magic.rox

After almost 2 years in our home, we have things on the walls.

We have, at my request, an art area.

We have family pictures abound.

And we have a nic-nac corner.

Now if we could finish the rest of the house and yard…

The midwest felt something very strange Friday morning, there was an earthquake.  I have heard so much about the quake of ‘87 or the quake of ‘02, but I didn’t feel or just don’t remember them.

I’m only writing this so my own personal account of what happened is out there.

It was about 5:30am and I had just woken up to use the restroom.  I had made it back to bed and just started getting comfortable.  That’s when the bed started shaking like it never had before.  Rachel thought I was going into a seizure, or our cats were fighting underneath the bed.  It’s intensity was about the same as my wife and I making love, not enough to scare, but strong.

I was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on by the time it stopped.  It lasted a total of about 30 seconds.  It’s been recorded as a 5.2 on the richter scale.

I tried to get some sleep afterwards but really couldn’t.  Rachel called her mom and started watching TV.  Her office view is directly looking at the Geology building, and all of the major Indianapolis TV stations showed up with their satellite trucks.  It was kind of funny because each stations’ truck was a different size small, medium and large.

I guess this is a 15 or 20 year event.  In the end, I’m glad I’m not anywhere near the San Andreas fault.

Rachel and I weren’t ourselves this weekend, we were productive!

Saturday, Taylor came over for a while and we had fun.  She was up with her mom, I think they’re trying to unpack their new home in Owensburg before they actually move up here.  As my big helper, she helped me with the yearly maintenance of my riding mower.  After Taylor left, dad and I loaded all of the concrete remnants I had removed from the ground into my truck.  I then took it off later that night.  I don’t think my truck has ever had that much weight in it, as it was lower in the rear than the front.

Sunday, Rachel and I re-arranged the garage.  It’s more organized now, and I must say easier to get things in and out of.  We got rid of a lot of trash we didn’t even realize we had, for that I took off another load of garbage.

While I finished painting our dining room area, Rachel worked on her final paper for her Master’s Degree.  There is still a little bit of touching up to do, but it looks fantastic!

Sorry about the picture quality, my lens needed cleaned!

We capped off the weekend by watching the last of the Star Wars Saga, Return of the Jedi.  I can’t believe how much of a Stars Wars freak my wife is.  I enjoy it, but she really gets into it!

Taylor has spring break this week.  She stayed last weekend with us, and is staying the evenings with us thru tonight.

Over the weekend we celebrated Easter with my wifes’ family bright and early on Saturday, and on Sunday with my family.  It was honest to goodness pure family fun.

We’ve missed Taylor tremendously, and hopefully sooner than later she’ll be up here permanently.  This weekend her mom and step-dad moved the majority of their belongings up here to their new home.  It’s about 30 minutes away, but that’s better than 4 hours.

We have been very busy, but having loads of fun.  Taylor got 2 new video games for the PS2 from aunties Brenda & Michele.  She got Petz Cats 2 and Madagascar.  The Cats game is more like a “beginner RPG game.”  I don’t like it much, but she does.  I do enjoy the Madagascar game though, as it is like the movie.  The best part is you get to “be” all the main characters, unlike most video games.  Taylor plays until it gets too hard, and then daddy takes over.

Taylors nighties were getting a little tight, so we got out my vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PJ’s.  I wore these in the late 80’s and they’re still rockin’ in 08!  It kind of reminds me of this picture.  Taylor’s only complaint?  “These feel like boys clothes!”  That’s cause they are!

I’m gonna miss her when she goes back to Tennessee, hopefully for the last time.

Today we delivered everything back to the Kelley School of Business MBA program.  I must say, I am quite astonished that I was able to complete this mega-transfer in a mere 14 days.

Total time spent on each tape was about 50 minutes on average.  Multiply that by 79 tapes, and that’s almost 66 hours of work.  I actually put my computer to “bed” so it could cool down, as it was working non stop.

Let me go over some of the interesting things about this particular job.

Tapes:  DVCAM and BetaCam SP.  Professional quality videotape, that is just the same as their commercial counterparts (Mini-DV and Betamax) just larger.

Equipment:  Professional grade comes at a professional price.  I had to rent one player, but it was much more economically feasible to actually purchase the other.  While the one I purchased isn’t a ferrari, it gets the job done.  Thanks to my wife Rachel for finding this new one for the same price as very used ones.

