This weekend is our fall cookout and it looks like we'll have a good turnout.

We're planning on having soccer, volleyball, and lots of other fun activities planned.

We also bought a new front door last night as well as some other things we needed (paint for the kitchen, lights for the entryway, misc stuff). I don't know how much we'll get done before Saturday afternoon, but by the end of the weekend, I hope to have the new door put in and final window on the east side! This will also let us get our shower inside (finally). It is too big to fit through the door, so we'll bring it in when we have the opening made.

Darn, it's getting cold out!

This takes a bit to load... but funny!

Icon Story

video - news report from iraq (funny)

It'll be interesting to see if this turns out to be accurate.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

For the record, it says Kerry: 234 Bush: 280

Update (Oct 5): Kerry: 200 Bush: 321 (Ouch.. going the wrong way)

Oct 8: Kerry: 280 Bush: 239

Holly's dad (Gary) came out to visit us from MD on Thursday morning and left Saturday afternoon. We really had a great time with him. It's the first time he has visited us without any other family coming with him, so we had all of his attention to ourselves. He actually made the trip to pick-up a Mach 1 he purchased in WI, but still, nice to see him. :)
Saturday, Bridget and Broderick both had soccer games and they both won (yeah!). I took lots of pics and maybe one or two will show up here. Between the games, we drove down to Paris, IL (about an hour's drive to the South) and Gary purchased a very cute black lab. He was only 5 weeks old (which surprised me) but I have no doubt that Gary will tend to him as needed. Holly's Brother Brian (along with wife Marci and daughter Breana) came up Friday night and Sat.
After Gary got his car loaded up again and left, we headed up to Walid's place for a picnic. Very nice and great food! It's fun to see the old WRI bunch again. :)
Today, we did more work to the house. I've updated pictures here. Check out the last few. I tore out a bathroom and found some serious water damage under a window. Yuck.. that is not going to be fun/cheap to fix.
Here is a fun picture of Maisey (one of our cats).


Oh! I uploaded a new picture to the photo gallery, check it out here.

Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators so far during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we
can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of
the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like
they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?"

Radio Prank Gone Wrong - READ BEFORE YOU LISTEN
A young husband called up the DJ, asking him to play this prank on his wife for fun. The couple had just bought a new house and had a new baby. This is a recording of the radio DJ pretending to be the husband's boss, calling to apologize to the wife for firing the husband at this bad time. Be sure to pay special attention to the last line spoken by the wife.

This is why you dont get married

Just to update things on the weekend happens. :)

Saturday morning, Broderick had a Soccer game at 8:30. He played a good game, but wasn't his normal hustling self. I think the morning excercise caught him a little off-guard.

Bridget had dance camp at Unity Jr High from 10 to Noon, then a soccer game in Tuscola at 12:30. She was soo tired by the end of it.. they only had one kid on the bench, so no rest for most of the team. Then, she had to perform at the High School game at 3:30 (turned out to be more like 4:30). So, the day was rush-rush-rush. We sat next to the Schwartz's (neighbors at the end of the lane) which was very nice. I am always disappointed in myself for not getting to know our neighbors better. Of everyone who lives around me, the Schwartz's and the Douglas's are the only ones I would recognize if I saw them in the store.
Sunday was less hectic. Broderick rode on the combine with David for a couple of hours and I put in two more windows in our bedroom (or what will be our bedroom). We also took lefty for a ride around the prairie. I've discovered that I am not too big to ridehim (although I am sure I look goofy), which is nice.
Yesterday, I woke up feeling just plain crappy. I felt better late morning and got out somein the afternoon. Sinus stuff... but much stronger then allergies.

OK, so I am 2 days late in paying my tuition at Parkland College (taking a JavaScript class). So, I go in today over lunch to pay the bill.

At cashier's office they tell me that I've been dropped from the class since I am late and I need to go to the adminisions office to re-enroll then come back and pay. No problem.. I head to the admission's area.

There, they tell me that I have to get the Department Head's permission to re-enroll.. Gack! Come-on, 2 days late.

So, I head over to the department to get the little form signed. The receptionist then tells me that I have to have Instructor approval before I can get the Department Head to sign.

GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK! How much bureaucracy do we really need here? I just want to pay my bill so I can take a class.

So, I guess I'll have to wait until next class to get the little paper signed and then go back in the next day, have the department head sign it and then go re-enroll and FINALLY pay my bill.

Aren't they supposed to be making education easier?

