure I could make it past February without it, but now that it's March, I think I'll be okay. Maybe. I'll let you know in a few months how I'm doing.

Music-wise, I have to say, 2008 has been a disappointment so far. I can't think of new album that has been a "gotta-have-it". Butch Walker has a live album out, but that's about it. At least the newest Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins albums are there to get us through.

I'm going to have to stop there. It's time to go get ready for work. Once again, I apologize for the drought and promise that I'll do my best to not let it happen again.

--Paul