Can't Remember

At my work, we are having to change our computer passwords constantly. The tricky part about changing our passwords is that we can't use our last 24 passwords. How are we supposed to remember what we used for the last 24 passwords? We don't have a keylogger on our computers or anything to remember. What most of us end up doing is using numbers in our passwords and then incrementing the numbers. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think you can use the same characters that you used in your last passwords as well. Pretty soon, we are going to run out of keyboard keys to use in our passwords.

Baby Clothes

With the new baby coming, my wife has been breaking out the baby clothes. You would think after having two boys we would have enough baby clothes. Apparently, though, clothes tend to wear out after a few years and you end up buying more. My wife has pulled out boxes of clothes and has pulled out things like diaper bags and slings. I don't thing any of the diaper bags are Ju Ju Be bags or anything, but they do still work.

No Girls

Out of having three kids now, we have no girls. We would really like to have a girl someday, but so far it doesn't seem to be in the cards. When we do have a girl we are going to have to revamp the toys that we have. We may have to buy some dollhouses, some dolls to go with it, and perhaps some tea dishes. Now that I think of it, if those are the toys we have to buy, maybe we should hold off on the girl for a while.

Joke Of The Day

I find myself doing this many times with my kids. Not the conference call part. Sometimes when my kids are talking to me or my wife is talking to me, the words turn into just mumblings. So usually I give the standard answers. At what point in our lives do we learn to do that? We go from listening to every word that is spoken to us, to listening to just the words we want to. I really hope I don't end up tuning everything out. I may end up missing my children's conversations altogether.

Time For Candy

It's the day before Halloween. The pumpkins have been carved and placed on the front porch. The leaves have fallen off the trees in the yard. I guess there is only one thing left to do. Get candy!!!! It's great that there is a holiday where free candy is the norm. Yes, Christmas has treats, too. But the candy received on Halloween can't be passed up. I know we are ready for Halloween. We have our candy bought and the costumes for the boys have been tried out. Bring on the candy so the kids can get a sugar high and the parent's can pick out and eat all the "bad" candy.

Joke of the Day

This cartoon reminds me a bit about government. They have to go through all these procedures to get something done. Then, one procedure is waiting on another procedure and the last procedure that is waiting is waiting for the first one. It's an endless cycle. Meanwhile, while the politicians are arguing about whose at fault, things don't get done. People are still getting kicked out on the street, losing their jobs, getting taxed out of everything. Why can't people in government just swallow their pride and do things for the common good with no strings attached? Perhaps, then, things might actually get done and our country won't be in the shambles it is in today.

An Evening Workout

I spend a grand total of two hours each weekday working out at the gym at my work. However, tonight I got an extra workout. We went over to my in-laws' house to carve pumpkins. That wouldn't be so bad, but their house is always crowded and apparently they don't believe in air conditioning. So you can imagine what will happen after a few minutes of craving and everyone talking. Not to mention they have music blaring the whole time. It's enough to make someone lose a pound just trying to get through it. I swear just by going in there I get tired. We did manage to get about 5 pumpkins carved. We need to finish one and get some candles and then we can place them on the porch. But, please, if you have a lot of people in your house, you need ac.

Joke Of The Day

Wouldn't it be great if all it took to have a healthy running computer was to download fruits and vegetables to it? Our desktop is over 2 and a half years old and it is a slow as a snail race. We've done everything to it except upgrade the hardware to get it to go faster, but to no avail. It would be nice if we could just download some healthy programs for it and bring it back to it's old self. Sadly, I don't think those kind of programs exist and if they do, they probably aren't as cheap as pictures of fruits and vegetables.

Weight Loss Update

I thought I would give everyone an update on how I was doing on my weight loss. As of Friday afternoon after working out, I was down to lust under 150 pounds. That means I have lost just over 21 pounds. That's 12 percent. There are 4 and a half weeks left in the contest. That may seem like a short time, but it feels like forever for me. I want the thing to be over so I don't have to keep constantly worrying about what I am eating and doing all the obsessive calorie counting. In any case, losing over 20 pounds for me is an awesome achievement. My wife has no place to grab me on the hip anymore because my love handles are great.

Crashing Down

With this diet that I am on, I have to watch the carbs during the week and then on the weekends, I can eat all the carbs I want. What I usually end up doing is eating too much sugar. This weekend has been especially bad because Halloween is coming up and I ate too much sugar yesterday and today. At about 7 tonight, the sugar wore off and I was incredibly tired all of a sudden. It wasn't the exhaustion tired, but the kind of tired where you don't want to do anything, but not tired enough to go to sleep. I don't know how I did it before the diet. Perhaps it's because I spread the sugar consumption over the course of many days as opposed to pushing sugar just on two days.

