I love New York?

I'm just a pawn.

My company just announced new service out of JFK/LGA which likely means less service out of DFW....maybe ORD...probably DFW. This could once again mean me up for losing my seat....maybe once again....commuting. On the plus side, we will now have many more options to get to and from New York. Hmmm...even my family members can soon use JetBlue to connect to AA flights.

Uverse is upping the Internet speeds....super fast not Fios fast (Eric would look at my speed and feel pity for me), but pretty fast.



Internet speeds haven't really increased as fast in the United States as I thought they would. I have 1/4th this speed back in 1998. One would think Moore's law would kick in...not here. In Europe, Japan and other nations they have 100Mb/s + speeds. Eh.

Today is the day we find out if Kelli needs to learn how to shop for make up and dresses or if I need to buy "How to throw a Football for dummies".

So I've been rolling with a Nexus One for about a week. I love it. Simply love it. The Android experience is 100% better with this phone over my previous G1. Everything is faster and more fluid. I can literally speak into the phone to create a text message. The accuracy is 90%. There is a noise canceling microphone on the back which helps with call clarity. To test I was sitting under a huge A/C fan/blower yesterday at the airport. It was hard to talk to the person next to me. I called Kelli, she heard me clearly. Awesome. Games are much better. Everything is better. I'm trying to convince Kelli to get one for herself.

Mooke, You ARE the father!

For the first time since February 09 I have a month of getting up early like a normal person.

For April I have the 6AM-2PM shift for airport standby. I hate this shift as I have to leave the house at 5:20AM for a 10 mile drive to work. I get to the employee lot in 15 minutes. The employee bus is random so I have to put in 20 minutes for it to arrive and take me to the terminal. This gives me a 5 minute buffer.

"Mookie, You ARE the father!" Kelli and I are planning on visiting the Maury show next month when we go to New York. Should be fun.

My battery release lever broke on my netbook yesterday. Talked with a tech support guy in India yesterday. Annoyed. They are shipping me a box for repair. If it's found it was accidental breakage it's a $89 fee. Of course it's accidental! I might just try and "fix" it myself. Spending 1/4 the cost of a computer on a repair is kinda silly.

Ipad launches this weekend. I will go play with one at least.

Now to get the taxes done......ugh.

Five year wedding anniversary

As of last Friday we were married 5 years. Wow.

Flight out was fine. We took the first flight out which meant a 6:45AM departure. Very open flight, we got a row to ourselves!

I rented a "mid-size" car from Alamo for $60 all in. Once at the facility I noticed a severe lack of options. Chevrolet HHR's and a Chevrolet Impala. Both aren't known for good gas mileage. A bit away was a VW New Bettle. We got it. True it wasn't a mid-size, but it got good gas mileage, concealed our luggage in the hatch and was fun to drive.

We attempted to find a seafood resturant I read about online. The "Daily Catch" had great reviews. I searched the address on my Android (screw I-Phones!) powered phone and used the built in turn by turn navigation. Boston has a lot of loooooong underground tunnels. Tunnels means no GPS. Ugh. The first location for the Daily Catch was on a crazy busy street. No parking. We left to another location. This is where is got interesting. Since we had no idea where we were going we blindly followed the navigation system directions. We quickly had a problem. The navigation was trying to get us go back across a huge bridge we just crossed. Fail. I used the map to find my own way. About 30 minutes later we arrived on the street. Drove by...saw it....parallel parked and paid the meter. Then we walked up to a closed resturant! WTF!?!?!? Middle of the day on a Friday NEXT to a huge college campus! Ugh. We picked a nice Thai food restaurant.

From there we headed to the USS Constitution. After walking through the museum and the ship, we drove around downtown for a bit. Very interesting city. We never realized how many colleges and Universities are in Boston. Wow.

Our hotel was in "north" Boston...which is really a whole different city. We used our Starwood Points for the room...just 3000 points! Our old Holiday Inn System typically required 25,000 points for a room....that's as much as an airline ticket!

