Jason relaxing

Jason relaxing
Originally uploaded by Macmania Pete.

One of the favorite things Jason loves, is what any 18 yr old loves, is FOOD!
The ritual when he comes back for a visit is for Jen to make Fettucini Alfredo and Poppy Seed Chicken. I usually grill steaks or chicken and we sit around the table and talk. It's good to have him visit.

Jason and Jessie

Jason and Jessie
Originally uploaded by Macmania Pete.

I told you that I would try and get some pictures in from the weekend. Here are Jason and Jessie. These are kids that make a Dad proud and humble. They actually are the best kids that I know or have ever met. My heart breaks for parents who work hard, love their kids, parent wisely , and still have the heartbreak of kids who make bad choices and end up with consequences that hurt. I won't say that I don't deserve good kids, but I will say that I am EXTREMELY thankful for the kids I have, and the privlege of being their Dad. I love my kids.

It's A Good Weekend!

The weekend started out in excellent fashion last night with Jessie, my 16 old daughter, playing on her softball team for the Rec League Championship. Some history. This is the team that has been playing together for the past two years. The first year they just got the living shit kicked out of them almost every game. They were young, inexperienced, and basic fodder for the other teams. Last year was a bit better. THIS YEAR they kicked ass.

For the first time in Rec League, a girls team went undefeated in the regular season and in the playoffs. That's called "taking your licks" and then taking names. They deserved it. These girls help each other out, don't critcize each other stick together like no other group the coach has seen. Anyway, as usual, I forgot the camera. Jen forgot the camera. And we have no pictures. Poo. Some other, more on the ball, parent will probably have pictures for the entire team. Duh!

Next good thing. Jason is home from Camp LeJeune, NC! For those of you who don't know he is a Marine. He called last night and I went to Columbia this morning to pick him up. Got a ride with a guy who has a girlfriend in Columbia. He doesn't have to be back until 1800 on Tuesday (that's 6 pm). So he gets to stay home for 2 extra days more than we thought. Cool. And yes, I will try and remember to take some pictures and post them here over the weekend. He looks good and likes the job that he is doing in LIght Armored Recon. It will be a good weekend.

And the real shit is that I get Monday off, work Tuesday and Wednesday, then fly to Phila with Jen and Jessie to visit The City of Brotherly Love - who, by the way just celebrated the 20th anniversary of dropping a bomb down the chimney of Move Headquarters - Here is a blog link which has inof and some discussionPhilly Blog. 61 homes burned, 11 people killed and $42 Million dollars later - Brotherly Love?!? Anyhoo, I get to see the Rents and take my Dad to a Phillies game on Sunday. The weather has been very sucky there - rainy and cold - so I hope that the weekend holds out for the game!

I will be able to blog there if the same hotel has the wireless access that it had two years ago. Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend.

WH

Ready for the weekend already

Heard from Jason today. He is coming home this weekend for about 48 hours. I'm glad that he's coming home. Sad that it's for such a short period of time. It's fitting that he comes home for Memorial Day as a Marine. There's a parade Saturday in downtown Aiken. We may go.

I will find out tomorrow if we have off on Monday - that is the back office at work. We are usually off because the banks are closed, Post Office is closed, insurance companies are closed, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't give us much to do. If I do get off that means that I will work Tuesday and Wednesday and Jen, Jessie, and I fly off to Phila on Thursday morning. I am looking forward to seeing my Mom and Dad as well as travel. It will be fun to travel with Jen and Jessie.

I've ordered my stuff for camping and hope to get in a few weekend trips before the trip to Washington State in August. I've looked at some trails in North Carolina that are hopeful. 15 to 20 miles with a loop. Maybe I can get some pictures and post them via Flickr.

Time to go to bed.

WH

Star Wars

Jen and I went out tonight and saw the new Star Wars movie. In my opinion, the best of the first three "prequels" to the original Star Wars that came out in 1977.

However, the real reason that I was motivated to write about the movie was the 2 year old who was next to us in the sold out theater. Ok, before you say, "why did you sit near a baby?", I have to say that we took our seats BEFORE Mom and child returned from where ever they were. And to be fair the kid was pretty good for a 2 1/2 hour movie, so my rant is really about the parent(s).

