RIP

The signs have been obvious for quite a while now. Slow and sluggish--lacking the energy and memory of earlier days. I could see it, but I didn't want to think about it. That's how death is when it's staring right at you. You KNOW it's inevitable and yet you don't want to face it until you really have to face it. Yesterday it happened. The Samsung 80 GB hard drive on my Dell laptop kicked the bucket.

Rather than making funeral arrangements and writing an obituary, I simply went to Fry's and bought a new hard drive. This one is a Seagate 160 GB and faster--which is actually quite nice. The old one now sits in the box that the new one came in--sort of like a casket, I guess, but I threw it in my desk for safe keeping.

You might be wondering, "Did he have his system backed up for just such an event?"

YES!!!! I DID!!!! W'hoo!!!!!!

I have a 750 GB Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus that I use for back ups and archiving really big video projects that I do at work. Right now I'm copying the contents of "My Documents" to my laptop. I've spent the past 24 hours installing useful programs like Windows XP Pro, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, , Firefox, Powerpoint, Publisher), Adobe Creative Suite 2 (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Acrobat) and more. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm Back...with Random Central Florida Thoughts

When I left Orlando, it was 70 degrees and the sun was shining. Upon my return to Indianapolis it was the usual cold with "really cold" in the forecast. Honestly, I don't care either way. I actually enjoy the cold weather and the brisk air filling my nostrils as I exited the plane made me feel good--or maybe that was the exhaust fumes from the jet engines.

Here are some Random Central Florida Thoughts:

• People drive pretty slow down there. I think it has something to do with the fact that the average age is 98. But seriously, I liked the fact that I wasn't the one getting passed all the time.
• There's a sign at the Northwest Airlines desk that says "Toy Weapons Must Be Checked In" or something like that. I would have snapped a picture, but my camera was in my suitcase and already checked in. I'm not sure what to make of this strange requirement and I didn't bother asking what I'm supposed to do with my "Real Weapons"--which was probably a good idea.
• If you are exhibiting at a trade show that hands out free booze on the show floor, you'll see many more people at your booth than when you're a trade show that does not hand out free booze at the trade show. It's science.
• If you're ever in Orlando, go to the Winter Park area and eat at a Turkish restaurant called Bosphorous--yummy.

That's it. I wish I had more to say, but I'm at busy at work and actually quite tired.

I Left My Wife This Morning...

Ok, so I'm stealing Scott's idea from Honey, I Fed The Kids. To be more precise, I had to leave town this morning for a three day business trip to Orlando. I don't travel too much (5-7 times a year), so I don't think it causes too much of a strain on Miss Sniz, but I know she's not loving the fact that I'm looking out the window at a palm tree while she (it's only Orlando, folks--don't get too excited) can only see gray skies and snow. Those of you who pray--please do so for my wife.

I don't have much to say today other than the fact that I want to report on a guy that was on the plane. I didn't actually have a conversation with him, but I could hear everything he said because he was standing behind me having a conversation with the guy in 7D. Here's what I know about him:

• He sat in first class
• He lives in Orlando
• He makes the Orlando/Indy flight on a very regular basis
• He has a family (sounded like wife and kids)
  
• He knows most of the flight attendants by name
• He picks up food for them whenever he makes the flight.
  
• He rubbed the arm of one of the flight attendants way too much
• He works in the automotive sales industry
• He makes a lot of money (or at least wants everyone to know that he does)
• He referred to most of the ladies on the plane as, "darling, toots, sweetie," etc.
• He makes 30 pounds of beef jerky at home every month
• Instead of saying that the guy in 7D could "hang" out with them, he said that they could "hack" out with them. I'm not sure what that means.
  

Now, it's up to you, fine readers everywhere, to make up more facts about this guy or even create a story. He also needs a name as I didn't catch it.

Off to my trade show.