I love how my current employer, Spillman Technologies, rewards their employees for hard work. They truly encourage you to work hard and, if you do, they make sure you are recognized and rewarded for your efforts. My last employer did not do that at all. If you worked hard, you might get mentioned in the monthly meeting, but not rewarded (unless you count a few seconds of handclapping). What is also nice about my current employer is that they understand if some things take longer than others to complete. They understand that a small code problem can turn into a large one very quickly so you aren't constantly pressured to complete projects in the same amount of time, regardless of how hard it is. I love employers who take proactive approaches to employee recognition as opposed to reactive ones.

To Much Of A Good Thing

Can there really be too much of a good thing? Yes, there can be. With this diet I am on, I can only eat things like meats, cheese, and salad for the week. For lunch today, we went to a buffet and that was all I ate. I had a huge salad, a bunch of chicken, and some fruit. Believe me, I was full after that. And, believe it or not, I was hungry again a few hours later. These are all foods that are low in carbs so I am hoping they will be burned off soon. I weighed myself this morning and I was just under 20 pounds. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Especially when that bad thing is a stomach too full of low-carb food.

Joke of the Day

When I first started my diet I tried out pilates for a while. My sister-in-law had a pilates book and I started doing some of the exercises with an exercise ball. Now that first week I did lose 5 pounds, but I wouldn't credit it to the pilates, it was just from cutting out all soda.

One Or The Other

With winter coming, there are a couple of projects that need to get done before winter shows up. One, I have to get the swamp cooler on the roof drained and covered. I also need to mow the grass one last time before it snows for good. I was going to drain and cover the fan today, but I need to have a lot more plastic wrap in order to even get started. So, that's not gonna get done today thanks to the fact that there is only about an hour and a half worth of daylight left. The other thing that Cna be done is mowing the lawn. I guess I can get that one done today. Thanks to the fact that the yard is small and half covered in cement, that takes a grand total of about 45 minutes. I'm finding myself less and less excited to mow the lawn. That must mean that winter is almost here.

Rough Economy

With the economy being so bad and costs still going up, we have been really trying to find ways to make the budget stretch. We have been doing paid blogging for a while, but that doesn't go as far. Maybe we should open our own dollar store franchise. Perhaps that will make the budget stretch more. I'm afraid, though, that if we had a store like that, we would be the biggest customers. That isn't good for business when you are your own business's best customer.

Life Of A Trucker

We spent most of our weekend driving to Idaho and back. You would think that I would be used to it by now, but I am not. Most of the drive goes pretty quick. There is a stretch of about 50 miles where there isn't much to look at but scenery. It wouldn't be so bad, but at that same stretch, there is no radio reception as well. Doesn't make the drive any better when all you can here is car noise and static. I don't really know how a trucker does it. We only drove from Idaho to Utah. I don't know how a trucker does it all across the country.

Old Laptop

Our current laptop is a little under a year old and we love having it around. There was a time when we went without a laptop for a few months. I swear I never got any computer time that way. We had a Toshiba Satellite laptop but had to sell it when times got tough and money got really tight. I was able to get out of it what I wanted, but going a few months without a laptop was aggravating. I'm just glad we have our laptop now and it's paid off and money isn't so tight that we are planning to get rid of it.

Changing Landscape

Last time I took a business trip, we did the whole hotel las vegas thing considering that's where the conference was. Every time I go down to Vegas, there is a new hotel on the Strip. These aren't small hotels either. They are huge hotels. What's funny is they tear down certain ones, but leave the ancient ones there. The crappy hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon is still there, but others that were built after that one are gone and a conglomerate hotel is in it's place. It's seriously the one street in the U.S. that never stays the same for more than a year.

Joke of the Day

I thought this joke related to what I have been working on over the last two weeks at work. When I started working on it, I was actually looking into a different problem and discovered this one. Then, it took a week just to find out what the cause of the problem was. In the course of that week, we found other things that were wrong so I spent the next week fixing those and fixing the two original problems. The end result is now ready to be tested and reviewed and I'm sure there will be changes, but at least the worst is over (knocking on wood as I'm typing this). Perhaps it would have been better if I hadn't said anything at all.

Joke of the Day

The other night we were watching Friends and saw the episode where Rachel hires an assistant and ends up getting the cute unqualified guy instead of the qualified woman. Sadly, even though there are rules that are supposed to keep employers from choosing employees based on age, gender, etc it still does happen.

Joke Of The Day

Have you ever worked for a company where they had catch phrases for things and those catch phrases were somehow tied into the name of the company? When I worked at Wendy's, they had a phrase: "There is no 'I' in Wendy's, but there is a 'We'. When I worked at Schreiber Foods, they had things like Schreiber smiles, which were the fake, cheesy smiles people would give to customers walking through the plant. I'm just glad the company I work for now doesn't make you do things to be in line with the name of the company.

Joke of the Day

When we lived in Idaho and I was doing all that yard work I had to bring in a ton of dirt to bring up the level of our backyard. My wife always seemed to find it so funny that we were buying dirt. Gives the saying "dirt cheap" new meaning when you are paying thousands of dollars for it. Luckily we were able to get most of the dirt itself free, but we still had to pay for the dump trucks and that was what was expensive.

