Gig 'em, Ethan!

Ethan practicing his yells for the Aggie/Baylor game in a week and a half.

Pirate Jack-O-Lanterns

Here is my contribution to the world of Jack-O-Lanterns this year...

With the flash:


Without the flash:

Fixing Rock Band: Part 1

Let it be known: I have a tendency to break things. Maybe I don't know my own strength; maybe it's my own form of "survival of the fittest"; or maybe I'm just a klutz (I prefer the first). Whatever the reason, I noticed a couple months ago that a crack had developed on the kick pedal for my drum set for Rock Band.



The engineer in me immediately started to think about how to fix it. The first step was to diagnose what went wrong. After operating the pedal with my hand a few times, I noticed that the pedal flexed when it was pushed down all the way. The was a rubber stop at the end of the pedal to absorb some of the shock, but when I used the pedal, my foot applied the force in the middle, and that's where it cracked.



I thought about using a metal plate to reinforce this area, but I don't have sheets of metal sitting around, and I don't really have to tools to work with it. I do, however, have some extra wood and the proper tools to work with it. I found a piece of 3/8" thick poplar that was just the right size and went about making a repair piece. The plastic pedal had a lattice of plastic ribs on the backside, which was perfect for hiding some washers and nuts so that they wouldn't interfere with the operation of the pedal.

Here is the final repair piece:


And here it is installed:




At first, I thought about painting it black to blend in, but then I thought "why not stain it and make it look really nice?" I think it looks pretty slick, and it is MUCH stronger than the regular pedal. I'm going to be able to stomp on this thing without giving it a second thought. I can't say the same for the drum pads.

Right after I fixed the kick pedal, I noticed that the far left drum pad sounded a little funny. It turns out that it was severely cracked. Here's the damage:



I decided to try and reinforce the cracks by super-gluing a piece of plastic across the crack, but where to find some pieces of plastic...



Yup, that's the Rock Band case that I melted a couple months ago. I thought I would fix the drum pad with a little irony. Here is the result:



The repair worked pretty well for for a couple days, but the glue gave out tonight. I looked for some replacement drum pads online, but after shipping, a replacement pad costs about half as much as just buying a whole new drum set. I think I might just buy the new drum set, and salvage the good pads off of my existing set and save for future repairs.

Silencing the Screaming Faucet

I decided to play hooky from work today after a busy weekend with the family (and because I just didn't really feel like going). After relaxing for most of the morning and doing a little laundry, I decided to make myself useful.

I've had a problem (well, two or three) with my kitchen faucet since the day I moved in almost 3 years ago. When you lift the lever to turn on the water, occasionally it will scream like a banshee. I found techniques to deal with this, like turning the water off and then back on or repositioning the neck until the sound stopped. Also, when you moved the lever all the way down in the middle to shut off the water, the water would still run. To stop the water, you would have to move the lever to one side or the other until the water stayed off. Another problem that I tried to fix before was that the hand-held sprayer didn't work. For this one, I tried replacing the sprayer, and that didn't fix anything.

I got inspired to do something about my faucet after watching an episode of Ask This Old House where Rich Trethewey fixed a leaky kitchen faucet, and it looked easy enough. After shutting off the water, I took the faucet apart to see what parts I needed. I had picked up a set of O-rings a year or two ago for miscellaneous repairs, and I had hoped that this would be enough to fix the job. Unfortunately, I needed some more specialized parts. A quick trip to Home Depot and $8.23 later, I had what I needed. The faucet was simple enough to put back together, so in no time I had a fully functional faucet. It doesn't scream (at least not yet), the water actually stops when you put the lever all the way down (so I won't have to explain the eccentricities of my faucet to unknowing guests), and the hand-held sprayer works for the first time in who-knows-how-many years.

So here I am enjoying a movie on TV while listening to the rain outside with a great sense of accomplishment of a job well done. Maybe if I'm feeling really adventurous later, I'll try doing some cleaning or fixing something else around here.

Well I Feel Like An Idiot... Again

It's been over a year, but I feel like an idiot again.

I got home last night (Sunday) from a weekend trip to see my friends Kyle and Shari get married in Nashville. Our travel day started at 7:30am, and we arrived in Waco at 10:15pm. Maybe that's what impaired my judgment. As I walked in the front door, I was followed quickly by a dragonfly. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but dragonflies are really loud. I tried to shoo the thing back out the door, but that dragonfly just wouldn't cooperate. I warned him that if he didn't comply, I would have to take drastic measures. When he refused to follow direction, I grabbed my my fly-swatter that doubles as a sandal. This bug must have studied under Hezbollah because he kept flying around things that I didn't want to sacrifice in order to take him out (like my TV, one of my grandmother's paintings, my wall sconce, etc.). He eventually flew into the frosted glass cone of the wall sconce, and I got the idea to lay siege to him until he submitted. I cut off his only escape route by grabbing a DVD case and placed it on top of the sconce.



I quickly turned off the light because I didn't want to melt the DVD and potentially cause a fire.

Today, I got home from work and decided to watch some TV. I totally forgot about the DVD case on top of the light, so I flipped the switch to illuminate the room and enjoyed about 2 hours of TV without a problem.

Then I started to smell something. It smelled like burning plastic, but I didn't know where it was coming from. Then I saw it... the DVD case on the rather warm light fixture. I removed the case to see what was amiss. To my horror, this is what I saw:



Then, I noticed what the case held. Oh, no! Not.... Rock Band!?! Arguably my favorite game on my Xbox 360. I opened the case, hoping to find that the disc was unharmed, and...



...ruined. Totally ruined. And now I'm out $60 because I can't go without my Rock Band. I am such an idiot. It's just too bad that this moment of stupidity is so much more expensive than my last one. [Sigh/groan!]

New York Trip Review - Day 1

Surprise! Surprise! Kevin has finally decided to update his blog. With that out of the way, on with the show...

This whole thing started a few months back when my parents asked me where I wanted to go for a vacation this summer. It took me a while to think of a place, but I finally suggested New York City for a couple reasons:
1) I had never been there.
2) Going up north would be a nice break from the Texas heat.
3) It's the last year that the Yankees with be playing in "The House that Ruth Built" before moving to their new stadium.
Unfortunately, the whole family vacation thing fell through, but I still wanted to go, and so did my little brother. So, for the first time, I went on a vacation with just Keith and myself.

We flew into La Guardia Airport in New York City on Friday, July 18. I caught a plane from Waco to Houston, and then Keith and I got on the same flight from Houston to New York. Much to my surprise, we didn't have any problems at all getting to New York. Our flight arrived on schedule at 4:30, which gave us plenty of time to get to the hotel and take care of some other stuff before it got too late. Not too sure about how to get from La Guardia to the hotel on mass transit, we decided to splurge and pay for a taxi, which was well worth it. Our cab driver (no, we didn't get on Cash Cab) took us from the airport to the front door of the Eastgate Tower Suite Hotel in less than 30 minutes, and we didn't have to think twice about how to get there (that and we found out later that there isn't an easy way to get from La Guardia to Manhattan on the subway). It was a great way to start a vacation.



The hotel room (which I found on Hotels.com when they had a 30% off deal going on) was surprisingly nice and very spacious for a hotel in Manhattan.



We also had a pretty nice view from our room on the 12th floor.



After settling into our room, we went over to Grand Central Station to scope it out and buy our subway passes. The Grand Central was the closest subway station to our hotel (3 blocks up and 3 blocks over). Since we got there in the middle of Friday evening rush hour, the place was really busy with people trying to catch their trains out of town.