The hotel was nice. At first.

After eating dinner at a Boston chain called Ninety-Nine we called it a night. The hotel is huge. For some reason they put us in the same hallway with a group of teenagers on a school trip.

Lots of running down the hall and yelling. Several calls to the front desk. We were almost ready to change rooms when they finally settled down...at 11PM. WTF? The next morning the chaperone assumed everyone in the hall was in there group and knock loudly on every door at 7AM. Not happy.

Day two had the first stop being the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. Amazing experience. Beautiful location right on the bay. From there we stopped by Sam Adams for a very intimate tour and tasting, Doyle's Cafe for an awesome lunch (and free fancy Sam Adams beer glass !!!), Fenway Park, the Cheers Bar and finally the Battle of Bunker Hill Monument.

We drove almost 200 miles and only used 6 gallons of gas. Score.

We tried for First Class, got coach. Awesomely the gate agent assigned us coach seats 2 hours in advance. This has never happened before. Normally when we list for First Class we get seats after boarding as started even if First Class is full. Again we scored a row to ourselves even though the plane was nearly full.

In front of us was a couple with a baby who had the aisle and middle. At the window was a single guy. The look on his face when he saw the baby was priceless. Pure terror. He scanned all around for an empty seat. Over and over again. He stayed put.

The baby was very happy. Think they said 8 months or 13 months...fat baby. Laughed the whole time...all four hours. For about 30 minutes the parents held the inflight magazine and let the baby tear our pages and toss them in the air. I could hear the ripping even though I was wearing my comfy Bose QC-15 noise canceling headphones. Annoying....and a mess!!!!

Next trip is New York next month. Pretty sure that will be Kelli's last trip for a while. Gonna be traveling on my own for a while. What? I'm not the one who got knocked up!

Too lazy to place the photos in the text above....here are the photos from the trip...Captions even!

[nggallery id=41]

Insured for less

Our homeowners insurance is up for renewal. Homeowners insurance in Texas is expensive.

Right now we have Farmers Insurance. We started with Allstate when we bought the house in 2004. We switched to Farmers 3 years ago. Last year our policy was $1175. This year it was going to be $1350! Ouch.

I began shopping for new insurance. Call it wasteful, but I prefer to be properly to slightly over insured. We don't carry "state required minimum" insurance on our cars. We are insured so that if we hit a Mercedes S500 full of a family, the insurance will pay for their car and all of their medical bills. State minimum won't do that.

Same for homeowners. I shopped around. Allstate initially quoted $985 for apples to apples coverage. Nice. However after "refining" the quote it went up to $1120. WTF?!?!?!

I called my Farmers agent yesterday and discussed our situation. He said there is a new product for newer homes that might lower our premium while providing better coverage. The thinking being new homes are built better and aren't as likely to suffer damage as older homes. Sure enough...new policy...$1020. Score!

Think we are going to Boston this weekend.

Decided to keep my Macbook Pro for at least 6 more months...maybe another year. I don't play games anymore. It is plenty speedy. Should last fine. Just need to get a new battery at some point.

The dogs are still alive.

Years go by

Another year older....meh.

Thirty three years ago at 7:36AM on March 21, 1977, a 10 lb 13 ounce baby walked out and told the doctor to "cut me so slack."  The world has been a better place since.

Kelli continued her "one upmanship" by getting an even better cake than last year. This year I had a cotton candy ice cream cake from Marble Slab with gummy bears and marshmallows. She said the employees commented on the "interesting" cake that's not one of their norms. I bet they thought it was for some fat kid....instead of a 33 year old man. Eh. It was and still is awesome. Still over 1/2 the cake left. Moderation my friends.

I have new license plates on the way. This year I am supporting the deaf and hard of hearing.

Got my annual car inspection. Since my car was new I initially had a 2 year sticker. This year was a full inspection. I assume everything would pass. Somehow my wiper blades were too worn. Really Mr. Inspector? Too worn for a car that's been in the garage more than not and has just 15,000 miles? Eh. He offered to install a new set for $30 plus labor. No thanks. I went to Autozone and installed my own for $20. Done.