This poor kid just sat on Mom's lap almost the entire time - he did kick the seat in front of him a few times, and slap the seat too. But the most disturbing part was at the end of the movie when (don't read this if you want the surprise) Darth Vadar has just finished fighting with Obe Wan - I say finished since he has just had both of his legs cut off at the knees, and one arm disintegrated by the lava that he was laying upon. He was also on fire, screaming, as his flesh burned off of his face and body. Why in the hell would anyone bring a child that young to a movie like this, let alone sit there and not get a freaking clue as this scene played out and take your kid out of the movie? It was evident that the child was disturbed by the scene as he stared transfixed at the screaming amputee and then started whining and buried his face in his Mom's shoulder.

Anyway, it bothered me. 'nuff said.

Wh

World View - What's Yours?

I saw this quiz in a blog that I have a RSS feed to and was interested. I took the test and here are the results:

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 88% Fundamentalist 50% Idealist 50% Postmodernist 38% Romanticist 38% Existentialist 25% Materialist 19% Modernist 6% What is Your World View? (corrected...hopefully) created with QuizFarm.com

--------------------------------------

I like that I am a Cultural Creative. Let me know what you found out about your world view.

WH

The Thirst That We Have...

First things first - Tiger has already had one update. 10.4.1 was released two days ago and seems to address some of the major problems that were present. The networking at work went flawlessly. I have negotiated 4 different access points with no difficulty - my iBook has remembered all of the WEP passwords without issue.

I still love Spotlight (I keep forgetting to use it when searching for items) but am disappointed that Entourage isn't supported. Hopefully there will be an update that will allow indexing of all of my mail in Entourage like there is in Mail. That would be helpful.

----------------------

Wednesday evenings I have been attending a small study group here in Charleston. We are talking about and trying to practice the presence of God. There is a thirst for the infinite in all of us. Some of us stay so busy that it is hard to get a sense of our need, yet, if we will get quiet for a short period of time we will realize that our best day and experience leaves us wanting more. The spirit desires connection with the infinite - spirit to spirit

Paul seems to communicate this in the following passage from The Message: Eph. 3:14 - 19 "My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God."

How can you experience the "extravagant dimensions of Christ's love" ? My guess is that it is a spiritual thing. I also believe that if you seek for that love - deeply and genuinely - you will find it. God knowable? He must be. At least that is our hope and desire. Mere experience in the realm of the 5 senses leaves us disappointed at times - think about it. When you go after what you believe will be the ultimate and it lets you down where do you turn?

I want to find my rest in the Infinite. Matt. 11:29 "“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS."

WH

Weekend Update...

Well, a great weekend at home.

Tiger is stable and running smoothly on both iBooks. No kernel panics. No crashes. No applications that have been problems. Pretty impressive for a major release. Tomorrow I'll be networking with Windows Server 2003, negotiating firewalls, VPN tunnels, and file sharing with thin clients, workstations, and fat client Acer Tablet PC's. That will be the real test for the release a far as I am concerned. I'll report later:)

Jessie is on her way back from a trip to West Virginia with her boyfriend to stay with his dad and step-mom. She will be in tonight and ready for school tomorrow. She has a few weeks left and school will be all over!! Then we'll travel to Philly to visit my parents and see the city. Fun!!

I am having a great time with my new Bible software, Accordance. It is deep and wide. I have installed the Greek NT modules as well as The Message and The Amplified Bible. The Scriptures are amazing and opening them again in a study and discovery method is exciting to me. It has helped me on the Friday night survey class.

Last night was a blast with a group of folks from church celebrating Karen Carter's college graduation with karaoke in The Valley. This was so much fun and Jen was in her element singing and celebrating. And, no. I didn't sing. I'm still too chicken.

So Jen and I are watching Survivor and bringing the weekend to a close. I hope that yours was a good one surrounded by those who love you and getting some relaxation.

WH

Hang On To Your Butts

Ok. Ok. I admit it. I am a geek when it comes to my computers. I couldn't resist the temptation. I woke up this morning and installed Tiger - the newest Apple operating system - on my everyday, totally dependent upon, if anything goes wrong my ass is in a sling, iBook laptop computer.