Since we were both pretty hungry, we decided to check out the dining concourse at the station. After walking the circuit, we settle on Junior's. I had a deli turkey sandwich that was a couple inches thick, and Keith had a burger. Since Junior's is famous for their cheesecake, we ordered ourselves a piece for dessert. Mmm, strawberry shortcake cheesecake...



While walking back to the hotel after dinner, we were looking at all of the skyscrapers around us, and noticed that we were walking by the Chrysler Building.



This became a familiar sight as we walked from the hotel to Grand Central Station and back everyday. After arriving back at the hotel, we decided to just hang out in the room for the rest of the evening to recuperate from our long day of traveling and to rest up for all we had planned on Saturday.

Making Waves

A couple of weeks ago, I got asked to help make the set for our children's musical at church. Last year, I made some very cool donkeys (they were painted saw-horses with a head attached). Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to dedicate to it this year, so the directors asked if I could just make some waves for the sailing-themed play this year. They just wanted something simple to put in front of the boat prop (that stretches across the entire stage) to make it look like it's on the high seas.

I started the project last Friday with a trip to Home Depot. It had been suggested that I use some of this foam sheet normally used for insulating or sound-proofing. I picked up a 4x8 sheet of the stuff, in the 3/4 inch variety. It was a typical windy Waco afternoon, and I had a small adventure carrying the sheet to my truck. I started with the sheet at my side, and the first gust of wind after stepping outside almost bent the sheet of foam around my body. The geek in me perked up, and I figured that I could reduce the effect of the wind if I carried it horizontally on my head. This worked pretty well as long as I kept it perfectly level, since a slight change in the angle of the sheet turned it into a sail.

With this adventure of just getting it to my truck, I was suddenly struck with the thought "how am I going to keep this from flying away on the way home?". Here's the solution I came up with:

Nothing a few bricks and truck ties can't keep down.

It was suggested that I use a utility knife to cut out the shape of the saves, but I knew that the blade is too wide to make the curves, and an X-acto knife wouldn't be long enough. A while back, I had bought a set of blades for my jig saw, and one of the blades that it came with that I thought was silly was a straight blade without any saw teeth.

That blade cut through the foam sheet like a soldering iron through butter. It made a very clean cut without generating any foam dust (the equivalent of saw dust, only foam instead of wood), which was the thing I was looking forward to the least about working with this material.

After a base coat of a deep blue and some touches of a lighter blue, here was the final result:


To make the wave crests in the foreground, I cut the wave pattern onto a sheet of cardboard, and used it like a stencil in conjunction with some spray paint.


I gave the waves a little backbone by cutting some plywood strips and gluing them to the back with some construction adhesive. That also provided a good substrate to glue some brackets that I made out of cardboard (yes, I had a surplus of cardboard).


And here's how they looked on-stage:

An Aggie at Dia Del Oso

Dia Del Oso (also written Diadeloso) is a day of celebration of Baylor. It's like a big on-campus carnival, and everyone gets the day off from school (it's on a Thursday every year). As part of this thing, the Baylor Swing Dance Society of which I am a part (in spite of not actually being a student at Baylor) was asked to perform. After several weeks of preparation, here is our show:



The dance is broken up into four demonstration sections: East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Dance Circle, and Shim Sham. I danced in the last three segments. During the second song, I'm part of the couple on the near, right of the screen (stage left). In the dance circle, I'm in the first couple to go (where I throw my dance partner). For the last song, I'm at the far right (stage left).

I hope you enjoy the show as much as I'm glad it's over. :-)

Landscapers Challenge

This is what I've been looking at on the back and side of my garage for the last two and a half years whenever I go outside:

Back:


Side:


After about 8 hours of work on Saturday, here is what I had:

Back:


Side:


Close-up of the vine in the back:


Once I figure out what the different plants are, I'll post up some pictures of them.

To Make Much Of...

I kept thinking of that phrase "to make much of" yesterday. I knew I had heard it somewhere before, so I did a google search, and it's from the chorus of a Steven Curtis Chapman song:

I wanna make much of you, Jesus
I wanna make much of Your Love
I wanna live today
To give You the praise
That You alone are so worthy of
I wanna make much of Your mercy
I wanna make much of Your Cross
I give You my life
Take it and let it be used
To make much of You
- Steven Curtis Chapman "Much Of You"

During the same search, I came across this article talking about how viewing love as making much of someone is flawed. While I kind of agree with some of his points, I think that a way that we can love and show appreciation for each other is by making much of one another.

I bring this up because I felt "made much of" yesterday. I turned the ripe old age of 27 years old yesterday, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't decided to take the day off (it's not like I had anything else planned). In my family growing up, everyone was specialy on their birthday. We had a red plate that greeted you at breakfast with "You are special today" written on it. My dad would cook whatever you wanted for breakfast, and then my mom would cook whatever you wanted for dinner. For dessert, you would get your favorite cake (or giant cookie), and after everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and you blew out your candles, you got to open your gifts. As my birthday approached this year, I was a little sad knowing that I wouldn't have any of that. I didn't have any of that last year for my birthday, but I was so busy with a project at work that was on a ridiculously fast schedule that I barely noticed my birthday passing by. Excluding last year, this was the first year since I moved out on my own that I wasn't going to be at home for my birthday. I took off on Friday April 9, 2004 (my first birthdy in Waco) to head home for my birthday, and it was on a weekend for the next two years.

So, I show up at work at 8:00 (I took an extra half-hour to enjoy the morning) to begin the agony of working on my birthday. As I log into my computer, I see an email from the Director of Engineering wishing me a happy birthday (it turns out to be a form e-mail that he sends out to everyone but with their names changes, but it was a nice gesture). As the morning passes, more birthday wishes start to trickle in either by email or in person. At lunch, my office mate brought in some homemade chocolate chip cookies to share (he also sent out an email to everyone on our floor announcing the arrival of the cookies and that it was my birthday), so thus began another stream of birthday wishes and the slow disappearance of the cookies. During the day I got an email from a group of engineers, that I worked with last year, with a couple of scanned coupons attached for dentures and a motorized scooter (I replied back that they would go great with my coupons for reading glasses and hearing aids). I also periodically checked up on Facebook to see my friends sending their birthday wishes. By the end of the work day, I was pleasantly satisfied with all of the attention that I was given by my friends and coworkers.

Wednesdays are my long day of the week because after spending 9 hours at work, I then go straight to church to help out with children's choir and teach RA's. I was kind of dreading going to church yesterday because my 1st and 2nd grade boys can be a handful, to put it nicely (or just irritating to put it bluntly). Last week when I told my RA's that my birthday was this week, one of them asked excitedly "are you going to bring cupcakes?!?". At first I brushed off this suggestion because it was MY birthday, and why would I bring cupcakes for MY birthday? I had been working on a lesson to teach, but I decided Tuesday that I would just take it easy for the evening. I picked up some of these individual microwavable Betty Crocker chocolate cakes as an activity for us (the kids did all of the mixing and microwaving on their own, with adult supervision of course). I took the kids to use the microwave in two groups, and as I came back with the second group, the first group had turned out the lights in the classroom, and as I walked into the room, they jumped out and yelled "surprise!". It was so great! While we enjoyed our snacks, we watched "A Snoodle's Tale", which is one of my favorite VeggieTales videos. The kids surprised me again when they sat through the 15-minute segment without hardly saying a word. The only words uttered was an insightful observation about the video. I didn't know what to do with myself. Just when I thought that I had gotten stuck with 6 little terrors, they go and impress me like that.