Spent my birthday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Never been there before. No desire to go back. Stayed at the Wyndham airport. We arrived two hours late, just a few minutes prior to midnight.

In the hotel van was another crew. When we got to the hotel, the van driver told them too stay put and he would DRIVE them to their rooms (huge hotel!). We got out. I joked, "We have to walk to our rooms because we're the red headed step children."  We were in building "5" they were in building "4" where the crew room (snacks, coffee and computers for crews) was located.

After getting to my room I quickly noticed it was hot and stuffy.

I saw a wall unit with JUST  a fan switch. I turned it too high. It made noise. I then saw a thermostat looking device. It was set on 75. I moved it down to "45". I then tried to settle in. After 10 minutes the temp had not changed. I went back over to the wall unit. There was a trace amount of air coming out.  Packed up (after snagging the shampoo, conditioner and lotion....because I have too) and went back to the front desk.

My Captain was already there. Also a hot room. Front desk explained building "5" has a central AC unit for the entire building. It's set on full cold. There is a heater as well set on full hot. By changing the temp selector, a flap opens or closes to regulate how much of each temp of air gets too the room. The fan speed just sets how fast the air comes out. It's an ancient system.

We were both given rooms in building "4". Each room had individual AC units. Much nicer. The next day I found out all airline crews stay in building "4". They gave us building "5" because....well I don't know why. Pretty crappy.

Did very little on the 22nd. Long overnight.Sat in my hotel room for most of it.  Flight didn't leave until 4:15PM. The hotel van had 4 airline crews inside...20 people. The Milwaukee airport doesn't have a crew only line. We all had to cut in line to get through security in a reasonable time. I hate when I have too do this. Makes us all look like asses.

Somewhat normal flight back. We did a reduced power takeoff. People a lot smarter than me run the numbers and tell me what power setting will work and be totally compliant with safety. Ooof. My leg (meaning I manned the controls), it was a very exciting takeoff.....not a whole lot of runway left when I pulled the plane into the air.

Looking forward to next week.....pretty sure it's a boy. I could be wrong.

April 3rd will see me driving to the airport for a 6AM report. Not happy. For most of the last year + I have done 2PM-10PM shifts at the airport. No longer. Now 6AM-2PM. Ugh. After my shift I will be checking out the I-Pad. Kelli *might* get me one.

Our five year wedding anniversary is this Friday. We are going somewhere. We wanted to hit Boston, but the hotels raised the required points. Might go to Michigan....or Nashville. Eh.

Five years. Been shacking up for almost 8 years. Eight years.

Annoyed

Frustrated. Byrdintheoven.com post explains why.

Work was annoying yesterday. Assigned to fly an empty plane to Abilene for scheduled maintenance. No Captain was assigned to fly with me. Sat in the cockpit for 20 minutes before I headed to the gate. Found out my flight had cancelled....and no one bothered to call my cell, the radio or message to the plane's computer system. Annoyed. Sure it will happen again.

Was hoping to pick up overtime over the next three days. Denied. All overtime is bid on....I am the lowest bidder always due too my seniority. Annoyed.

Macbook Pro battery on it's last legs. Don't REALLY need one as I am plugged in nearly all the time. Annoyed.

Stopped by an Aldi yesterday. Aldi is a new grocery store chain canvassing North Texas. It's a risk for them as they are a little quirky. Cash/Debit only. That's it. Gotta pay $0.06 per bag (we bring our own). Gotta pay $0.25 for a shopping cart, although you get the quarter back when you return the cart. Limited brands.

I could see doing 90% of my shopping there....Kelli about the same or slightly less. Kelli is more brand picky than I am. Off brands burned her pretty badly last year when she bought "Fruity, Toasty, O's" instead of Fruit Loops. They were gross. Still the store was a nice change from a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Small...cozy....yet high quality.