57 Weird Fact Things About Me (I was double-tagged)

I don't normally respond to "tags" or "memes". In fact, I'm not exactly sure what a meme is. I think I had a meme one time when I was seven and the doctor removed it for me. However, I was "tagged" by both Scott of Honey, I Fed the Kids and Elisa of My Journey Begins Now! for the same thing on the same day. So, I'm interpreting this as some sort of special revelation. To be precise, Scott tagged me to write "5 Weird Facts about me" and Elisa tagged me for "7 Weird Things About Me." I did the divine math and came up with "57 Weird Fact Things About Me." I don't care about the "rules" of the tag. I just feel like responding to them. However, I DO think it would be interesting to hear from my pal Uvulapie and his wife Uvalapie's Girl. I'd also like to hear from scott at Java Jesus, but his blog may not be the right place to respond.

Here goes...

1. I count my steps when I wake up and when I walk down the stairs in the morning. I have no idea why I do this, but I do.
2. I am used by many of my friends as a telephone information service. I actually USE my cell phone's handy contact list to keep all of this information which makes it very easy to call people. Instead of emulating this behavior, my friends have chosen to harness it and take advantage of it...and, thus, me.
3. I'm a sucker for movies, tv shows and commercials with talking pets--especially dogs.
4. I've never been out of the country (i.e. the United States). I've looked at Mexico from the border in Southern California, but I've never stepped foot on foreign soil.
5. I've memorized most of the movie Fletch...and Meatballs and Anchorman (which is wrong, I'm sure).
   
6. I make up weird things to say in place of today's more popular colloquialisms. Sure, I slip up every now and then and say the actual word, but I'm much more famous for screaming, "Cats!!!" when someone cuts me off while driving. It just feels good to scream out something. Sometimes the things I say are not even words.
   
7. There are a few people on this planet that "get" me. And I mean, they "get" to hear all of the disturbed things I come up with and they don't disown me. My wife has learned this art very well and then there are probably a handful of others.
8. When I was a kid I wanted to be an ornithologist. I even wrote it down on my "Big Dog of the Week" interview from 7th grade.
9. There is no # 9.
10. When I see myself in a mirror and I'm alone (or think I'm alone) I almost always make a weird face.
11. I sometimes sweat like a banshee dog in bed. I'm not even sure what a banshee dog is.
12. If I happen to look up at telephone poles passing by while I'm driving or riding in a car, I feel the need to click my teeth or move my toes up and down in between the poles. This makes NO SENSE AT ALL, but I do it. In fact, there were a whole bunch of odd things like this that my in-laws all shared with each other one time at a late-night family card game. I wish I could remember all of them. Even I thought some of them bizarre...and I'm me.
13. There are a lot of words that I find funny: robots, monkeys, grannies, cats (see #6), gravy, ninja, to name just a few. When you combine these words to make phrases or sentences, they're even better (e.g. The fighting Ninja Robot Granny Monkey Cats eat gravy to gain their super strength.).
14. I was once a stand-in blind date because a friend of mine couldn't make it. I married her. So far, it's been a great date!
    

15-57. Come up with on your own or just keep reading this blog.

BLISS BLOGS (follow-up to MAN BLOGS)

I got a very nice response from the recent MAN BLOGS!!! entry. The neatest thing was reading the comments from some of the wives of the men from the MAN BLOGS. It made me realize that there are several husbands and wives that blog separately. I can only hope that it's been as rewarding for them as it has been for me and Miss Sniz. So, in case you're not aware of these blogs, I'm going to share them with you. Feel free to visit them sometime.

1. Uvulapie & Uvulapie's Girl (formerly Hoffman Homemaker) - These two have the same sense of humor and their blogs complement each other very well. It's nice that the mental institution where they live allows them to have access to the internet and to have blogs. I talked about Uvulapie in my MAN BLOGS post. However, I didn't reveal the fact that he and I have recorded quite a bit of music together and that he wears lederhosen to work. Uvualpie's Girl is currently expecting...a baby (or a baby Elmo).