And.............CRASH!!! No, just kidding. Everything seems pretty stable after a few hours. I want to take it on a test drive over the weekend and see how it works when I am going through the normal paces of my day. I took all of the precautions and fixed permissions, backed up, installed (update install vs. archive or clean install) OS10.4, and away I went. If things go FUBAR, I can reinstall over the weekend and back up from my back up.

First impressions:
1. Spotlight ROCKS. You can check out what it's about here Spotlight
2. The Dashboard Widgets are cool and I may use some of them.
3. Things seem a bit "snappier" on my 800mhz, iBook. Pretty good programming if you ask me.
4. So far, all of my applications work as expected. I use Word, Excel, Entourage, Safari, Powerpoint, QuickBooks, and MYOB extensively. They seem to be OK.

So, I will give a report back this weekend regarding how the day-to-day stuff on the computer goes. Still no install on our family iMac - too risky. Update 10.4.1 should be out in a few weeks, if not sooner.

WH

Relieved Frustration!

I was all set to talk to my friend last night but there were circumstances out of my control which interfered - truth be told, I was glad - who looks forward to potentially catastrophic interactions? Yet I am frustrated as there will be no opportunity to address the issue before next week, as I head back home tonight after work - 10 pm - and we will both be busy until then, and too tired to talk that late.

So, I get a needed and appreciated break for the next few days. I will get to handle this next week.

I am excited about getting to sit down and talk with a friend who I haven't hung around with for what seems like 10 years - it's probably been 3 or 4. Friday evening we are going to get together before I have to go teach class. Jonathan has always been great fun and a great friend. I met him, hmmm, over 12 years ago. He was pretty confused and hurting. God's Kingdom broke in on him and he has grown so much. He is a fantastic musician and artist - great gifts. I feel good about catching up.

Saturday night we are going out with friends to do Kareoke at a local Mexican restaurant. How do I get talked into this stuff? Not really. I'm looking forward to relaxing and watching people sing - well, ok, sort of sing. I still don't have enough scrotal fortitude to get up and sing - well, sort of sing:)

WH

Thinking...

Today has been one of thinking. Mostly due to the fact that I have a good friend who is slowly ruining what he has worked so hard to build. Holding too tightly to something is a sure way to choke the life out of it, and that is what is happening.

There are a number of people who are watching what is happening, just no one as close as I am to being the one to say something. Want to change places? The truth is that it won't get better if __________ (you fill in the blank). Have you played that game? Trying to convince yourself that if left alone long enough, or if just the right circumstances happen, or if you stand on your right foot, jump and slap your thigh, it will be OK. You get the idea. It's foolish to think that it will change if it hasn't so far.

So here I am. Faced with the task. Faced with the possibility of being rejected, or worse. Time to step up to the plate and deal with life.

I will let you know how it goes.

WH

The End of The Vacation

Well, today we finally got sun!! It was a beautiful FL day. I ran early, then Jen, Jody, and I went for a walk on the beach and they lay by the pool. We had a relaxing evening - watched a movie, played cards, ate a great meal of Rigatoni and homemade meatballs (yummy!). Tomorrow is Mother's Day and we are going to church here and then leaving right after the service. Jen gets to sing on the worship team with her Mom, which she loves. It will be a "nap" ride home tomorrow, at least for Jen.

Jason called and he is transferring from RECON to LAR - Light Amored Reconnaissance. He and two other guys are making the change next week. He was pretty excited about it since he will get to train right away and probably get to travel sooner. To which I say, "why?" His answer is that he joined to be a soldier and that is what he wants to do. I would rather he train for the next three years and never go anywhere and stay stateside. But, as the parent thing goes, it is his life and his choices. Hopefully we'll get to see him before he has to travel (you notice that I say 'have to travel', instead of 'go to Iraq or Afganistan.' Somehow, if I don't mention the place it's not as bad.)

After the drive back tomorrow I have to pack and get ready to go back to Charleston for the week. Last week we had our busiest two days in a row since we opened - 94 patients each day. That's is crazy! This week will be another busy one, as we continue to build a patient base and do some exposure activites.

Remember to call your Mom tomorrow!

WH

PS - Tiger will have to wait as I read more reports of incompatibilities with programs. Acquisition and Entourage are two that I use frequently that are reporting problems.

Having Fun In Florida?

