Pinewood Derby

The Cub Scouts held the Pinewood Derby today, and somehow over the last week we were able to get Tommy's car done. We had the race, and he took 3rd Place for his Den of Tiger Cubs. We went into it just hoping that the car would go down the track, but he won a trophy so that is cool :)

*sigh* Tag I'm It

I never participate in chain emails, but I can't let my good friend Jill down, so I will play along...enjoy :)

10 years ago-- Dawn and I were still Newlyweds, and were living in the mobile home. I was about 5 months into the job that took me from being "entry level" into a fairly successful career...

5 Things on my to do list today were:
1. Work on painting the Pinewood Derby car with Tommy
2. Go to Knights of Columbus meeting
3. Work on ACD Project at work
4. Go to the hardware store to buy the paint for the Pinewood Derby car :)
5. Pack my lunch (btw - I ended up going out for lunch)

Things I would do if I were suddenly a Billionaire:
Hmmm... This would be an easy one... Host my own vacation convention at Disney World for a week :) Then, I would build the dream estate which would be sizable, and setup such that on the 4 corners would be a house for each of our parents. Our house would be centered on the estate, and behind it would be a complete gym (yes hockey arena also), and the entire estate would be connected by golf cart trails. So, the boys could take their golf cart to any one of their grandparent's houses... See, I told this was easy :)

3 of my bad habits:
1. Stay up too late
2. Eat too much
3. Bite my nails

Jobs I've had:
1. Boy Scout Summer Camp Counselor
2. Chuck E Cheeses - Game Room Attendant - Yes, I wore the costume on occasion :)
3. *Customer/Technical Support
4. *Project Engineer/Sr. Project Engineer
5. *Manager
6. *Project Manager
7. Telecom Analyst III - current :)
* - these were all at Concentric Network/XO Communications

5 Things people don't know about me: hmmm - this is a hard one...
1. I am scared of heights
2. My first car was a VW Rabbit
3. I waved to Dawn and said, "Hey Dawn, I Love You" while in the audience for the Today Show
4. I was born on the same day as my Great Grandpa (his name was Joseph) that I was named after
5. I wore special shoes as a kid, because my left leg turned in. I think it still does that sometimes :)

Ok, I have to find someone to tag... I am tagging Mike and Sherri...

Red Wings Game - Mr. Hockey

Tommy and I went to the Red Wings Game tonight thanks to Grandpa Paul, who got Tommy 2 tickets for Christmas. The Wings lost 3 to 2 to the San Jose Sharks, but the evening had plenty of excitement anyway...

Mr. Hockey - Shortly after we arrived at Joe Louis Arena we learned that Gordie Howe (#9), yes, Mr. Hockey was there signing copies of his new book. The book cost $30, but to have it autographed the total came to $70. It was Tommy's first Red Wings Game, and the line wasn't long, so I sprang for it. We took a couple of pictures before Tommy got up there, but the interaction when it was our turn was awesome. He asked Tommy if he played hockey, and what position he played. Tommy answered that he played defense, and Gordie wanted to see what his shot looked like... Tommy backed away from the table, positioned his hands, and proceeded to "air stick" a shot. Mr. Hockey proceeded to tell me that we need to work on using both hands to both push and pull the stick simultaneously to increase the speed. Here I am (who has never played hockey) getting tips for my 7 year-old from Gordie Howe.

The interaction was going well, so I decided to ask if Tommy could step behind the table to get a quick picture. Gordie said, "sure if he doesn't get caught." I was encouraged by this, and then Gordie proceeded to ask one of the crowd control people, and then mentions that Tommy is a relative, so it should be all right... I was dying inside, because Gordie was showing that subtle disobedience that you would expect from a hockey player. The one crowd manager said, no, but before he could finish the other guy pulled Tommy behind the table, and the picture was staged :) Of course Tommy was nervous (partly because he was "breaking the rules"), so the picture isn't the greatest, but still we have a picture of Tommy with Mr. Hockey... I really love the one of them talking across the table... I had the Canon point and shoot, so not the fancy camera, but it was ok because my arms were already full of coats etc...