Taking A Break

The last few days, I've has serious difficulty walking. Every step would make my leg shoot with pain. It's not muscle pain either. It feels almost like bone pain. I talked to my brother-in-law about it today and he says it's probably effects from the shin splints I had about a week ago. The only real cure for shin splints is rest. As you can guess, I didn't do any aerobic exercise today. I just did some weight lifting and some crunches. It's actually kindof nice to take a rest from being on the treadmill or elliptical machine. My legs actually are starting to feel better. However, that could be the Advil doing it's thing.

Joke of the Day

I think it's funny that there are so many people that get put in positions of authority who really have no idea what they are doing. Like a manager I once had at a fast-food job. She was very nice and a great person, but she had absolutely no management skills. It was a good thing that her supervisors and employees were good workers and knew how to do their jobs.

Joke of the Day

When my wife was pregnant with our second son she worked a graveyard shift at a company that processed mail. She didn't mind the job itself, and she enjoyed the people she worked with (one was her brother), but the hard part was that they weren't allowed to sit down. Even during machine downtime, which could be hours of having nothing to do, they always had to stand at their work station and try to look busy. Of course she had a hard time with this because she was pregnant and exhausted from her job, college, and taking care of our first son. Eventually she had to quit because it was just too hard for her to be on her feet for 8hrs straight.

Up And Down

When the weight loss contest ends at my work, I hope my weight is at the end of it's fluctuation cycle. Weight tends to fluctuate from day to day. For example, on Friday, I was down 17 pounds. Then today, I was only down 13 pounds. I know that weight fluctuates all the time, but, man, that is a huge fluctuation and one that could cost me in the end. From the fluctuations that I have had so far, they tend to end about the middle of the week. That's really good since the end of the contest is on a Wednesday. Only 7 weeks to go.

Weekends Are Never Long Enough

Are weekends short on purpose? I swear as soon as you get used to the weekend, meaning you are finally starting to relax, the weekend is over. This weekend has seemed a little longer since I only took a half day of work on Friday. However, it still isn't long enough. In just a few hours, the weekend will be over and another week will begin. Here's hoping that the next week will be as fun as the current weekend has been.

Lacking

One thing I do wish they had at my job is better office chairs. I've switched from the one I have to a different type and then back again. They just don't seem to have the right comfortable chair for me. They need to have office chairs that have full backs to them and not just the bare minimum. Plus, it kindof feels like my legs are losing circulation by sitting in these chairs. The chair I had at my last job was awesome. It was vinyl, fully backed, and very comfortable. I wish I could have hijacked it and brought it with me.

Perk of the Job

One great benefit of the job I have is that they have great life insurance coverage. I know a lot of companies don't have that. It's great to get it through your employer because it is generally cheaper and you don't have to go out and get a bunch of term life insurance quotes before deciding on where to get it from. It makes it a lot easier when there are already people in your employer that have done all that research already. One more thing I don't have to worry about by working for this great company I work for.

In The Past

When I was growing up, I remember my family having a nice heated blanket. I was never comfortable and, if I remember right, it was just a big piece of plastic that never seemed to be at the right temperature. I am sure these days they have blankets that are more comfortable and can hit the right temperature. These kinds of blankets are definitely great for when you are cold, but you don't want to turn on the furnace to heat the whole house. It would definitely help my wife and I since my wife is always cold and basically makes me sweat a pound off because she heats the house up to warm up.

Message For Today

Today was the first day of General Conference for us Latter-Day Saints. It has been a great series of messages today. From what I have listened to today, the main message so far is that if you are going through hard times, to not give up. The Lord is there to help life you up and to help you keep going. He will not leave you helpless and he does hear everyone's prayers. He is in control if you just have faith is what his plan is for you. He is mindful of you and wants to help you. That has been the message so far today. Life will throw you curve balls. The Lord is there to help you.

Counting Down

I can't believe I have made it through almost 2 weeks since I have had a lot of carbs. I honestly can't wait until Saturday when I can have as many carbs as I want for a couple of days. I am already getting a list together of things I want to eat come Saturday. Things like cereal, milk, bread, pizza, and even red vines. One more day to go and the carbs will be welcome again. Then, after that, I can have carbs every weekend. I sure hope this diet works because it sure is driving me nuts. I'm also making a list of things to eat once the contest at work is over. Bring on the soda. As a weight loss update, I am down almost 16 pounds. That translates to about 9 percent. Go Me!!!!!!

Joke Of The Day

They say you only have one chance to make a first impression.  I think too many of us are worried about what the first impression may be that we don't be ourselves all the time.  Suppose you act yourself out when you meet someone.  They automatically have that impression of you.  Then you have to act that same way whenever you see that person.  If you are going to make an impression, just be yourself.  It would be less worrisome and you are very good at it.