I finally got home at about 8:00 and was welcomed on my computer with an e-card from my friends in my Sunday school class and a few more birthday wishes on Facebook. After a little while, my parents and little brother called to wish me a happy birthday (my big brother called me while I was at church). Looking back I think it's funny how growing up, my family was the first to wish me a happy birthday, but this year they were the last. But it's still good because it was a great way to end the day.

Nothing makes you feel more loved and appreciated than to be made much of.

Update: The Red Ring of Death

For my birthday yesterday, Microsoft gave me a working Xbox. Isn't that nice? They didn't replace my malfunctioning Xbox, but it looks like they fixed what was wrong with my old one. I guess we'll find out tonight if it's fully functioning when my Rock Band tour continues tonight.

The Red Ring of Death

It started to show itself Thursday night during our weekly Rock Band world tour. I had gone off to swing dancing for the evening, but the remaining guys kept playing. They tell me that they were just about to earn a tour jet for our band when my Xbox 360 froze. Assuming that it was just overheated, they shut if off and called it an evening. I fired up my Xbox this morning wanting to work on my drumming skills, when I saw this:



That's right, the dreaded Red Ring of Death!!! I got online to see what I could do. Going to the Xbox website, I entered the serial number to register it (I thought I had done this a year ago when I bought it, but oh well). After registering, I clicked on the "check warranty status", and much to my horror, it said that it was out of warranty as of March 21, 2008... Today is March 29, 2008... I missed it by 8 days?!? Oh, good grief.

Just then I remembered reading that Microsoft had added a 2 or 3 year warranty coving specifically the Red Ring of Death (just not in those words). Determined to get my machine working again, I called the helpline, and it sounds like it won't cost me a dime to get it fixed. They're sending me a box with pre-paid postage to mail it back in, and I should have it back in 2-3 weeks. I'm secretly hoping that they won't be able to fix it, and they'll just decide to me a new one, hopefully one with an HDMI connection on the back (since I bought mine about a month before that option was available). Either way, it looks like I'll have to get one of my band mates to bring his Xbox over so that we can continue our tour.

First I Was Homesick. Now I'm Home, Sick.

I got back from my 25-day stint in Maine this past Thursday, and then Friday I started feeling poorly. For the first couple of days I just thought that it was the usual "returning to Waco crud" with my allergies hitting me hard, but then I started running a low-grade fever on Saturday, and I didn't think that a fever was normally associated with allergies (I never get sick and I deny having allergies, so I don't really know what normally comes along with them). I still went to church on Sunday and then to work Monday morning because I had things that I had to get done, but I left work at lunchtime on Monday because I was just feeling crappy. By about 5:00 on Monday, my fever had spiked to about 102 (I know I'm hot, but that's just ridiculous). I've always had the mindset that I don't really NEED to go to the doctor for a fever unless it gets over 101, so this meant that I was going to the doctor (and missing another day of work).

I woke up Tuesday with a normal temperature that soon returned back to the "low-grade" range of 99-100 degrees. I guess the kid that's still in me wants to run a fever so that I have evidence as to why I should skip work (even though I don't need a reason to skip work), but after a few days of being quarantined from the rest of the world, I wanted to get better. So, I made a doctor's appointment, and found out that I have "flu-like symptoms", in the words of my doctor. He also said that there was nothing we could do to fight the illness; all we could do was fight the symptoms. And I was also potentially contagious until my fever disappeared. Dangit. So, I'm skipping work again on Wednesday to rest up and try to get better so that I can hopefully return to my normal life at home. If I'm able to go to work on Thursday and Friday, then I would have worked a total of two days in my first week back from a 3.5 week business trip, filled with 60-hour work weeks. I guess being sick isn't all bad.

Me in ME: Day 24 and 25

Wednesday was a nice, uneventful day. I got to sleep in until 9:00, and then spent the morning packing. I had lunch with my coworkers at a local sea food place where I had my first whole lobster. It was quite an experience. When the waitress brought out the "bug" (as Alton Brown refers to it), I kind of stared at it for a few seconds wondering "okay.... now what?". So I asked the waitress what to do with it. She suggested tearing off the tail and starting with that. So I grabbed the thing with both hands and savagely tore the tail off.

Now that I had dismembered the beast, I stared at it for a few seconds wondering "okay.... now what?". One of my coworkers had to tell me that I needed to take the shell off to get at the tail meat; a task easier said than done for an inexperienced eater. After a little work I had managed to separate a few pieces from its suit of plate armor and was finally able to dig into the legendary meat. A quick dip and a swish in some clarified butter, and it was time to eat. It was good, but not quite the awe-inspiring experience that I was expecting.

I finished off the tail in a few bites, and then I stared at the rest of the body for a few seconds wondering "okay.... now what?". Just then I remembered what I had seen on Good Eats. I took a hold of one of the claws (I could tell it was a left-handed lobster) and gave it a twist to separate it from what was left of the body. With a claw in one hand, I grabbed the nut-cracker they provided (I had only ever seen it used to crack nuts) and went to work breaking through some more armor. A few sickening crunches later I had liberated some more meat from the red fortress. It looked to me as if the bug had recently molted because the claw wasn't very full of meat. Another dip and a swish, and it was on to the other claw. Crunch, pull, dip, swish, yum.

Again remembering my schooling from Good Eats, I started working on the legs, but not in the sucking manner I've heard about (only "heard" because I've never actually witnessed someone first-hand consume a lobster). I grabbed one leg and started squeezing from one end like a nearly-empty tube of toothpaste. A tiny amount of meat oozed out, and it was time for another dip, swish, yum. After another seven repetitions of "squeeze, dip, swish, yum", I stared at the rest of the body for a few seconds wondering "okay.... now what?". I asked one of my coworkers "do I dig into the body", and they suggested not, so I called it done. It's a good thing I had a salad as an appetizer because for a 1 3/4 pound lobster, it wasn't very filling. And not really worth the $34 (cleverly hidden as "market price"), but I didn't worry too much about it since it was on the company credit card. Looking back I think it took me about as long to eat that lobster as it probably took you to read about me eating it.

After an uneventful afternoon at work (didn't go in until 4:00), I had a celebratory dinner with all of the guys from my company that were on the trip, and then I went to bed because I had a early morning ahead of me. With a flight at 6:00 and 30 minute drive to get to the airport and a recommended buffer of 90-120 minutes, I figured that we needed to leave at 3:30am. We got to the airport at 4:15 (after I got about 4 hours of sleep), and took care of the checking-in and getting our tickets. Since I was the only one of the three of us traveling together that had spent any time in Portland, I then left to turn in the rental car. Since Enterprise is not at the airport and they don't open until 7:00, I had to drop off the car at the Comfort Inn next to Enterprise (they have a deal for early drop-offs). To get back to the airport I caught the shuttle that Comfort Inn runs, the only problem is that they run it at 4:15, 5:15, and 6:15. The 4:15 shuttle was too early, the 6:15 shuttle was too late, so I guess the 5:15 should be just right.

The shuttle actually ran a little early, so I got back to the airport at 5:15. When I walked up to the security line, it looked like every carrier at the Portland airport had a 6:00 flight. The line stretched down a walkway leading away from the metal detectors before it double-backed on itself. Since you can't do anything but wait in a situation like this, I got in line and started thinking about how I was probably going to miss my flight. Sure enough, when I was a couple of people away from getting to show my ticket and ID to a worker, I heard the final call for my flight. At this point there were a couple of teenage or college boys who were in the same situation as me, but they were trying to talk the same worker into letting them cut in line so that they wouldn't miss their flight. Irony of ironies, their inquiry actually slowed down the line, and I just hoped that their stupidity wouldn't make me miss mine, too.