Technical Difficulties:  Originally they wanted all of the tapes to be transferred to DVDs, after some testing I found out this was not going to be possible.  So then we tried to see if I could upload them to IU’s MDSS (Massive Data Storage Service).  That was highly unlikely as my upload speed is 384k max, the estimated time to upload 1 was over 36 hours.  So we decided on an external hard drive.  I found this awesome one on newegg.  At 1 TB (Terabyte) it had plenty of space, it also has 3 different connection types, USB, Firewire A and Firewire B.  External isn’t really my thing, but this thing rocks!

Kristi and Ashly were blown away by the speed of this, and I hope that they are equally impressed by my professionalism and price.  Now that I am in the Indiana University network for independent contractors, it will be much easier for me to do other work for the university.  I just hope that my hard work will pay off and other professional work such as this will come my way.

Today, my wife is celebrating her last birthday.  According to her anyway.

There are many things I believe that she wanted to do before she turns a certain age, I think she feels dissapointed that she hasn’t done some of these things so far.

She has accomplished so many other things that she should be proud of though.  I’ll list a few here.

She:

Is a Homeowner
Is almost finished with her masters degree in Higher Education
Is married to the kindest, sweetest man in the world who loves her forever :)

Something she needs to remember is that some people don’t achieve these things in their entire life.

We’ve only just begun my dear, just remember that.

Progress on projects I have undertaken has come very slow.

Here is a list of things I am currently working or trying to work on:
1. Redesign my website.
2. Redesign all electronic menus for DVDs and packaging for my products.
3. Look for permanent position with ANY company.
4. House fixes and updates.
5. Work with Kelley School of Business on plan to strategically market my business services to other local businesses.
6. Always workin’ on ROX

I do have to say that I have made some progress on the house.  A couple of weeks ago I had a day off and started a surprise for my wife.  She doesn’t like it when I do things that she has no knowledge of.  I painted our hallway.

The color doesn’t come out well in these pictures, but it’s called “Grand Stand Tan.”  It dried a lot darker than we expected, but we still like it.  I was very surprised when I went to purchase the paint, it was on sale!  So after Rachel was surprised, we bought a few more gallons to have enough to finish our living room and entry.

I also must say that all the hard work I put into the hallway definitely paid off.  Our “red” wall has a lot of character due to the texture in the wall.  That texture is there because I didn’t work on it like I did the hallway.  Besides a paint streak here and there, it’s smooth as a baby’s butt.

I have slowed way down on the redesign of my website. All the content is there, I just haven’t found a good way to add PayPal buttons on a Joomla site yet.

The redesign of my menus and packaging are going good, too good to be exact!  I have been working with my logo and have a “translucent design” working right now.  My only problem right now is that it doesn’t look good at smaller sizes.

My work situation is a weird one.  Yes I have a job, and I’m thankful for that.  But I am not a full time employee with IU, I’m an hourly employee.  I do not get paid for holidays, or time off.  Also my position is mostly an “academic-year” position.  Meaning when schools out, I’m out.  I have been applying for positions that seem to suit me, only when they come around.  I’ve had a couple of interviews, but nothing has panned out thus far.  I was really excited about a position I interviewed for last week, but as each day passes I wonder.  I don’t think this economy helps either.  I know it’s sick, but it’s times like these that I really miss my job at Baxter.

I am trying to focus on direct business sales this year.  I think if I start a working relationship with other businesses in this area, it will help my business become more successful and profitable.  I’m no marketing major, so my wife has used some of her contacts in the Kelley School of Business (where she used to work).  I have been in contact with the deans’ wife.  She teaches marketing, and is trying to help.  The only problem is communication right now.  I work when she’s in her office, and I can’t really talk on the phone.  Right now I’m not even near a computer either.  I hope this pans out, with the right plan I could make LML Video Services something bigger this year.

I’m still transferring what I have of ROX onto DVDs for storage.  Some episodes will have to be, dare I say it, repaired.  They just have too much heat damage.  I’m waiting to finish a job for a aunt to get some money.  Once that is done, B will have about 50 odd DVD’s for homework.

Plus we discovered a clog in our sewer line.  Everytime our washer drans, water comes out from under our toilet in a hurry.  My ex-contractor neighbor Bill is going to help me try to fix this problem Saturday.  I got his Wi-Fi going, he’s returning the favor.  He has some specialty tools to help.  I hope we can get this clog gone.

