The BIG announcement...

Update: ITS A BOY!!!!!! According to the ultrasound everything is going well and the baby looks great! It is a boy and we are very excited. Takeing votes and name suggestions. We are thinking about a few but are still open to suggestions. If we don't choose your name don't be offended, we just didn't like it that much. ;-)
Either that or we liked another one better.

Standing up for what you believe in...

There are many times and places to stand up for what you believe. I got this "Paul Harvey quote" forwarded to me in an email and I wanted to put it up here for all to read. (I later found on snopes.com that its not Paul Harvey but Nick Gholson but its still a great piece).

Our nation is great and was founded on special principles, Christian principles, and that is what has made our nation great. God Bless America!


Nick Gholson, a writer for Times Record News in Wichita Falls, TX writes:

I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to
sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December.
I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and
hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his
theory of evolution.

Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be
endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer
before a football game.

So what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up
there reading the entire book of Acts. They're just
talking to a God they believe in and asking him to
grant safety to the players on the field and the fans
going home from the game.

"But it's a Christian prayer," some will argue.

Yes, and this is the United States of America, a
country founded on Christian principles. According to
our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber
all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you
expect-somebody chanting Hare Krishna?

If I went to a football game in Jerusalem,
I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer.

If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad,
I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.

If I went to a ping pong match in China,
I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha.

And I wouldn't be offended.
It wouldn't bother me one bit.
When in Rome...

"But what about the atheists?" is another argument.

What about them?
Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going
to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30
seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or
a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the
concession stand.
Call your lawyer!

Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or
two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do.
I don't think a short prayer at a football game is
going to shake the world's foundations.

Christians are just sick and tired of turning the
other cheek while our courts strip us of all our
rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray
before eating; to pray before we go to sleep.

Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a
handful of people and their lawyers are telling us
to cease praying.

God, help us.
And if that last sentence offends you,
well .. just sue me.

The silent majority has been silent too long. It's
time we let that one or two who scream loud enough to
be heard .... that the vast majority don't care what they want.
It is time the majority rules!
It's time we tell them,
you don't have to pray;
you don't have to say the pledge of allegiance;
you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him.
That is your right, and we will honor your right.
But by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights
away. We are fighting back ...
and we WILL WIN!

God bless us one and all especially those who denounce
Him. God bless America, despite all her faults. She is
still the greatest nation of all.

God bless our service men who are fighting to protect
our right to pray and worship God.

May 2005 be the year the silent majority is heard
and we put God back as the foundation of our
families and institutions.

Keep looking up.

If you agree with this, please pass it on.
If not ... delete and God bless you .

BLOGS I read...

I have some really good friends who's blogs are great. They are really the only ones that I stay up on and so I wanted to give them props. If you stay tuned to their blogs you'll learn a lot and also get a good laugh every now and then. So stick with Brian and Richard and you'll never go wrong.

Simply Amazing...

There are few things in life that will actually take your breath away. One of those was seeing my beautiful wife on our wedding day. Another happened just last week. I have known for over 10 weeks that we are going to have a baby but nothing prepares you for the first time you see your future child. I stood there holding my wife's hand as the ultrastonagrapher waved a wand over her, not so big yet, belly and low and behold this. I still get chills now just thinking about it. It is still very surreal to think that there is a small child developing inside my wonderful wife but I got my first glimpse, my first peak, into my future. The whole process is just a miracle. Thank you God for this!

Truck explodes damaging HWY

I don't know if anyone has gone thru Spanish Fork canyon, Utah hwy 6, but i use it everytime I go home to New Mexico. Or if anyone has gone to Lake Powell from nothern Utah its the same road. Well this semi had some issues and ended up blowing a crater in the road. They say it'll only close the road for 6-8 hrs but come on, this is a 35 ft deep crater possible 60-80 ft wide. No fatalities, maybe minor injuries. Bet that driver will be more careful on mountain curves from now on.
UPDATE: (8/17/05) I never would have believed that a hole this big could be fixed so fast, but less than 2 days after this explosion the highway was fixed and open for use.

BIG NEWS!!!