I got to the metal detectors as I heard the one-minute warning for my flight come over the loud speaker. With my departure gate literally in sight, I quickly kicked off my shoes, emptied my pockets, took off my belt (just to be safe), and loaded my carry-on bags into trays to be scanned. I walked through the metal detectors without a problem; my bags weren't as lucky. As my shoes and pocket-contents emerges from the little square portal, the X-ray operator said "I'm going to need you to separate out your electronics".

Problem. I had snuggly packed away my Xbox by wrapping it in a sweatshirt for protection, and I also had my dad's portable DVD player and camera packed in one bag and my company laptop packed in my other bag. Fortunately I didn't have to go back and unpack it, since the operator did this for me. As the contents from my two bags came out in six of those trays, I frantically stuffed everything back into my bags as I desperately tried to make my flight. Fortunately, I was in line in front of a guy whose wife had already made it through the line and had managed to hold the flight so that we could get on.

I had made my flight! After a one hour flight to Newark, a three hour layover, a four hour flight to Houston (with a one hour time change), a two hour layover, and another one hour flight, I was back in Waco. I walked off the plane to the sublime 70-degree and clear weather, which just about melted me in pleasure after I had endured 20-degree and snowy weather getting into the Portland airport.

I was home!

Me in ME: Day 22 and 23

After a successful day at work on Monday and tying up some loose ends today, it looks like I'll finally getting back to Texas on Thursday. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! (can you tell I'm excited to get back?) I can't believe that by the time I get home on Thursday, I would have been gone for three and a half weeks. The time has really flown by. I've learned a funny thing about long trips like this: you really lose track of what day it is. Without my normal weeknight routine and working long hours, the days tend to run together. Tonight when I was eating dinner with a couple of my coworkers, one of them asked what day it was and the other answered "Wednesday?" and for a moment I thought it was Wednesday, too. I look forward to seeing and being around my family and friends that care about me, because that's what I've been missing the most over the last 3 weeks, and it brings me great comfort to know that I'll be in my own bed in my own house in less than 48 hours.

Me in ME: Day 19, 20, and 21

The end is near... again... hopefully.

After a successful Friday and Saturday (not to mention some long hours), it looks like we should finish our work on Monday. I actually maxed out my 60 hours for the week by lunch on Friday, and I worked until about 7:00. It's a good thing that our pay week starts over on Saturday, so I was able to get paid for the time I worked on Saturday. After taking today off, we'll be back at work for what will hopefully be our last day of work on this trip. Unfortunately, we can't begin our work on the plane until 1:00 because of some maintenance being done to it, but we only have a handful of things left to do. Of course, that all depends on some much-awaited parts arriving Monday morning.

Actually getting out of Maine may prove difficult. Ideally, I'd like to fly out on Wednesday so that we can use Tuesday as a buffer day should anything go wrong on Monday. The only problem is that we're supposed to get another nasty storm come through mid-day Tuesday and should last until early Wednesday. Tuesday may be pushing it to be ready to go, since we'll probably be working late into Monday night, and our travel planner has a tendancy to schedule 6:00am flights. If we can't get out Tuesday morning, we may not be able to leave until Thursday.

Today also marked my third and finaly Sunday at The Rock Church. I have really enjoyed visiting that church. If any of my readers are ever in downeast Maine, you should stop by. They are some very friendly and loving people. I had lunch afterward with the same group from last week at the same place, plus another 4 people from the church. It's probably a good thing that it's my last Sunday or else Panera might see a group of 16 people show up from the church since the group doubled from last week to this week.

Well, that catches you up on what I've been up to since the world seemed to fall apart on Thursday. I'm doing much better now, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what's left of the warm Texas February.

Me in ME: 17 and 18

What a difference a day makes.

At this time yesterday, I was resting soundly in the thought that I only had one more day of work (maybe a day and a half), and then I'd be heading back to Waco on Saturday. Everything went smoothly at work yesterday, as they did this morning. The two mechanics doing all of the metal work were making some of the final connections when they found a problem. They gave me the call at 4:00 while I was picking up the guy from the airport who was supposed to test the new system. One of the cables was interfering with a piece of immovable equipment by about a half inch. You'd think that this would be easy to fix, except that there's no way to move the equipment and the cable is attached to a connect that goes through a hole in the skin, and unless you're Bugs Bunny, holes are impossible to move. But that's just what we need to do. We need to move a hole that is 1.5 inches in diameter backward by an inch. After about 4 hours of work this evening, I think I've sketched up a solution to illustrate what may work. I guess I'll find out in the morning.

I went through such a wave of emotions today. This morning I was happy and optimistic about being finished with my first field mod trip. During lunch I almost gave up on driving as I ran a red light that I didn't see and almost got hit by a rather large pickup truck being driven by a rather angry guy. Of course, my coworkers were there to tease and critique, especially after my fender bender on Monday. I was looking forward to picking up our tester from the airport so that I could get some solitude. On the way to Portland, I called our rental car company to find out what I had to do about the fender bender, and they suggested stopping by. It was while I was giving the agent there my information and getting calls from the tester wonder where I was that I got the call that ruined my week. The frustration of my design being off by an inch combined with more teasing when I got back to the base that finally broke me. I'm usually pretty good about letting adversity roll off my back, but this one stuck. Maybe this was a call for brokenness and humility from God. As I was approaching the breaking point (especially after going to Subway craving a meatball sub only to find out that they ran out of meatballs), I called my mom and talked it out. Now I'm at a point where it feel (and hope) that today's nightmare was only a dream, and I'll get to work tomorrow just to find out that everything's okay.

But I know in my head that it's not. So all I can do now is ask for God to give me patience over the next few days, and try to get a good night's sleep.

Me in ME: Day 15 and 16

A quick quiz to begin this post: What is slicker than ice?
Answer: Wet ice.

After the cold and icy weather over the two weeks that I've been in Maine, we were met Sunday night with a rain storm. The rain didn't melt the ice; it only made it slicker. I share this fact of physics because I had a minor fender bender in the parking lot at work due to these slick conditions. I was trying to park our rental car (with one of my coworkers in the car with me), when I tried to brake too quickly while I was turning. I wasn't going too fast, but I was going fast enough to break overcome the tiny static friction between my tire and the ice. So, as I'm trying to break and turn, the rear end of the Envoy swung around and struck the rear fender of a stationary Impala. This now marks two fender benders in my driving portfolio: both involving me and unoccupied parked cars. Wanting to do the right thing, I wrote a note explaining what happened and my contact number, and I put it in a plastic bag because it was still raining. After two days, the car hasn't moved, the note hasn't been read, and I haven't heard a word from the owner. I've asked around and noone seems to know who the owner is. I'm hoping they show up by the end of the week because I'm skipping town on Saturday.

Which brings me to my next announcement: we're finishing early!!! The preliminary plan is to fly home to Texas on Saturday. One hiccup with the travel plans is that there doesn't seem to be a flight from DFW to Waco that I'll be able to catch. So, it looks like my two coworkers and I will be driving a rental car back to Waco. I guess this won't be too bad since it's only about a 90 minute drive. However I get from the Metroplex to Waco, I should be playing some drums on Rock Band in 96 hours.

A note of irony: I spent about an hour Monday night working on another chapter of my online defensive driving course. And wouldn't you know it... the topic was driving in hazardous conditions, especially icy conditions.