I have finally got my hands on a basketball goal as well.  We have a “post” that appears to be designed to have a basketball goal on it.  I have wanted one for a long time.  The prices for a bracket to attach to the post and a goal add up to a cool $100.  I have been offered one on freecycle for free.  There’s only one kicker, I have to dig this one out.  That’s my plan for Sunday - pray for me.  The strange thing?  I have never been good or even really liked basketball.  I just want the goal!

That’s all I’ve got for right now.  I’d like to write more often, but it’s hard when you have things such as this on your hands day in and day out.

I received an interesting e-mail on Wednesday.  The e-mail, from a family researcher, has been doing a lot of reading on this and my wifes’ blogs.  The subject line read this:  Lawmaster Family History — The SECOND Strangest email You’ve Even Received

What his message was telling me, changes everything I have grown to learn about the origins of my family name.  Kinda scary!

My father has always told me that my family name, Lawmaster, derived from a swedish name, “La-meis-ta.”  He has always said that when the individual with that name immigrated to the US, he married a native american woman and it wasn’t socially acceptable at that time.  They decided to “americanize” the name to Lawmaster.

This guy has a completely different theory, and I must say it is more believable than the story my father has told me all these years.

From the documentation he has shown, and what he has said the name started in this country with Wendel Laumeister who was a 1750 immigrant to York, PA.  He was German (is that why I married a crazy Dubois county German?).  It was then changed to Lowmaster.

I am merely assuming here, but I think due to the ways of record keeping at the time, Lowmaster was easily changed by accident to Lawmaster.  Everyone writes differently, and have you ever wrote with a quill?  It’s not the easiest thing in the world.  Believe me, I know.

It is nice to connect with someone who has a broad sprectum of knowledge regarding family history issues.  I have given him names, and he’s came back with dates that I was unsure of.  Hopefully this will be a long lasting relationship.

One piece of information he gave just blew me away.  He said that a common ancestor of ours is recognized by the SAR and DAR as a Revolutionary War Patriot!  Whoa!  I don’t know of any family members being in a war besides my grandfather, who played a major role during World War II, in the pacific theatre.  He was a part of the crew who installed all of the passive radar systems in the fleet.  From what he told me back in 1996, he was on shore leave in Washington, DC when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.  That is also where he met my grandmother, she was working at the Pentagon.  He was immediately ordered to New York City to install systems on the Atlantic Fleet.

I am now trying to get correct and accurate data about my whole family.  This is not that easy because my uncle lives in Michigan, his kids are in Florida and Arizona.  I have 3 aunts in Oklahoma, 2 of them don’t speak to the other.  My grandfather died in 2000, taking many things with him.  He was a great man, and I miss him dearly.  My grandmother is a wealth of information though, but much time has passed and it is hard to remember things from 60 years ago.

I’m still waiting on some information from my aunts in Oklahoma.  I might call them today, but I don’t know if that would offend one of them due to religious beliefs.

One thing I truly need for lmlvideoservices.com is a new website.  Over the past couple of years I have used free templates I have found on the internet.  That has been a tremendous help as it hasn’t cost me anything for design and it enabled me to get my face out there.
I believe that is one thing that has gotten me where my business is at today, but times they are a changin’.

I need a professional website.  Not necessarily created by a professional, just one that looks professional.  I don’t have the skills for complex things such as PHP or JavaScript.  I admire to have something as nice as APM Studio, they are who I achieve to be someday.
If someone out there who wants to add something to their resume, or if you’re a student who needs to create a website for a school project.  Leave me a comment.  I’ll make it worth your wild.

The next change needed is marketing, or the current lack thereof.  My wife and I had talked about marketing my products and services to local photographers, funeral homes and various other small businesses.  I just haven’t done anything constructive with those conversations thus far.

I currently have some very good ideas.  Getting those ideas to a workable plan and seeing that plan to completion is a different story though.
The current idea is to send a letter with a personalized pamphlet to each business.  It would be your typical sales letter I guess.  In the letter it will state that I would like to make an appointment to meet with the owner or manager of each business.  After a couple of weeks I would call each place to try to set up said appointment.  I’m trying to make this personal and not some piece of “junk mail” like many businesses receive.