We settled into the game, and after the 1st period we decided to hit the pizza station. We bought a pepperoni pizza, large drink, and a bottle of water for $19.50. We got back to our seats, and while Tommy was holding the pizza, so I could remove my coat, it fell off his lap and toppled onto the floor. Of course, for the $12.50 Hot-N-Ready Pizza they don't give you a box, yes that's right you only get a paper cookie sheet to carry around your overpriced pie. I should have taken a picture, but at that moment Tommy was almost in tears... So, I calmed him down, and cleaned up the mess... We did end up getting some pizza between the next intermission...

Finally, after the game I was getting Tommy's sweatshirt and coat on, so that we could leave. I turned around, and some guy was taking the 2nd of our two mugs from the free giveaway. I called him on it, and he handed it back. I then proceeded to wait a few minutes, and found a completely abandoned mug, so we did end up with two. I was just disappointed that the people I sat by all night were trying to rip-off our mugs.

Oh well, it was awesome to have Tommy see his first game, and meet Mr. Hockey...

Dizney World Info Blog...

I have created another blog... I know it is crazy, but I have always wanted a place to share my tips on Disney Vacations, so I will utilize this blog to write about Disney World, and things that I feel are important to know if you are planning a trip...

Here is the URL, so you can check it out: http://blog.dizneyworld.info/

Feel free to leave comments, or questions :)

New Blog Address...

FYI - I have setup blog.netpappy.com as the new address for my blog...

Email heaven and Apple Care...

I claim to be a Googlevangelist, and in the last 24 hours I have found email heaven... I have consolidated 5 email boxes into one Gmail account, and it is working great. The key to Gmail is the "archive" feature (believe it or not I have never used that before)... It allows you to save the email without keeping it in your inbox. I am now done with Thunderbird. I have a few more email accounts to consolidate, but at this point I am extremely happy with the results...

So, today Apple released new versions of the MacBook and MacBook Pro... I called Apple this afternoon, and while they can't upgrade me to the latest version they are going to ship me a memory upgrade (which was the biggest let-down for me). I am happy with the resolution to my call, and my first Customer Care experience with Apple was very positive!

The quest for the perfect email solution...

I have a serious problem... I love email addresses, so I have joe@xyz.com from every one of my domains, and I currently have at least 3 active gmail accounts and 2 yahoo accounts... So, I just have a mess when it comes to email... I really need to get everything collapsed into one location with a good spam filter. My oldest domain was signed up for everything on the internet at one time or another, and gets about 200+ emails per day. I ran across this link the other day, and I am going to give it a try. I have started slow with just 1 email account (it was the big one though), and I will keep you posted as I hopefully get to a sensible number of accounts... The exciting thing for me is that I might actually be able to use that account again. It is so cool to have firstname@lastname.com (yeah I have the .net too), but it has been unusable for several years...

Championship Game

We lost the Championship Game, and ended up being the runner-up for the tournament. The boys were pretty sad, but they all still got a medal, and the team got a nice trophy. The team we lost to was from Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, and they were a very talented team. Our team played well, but the other team was just too much for them.

It was a Great Weekend, but we are all happy to be home I think :)

Traverse City Semi-Final Game

WHOO WHOO - We won the Semi-Final Game by a score of 3 to 2. The crazy thing was that we scored out 3rd goal with 6 seconds left in regulation, and we were short-handed. So, we are chilling in the hotel room until we have to check-out at 12, and the puck drops at 1:45 PM.

I will post as soon as I can after the Championship Game...

Traverse City Tournament Game #3

We literally man-handled that other team, and skated to a 7 to 1 victory (shots were 29+ to 3). So, the puck drops at 8 AM this morning for the Semi-Final Game :)

I headed out to the Casino last night, and played a little BlackJack... I doubled the $50 that I put down on the table to start with, and then cashed out. WHOO WHOO

Grandma Claudia made it up, because I ran into Andrew at 1 AM in the hallway when I was returning from the Casino.