Me in ME: Day 12, 13, and 14

Swing dancing twice in one weekend? Yup. I went down to Portland on Friday night for a swing dance at the same place I went to last Friday night, only this time it was ACTUAL swing dancing (I've decided that West Coast Swing is not swing dancing). The crowd was younger and better dancers that the week before. I even found a few girls that would Lindy Hop (which is SOOOO much fun). While at this dance, I found out about a swing dance on Saturday night here in Brunswick that was organized by some students at Bowdoin College. As with most swing dances, they had a lesson from 8:00 to 9:00, and then open dancing from 9:00 to midnight. I went to the lesson eventhough I already know how to dance, but you never know what they'll teach. I'm glad I went because I actually learned a few steps that I didn't know. I think that I may be getting old because on Friday and Saturday I was worn out by 11:00. All in all, I had a good time on Friday and Saturday night.

Today, I went down to Portland for church at The Rock Church, and I got to hear Pastor Eric preach (Pastor Aric preached last week). They are doing a sermon series called The Resurrection (since we are in the season of Lint after all) and if/how the resurrection is effecting our lives. It turns out that the sermon from last week won't be posted because the sound guy forgot to push the record button (oops!). After church, Pastor Aric invited me to have lunch with him and his wife and another couple in the church, and we went to eat at Panera Bread (I seem to always crave the Smokehouse Turkey Panini). We sat around and ate and talked and laughed for about an hour and a half, and it really helped to refresh my soul. I still eat with my co-workers everyday for lunch, but I just don't connect with them like I do with other christians. It's amazing how you don't really appreciate fellowship until you're deprived of it.

Speaking of eating, I can't wait to get back to Waco and have the option to eat dinner after 6:00 or 7:00. Tonight, I didn't get the urge to eat dinner until about 7:30, and there was nothing open except for the fast food joints. So, I made a run to Walmart to pick up some groceries for the week, and then picked up some Wendy's. Last night I tried to find a place to eat before going dancing at 8:00, so I thought I would try out the local German-American food restaurant. I went there by myself and got sat at the bar (which I'm okay with), but I got ZERO service. After the hostess told me that she didn't have a table and asked if the bar was okay, she kind of walked me in that direction but didn't walk me over there. About 10 minutes later, she comes over and asks if she can get me anything, and I say a little indignantly "some water and a menu". She comes back after a few minutes with my water and menu, and that was the last time she paid any attention to me. She walked back and forth at the bar attending other people, and never stops to ask me if I'm ready to order. After sitting there for 20 minutes without being acknowledged, I left a dollar for the water and left (all I had in my wallet was a $1 bill and a few $20 bills, and I wasn't about to leave a 20). That was probably the worst service I have ever had at a restaurant. [sigh] I feel better now.

After lunch in Portland, I stopped of at Freeport which is about 10 miles south of Brunswick and home of L.L. Bean. I wanted to have a more thurough look at the L.L. Bean "village" and do some other shopping. The Freeport Village (don't know if it's different from the Freeport downtown) is like a small town New England interpretation of an outlet mall. One of the funny things that I saw at the L.L. Bean store (and I got a picture of it) was the little cafe in their store called the Dew Drop Inn Cafe. If you're in my immediate family, you should know why that's funny. If you don't know why that's funny, ask and I'll explain it. I think I got souvenirs for everyone in my family, so I don't have to worry about cramming that into my last few days in Maine (especially since I don't know how hectic they'll be).

That was pretty much my weekend (a little out of order, but what are you going to do), and I'm finding myself getting a little homesick and ready to get back. I miss my family and friends and my home (and weather that's above freezing). I'm being told that we should be done with our work by the end of the week, so I could be heading back to Waco next weekend. I hope all y'all have a great week, and I look forward to seeing you all again.

Me in ME: Day 11

I have the best family. Today I received a care package from my parents and little brother. They sent me a couple of cards, some Special K treats (made with Special K cereal, crunchy peanut butter, and corn syrup), a VeggieTales coloring book, Winnie the Pooh crayons, a Pez despenser with Mater from the movie Cars on top, a 3D brain teaser puzzle, a Sudoku book, a bug launcher (that launches little plastic bugs), and a plane launcher with some little foam plane. They aren't extravagant gifts, but nice little reminders of love, and they arrived appropriately today. This message goes out to them: thank you for the gifts, and I love y'all.

On to my daily recap, my old friends Ice and Gravity tried to tag-team me again today. The snow and rain yesterday combined with the sub-freezing temperatures last night created a lot of ice for today. I almost fell just walking to the parking lot here at the hotel, but it was closer to a semi-controlled kneel. At work, the parking lot could have been mistakened for a skating rink as it was pretty much one solid sheet of ice. But the sun shined brightly and unobscured today, which turned the skating rink into a small lake. Oddly enough, the parking lot had been plowed, except for the first two rows of cars, and the storm drains were located under the second row of cars. Unable to get plowed, the drains remained clogged with the slush from yesterday, preventing the lake that had formed today from draining.

After a long 12-hour work day from 6:00am to 6:00pm, I spent the evening having some leftover pizza from last night, playing with my new toys, and watching a little TV (and writing the blog entry, of course). Today I think I decided what I'm going to do with some of the extra money that I'm earning from all of this overtime that I'm working. After having a company laptop for the last 11 day, I've discovered some of the benefits and conveniences of an ultra-portable computer, but it would be nice to have one that didn't have all of the security restraints that a computer for a government contractor carries with it. Not wanting to get anything too fancy, too large, or too high-powered, I've found a nice 14.1" laptop on Best Buy's website that a little larger than a sheet of paper and an inch and a half thick and costs less than $500. I just hope that it's still on sale when I get back to Waco.

On a random note: the guys I'm working with like to listen to rock music when they're driving to and from work. Having heard some of them in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I'm getting a little itchy to play the drums some more on Rock Band.

Me in ME: Day 9 and 10

It's hard coming up with stuff to write when I'm doing little more than going to work for most of the day. Yesterday, I worked from 6:00am to 6:00pm. I was hoping that we would finish up earlier so that I could make it down to Portland for the men's movie night at The Rock Church. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 6:30, and the movie night started at 6:30. I went through a momentary battle in my mind: do I go to Portland and show up 30 minutes late and leave by 9:00 or hang out in my hotel room for the evening. One thing that I had going against me was that there was a severe winter storm predicted to hit our part of Maine last night, but the exact hour was unknown. Since the weather was still clear, I decided to go for it. I pulled up to the church at 7:10, just in time to catch the beginning of the movie: The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie was very entertaining, and the food was really good, too. One of the guys had made some buffalo wings and someone else brought some homemade whoopie pies. After the movie, I hung out for a little while and chatted with the guys. Pastor Eric was there (who I didn't meet on Sunday) as well as Pastor Aric (who I met on Sunday). As with most introductions, the conversations I had were centered mostly around the "where are you from and what do you do" topics.

This kind of reminded me of an episode of Yes Dear that had seen a week or two ago where the main character Greg and his brother-in-law Jimmy had been going to a "daddy's group" at a local church which ended up just being some hanging out time with other dads. Greg's wife Kim (played by the same actress that played the eldest daughter in Uncle Buck) asks him if they're having some good, in-depth conversations, and he lies and says that they're really opening up and sharing their feelings. The next scene shows the guys settling down to watch a boxing match, and then the match ends in the first round. Surprised and a bit dumb-founded, the guys discuss what to do next. None of them want to go home, so Greg suggests that they share their feelings. He talks about how sometimes he lays awake at night afraid of what would happen to his family if something happened to him. This opened the floodgates and the other guys started to share and really open up to each other about their thoughts and fears. Then Jimmy, who had been getting some more snacks during this, walks in and exclaims "what's going on here?!?". Embarassed, the guys say they need to get home, and agree that they shouldn't have another "daddy's group" for a while. Unfortunately, that's how a lot of male bonding occurs. First, we're so hesitant to open up to each other for fear of appearing weak and vulnerable. And then when the defenses are finally breached, we almost become embarassed and want to distance ourselves again. It will be interesting to see if my conversations and relationships with these guys gets any deeper over the next couple weeks that I see them, as well as if this revelation will change my relationships with other guys back home.