I am also undergoing an attempt to redesign my logo.  It’s been hard.  I removed my tattoo, as I think it looks clean and more professional.  Rachel tells me that it looks too plan and “blah!” however.  I do not want to change the conjoined LML, as this is something I actually “designed” in 4th grade.  It was to be my “celebrity” signature should I become famous, LML is my initials.

I’d like your opinions on the matter.  If you have any ideas or suggestions, I might use em. (with your okay of course)

After living in our home with an attached 2 car garage, we have finally parked a car in it.  Hopefully for good.  Last fall, I demo’ed our garage due to many reasons.  It just needed done.  With winter on us now at full force, we thought it would be good to park the car in the garage. 

Several things had to take place before this could happen though.  When I demo’ed the garage, I removed all of the light switches and wiring attached to our florescent lights.  Over the past year or so we have had to plug in any lights in the garage to see.  Around the time of the demo, I purchased a light and heat activated switch and a receiver and transmitter for garage door openers.  Our garage door openers are old, and do not have built-in wireless remotes like they do today.

I finally got around to installing them this weekend.

Here is the switch:

It’s quite interesting.  Right now it is on all of the factory settings so when no motion or heat is detected for 5 seconds the lights go out.  They went out right before I took this picture.  Pretty good for being completely in the dark!

To make this happen, we essentially shuffled some things around.  The other side of our garage is quite “dense” now.

But the end result?  A warmer car in the morning, that won’t have any frost, ice or snow on it.  Which means I can sleep a little bit later, cha-ching!

The little Kia seems to be right at home too.  I have to admit, Rachels’ car is cute, it’s just not right for me.

I think Mr. B will concur with me on the problems with tall men in little cars.

Rachel and I had 5 days off for Thanksgiving this year.  Eigenmann Hall, where we work, was essentially shut down.  We visited with many people and did many things with our time.

Wednesday:  Taylor came up to spend her time off with us.  It had been a while since we last saw her, and we sure missed her.  She brought along her 2nd grade pictures, which I think are the best she has had thus far.

Thursday:  A very busy Thanksgiving.  I must say, I’m very thankful for all the friends and family I have around.  We started the day early and headed to my memma’s house.  We didn’t stay long, just long enough for Taylor to see her memmas’.

We then headed over to Basswood, where we used to live, and where my dads’ family’s Thanksgiving has been held for a little over 10 years now.  This year was much different, there haven’t been as many children around since I was a child.  Overall there was a feeling of happiness, although there has been some much felt losses.  We ate a little bit, talked and spent some time mingling.

Then we rushed the 3 miles or so back to our home.  As this year we hosted the Lee family (my in-laws) Thanksgiving.  Not fifteen minutes after we got home, my mother and father in-law showed up.  This was destined to be a blast.

We had prepared the turkey last Friday night as it was originally planned to be last Saturday.  A certain football game in Atlanta changed who showed up and I think the atmosphere for all.

We followed directions on how to prepare this bird from both of our mothers’ and added a little thought of our own, and voilla!

Overall, I think this was a Thanksgiving to be truely be thankful for.

Friday:  Mom, Taylor, Rachel and I went to see the new Disney movie, “Enchanted.”  I must say this is one I have wanted to see.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up on this one.  We then spent the rest of the day with my memma, Taylor and her had loads of fun playing Connect Four.

Saturday:  Taylor and Rachel primered the hallway while I rehung our dining room chandiler and installed a new receptacle.  The girls seem to like to brush versus rolling paint.  We then ran some errands and went to the MCPL.  Taylor has been wanting to go for a while, but it’s hard to do when you’re 2 states away.  She found some interesting books about “Dumb Bunnies.”  So we all read and laughed.  After getting back home we got a special visit from my little sister.  She flew out last minute from Phoenix!  Sadly her BFF’s dad was killed in a wreck.  We capped off the night by watching E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  I hadn’t seen it since I was Taylor’s age.

Sunday:  After playing Uno Attack for what seemed like forever, Taylor left for Tennessee around 1:30.  Rachel and I seemed to act like teenagers for the rest of the day.  We paid for it once the sun fell though.

To get my wife’s perspective, check out http://raclee.blogspot.com

All in all, a very good five days.  Very good indeed.

Rachel and I have been busy the last week with lots of preparing for our first Thankgiving in our home.  Since we are young ones in our families, we generally go elsewhere to have this holiday feast.