Alright, time to get up, and get going :)

Traverse City Tournament Game #2

WHOO WHOO!!! We won our second game of the tournament today 7 to 2. Tommy won the MVP for playing good Defense. It appears that we have now qualified for the Semi-Finals tomorrow morning. So, our next game is at 2:30 PM this afternoon...

Traverse City Tournament Game #1

We won the first game of the tournament by a score of 4-0. The team played well together, and we dominated the play. We stayed after the game to watch the next two teams, and it appears that tomorrow morning's game will be a tough one. I will post as soon as I can after the game to let you know how we do :)

Traverse City - Hockey Tournament

For all of you that don't know we are in Traverse City for the weekend, because Tommy is playing in a Hockey Tournament. We made it up here last night, and the boys played some "mini-stick" hockey in the hotel rooms while the parents chilled with some brews. We will keep you posted on how the tournament progresses. The first game is at 3:30 PM today. I expect us to have a good sized crowd, because we have Grandma Karen and Grandpa Jim, and Uncle Theo coming up to watch...

MacBook Update, VMware Fusion, IT Jobs in Michigan, New URL?, 1000+ Visitors

I know some of you don't appreciate my "technical posts", but I am due for one, and you haven't heard about the MacBook in awhile :)

As most of you know I have recently switched from PC to my MacBook... Here is a link from Chris Pirillo that discusses 50 reasons to switch. I have made the switch almost completely, however, I have a few apps that require Windows. I have decided to utilize VMWare Fusion to provide me a Windows environment to run those apps... It is quite versatile, because you can specify individual applications to run versus always running the full desktop. I am just starting with it, but I currently have my MS Money, and MS Visio available to me from the Mac. I decided not to install MS Office, and instead I am utilizing NeoOffice which is a port of the popular and free OpenOffice.

I tend to make the analogy that moving into a new computer is alot like moving into a new house. You tend to get the critical things setup first, and then work through the trivial stuff as time permits. I respect the amount of lost productivity that comes with a new computer, and in fact will put off an upgrade at work until the increased hardware justifies the amount of time it will take me to get myself back up and running again. Well, the switch from PC to Mac has created a huge learning curve, but at this point I can say that I have officially moved in. The last major thing was the MS Money, and after setting that up last night I think I am now good to go. I am sure I will learn new things, and make improvements along the way, but I am still thrilled with my decision to go to the MacBook, and really enjoy using it...

IT Jobs in Michigan...
I heard this on the news tonight, and had to research it further... Dow Chemical is creating 50 IT Jobs in Michigan that are going to be based in Saginaw, Midland, and Southfield. If you know anything about Michigan, the job market is horrible (especially in IT), so I would like to say kudos to Dow, and their continued investment in Michigan. Here is a link to the Press Release. I think the State of Michigan needs to work with the technology sector to attract additional IT Jobs to this area that has been so hardly hit by the decline of the Auto Industry.

New URL - yeah, I am contemplating setting one of my domains up to be my place on the net... I probably should have done this already, but I am slow on the uptake sometimes :) So, you may see a redirect coming soon... I just have too many domains that are idling, and as of right now I am very committed to the blog :)

1000+ Visitors - WHOO WHOO - I guess there are some people out there reading, so thanks to all of you, and I will do what I can to keep the content coming :) Here is my inspiration for saying WHOO WHOO the internet superstars Bubb Rubb and Lil' Sis

Tidbits...

I just haven't been inspired for a good post in awhile... So, here is a collection of tidbits...

Congrats to Tommy for the Saginaw Spirit Skills Competition Fastest Skater 1st Place!

Congrats to Jason and Autumn on the birth of their 5th child (3rd boy) on Thursday!

We are excited to be going to Traverse City this weekend for Hockey Tournament!

I helped Dawn get going on Picassa to do some picture stuff for her students, and she didn't call me a bully!

Work has been crazy busy, and I expect it to only get worse :)

Have a Great Week, and I will try go get my post on ;)

Rock Band!!!