And now to go shallow again: the work day today got off to a slow start because the base didn't open until 9:00 due to the bad weather last night. We got about 8-9 inches of snow dumped on us before the sun rose today, and then the snow turned to sleet by day break, and then to a steady drizzle of rain by mid morning that last all day. It created a really nasty cold slush everywhere that is then supposed to freeze tonight. This slush and impending freeze let our supervising officer at the base to send us home at 5:00, after only 8 hours at work (yes, "only"). I'm half anticipating another late start tomorrow.

After a full evening yesterday, I spent tonight not doing much. I played some video games, ordered a pizza, and watched some TV. And now I need to get to bed so that I can get up at 5:00 in the morning so that I'll be ready to be at work at 6:00 if the weather allows. Good night all!

Me in ME: Day 8

Two words best describe today: freakin' cold. According to wunderground.com, we had a high today of 17 and a low of 10. This just may be the coldest weather I have ever endured. In addition to the cold, we also had some pretty severe winds that would make the Big Bad Wolf jealous. The snow that fell yesterday got blown all over the place and drove needles into any exposed skin. Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up all the way to 22 degrees.

The guys I'm working with decided to get as much work done today as possible, so we were at the base at 6:00 this morning. Normally I have a hard time getting to work by 7:30, but 6:00 in a time zone on hour ahead really did a number on my body. I was yawning almost continuously, and I almost drifted off to dreamland a couple times. Needless to say, I'm going to be trying to go to sleep early tonight since they're wanting to do the same thing tomorrow. I called it quits at 4:30 after working 10 hours, but they worked all the way until 6:30. These guys must be gluttons for punishment. Or maybe they just want to get home quicker.

Unfortunately, this intense work schedule looks like it'll keep me from going to the men's movie night at The Rock Church. I was really hoping to go and get to know some of the men there, but when you're on a business trip, work should probably get first dibs on my time.

And now I must bid you all a good night since I'll be getting up at 5:00 in the morning (that's 4:00 for you in Central time).

Me in ME: Day 5, 6, and 7

Tonight concludes my first weekend in Maine, and what a weekend it was. Friday was the closest thing I've had to a full day's work so far on this trip. The weather cooperated, and we got a lot done at work. The parts we've been waiting on have arrived, so we don't have that holding us up.

Friday evening I headed down to the big city of Portland (remember, Waco is bigger than Portland) for a swing dance that I had found out about online.
http://www.downeastdance.net/calendar.htm#two
It was advertised as a west coast swing dance, and since I've never danced west coast swing, I thought it would be fun to learn something new. West coast swing seemed to me like a combination of the lindy hop and latin/salsa danced to mostly hip-hop sounding music. The step count was similar to lindy, but you move your hips like salsa. The lesson was fun, and I picked up on it pretty quickly, but I didn't really care for the music. We learned five different moves over the course of an hour, rotating partners every couple of minutes. The size and make-up of the crowd surprised me. There were maybe 20 people there, and mostly older (middle age and up). There was one girl there that was in college and another that looked like she was around 30. Needless to say, I felt a little out of place. I danced for about an hour, and then decided to head back up I-295 since I had a early morning at work on Saturday. On the plus side, I found out about another swing dance next Friday at the same place (east coast swing this time around) and a lindy hop workshop on March 1st in Brunswick if I'm still in town.

On Saturday we only worked a half day because we reached a point where we needed the parts that were in the mail, and they arrived later in the day on Saturday. I spent the afternoon walking around on Maine Street where I stopped for some lunch at a deli and then grabbed some coffee at The Little Dog Coffee Shop (one of the 3 or 4 coffee shops on Maine Street). While at the deli, I was reading about this thing that Brunswick is having called Longfellow Days. Apparently, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an 1825 graduate from the local Bowdoin College (pronounced boh-din). After a little time back in the hotel room, I headed back downtown for some dinner. I enjoyed a meatball sub with homemade meatballs at The Big Top Deli.
http://www.bigtopdeli.com/
It was very good, and I'll be going back soon to try out their pizza, since that's what everyone else was eating when I was there. After dinner I went to the Gelato Fiasco (mentioned in a previous post) for some of their drinking chocolate, which is similar to hot chocolate, only much richer. While enjoying my drinking chocolate and reading a local paper, the front end of what was supposed to be a severe snow storm arrived. Fortunately, I was able to make it back to the hotel before it got too bad (as I had walked there from the hotel). After talking with my little brother on the phone, I stretched out on the bed to watch a little TV, and then it was 8:00 Sunday morning. I had passed out and slept for about 10 hours. It was really nice, except that I still had my contacts in (drat!).

Because of the predicted snow storm, the church that I was wanting to go to (The Rock Church of Portland) had postponed their service until 12:30pm. This turned out to be unnecessary, since the storm wasn't quite as heavy as predicted. I used this extra time to sleep in, and I stopped off for some Denny's on the way, and I still ended up getting there about 30 minutes early. This gave me some time to chat with some of the people at the church before the service started. The church was a bit smaller than I had anticipated. It turns out that they only have about a hundred members, but I really enjoyed the service and the company of the people I met. The associate pastor (Aric) preached today while the senior pastor (Eric) was out. You should be able to hear the sermon at the following link within a few days if you're interested:
http://portland.rockmaine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=7&id=22&Itemid=72
I also got invited to a men's movie night at the church on Tuesday, which I'll try to go to if my work schedule and weather allows. The church seems to be mostly young couples with kids with a few older couples, but after the past week, it was just nice to be around some of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

The snow finally decided to start falling at the end of the church service, which made the drive back interesting. There was one point on the way back where I couldn't see anything past the far side of the oncoming lanes of traffic on a divided highway (2 lanes going each way). I made it back without incident, but the weather continued to get worse. In addition to the snow, the wind really picked up with sustained winds topping out at 28 mph and gusts up to 38 mph (according to wunderground.com). The wind and cold knocked out power to some places in Brunswick, which I overheard from some people while eating dinner at Friendly's.
http://www.friendlys.com/
They were saying how they were eating out for dinner because it's kinda hard to cook dinner when the electricity goes out (there were 2 families there for that reason).

Thus concludes my first weekend and first week in Brunswick, ME. I hope all is well with you wherever you happen to be.

Me in ME: Day 5

No recap today due to swing dancing tonight. Day 6 will cover Day 5 as well.

Me in ME: Day 4

It snowed again last night to the tune of 6 to 8 inches. Because of the snow, personnel not essential to base operation were encouraged to wait until 10:00 to come in, so that they could have time to plow up all of the fresh snow. Even waiting that long, the roads were a little dicey. So, I made use of the extra couple hours to lay around and enjoy the morning before going to work. Maybe tomorrow we'll finally be able to get in a full day of work without the weather interrupting

Business picked up noticably today. All of the parts we were waiting on arrived, and a few problems started to show up. I also learned the importance of modeling existing structure as accurately as possible. One of the problems that showed up was caused by a few seemingly minor features being skipped in the name of ease. It was frustrating because I should have picked up on it during the design phase, but I just flat-out overlooked it. Fortunately, the fix is simple enough that it shouldn't hold up progress too much.