Well we are here on vacation, in sunny Florida. Actually, it's been raining all day. The past few days, in fact. And it is supposed to rain tomorrow. A bit of a bummer, but the company is great!

Jen and I were talking and we remembered that the last time we were in FL was in March, in Orlando, for our anniversary. Guess how the weather was? It rained most of the time. What is it about FL and the rain?

Anyway, today we went to COSCO to shop for stuff for Bob and Jody's house and we went to the new Apple store at St. John's Town Square. It was very cool to see and test drive Tiger. Spotlight is very cool and the Dashboard is even cooler. I am looking forward to the update, 10.4.1 has already been seeded to developers and should be out in a few weeks. I will probably install Tiger on Jason's iBook to see how it reacts with the network at home and the basic programs on the iBook.

Anyway, hopefully we will get some sun tomorrow and I'll get to run and continue to catch up with my class notes. I was able to get two more books into Powerpoint.

Back in a few days.

WH

Tuesday Evening In Charleston

Normally, I'm back at home Tuesday evening, but tonight I'm staying in Charleston so I can get into the office early, do some things, and get back home early so we can leave for FL in the afternoon. That sounds so good! We get a long weekend to relax, play, and spend time with Jen's parents.

I have spent the evening watching American Idol, the Braves game and IMing Jen and her Mom as we watch American Idol. That's pretty funny when you think about it - three people, watching TV in three different places, at the same time IMing each other about the show that they are watching on TV!

Oh, Tiger update. It arrived today at the house, via UPS. There are already some reports that it messes with some networking applications so I may hold off on the install until the first update which should be released in the next few weeks...or maybe not:)

Got to talk to and pray with a young lady today. Her father is dying of cancer and is in the end stages - may the last few days. She just needed a place to cry and be heard. Most of the people around her are telling her to "be strong", "trust God", and really helpful information like that. We gave her a place that she didn't have to be strong or "be" anything for that matter. She called about 3 hours after her visit and said that she felt better, and was able to talk to her dad, who is unconscious, and tell him that she would be OK, and that if he wanted to go that was OK with her. That took a lot of courage for her. Sitting with her and watching the Lord give her peace during a really though time was an amazing thing.

Anyway, I'll be blogging from FL next entry. Did I mention that I am excited about the weekend?

WH

Great Fun!

Last night we celebrated my daughter's sweet 16 with a "Rave." Not to be confused with the sordid, drug and dreg counterpart, this was a group of high school kids, mostly 15 - 17 years old, expending a great deal of energy for two hours.

It was the perfect environs. A private party room at a local billiard parlor - spinning disco ball, strobe light (I thought that I was going to have a seziure a few times), colored lights, tube lights, black lights, techno DVD playing to a huge projection screen, the works. A friend provided the techno music - thanks Adam, AKA DJ Slim - and it was awesome. He has the scratch pads, mixing board and all that other stuff. My pastor guarded the door as the bouncer - thanks Hanson (he's a big mother) - and the kids came, some dressed for the party in "club clothing," most in the style of the day. I think at it's height, there were about 70 kids there.

Interesting Notes:
1. The beverage of choice of this crowd - water. We learned this lesson from my daughter's boyfriend's party. The soda was untouched and the water was a hit. Go figure?
2. Instead of presents, my daughter had her friends give cash and is sending it all to Compassion International to provide for kids overseas in Third World countries - her idea. Gives me lots of hope for today's kids and tomorrow's world.
3. I'm glad that I have two computer platforms - after 15-20 minutes of frustration of trying to get my work computer, a $3000.00 Acer Tablet PC, to play S-Video out to a projector - Control Panel>Displays>etc>etc>blah-blah-blah - I got out my iBook, plugged in the cable and...it just works. Some of you can tell me what I was doing wrong and how the set-up should have worked as I am not a PC guru. The point is, why should you have to jump through hoops to get the stupid thing to do what you want?
4. I love the digital lifestyle! We were able to take pictures of the kids at play, load them into iPhoto, set up a slide show, and play it out to the big screen while they were dancing up a storm in the "Rave". How fun!

Happy Birthday Jessie!!

WH

PS - Now I have two and 1/2 days of work and Jen and I are heading to FL for some R&R. I can't wait.
PSS - Tiger is on the way! UPS tracking says that it will be here Tuesday morning:)