I have been waiting and waiting to post this blog for quite some time. I have been able to reach most the people that I wanted/needed to tell in person. For those that I haven't been able to reach I am sorry, thats what ya get for not answering your phone. A little over a month and a half ago, June 3rd to be precise I was woken up by my beautiful wife to tell me something wonderful. The test was positive! Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. My wife is pregnant with our first. Since she is only 12 weeks along we don't know what the sex of the baby will be yet but should be able to find out around the time of our anniversary in September. So as scary as it is I will be a daddy in February. This will definately be a topic for many times to come but I wanted to announce it for all the world to know. I'M GONNA BE A DADDY!!!!

Fat Man Walking...

Well, for those that can tell we got internet again and so I'll have time to blog again. Here was one of the interesting stories that I could not help but blog. There are many ways to lose weight and here's another. Some people can only talk but this man can walk the walk. I wish him the best on his way to finding himself, physically, emotionally, and mentally. I have to warn him not to lose too much weight, because (as me and my boss like to quote) "Fat people are hard to kidnap!"
(we got that from a buffet commercial, i'll post more on that later)

Differential Treatment...

I have often felt that people treat me different when I have a goatee as opposed to when I don't. I have often felt that this was just because my self confidence was higher with the goatee. My favorite is when i grew facial hair like a redneck, I'll have to post that picture later. My friend Brian decided to put this to a test. Check out his findings here. I'll have more to say on this one later.

Falling off the face of the earth...

Ok, so it isn't as dramatic as it seems, I forgot that I hadn't blogged in a while. Since I lost internet at home I don't have time to sit and write out my daily ponderings. That and its been too busy at work to try and do that. So sit back and prepare for a few updates... in the next few days.

Those amazing cows...

Sometimes you just come about a site that you just can't help but pass on... Here are some amazing (and some not so amazing) cow stories. I dedicate this to Houlfek, my high school history teacher that liked cows!

Freeze your credit...

While it may not be the best or most effective way, it is the first step in giving more power to us as consumers over our credit. 'Freezing' your credit will give you power to control who grants "you" credit. I agree that waiting a few days to qualify for credit will be a pain, but who knows it could be a good thing. On second thought, I think i have the answer to all this. How about we go away from credit. No more credit cards. You wanna buy something you have to pay cash for it. Or how about only allowing one credit card per person that you have to go to the government to get. How about that? Then the government could use the interest it charges on Credit cards to cut back on taxes. They could use it to get rid of the national debt. Then they can restrict everything we buy, so we are only allowed so many of a certain item. Sounds alot like communism to me. Why don't we just allow capital punishment for identity theft? Right now there really isn't any punishment for it, so its just becoming more widespread. Lets just make it a capital punishment crime and see how far the rate of identity theft decreases... Ok maybe i'm being a little facetious but come on, its getting ridiculous. We have to have more control over our own credit, that has to be the answer.

Mac - not so invulnerable...

MSN screwed up and didn't put the article in the right place, but thats not the reason for this blog. While many purport that Macs are virtually hacker free, sadly this is not true... "Report: Hacker attacks on Mac rising". (you have to scroll way down to read it) So even you Mac users need to be careful. So its not the type of computer you have its the size of the market that that type of computer holds. So all you Mac lovers... take that! LOL!
**disclaimer - I really like certain things about macs and have really considered getting one but as always the quest for knowledge reveals little things that people would like hidden**

Monumental moments in a car's life...

There are few monumental moments in a cars life... Gotta give it props for making it this far.

Megapixel race...

Since I just got a 6.3 megapixel camera I found this article interesting. The megapixel race.

ASL to the rescue...

When I first was told about my wife's famliy (then my girlfriend) I was intrigued to learn that her younger siblings that were adopted were unable to speak but used sign language mainly to communicate. Since they, 2 of the kids, have downsyndrome their signs are easy to learn and fun to use with them. I was intrigued and began thinking about teaching my own kids sign language to be able to communicate with their family (as the youngest brother is deaf) but also to broaden and expand their minds. Those thoughts were rekindled and strengthened with this article I found. It seems teaching sign language to a child saved this woman's life. I am confident that my wife and I will teach our children sign language and am looking forward to it.

Hosting a murder...