2. Honey I Fed the Kids & Still His Girl - I have not personally met these folks, but I feel like I know Scott. We've even exchanged a few e-mails and he's promised to mow my lawn all summer for me this year. He's in ministry and I'd say his blog and sense of humor are very similar to mine--which should explain the lawsuit. I haven't had any contact with Still His Girl, but my wife has. This is another pair of bloggers that do a great job of connecting their sites online. Each blog stands on it's own, but they're even more interesting when you follow both.











3. Mr. E & All Rolled Into One - These two are still pretty new to me. In fact, I didn't even know about All Rolled Into One until she sent me a comment about the MAN BLOGS post. This couple is open and honest when it comes to their lives in blogland. They're also serious about taking steps to be better people.











4. Big Doofus and Miss Sniz - Hey, that's me and my lovely bride. Thanks for reading our blogs and being our friends.











If you know of another couple that blogs, please let me know. I'd like to create a follow-up to this sometime and read more blogs like this.

Things I think and think that I hear

If you're a regular reader of this blog or someone that knows me (who is not incarcerated) then you understand that I'm not normal. My sense of humor is...off. The other day I was sending an e-mail note to a new co-worker who works on the other side of the country and I jokingly put at the end of the note, "I love you." Of course, I didn't send it, but WOW...that would have been funny--and awkward. He'd always feel uncomfortable around me. How strange that I would even think about that and that I'm still laughing about it now.

Only a few minutes later, I THOUGHT I heard something really strange--but I know that it didn't really happen. Another new co-worker was walking around by my office and I overheard the beginning of a conversation between him and one of our co-owners. This new guy is a very large man (we're talking "professional wrestler" large). He walked up to the co-owner and introduced himself as the two of them had not yet met. Then, I thought I heard the co-owner (who is probably 5' 10" and weighs less than 150 pounds) ask the big fella, "Are you ticklish?"

Of course that's not what he said...right? But I really heard it (memo to self: get ears checked or at least remove excess ear wax) and started laughing in my office. I couldn't explain why I was laughing.

So, that's a day-in-the-life of me. Now get back to work or whatever it is that you were doing.

Snip and Snap Update

Yesterday we had my youngest daughter and her connected-at-the-hip cousin/best friend together in the van. These are the two that I and Miss Sniz have referred to as "Snip and Snap" (see "Snip and Snap on Adulthood" and "things you brag about when you're 8") They are, among other things, notoriously slow when it comes to doing things like getting ready, getting into the van, getting out of the van, getting dressed, running into the house to get their Build-a-Bears, etc. Well, we were waiting on them to get out of the van and I made the mistake of saying, "Come on, Snip and Snap. Get out of the van." They both looked up at me and glared with excitement. They thought that was the coolest thing in the world and they were calling each other Snip and Snap (and figuring out which one was Snip and which one was Snap) for the remainder of the evening (as far as I know because they were getting dropped off at the grandparent's home). I just hope they're not keen to the fact that we've been writing about them on our blogs.

MAN BLOGS!!!!

I'd like to start out the new year by identifying a few Man Blogs that I've really learned to appreciate lately. Ladies, don't get mad at me for not pointing you out. I really believe that you all have it figured out with this blogging thing and it's been an inspiration for me. However, I'm personally motivated by the guys I know (or sort of know) who blog. I have not met most of these folks, but they inspire and speak to me daily--or just make me laugh. Here they are in no particular order (i.e. I'm not playing favorites):

A. Uvalapie - Ok, I've actually met this one. An old friend.

2. Honey, I Fed the Kids - Husband and daddy of 4 girls. Great writer.

iii. Java Jesus - A theology blog headed up by one of my old youth group students.

d. Mr. E - Seems to be a genuine, humble man with a heart for God.

V. Tappity Tappity - Have not met him, but we talked online while playing Halo 3.

SIX. Reflections In Life - Randy seems like a guy that has been through a lot and has so much to share with people who are willing to listen. He's also a Reds fan, which is cool.

If I missed you, I'm sorry. In fact, let me know and I'll create a follow-up post.