Our first task was to finally start painting.  We have decided on 2 colors, with one color used for an accent wall.  Our colors?  “Bookmarker Red” and “Grand Stand Tan.”  The red color is a color from The Biltmore House.  If you’ve never been, I highly recommend a visit.

Painting was a royal pain.  I have painted for a living, and never in my life have I had to put so much work into two walls.  This red color required SIX COATS!

Here is 2 coats:

Here is 4 coats:

Here is 6 coats:

Our second task was to replace our old almost non working range.  We had picked one out, and was waiting for the right moment to buy.  I asked my family for Lowe’s gift cards for my birthday, so we put them to good use.

Our third task was to purchase a new dining room set.  Our aging dinette set was past it’s prime, and more suited for a college student than dare I say it, adult homeowners.  We went to Big-Lots to purchase the rest of a set of living room furniture and fell in love with this table.  Since we needed the table more than we needed the new couch and chair, we went for it.  I must say they have really got some good furniture.

Then, in my spare time today I installed new drapes and rods.  Our house is really starting to look more like a home.

We’ve decided to take a break until after Thanksgiving.  Then we will be painting the “Grand Stand Tan.”  After that we are painting all of our trim white!

As a special day in my life, today being my birthday, I have thought about some of the events that have occured in my life that have made me, well, me.

Here is a summation of my life thus far, all 27 years of it.

October 25th, 1980 - I was born at the Bloomington Hospital.  I have heard stories how I was trouble from the word go, as I was a breech baby.

Summer 1985 - I ran away from a daycare center and walked a couple of miles down 3rd street to The Crescent Doughnut Shop.  After having some doughnut holes and a sprite on the house, I was taken back to the center by Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputies.  My family was upset, but I got to ride in a police car.  The main thing I remember is what I was singing in my head on that hot day, “On the road again,” by Willie Nelson.  The Herald-Telephone, now called The Herald-Times had a story about the situation which mentioned new fangled tracking devices for kids at the time, it’s currently used for pets.

Summer 1986 - A hearing-impaired neighbor told my dad about me stealing a cigarette from his truck.  So I rode my bike all the way to my memma’s house, which was almost a 10 mile ride.  Not bad for a 5 year old.

Labor Day 1987 - My just divorced father marries Kathy Howe.  This starts a period of darkness for me.  I become a bully in school.  She physiclly and mentally abuses me, even wants to charge me rent to live in “her” home.  It all culminates in 1992 with an altercation with a rifle, she threatened to shoot me and I dared her.  Just as I was trying to remove the weapon from her hands my father showed up and held me down to calm down the situation.  I immediately moved in with my mother, who had been in Lubbock, Texas for several years.

October 1992 - I bring a BB gun to Templeton Elementary School with plans to at least hurt everyone in the 6th grade class, and the principal.  After making it on the grounds I chickened out and hid it in a bush.  The BB gun was found and I was expelled and put on probation.  I was passed on to 7th grade with only 2 months of 6th grade education.

1993 - 1995 - Those were very trying years for me.  I learned to appreciate many things we all take for granted.  Most of the time I didn’t know where I would sleep for the evening.  My mom’s husband was on the run from the law and I was abandoned in a trailer by Lake Monroe.  I did not have any electricty, running water or heat.  Sometimes I ate, sometimes I didn’t.  Once I got a hold of my father, things got better.

1996 - In the middle of the night I stole my mothers car (which was soon to by mine when I received my license), and her money, packed my clothes and took off.  My destination, Round Rock, Texas.  I was on-line, a new and expensive thing at that time.  I met a girl via a BBS named Metropolis.  She and I talked for hours upon hours, on the computer and on the phone.  Her username was “Swisser.”  Everyone had thought I drove to Valpo to see another girl, but that was just a ploy.  After driving 20 hours straight due to an error on my part, I ended up at my aunt Beth’s house in Westville, Oklahoma.  She immediately called my dad.  They decided that I stay with my grandfather until something could be worked out.  I spent a week with him, and I will always cherish that time I had with him.  I was the only grandchild he really knew.  He passed away in 2000.

November 1996 - I have a seizure while bagging groceries at the westside Kroger.  Later that month after a battery of tests, I’m diagnosed with epilepsy.  I don’t realize for years what responsibilities this condition carries.