My sister-in-laws birthday was last week and unfortunately we were out of town and unable to do anything with/for her. For atleast a year Becca (the sister in law) has been trying to throw my wife a How to Host a Murder party, this game is rather fun, but time consuming and harder to pull off then they make it seem. We decided to throw her a surprise murder party. The basis of the game is you put 8 people in a room, give them characters and a character guide book and tell them one of them murdered their host. Basically Clue acted out at a dinner party. We pulled out all the stops, got a friend to let us use their "summer home" up in Park City, got a good friend to ask Becca out on a date, got all her best friends in on it, and even dressed in black and acted as the servants. Two weeks in planning all came to an end last night, and it was well worth it. She was surprised beyond belief and when we shuffled her into the other room to get into her costume she had a hard time not jumping up and down in excitement and her mouth open in shock. The dinner was huge with all the courses, I'm glad I married an excellent cook. I'd recommend it to anyone, as long as you get all the people that will get into character and have fun with it. Try your own How to Host a Murder party anytime.

Billary in 2008? I hope not...

With President Bush's reelection it leaves the thought out there: Who in 2008? I have a friend who normally votes democratic but this year voted for Bush, why? Not because she thought he was the better choice necessarily but because she wants Hillary Clinton as president in 2008. I am not a sexist and don't think that a woman would do a good job as a president but Billary in the white house again? Heaven help us. I believe that women make great leaders and can see different sides to a topic or event than men can, but I don't believe that that first woman president slot should be occupied by Hillary. Her husband has done enough damage to the country and the world in his two terms, can we stand to have him as "first lady" and helping his wife during her terms? I'm not a strong politicaly minded man, I believe in the founding fathers and their dream for our country, it was them that paved the way for this country to be as great as it is. My hopes and wishes are that we strive to elect leaders for our country that actually care about the job they do and not just about writing a book when they are done. My request to the country: hold true to the values and the designs that our great nation was founded on; "one nation under God" there is no comma there and nor should there be. With God all is possible, without him all is futile.

Fishing vs phishing

Those who know me, know that I have a passion for fly fishing. Its a great way to get out and enjoy the outdoors, relieve some stress, and have some good ol' fashioned fun.
Recently there has been a new type of "fishing" that has surfaced. While it shares the same name it has nothing to do with the sport I love, it is called Phishing. I have received a few emails that are of the phishing type and want to warn others. Phishing is usually an email or pop up and looks innocent enough. It can appear to come from your bank, credit card companies, or similar institutions; even Ebay.
They have all the look and design of an email that you would get from your bank, some even stating that they are trying to stop phishing and tell you to log in on their page to learn details and provide a link. Don't be fooled, it ISN'T your bank. A good thing to do is to hold your mouse over the link and see where it points. Sadly some programmers are even getting good enough that they can show your banks web address even on the mouse over.

Steps to avoid being caught in the PHISHING net:
1. Never click on the link in these emails - your bank will never send an email telling you to "click here", but will tell you to go to their site and log in. Always go to the website and log in there.
2. Report even suspected incidents to places like: http://www.antiphishing.org/ and also to that institution, include as much information as you can.
3. The Federal Trade Commission is also a great place to look and complain.
4. Keep your anti-virus software up to date.
5. Don't send any personal information via email and also be cautious about attachments you receive.

Here is a good test to test your knowledge on phishing. Also do a search on Google on phishing, you'd be surprised what comes up.

Its sad that a sport with such a peaceful and sportsman reputation shares a name with this attrocious and pitiful crime.

Online Stars... who woulda thunk?

Ever see the star wars boy, there are more people trying to jump on the band wagon and get their few minutes of fame. I tried to get the Flash file to put on here but his site has been pulled. He was around for a few weeks and even made VH1. Here are his updates on MSN no less...

Getting your problems solved...

I have been in customer service for most of my working life. And there are always your irate customers. Noone likes being an irate customer, they just want to get what they paid for or not be taken advantage of. I'm like the next man and when someone tries to take advantage of me I make sure they know I'm not the type to put up with that. I have worked in a call center for the last 4+ years, and have dealt with many different people. I have derived my own strategy on how to deal with getting my problem solved. I was reading online the other day and I found this article. How to complain effectively, some great advice. I am much more willing to help someone that is nice than trying to help someone that is rude and harassing me, but you have to be stubborn and make sure the issue gets resolved. Some great tips I just wanted to share.