If you haven't read Dawn's post this morning I will catch you up on our Rock Band Situation!

Tommy received lots of money for his birthday, and he wanted to buy Rock Band for our PS2. The game wouldn't play in our PS2, so I took him to the store this morning, and we traded in our old "almost broken" (it played every other game) PS2 for $45, and got a new Silver PS2. We validated that the game played before we left the store. We have spent way too much money lately, so we will have to be conservative for awhile :)

My living room has become a Rock Band stage to the point that Dawn and I have to utilize Google Talk to communicate when we are sitting across the room from each other... The game is pretty cool, because you can sing, play guitar, or drums... Austin loves to be in the middle of the action, and especially loves the drums. He looks like he might be the next Rick Allen (one-handed drummer for Def Leppard), as he waves his left arm frantically hitting the drum pads.

In other news... Dawn called me a "computer bully" this morning... I was trying to get her to use Launchy, and she said something like, "that's stupid when you can just double-click the icon". I tried to tell her that it was extremely convenient to press + and start typing firefox to get that open, but she wasn't interested and called me a computer bully. *sigh* Oh well... I guess it is her loss :)

Have a Great Weekend!

Photobucket Slideshow...

I was asked by a friend how to get a Photobucket slideshow onto a blog. I just uploaded some random pictures of the dynamic duo to demonstrate it :)

So, I did the following...

Uploaded the pictures
Clicked on slideshow, and added the pictures to the slideshow
Saved the slideshow, and gave it a name
I clicked the share tab
Clicked on blogger, and entered my credentials
Clicked login, selected my blog and clicked share

It was actually pretty straight-forward... You can see the slideshow below...

Please post in comments if you have any questions :)

Skate - Shoot - Score Competition

I know all we talk about lately is Hockey and my MacBook (of course, because I love it!), but today Tommy competed in the Skate-Shoot-Score Hockey Skills Competition at the Dow Event Center. He qualified in the Fastest Skater event, so he is going to the finals event on February 17th, at 10 AM. He had a lap time of 21:91 seconds, and skated great. He didn't do so well in the Shooting Accuracy or Breakaway Shootout events. We may let him go Thursday night at 6 to try and qualify in those events for the finals.

I also have to give a shout out to Tony (who is in Tommy's class at school but is in the 2nd grade), because he qualified in the Shooting Accuracy and Breakaway Shootout events in his age division. Also, Shane (who is one of Dawn's students) qualified in his division for the Breakaway Shootout. Great Job Guys!!!

Well, it is going to be a busy week...

Monday - Tommy turns 7 - going to Chuck E Cheeses - Happy Birthday Tommy!
Tuesday - Fat Tuesday - Spaghetti Dinner for the School, and Cub Scout Meeting
Wednesday - Ash Wednesday, and Knights of Columbus Meeting
Thursday - Skate-Shoot-Score qualifier for Tommy
Friday - Tommy Hockey Practice at 5 PM

I am still sick, but feeling a little better today... I love the MacBook, and worked today on getting my Thunderbird email moved over, and setting up my Gallery Remote.

Have a Great Week!!!

Tommy Scores - Brought to you by the MacBook, and iMovie!!!

If you saw the clip earlier in the frame to the right, I apologize... I was trying to post right before church, and it wasn't working, so I didn't realize that it was over there... Here is the video of his goal. This was his first goal for the Mite 2007 - 2008 season! I utilized iMovie on the MacBook to import, clip, and upload the video to YouTube! I will get better at this as time goes on.



In other news - I am sick... I signed up Tommy for baseball today, and he is going to play minors. It is a step-up from T-ball/Coach-Pitch, but I think he will like it. The boys are over at Grandpa Paul's for a visit, so it is nice and quiet around here... We are going to the Dow Event Center tomorrow, so that Tommy can compete in a Shoot, Skate, and Score competition.

EDITED @ 9:16 PM EST on 2/2/08 by Netpappy - I removed the duplicate YouTube video that was posted.