Happy Valentine's Day to My Ladybug and the Kids

Happy Valentine's Day!!! To the Woman I Love More Than Anyone Else on Earth! (I hope you get to feeling better.) -- She has been sick.

Also Happy Valentine's to my son and my daughter as well. I love you guys too!

Updated on Feb. 18 -- My wife was sick on Valentine's Day so we didn't get to celebrate like we wanted. I did buy her a Starbucks mug with some hot chocolate and a little box of candy, so that was ok, but I still felt bad we didn't get to do anything special. This past Saturday (Feb. 16) my Parents took me out for my birthday a few days early. (my birthday is on Feb. 26th) They gave me a $140 for my birthday! (Apparently my Dad had a little luck at the Casinos in Shreveport, LA a few days earlier and he decided to share the wealth.) I plan to use this money not just for myself, but instead I plan to taking my wife to a Bed & Breakfast during our Spring Break. It is a little late for Valentine's Day but I hope we enjoy the time together just the same. I will let you know where we stayed and all about our trip later.

Abbott & Costello Meet Technology

This parody of Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First?" routine was e-mailed to me today...
I thought it was worth passing on.

You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old toREALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on.. If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their famous sketch, "Who's on First?" might have turned out something like this:

COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on 'START'.............

Finally the Voters are Showing Their Power!

Six Little Indians still running for Prez.
The Power of Math eliminates two,
That leaves 4 wanna-be chiefs,
Who will you choose?

Democratic candidate Mike Gravel refuses to give up his bid for the Democratic nomination, despite not having won a single delegate. Mathmatically there is no possible way for him to win the nomination, so I'm cutting him from my list of little Indians.

Ron Paul on the other hand, is still carrying on his campaign for the Republican nomination. He has won delegates in several states, but alas Math is also against Rep. Paul. Even Ron Paul seems to have recognized the facts and has recently announced that he is cutting back spending on his Presidential bid to focus on his re-election campaign for the House of Representatives in Texas. Therefore; I am also cutting him from my list of little Indians.

The remaining little Indians are making this election year one of the most exciting times for nominating a President that I have ever seen.

Just in case you live in hole and do not know who the remaining 4 Indians are:
For the Democrats, there are former First Lady and current New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, and current Illinois Senator, Barack Obama. For the Republicans, there are current Arizona Senator, John McCain, and former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee.

I strongly encourage anyone who has not yet voted (Especially my fellow bloggers who live in Indiana) to read up on these guys, and gal, and make an educated vote. At least for the Democrats, your vote will still be very important. It may be a little late for the Republicans, but as I type, I hear the news behind me telling me that Virginia's Republican Primary is still to close to call between McCain and Huckabee.

I am really liking this election year. The voters for both parties are finally feeling the power of their votes for the first time in years. It would really be a shame for the "Super-Delegates" to ruin that feeling if they are the ones who decide who wins the Democratic nomination.

I hope you are enjoying my Tale of the Little Indians...and Vote, Vote, Vote!!

Are You A Dummy? (A Lesson Learned From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

By now I am sure everyone has seen the latest version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory staring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. My family and I watch this movie again on television last night and something in the movie just hit me very hard. It made me do a lot of thinking.

The premise of the show, is that Willy Wonka has hidden 5 Golden Tickets among his millions of Wonka Bars around the world. 5 "Lucky" children who find these tickets get prizes, including one prize "beyond their wildest dreams." The first four children who find these tickets are not the best examples of children (or parents for that matter) as far as their character is concerned. The last ticket is found by a young boy named Charlie Bucket.

This young man has character beyond his years. After he finds the ticket he is torn between selling the ticket to people who have offered him money or keeping the ticket and visting the Chocolate Factory of Mr. Wonka. "Our family needs the money for than chocolate," he explains to his family. At this point one of his grandfathers calls Charlie over to his bedside. This grandfather gives Charlie some very wise and sound advice.

He says, "There's plenty of money out there, they print more every day. But this ticket; there are only 5 of them in the whole world. That's all there is ever going to be. Only a dummy would give that up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?"

God offers us something much more valuable than a Golden Ticket. He offers us Salvation. The Bible tells us there is only ONE way to reach the Father. This is found only through Jesus Christ. The Bible also tells us there is ONE God, Body, ONE Faith, ONE Spirit, ONE true word of God and we have only ONE Soul. Many of us sell this precious and rare gift for worldly things every day. We trade in our eternal life for such common things as money, fame or other things. We must be "Dummies."

Willy Wonka has 5 Golden Tickets, GOD offers us a ONE time gift of LOVE and GRACE, He offered up his ONE Son, JESUS, in order to offer this gift to us. We really would be fools to trade in a chance at eternal life with our FATHER, for something as common as what Satan offers in return.

Surving Without the Wii

Way to go DAD! About one week ago I was playing with the family's Nintendo Wii. I was playing an old N64 game called Pokemon Snap, where you take pictures of Pokemon. My son had spent $10.00 of his own money to download it for me as an early birthday present. While playing the game, I accidently pulled the Wii off of its perch. It fell almost 2 feet to our hardwood floor below. I thought for sure I had broken the entire thing. When we plugged it back in, all seemed to work just fine...UNTIL...my son tried to eject the previous game he was playing from the system. He pressed the eject button and nothing happened. He pressed it again and nothing happened. Apparently the system works just fine, except for the eject button which was broken in the fall.

We called the Nintendo Wii support line, and we were told, "Unless we wanted to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the rest of our lives, we would have to send the game to them to get repaired." So this afternoon, we packaged up our Wii and sent it back to the Nintendo Co. of America to get repaired. This means my children and I have to wait about 15 days for the game to get there, get fixed and then returned to us.

I'm not worried about me, but I'm a little worried about my kids though. My son has already started shaking and crying (Just kidding!) Really he is just fine. I know they will miss the game but it the Wii will return to us soon. At least they have a Game Cube and a Nintendo DS to play with in the meantime. They are also getting in more bicycle riding too.

I just feel bad, considering I always seem to get on to them for playing the game to much, and I was the one who broke it. Way to go DAD!

Remembering 2007

I know it's a little late to be looking back, but I just got bored and decided to go back and review my first 7 months of blogging! I started in June of 2007, so I am going back and posting a link to one blog each from June-December of 2007. Don't know why, I'm just doing it.

From June 2007 -- Shouting All The More --my early blogs were more spiritual in nature and this one just stood out.

From July 2007 -- Second Chance Cards --a neat idea took on a whole new meaning for me.

From August 2007 -- Feeling Small and a Little Scared --one of my first posts to get a comment from someone other than my wife. Thanks Tech Daddy!

From September 2007 -- An Incredible Weekend --this really was the best weekend I've had in a LONG time!

From October 2007 -- 100 Things About Me: My 100th Blog! (really it was my 104th post, but who cares?) --well, this one is just full of random stuff about me, the title kinda explains itself!

From November 2007 -- How to Turn a Dime Into 100 Dollars --A must read!!

From December 2007 -- Dying to One's Self Is Not Easy --it is amazing what stands out in books you read.

Here a couple of honorable mentions -- Tears of the Singer and I Hate This Stuff, but I Want More.

See Ya Next Post!