Still working on my man cave. Got some ideas.

Kelli is doing a good job updating Byrdintheoven.com. I do a decent job updating Stillageek.com and Darrenbyrd.com.....because they are now the same site you are reading. Darrenbyrd.com used too be different. Eh. Maybe it will splinter off again. The domain is coming up for renewal. If I don't renew it will likely be bought by the famous Darren Byrd baseball player  (really there is one). I update my "work" blog about twice a week and Byrdintheoven.com once a week.....just the name of the week really.

I blog not only to boost my social media cred...but too help others. Not so much this blog, but my work blog and Byrdintheoven.com blog.

My geek co-hort Kerry has several blogs. She's so cryptic sometimes in her blog. I understand the need for privacy and a cloak of secrecy. She's moving somewhere....1000's of miles away. Hmmm.

Gotta cut the grass....and do house stuff.

Just can't throw away $1000

Moving stuff around. Our old sectional couch was moved to the man cave. I didn't care for it. I wanted to move it to the area of the living room occupied by the slot machine and treadmill. I would then move the treadmill and slot machine to the man cave. Kelli put the smack down on my idea.

She doesn't see a need for the couch and thinks I should toss it. Well sell it on Craigslist....but we wouldn't get more than $100 or so because Craigslist people are cheap bastards. I just can't wrap my head around 90% depreciation of such a large purchase. Working on a plan B.

Throwing away a desk that I've had around for....11 years. It's been under a bed for a few years. I don't mind throwing it out because it only cost $110 at an OfficeMax 11 years ago and I've lost many parts too it.

Kelli is going to New York next month along with my mother in law, sister in law, niece and my sister in law's girlfriend. I might go. Depends if I can get time off...which is looking doubtful based on my success this month. Eh.

Back on the I-Pad fence. A Captain I fly with bought a Nexus One over the weekend. Hopefully I can check it out soon. Never actually held one. Eh.

33 and 5 this month

Nice weekend. Kinda bummed that normal people are traveling again. Spring break is here.....planes are very full. Impossible for us to travel. I think in the future we might have to buy real tickets if we want to travel on Spring Break with the spore.

Been on a money saving kick over the last few weeks. Doing more with less. Saved quite a bit of money over the last few weeks by cooking versus buying frozen food or fast food. I can buy fresh green leaf lettuce, raw chicken breast and salad dressing from a week for under $15. Enough spices and ideas to make at least 8-10 meals. I used to buy 5-8 frozen meals at $3+ a pop. Kelli doesn't cook....doesn't care for the things I cook. I switched from Dunkin Donuts home coffee (only used it for a few months) back to Eight O'Clock Coffee...nearly as good...$3 less a pound. Cancelled our Showtime/Starz movie package. We rarely watched those channels. Any show we watch WILL be available on DVD/Netflix streaming soon. When we want to watch a movie, Netflix has 1000's of movies available to STREAM to our TV at the click of a button. That alone will save us $180 a year. Add the $200 a year we will be saving with MyRate from Progressive...and it starts too look like real money. Still looking for new Homeowners insurance. Lots more....but the main idea is saving money without reducing our/my QOL.

Went to a St. Patrick's Day party thrown by one of Kelli's co-workers. Good time. Also in a attendance were some of Kelli's former co-workers that have moved on too new jobs. One of them mentioned about the low/no job satisfaction in their new job and that it's just a paycheck. I felt bad for them. For the most part my jobs have all had good/great job satisfaction(Janitor and Pizza resturant jobs being the exceptions). I love my job. Sure I complain about some things, but when I land  a 65,000 pound plane full of husbands, brothers, daughters, wives, pets and gifts on a windy/rainy day safely.......I feel great. After we pull into the gate and I open the cockpit door, I listen as passengers get off and say "thank you" or "great flight" or whatever. Not all of them do, but many do. When I see a kid eyeing the cockpit with awe I often turn around and welcome them up too take a look around. It's great.