October 1997 - I drop out of high school for good.  After being bounced around the 3 high schools in the county, I was lost.  The same day I dropped out, I took the General Education Diploma test.  After nervously waiting, I passed and received my GED.  I only went to high school 1 and a half years.

November 1997 - One month after purchasing a 1992 Dodge Daytona, I totalled it and shut down Highway 37 for 4 hours by running it into a propane tank at an estimated speed of 60mph.  I was unconscious almost from the time I left my home in Ellettsville to after the collision.  Fortunately I was unharmed.  This collision makes me reconsider driving with my condition.  It also shoots my insurance rates to over $1000 every 6 months.  It is now affordable, only 10 years later.

August 26, 1999 - I become a father!  Weighing in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces, Taylor Marie Nicole Lawmaster is born.  Two years later, her mother and I split up.  As an afterthought, my daughters’ own name was a sign.  We couldn’t agree on a middle name, so she has 2.  Her mother wanted Marie, and I wanted Nicole.

2001 - Life is coming more into focus.  I start a job I have been applying to for 3 years, Baxter.  I thought I would work their until I retired but was canned after 5 years.  I also meet someone very special, Rachel Christine Lee.  I didn’t know or even think at that moment, but she would soon enough be my wife.  We also met on-line.

2002 - Rachel and I move in together on Valentine’s day.  We start with nothing, not even a bed.  Eventually our apartment is overflowing with the love we have for each other and furnishings.

2004 - After years of almost no control of my seizures, I have a VNS (Vagal Nerve Stimulator) implanted.  It eventually works better than any medication I have ever taken at controlling seizures.  I also get married at the First Baptist Church in Bedford, Indiana.  The same church where my parents were married in 1981.

2006 - Rachel and I become homeowners.  It’s an ongoing adventure that I can’t get enough of.  Three months later I become unemployed, which scares the bejesus out of us.  This starts a period of unknown for the both of us, when will it end?  I really don’t know.

2007 - I started a new job at IU, which might open some doors for me.

Here’s my history, what’s yours?

I just learned that 2 more homes will be for sale in Sunrise Estates.

As you can see from this illustration.  It seems a disproportionate amount of homes are for sale here, and I can’t get my fingers on it.

The home across the street from me must have just been sold, as it is no longer on homefinder.org and all of the signs were removed today.

Sadly, my next door neighbor Gary will be moving to West Virginia soon.  So his house is immediately for sale.  Rachel and I will miss Gary and his wife dearly, as they have been good neighbors to us.  They have also been our first “real” neighbors since becoming homeowners.  Gary got a new job with Xerox.  It is a good location for them though, as they have sons living in Ohio and Maryland.  That will put them in the middle.  He starts within the next 2 weeks.  I offered to do whatever I can to help them in this transition.  We will miss you two!

The home 2 houses down from me really makes me wonder.  We share only one thing, and that is our neighbor Bill.  He’s a character, very particular about property lines and I’m about to the point of shooting his dog.  They recently spent a lot of time (and money I’m sure) building a brick mailbox enclosure.  There are many on our drive, it seems to be a popular accessory if you will.

So what’s next?  This instability is starting to make me wonder if buying here was a good idea.

Why don’t you put an offer on a house here Kelly?  You have 4 to choose from

Over the past year, I’ve forgotten how much mental energy an office job takes.  My stamina has long gone away.  Most of this week, I have been exhausted by this new job.  I’m not complaining, just explaining.

We have been “address cleaning,” as it’s called.  To put it in layman’s terms, we are sent database tables which have names, addresses, citys, states and zipcodes.  Sometimes they have more information, such as a student ID numbers or e-mail addresses.

The purpose of address cleaning is to format the addresses to the USPS standard, which can be very interesting if you haven’t had to do that before.  Did you know that there is a way to shorten almost every street name, IE drive, road, lane, etc.?

The tiring part is these tables, some were as small as 300 entries, but others were as large as 6800!  When we thought we were done, they were checked, and the remaining errors were shown to us.  Nothing bad, just constructive criticism.

Thursday night after work we went and picked up Taylor in Louisville, Ky.  My mom helped us out and took a half day off of work and drove to Clarksville, TN to pick her up.  They then drove back to Louisville where we met at her house.  We then had to drive back home so I could make it back to work in the morning.  We left as soon as we left work, and got back home around 11ish.