I learned something interesting today. A bunch of people around here stand up their windshield wiper blades when they leave their cars for more than a few hours. At first I thought it was because they didn't want the snow building up on them, preventing them from operating after a heavy snowfall. But it turns out that they do this to keep the wiper blades from freezing to the windshield. Interesting. And now I'm doing the same thing with the rental car.

That's pretty much it for today. As my hours of work start to occupy more and more of my days, I'll probably have less to write about. Here's to a snow-free night and the hope of a full day of work tomorrow (I can't believe I'm actually saying that).

Me in ME: Day 3

I have gained a new understanding of the idiom "swearing like a sailor". The work that I'm doing here in Brunswick involves working on a Navy plane, thus I'm around a bunch of sailors. I hadn't really noticed it until today (partly because I was only at work for a couple of hours yesterday due to weather), but they cuss ALL THE TIME. And it's not even angry swearing. I'm beginning to wonder if they have an unspoken competition to see how many times the can squeeze the F-bomb into their normal conversations. Also typical of the sailor stereotype, there is rampant womanizing going on. I don't think I've looked forward to church so much before; it's just too bad that Sunday is still 4 days away.

On the working front, we almost got a full day of work in today. Once again, the weather cut our day a little short. It wasn't snowing when I woke up this morning, but it did start raining shortly after we got to work. Then after about an hour, the rain changed into snow, and it snowed pretty hard for the next two hours. And then it changed back to rain for about 30 minutes. Gratefully, the office that I'm working in has a window that looks out across the parking lot and a wooded area across a field, so I got to enjoy the soothing snow/rain while waiting for files to open and/or save. There was talk during lunch about the base shutting down because of the bad road conditions created by the weather in the morning, and most of the sailors left for lunch and didn't return. We decided to try and get some work done after lunch, but our supervising Senior Chief requested that we leave before 4:00 so he could pick up his kids who had gotten off early from school. Since I still had a little work that I could do, I got back to the hotel and worked for another hour or two from my room (the joys of having a laptop).

And just like yesterday, I crashed after work and didn't wake up until about 7:30. Not wanting to veg out and play video games for a second night in a row, I decided to check out downtown Brunswick. Oddly enough, the downtown is centered on a road called Maine Street. Being a punny person, I appreciate the joke, but I still kind of shook my head when I saw the spelling. Once again, I was reminded about the work schedule of these New England towns. I was hard-pressed to find a restaurant that was still open, so I settled for a place called Joshua's Restaurant & Tavern.
http://joshuastavern.com/
They advertise themselves as having some of the best lobster, so I thought I would give the crawly crustacean a try. Wanting to ease into eating lobster (since I've never had it before), I ordered the lobster roll which was pretty much a toasted slice of bread with a leaf of lettuce and some lobster tossed in mayonaise, and it was served with a side of fries. I was surprised at how little I for the $18 price tag (it actually only said "list price" in the menu), but it was on the company credit card, so I didn't feel too bad.

After dinner, I decided to go for a chilly stroll around downtown, walking the circuit around Maine Street. I found a few other restaurants that were still open, so I might try those out later on. I also discovered a place call The Gilato Fiasco.
http://gelatofiasco.com/
They're actually open until 11:00pm!!! They serve gelato, coffee, and assorted baked goods in a hip, artsy environment. I think I may have found a place to go when I want to get out of the hotel. I got some coffee, but decided to try the gelato on another trip. It's definitely a far cry from the bars that the guys I'm working like to hang out at. I don't necessarily have a problem with drinking, but when two married guys talk about wanting to find a bar "with some hot a**", it just doesn't appeal to me (they justified it by saying that they were "just looking" and thus it was okay).

As I said yesterday, I'm really looking forward to doing some swing dancing on Friday. I've been emailing with the contact person for the event Friday in Portland, and it sounds like the dance is mostly West Coast Swing. I don't know how to dance West Coast Swing, but they have an hour lesson before the dance starts. It'll be fun to learn another style. It'll also be interesting to see how different the "big city" is compared to Brunswick (Portland is the largest city in Maine at a whopping population of 63,882).

Good night all. Again, I cherish your greetings and comments. It gives me great comfort to know that people are interested in my Maine adventure.

Me in ME: Day 2

Today I awoke to the silent sound of falling snow, and it continued to snow all morning. At about noon, the weather forecast called for the snow to stop, and then the rain and sleet was to start. Since we none of the parts that we're installing had made it to Maine yet, we decided to bug out at about noon. You may be asking yourself "Noon? I thought you were working evenings." Well...

Before I left Waco, I was told that we would be working evenings/nights, but I found out yesterday that we'll be working days, at least for the first week. I was both happy and sad about this. I was kind of looking forward to sleeping in and not having to be at work until the afternoon, but on the bright side, I'll be able to do some swing dancing.
http://www.downeastdance.net/calendar.htm#two

So anyway, we got off at noon, and after my round with Ice and Gravity last night and then getting my socks wet walking around in my Sketchers, I decided that it was time to get some boots. When I was at Walmart last night, I tried on some of their boots, but none of them were very comfortable (I should have guessed since the most expensive were $40). Fortunately, L.L. Bean has its corporate office and "Retail Village" in the nearby town of Freeport. After about a 15 minute drive, I found another New England town to get lost in. Parking lots are weird around here: lots of one-way drives with the exits nowhere near the entrances. L.L. Bean's "Retail Village" was an interesting sight to see. They had something like 4 or 6 stores spread out over a couple of blocks. There was the main store (which looked like a huge 2-story log cabin), the outlet store, a hunting and camping store, a skiing store, and probably a couple more that I didn't see. I first went to the outlet store to see what kind of deals I could find. I saw some good-looking shoes, but none larger than a size 8 (I wear between a size 11 and 12, depending on the shoe). So, I went over to the main store to find some climate-appropriate footwear. I must say, their customer service was awesome. After staring blankly at the wall of shoes for a few seconds, an elderly man asked if I needed help. I found a shoe that I liked and asked if he had it in an 11 or 12, and he said "probably not for that one; we're clearing out our winter boots to make room for our spring clothing lines". Great! After a couple more attempts, I found a boot that they had in my size.
http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?page=gore-tex-day-hikers&categoryId=42040&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&parentCategory=503034&cat4=502767&shop_method=pp&feat=503034-tn
They were a little more expensive than the "boots" at Walmart, but I'm pretty sure that they're a little better. On my way out of the store after buying my boots, I stopped off at a bench to change shoes. While I was working on one of my feet, I overheard a guy telling his wife "he's not wasting any time putting on his new shoes" to which I said "that's why I bought them". With my feet now nicely dry and warm, I headed back to the outlet store to see if I could find any good deals. I found a 3-in-1 one jacket that normally costs $89.00 and bought it for $34.30. That's a pretty sweet deal. I didn't do too much more looking since I figured that I'll be back sometime between now and the end of the month. I'll try to get some pictures on the next trip, but right now it looks like I won't be able to post any on the blog.

I got back to the hotel at about 2:30 and decided to do a little work since I had my laptop. I got about 3 more hours of work in (I hadn't even gotten to the hotel yesterday and I'd already gotten a call about changes to the installation), and then stretched out on the bed to watch TV. I ended up taking a nap until about 7:30. Feeling a little hungry, I munched a little on my spoils from my conquest of Wally World and settled down to play some Xbox. Unfortunately, I can't get the thing to connect to the internet using the wireless network. Sorry Brad, Keith, Kevin, and Will. It just can't find the network, which is funny since I'm connected to it on my laptop IN THE SAME ROOM! If I get it to work, I'll let y'all know so that we can do some online gaming. The Xbox did work out very well last night as a DVD player. I watched The Shawshank Redemption last night to get myself in the Maine mood, since it's set in Maine (just like almost all of Stephen King's books).