Kelli is the same. She complains about some parts of her job, but she loves what she does. I can't imagine doing something I don't find rewarding. Well maybe as a short term gig, but not long term.

Can't go to Vegas in March. Might go to Boston this weekend. Maybe.

Turn 33 on the 21st. Five year wedding anniversary on the 26th.

Almost to 15,000 total miles on my Mazda 5. Of those 14,200 are mine. Seriously doubt I will drive the remaining 21,800 miles of my lease in the next 12 months.

Kelli and I did have a short conversation about the next car. Right now our finances are setup with me paying for my car and the TV's in the house. The TV's will be paid off soon leaving extra money on the table. It's plausible for us to BUY a nice car next year. The car would primarily be shared. I would likely take over the Prius as I drive so little I could buy gas once every month and a half. Of course doing this would kill the idea of a FJ Cruiser. Long time to "discuss" the prospects.

Sign on Bonus

News story tonight about hospitals in the area having sign on bonuses for Nurses in Texas....north Texas even. The highest is a $10,000....yes $10,000 sign on bonus. There are still sign on bonuses for cops too....just sayin'. Quick Google search will find them.

Everybody likes a little time and a half

Flying a trip on overtime Friday. Flying Dallas to Norfolk, VA and back. I start work at 9:00AM and finish at 4:30PM. My min-pay clock starts at 9AM...my real pay clock starts at 9:45AM....stops for 30 minutes in Norfolk and then stops at 4:30PM. The mini-clock is my per diem at $1.70 an hour. My real pay clock is my hourly wage of $37 an hour.

Even though most people get time and a half for overtime. I get time and 20%...still more money than I would get sitting at home.

Today was a good day overall. Flew to Knoxville, Tennessee and back. I haven't been there in over a year...maybe two. Nothing has changed. It was a hassle though the last 12 minutes. ATC had me turning and descending all over the place. Finally heading for the airport I got tired of trying to control the plane via the autopilot and just turned the damn thing off and flew it by hand. Turned out fine.

Wanted to go to Vegas this month with some friends. Not going to happen. Damn real passengers booked so many tickets that nearly every flight is oversold. Eh.

The dogs are still alive.

Coffee is good.

My pants aren't fitting as well as they used too...in a good way. Odd as I haven't been exercising much.

The reality pill

11 days until I am 1 year older. Funny math.

I think I am going to buy myself a new battery for my Macbook Pro for my birthday. I think I will be keeping this computer for at least 6 more months. Maybe.

My brother in law called yesterday for a computer consultation. He wants a new gaming computer....laptop. He already had an Alienware computer in mind, I just gave my opinion on model and upgrades. We ended up agreeing on a M15X that starts at $1199. I recommended to up from a Core I3 CPU to a Core I5, go from 3GB to 4GB of ram for $25, from 250GB to 320GB of hard drive space for $70. All in for $1424. He live's in Oregon, no sales tax. This computer should easily last him two years.

<rant>

I'm pretty average overall. I excel in computer hardware and general geekness, but trail in physical strength and math. I also trail in cleaning the house....but I am a guy so that's normal (ha!).

I was raised by two people who were go getters. My dad traveled around the world (literally) as an Engineer. My mom started the second largest adoption agency in Texas....all on her own. Since age 17 I have had a job continuously except for my freshman year of college.

They haven't all been great jobs (I was a janitor for one summer!). My most fun and memorable jobs were working at an auto auction in high school (being able to drive any car I wanted was awesome!), driving a school bus in college (kind of a power trip driving a huge vehicle!), and of course my current (and hopefully final) job.

I like working. When I was laid off in 2001 (August 2001!) after moving to North Texas I went crazy. Just sitting around annoyed me too no end. Then 9/11 happened. Getting a job was VERY difficult. I lived UNDER my means and hit the streets (virtually via online job postings) and found a job in late September. It wasn't a great job. I was over qualified, but it was a job. I figured it would be temporary and I would find something better. Four years later I found something better.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get not working. Even in this economy, people with skills are getting hired. My airline is hiring for various divisions (including pilots). I was talking with an agent in Cleveland Tuesday who I saw was new. She moved her family 600 miles for the job.