Lets just say I was of no use to anyone on Friday, and luckily my new job is very flexible and I was able to work only 6 hours.

So today I am doing some home remodeling and it goes much smoother with my lil helper!  I’m re-installing our stair hand rails to a much more comfortable position, with new hardware.  And I’m patching the rest of the holes in the drywall.  We also picked out our paint colors, which hopefully will be done before Thanksgiving.

Yesterday we spent a wonderful evening with my brother and sister in-law.  She works at the IRT (Indianapolis Repertory Theatre). One of her benefits is free tickets to each show.  Last night it was Our Town.  I have to say it was quite moving.  The play revolves around life and death in a little town named Grover’s Corners.  The cast was great, I really enjoyed the performance by the “Stage Manager.”  If you haven’t seen the show professionally done, please do so.  It’s one of the best shows I think I’ve seen.

We then capped the evening off with dinner and drinkx at the Oaken Barrel.  A nice microbrew pub/restaraunt.  It makes me think of Btown’s own Upland in a way.

Rachel and her sister got to do a lot of talking, as sisters often do.  I believe a lot of issues on their minds were finally resolved. 

We haven’t had a night out with them in around 2 years.  I hope we can do it more often.

Today I accepted a position with IU!

It’s with the Center for Survey Research as a Production Staff member.  My job duties will be as follows.

Survey packet assembly
Opening/Sorting/Batching returned mail and surveys
Formatting addresses in databases
Scanning surveys
Correcting scanned surveys
Occasional data entry
Other office tasks

I am excited about this position for several reasons.  First and foremost, it’s in Eigenmann Hall - where my wife works, just on a different floor.  Second, it’s an office position which I have desired for a long time.

I have to go back tomorrow to fill out paperwork, ect.  I was told that I will be starting within the next couple of weeks.

The job is very flexible, as I get to set my own hours.  There is only one downside though, as it is mainly an academic year position, meaning the position is out when the kids are.  It’s something I’m willing to live with, only if the boss is.

This weekend is a big weekend for my wife.  We will be going to her 10 year high school reunion.  Rachel (my wife) comes from a very small town, in a very rural area of southern Indiana.  They don’t even have a flashing light!  I do love where she’s from though, as everyone knows, germans know how to have a good time!

I’ll always love her though, no matter how much she looks like our rabbit Gil!

I feel quite a bit jealous of this event.  I took the “easy” road and got my GED when I was 17.  So I will never have a reunion to go to.  As I’ve gotten older, these things have hit me quite hard.

Some people think persons with GED’s are the people who aren’t intelligent, and just didn’t want to go to school.  It isn’t always true.  My reason you ask?  I was shuffled between 3 high schools in just under 2 years.  I was between a rock and a hard place, either graduate when I was 20, or get a GED at 17.  Which would you choose?

My plan was to go back to school no matter what if I didn’t get the GED.  I went to Ivy Tech, on numerous occasions.  I seem to always find a way to leave.  I have a certificate from Indiana University for Managing in the Life Sciences Industry.  I just don’t learn well in a structured environment.

My wife has many accolades that makes me wonder why she loves me so.  She is currently 2 classes away from achieving a Masters degree from IU in Higher Education.  I guess opposites really do attract?

So I may be jealous, but at least I’m in love.

Bloomington has it’s own “pedia.”  It’s basically a clone of wilkipedia, but everything is related to my hometown.

There are many interesting articles about what Bloomington is and what this town used to be.

My wife is constantly trying to find ways to promote my business, which I appreciate greatly.  She added it, and I did a little revising.

Then I looked up ROX, and came up with nothing.  Always being grateful for all the nice things the guys have done for me, I made an article on it about ROX. 

I only hope that people who watched the show in it’s hayday will append to what I’ve started.

This town has a vast, rich history and I think this is a perfect way to try to remember those things that don’t make the history books. 

Check it out:  http://www.bloomingpedia.org

Even though I am now unemployed, Rachel and I have been planning a Labor Day trip for quite some time.  At first it was going to be New Orleans to see B & XY, now it is Niagara Falls.  Since I lost my job, we have changed our plans a bit.  The most exciting thing for me will be the drive home, as we will be driving home through Canada, or what I love to call Cananada!

We leave dark and early at 4am.

Someday soon, I will make it to New Orleans.  It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go, and what makes it better is knowing someone from there.