Well, that's about it for me for today, so good night from the Pine Tree State!

Me in ME: Day 1

Today marked the beginning of my first business trip. For such a momentous event, I thought that I might try to chronicle some of the interesting things that happen to me (those that I can share without having to kill whomever reads it).

The day began dark and early with the first of my 6 alarms (7 if you count my mom calling me) that I set going off at 4:00am. This was especially tough since I had a very busy Sunday hosting a Super Bowl party for my friends from church. This involved spending the afternoon cleaning, playing Rock Band before the game started, cooking hot dogs, watching a rather boring first half, playing more Rock Band during the halftime show, watching a boring third quarter, screaming at the TV for the last 5 minutes of the game, playing some more Rock Band after the game, and finally completing my packing. Just when I thought that I was ready to go to bed, I remembered that I still needed to clean up my kitchen (it's impossible for dinner guests to be completely clean). I finally hit the sheets at 12:30am. Three and a half hours later, I was up again.

The culprit behind my early bird schedule was my 6:23am flight that began my day of flying. We (me and two other guys from work) flew from Waco to D/FW, D/FW to Detroit, and finally Detroit to Portland, Maine. The last flight touched down at about 4:00pm EST. All three flights ran on time (if not early), and we had a leisurely hour-and-a-half layover at each stop. The only downside was the load that I was carrying. Wanting to have a good source of entertainment for my month stay in Maine, I had packed my Xbox 360, and I packed it in my carry-on baggage because I didn't have great faith that I would still have one when I got to Maine. I never realized how heavy all of the components were. In addition to my gaming console, I also had the laptop that I'm borrowing for the trip, which is pretty heavy and bulky, too. So much so that I couldn't get either of my carry-ons to fit on the little bitty Saab that we used to fly from Waco to D/FW. Fortunately, they have what they call a valet checking service (or something along those lines). I gave my bags to a guy as I boarded the plane, and then I got them back as I left the plane. It worked quite well. So much so that I went ahead and did the valet check on the last leg, carrying only the DVD player that I borrowed from my dad, and once again my bags were waiting for me outside the plane when we arrived in Portland.

Upon arriving at the Portland airport (which was a good bit bigger than Waco's eventhough Portland is smaller than Waco), we needed to take care of our rental car. Unfortunately, we has a breakdown in the lines of communication. I was under the impression that we were getting a car from Hertz in my name. I didn't find this out until we had made the hike to the Hertz counter with all of our luggage in tow, only to find out that our reservation had been cancelled. Feeling a bit confused, I called the lady at work who had made all of the travel arrangements. She said that we were getting an SUV from Enterprise in one of the other guy's name. When we asked where the Enterprise counter was, the Hertz lady said that we needed to go back to the terminal and use the airport phone to call them. So we hiked on back to the terminal. From here, everything went smoothly again. We found our hotel with no problem, and check-in was a breeze. As we loaded up in our GMC Envoy to drive to the back and unload, I got to experience one of the joys of Maine in the winter: Ice. I stepped off the curb, set my left foot down on the ground next to the door, and suddenly my butt and wrist decided to join it. I got tag-teamed by Ice and my arch-nemesis Gravity. The other two guys asked if I was alright, and then one joked about whether we needed to file an incident report. After a few hour, I think I'm going to be okay, that is until Ice and Gravity come knocking again.

It's interesting how the weather changes from one place to another in this great country of ours. When I left Waco at 6:23 this morning, the temperature was in the low 70's, as it was in Dallas, too. As we landed in Detroit, we couldn't help but notice the snow on the ground. Fortunately, we never had to taste the bitter cold except for the gap between the jet-way and the skin of the airplane. This was nice because I had all of my warm clothes packed in my luggage which was in the belly of the plane. The current temperature in Brunswick, ME is 27 degrees, and it feels every bit as cold.

Another interesting observation: I made a run to the local Walmart to pick up some groceries and munchies, and I was amazed at how deserted it was. It will be interesting to see if there is a pattern of public places being vacant before primetime TV starts.

That's probably enough for Day 1. I don't want to start off with too much and not be able to keep it up. I hope that all of you have a great February, and will you do me a favor? If you've read this far, please post up something in the comments section. I have a feeling that I'm going to have times where I feel very isolated in the far northeast corner of the US, and I would cherish greetings and salutations from my friends and family.

It's Like Watching Paint Dry

Well, I finally feel like I'm getting close to finishing my TV stand. I finished the construction of it about two months ago, but between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays (and making the mistake of setting it up unfinished to see what it looks like and then leaving it there for a month) I just couldn't get the time to finish it. Now, I'm not "done" per se, but I'm getting there. I primed the body of the stand and painted it with two coats of oil-based paint (for durability) on Monday, and allowed 5 days for the paint to dry/cure/harden. And then today, I moved it inside. Here is what it looks like:



I still need to paint the six drawers and then install them, but that will have to wait until I get back from Maine in early March.

Ow! My jeans hurt me!

How does someone injure themselves on their own pair of jeans? Well, I found a way. (prepare yourself to cringe) While getting ready for church this morning, I somehow managed to catch my thumbnail on one of the reinforcing rivets in my jeans, which tore into my thumbnail just enough to make it bleed. This also made it to where I couldn't just clip off the damaged part and call it done. This is the part where I feel like I may have redeemed myself. Not wanting to where a bandaid on my thumb for the next week or two while my nail heals itself, I tried to come up with some way to protect the nail from catching on stuff. My first impulse was some clear nail polish, but alas, I was fresh out. Then my MacGyver instincts kicked in. I went out to my workshop and pulled out the superglue. Now normally, I try to keep this stuff off of me because it tends to linger, but that's the exact property I wanted to take advantage of. I put a couple drops of superglue on my nail and used a toothpick to spread it around. After a few minutes of dry time, it seems to work pretty well. I rubbed the injured (and now repaired) nail against my jean (not the ones that caused the injury), and I think I've found a solution.

Lesson (for the guys and ladies out there): if you ever run out of clear nail polish or need to repair a split nail, superglue works pretty well.

"Be careful; you'll wet yourself"

I've never had such a strange mix of emotions before in my life.

This weekend, I drove to Houston to help my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew move to their new house. On the last trip, we were grabbing pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down. While walking on the front door on the final walk-through, we noticed that their little garden/atrium between the garage and house still had stuff in it. One of which was a bird bath that they had turned into a planter. I grabbed the disk of the bird bath and carried it out to my truck while someone else took care of the base. As I tilted it up to set the heavy saucer on my tailgate, water emerged from the plant and soaked pretty much the entire front of my pants. I felt like such an idiot, and the other guys got a few jokes in on my expense. But that's not the funny part.

When the time came to unload my truck, my brother's wife's sister's boyfriend (did you get all of that?) grabbed the bowl of the bird bath/planter and I said "Be careful; you'll wet yourself" not wanting the same fate to befall on him that had just struck me earlier in the evening. He didn't think much of my warning, thinking that I meant that the rim was wet and it might dampen his pants. As he tilted the disk up to set it on the base that was already in place, a rush of water flowed from the plant and wreaked its wrath on him as well. I've never had such a strange mix of emotions before in my life. I wanted SOOOO badly to point at him and shout "HA!!!". I also fought the urge to remind him in a sing-song way "I told you so, I told you so". Instead, we all just laughed. So now, we had two grown men at my brother's new house that looked like they had wet themselves.