She was an agent for a different airline and let go. She stayed at home with the kids (3 and 6) and cancelled day care while she looked for a job. Her husband is a licensed electrician who was pulling in decent, but not great money for living in Boston. They hunkered down, took a reality pill, and moved the entire family to a new city. She's happy to be back at work doing what she's done for years. Her husband has had several job offers as he has a skill in demand. Kids are in school. Life is good.

I hope to never be in the position of having to move my entire family for a job. Thankfully my job allows me to live anywhere. If it comes down to it though, Kelli and I are level headed enough to swallow the reality pill and do it.

</rant> <~~~a geek thing

No more ring!

I decided I no longer want a Nexus One. Not right now anyway. Six hundred dollars is too much to pay for a phone....no matter how awesome it is. If it goes down to $200-$300 I will reconsider.

Xbox 360 is fixed. No more red ring. I ordered a kit from 3 Red Light Fix via Amazon. The kit cost at least $10 more than I could have bought everything for, but it was easier to order than go driving around town.

The fix took an hour or so. I took my time. The Xbox 360 is back up and running. I was seriously considering bighting the bullet and buying a new one. Money saved!

Birthday is in 13 days. Wedding anniversary is in 18 days.

Used car finance rates are pretty cheap. I would be using a used car loan to buy my car at the end of the lease. I think. I have to do some research. I've seen "Lease Buyout Loans" as well. I THINK those loans are for those wanting to buy a leased car before the lease is up. Eh. I got a year.

My Progressive Myrate came in handy while getting an oil change. I noticed other customers who came in after me leaving before me. I hopped on the Myrate website and noticed it was moved 3 times but had been sitting for 30 minutes. Sure enough when I got home I noticed the last time it was started was when they called me, meaning it had just been sitting. I didn't have an appointment, but when I called they said they weren't busy and I could be out quick. Not. Oh well....I only get oil changes every 6 months. Just one or two more left.

I like high stress, mentally challenging games. Mostly games where several task must be handled at the same time. Car racing games fit the fancy...as well as air traffic control games. I haven't found a perfect game yet. Lots of "almost there" games.

We went way out to Richardson Friday night to watch Angela, or EricandAngela.com, play in a softball game. Eric and Marin (their daughter). We had a good time. Marin was a little more open talking to Kelli and I than before. Hard to believe Marin is 3 years old. I wonder if they would be willing to watch Moombassa for a few years. It will be both of ours, we will just keep it at their house.

She is her father's daughter

Took me a it to get the MyRate device installed in Kelli's Prius. Finding the OBD port was a challenge.

On the first day it was sending up data I thought I was going to have to send it back. Kelli had 6 hard stops! One of her way to work, four on the way to CVS on the way home and one during the one mile drive home from CVS. By comparison I have an average of ZERO hard stops in a day. Kelli and I discussed how she, "came out swinging....or stomping".....and I'm happy to say the last two days have been better. The data even showed her that her drive home was 1.6 miles shorter than the drive to work. She has since decided to modify her commute to go to and from the same route, saving miles and gas. The amount of gas saved is equal to an entire tank. For her that's about $18. Not a lot, but it's money saved without requiring effort.

My father in law taught Kelli to drive. Let's just say he has had his fair share of tickets. He's had his fair share, mine, Kelli's, the state of Montana....eh. I have been fortunate enough to not be in a vehicle where he has been at the wheel in years. My mother in law is the exact opposite kind of driver. Don't know why she wasn't the driver's ed teacher for the house.

It's no secret that I love gadgets. What might not be known is Kelli gadget collector of sorts as well.

Kelli loves household gadgets. She buys all kinds of cleaning gadgets. Some expensive...some cheap. Most end up like my gadgets....gathering dust.