More searching...

Sigma-Nu list and ShadowRun list

Back when I was at Knox College, I ran several discussion boards. One on ShadowRun, one for Sigma Nu, and one for AD&D. I guess I had a question that I posted to the ListServ group.

LSTOWN-L Archives -- March 1992 (#22)

This was back when today's internet was just getting started. Notice my email was brett@knox.bitnet. Most of the time, you could email someone just by saying brett@knox with no domain extension.. If I remember correctly, there were two "networks". bitnet was the one I used (and is now phased out) and internic was the other.

As an FYI, this was right about the time the first web browser came out.. so the idea of web surfing didn't exist yet...

Broderick's soccer team tied their first game (they were ahead until the last minute, when the other team scored a goal). He did a great job playing and even took a hit to the face.

Bridget's team lost unforunately, but she also had a good game. Unfortunately, many of those on her team lost their get-up in the last part of the game.

Things are still crazy after work.. but next week should be better. :)

Friday night, my nephew Spencer came and stayed with us while his parents went to an event at Krannert (they are from St Louis), which was very nice. I was hoping to meet up with everyone from HK at Jillian's but we just didn't make it. Just as well as I hear they left pretty early (8) and went somewhere else.
Saturday, I had a b-day party for Holly. It was nice. We had about 15-20 people there over the course of the afternoon and grilled out and generally had a lazy day.
Sunday, I put up a new horse fence (after going to church of course) to give Lefty some fresh clover. The area we originally put into pasture was bigger and closer to water, but I don't think the grass is as nice.

Busy week again this week. Bridget and Broderick each have a soccer game on Monday and Tuesday, class on Wed, Dance class on Thursday, and horse lessons on Friday.

Today is my best friend Alex's b-day. Happy Birthday!!

This week has been nuts and I think thiings are only going to get worse.

Monday nights, I'll be playing Softball
Tuesday, the kids have Soccer
Wednesday, JavaScript class
Thursday, Tango dance class (Birthday present to Holly)
Friday, the kids have riding lessons
Sat Morning, Kids have soccer.

Damn! Everynight has something going on.

This weekend is looking fun though. We may go down to the Arcola Broomcorn festival and Sat afternoon, we're having a cookout/bonfire for Holly's B-day.

If you are bored and want to check out my Parkland website to see what types of things we are doing, go to http://csc.csit.parkland.edu/~bbarnhart/.

Nothing too exciting yet, but it will get better. :)

Bridget found this catepillar last night at the Tolono Park climbing on some of the playground equipment (a giant catepillar, ironically).

Unknown Catepillar (some sort of Swallowtail)

Will Ferrell - A message from White House West

I thought 3 day weekends were supposed to be relaxing!
On Saturday, we set-up at a community garage sale. Since we live out in the country, we don't get the traffic that people in town do, so this is a great way to get rid of stuff. We took the van + 2 truck loads up and basically got everything in the Van coming home. So a huge success! AND, I think we made something like $270.. not too shabby. I can actually see a big chunk of the shed floor now!
On Sunday, we drove over to Springfield for Rachel's wedding reception. She got married sometime in August on the East coast, so this was our chance to meet the groom and give our congratulations. A very nice guy and they seem very happy together. I took a ton of pictures that I'll try to post sometime in the next couple of days. All of my siblings (minus Gayne) were there, which was nice. We ended up staying until about 9 PM talking, which made a late night.
Oh, we also looked at a horse on the way over. "One Spot Annie" who is a registered Paint. She is a really pretty horse, although not very well cared for (her hooves needed to be trimmed in the worst way). I took her for a ride around their arena and she started bucking, so not a good beginner horse for Holly!
Yesterday, Holly got a lot of mudding done and I got some misc small projects done around the house. Scott, Jessica, and Trevor came out (Scott for a haircut and the kids to play) which was a lot of fun. Donald came out in the afternoon and we all took a walk around the prairie.
Last night, we went down to Uncle Dave's. He has a pony saddle that he is loaning us so that Bridget can do some real riding. She and Broderick rode Lefty bareback around the small trail last week (with my leading), but now she can actually ride. It is always nice talking with them. Aunt Geri looked pretty good, but her energy was down (although she wouldn't admit to that!). I guess the cancer is spreading. :(
Harvest should be coming soon and Broderick couldn't be happier. He kept bringing in "tea" and "muffins" for us to eat while we were talking...

This is pretty cute...

http://freeweb.siol.net/stargate/