Her new "gotta have it" is a roomba. With the new floors, dog hair is much more visible. Much more visible. Her Dyson and a broom do the trick....but a roomba does it without any effort. A roomba with good reviews on picking up pet hair is $350 . Maybe for her birthday.

I think my new game, Forza 3, killed my Xbox 360. Forza is very demanding in the graphics arena. My previous main game, Need for Speed Shifty, was nice, but not as perfect. I ordered a repair kit as that 360 is almost 4 years old and Microsoft wants $99 to fix it again. I don't feel comfortable paying for it to get fixed as the lasted about 15 months. The new 360's are much improved and don't have this issue. A new one is $180. Eh.

Think I am going to hang on to my Macbook Pro for a while. Nothing wrong with it beyond the battery.....and I don't use it unplugged that often. Maybe in the Fall.

Birthday coming up. Kelli is currently debating one of two gifts for me.....an Apple I-Pad 32GB or a Nexus One. She has 16 days to figure it out. Of course the I-Pad won't be out till April 3rd. Hmmm.

The Prius is now monitored

I've had the Progressive Myrate device on my car for a 8 months or so. Saving money....not a ton of money...about $100 a year....but still money.

For whatever reason Kelli's Prius wasn't eligible for Myrate when we switched to Progressive. Now it is.

It took a bit to find her OBD port....."that's what she said".....that makes no sense. Hopefully her driving won't make our insurance go up...if it looks that way we will just uninstall it. Looks like her trip to work is 18 miles.....took 21 minutes. With that data she will drive more per day than the average user at 35 miles a day.....but possibly for less time. It will be interesting too see how many hard stops she has.

Went to the OBGYN with Kelli yesterday. As a joke I was in the stirrups with my legs wide open when the Dr. walked in. Just kidding.

No ultrasound. Kelli thought there would be. Oh well. End of the month.

Our original Xbox 360 is having issues again. It red ringed a year or so ago. Not happy. I'm going to buy a cooler to see if it helps.

Kelli and I took a trip to the polls yesterday.

There is a church down the street that had all kinds of political signs out front. I told Kelli "that's out polling place". She insisted it wasn't as she voted at a church around the corner. I thought it would be crazy for the church on OUR street to not be where we vote. I was right.

When we walked in they had signs directing Republicans to the right and Democrats to the left. Manning the Republican desk were "white people". Manning the Democrat desk were "black people." It must have been a sight to see an inter-racial couple walk in and have the white lady vote democrat and the black guy vote Republican (notice how Republican is capitalized).

Dallas autoshow this weekend. Not sure if I want to go.

If we ever go on the Amazing Race

If we ever go on the Amazing Race, Kelli and I can both drive a manual transmission. Every season there is always someone who doesn't know how. In my head, if I passed step one of the application process, I would go out and learn to drive a manual!

Apparently I had Kelli on a blacklist. For the last day or so she couldn't call my cell phone number from her phone. She could text. I could call her, but she couldn't call me. Took me a while to figure out that my custom ROM on my phone has a blacklist feature. No idea how I placed her on it. Fixed now.

One year from now I will be agonizing on what to do for my next car.

My new time wasting game is the Sims 3. Fun. Almost over it. Need to find something new.

I turn 33 in 19 days. Back in High School I had a group of friends who were all born a month or less prior to me. Khristi's birthday is February 27th, Katy's birthday is March 9th, Emily's birthday is March 16th, and Elizabeth's birthday is March 26th. My Birthday is March 21st. Shop now, avoid the rush.

For Kelli I have asked for a security camera and card so  I can install a camera for the backyard. Not too expensive.

For everyone else cash. Thanks.

I carry too many devices. I carry a laptop (Netbook or Macbook pro depending on my mood), G1 phone, camera and my Zune HD. If Apple would just switch to a subscription music service I could swallow the idea of an IPhone easier. Maybe the Windows Phone 7 Series coming out will be my new phone. It will allow Zune music syncing and of course be a phone. Could be 'it".