Merry Christmas

If I don't get to post again, Merry Christmas too all my family and friends who read this blog.

Go Elf Yourself

Go elf yourself!

Scary, isn't it!

Sprained Ankle

I was rushing through the house last night, trying to get something for one of my kids. I was going to fast in sandals. I know better, but did it just the same. I slipped or lost my balance, rolled my ankle and sprained it. I waited about 15-20 min to see if the pain would subside, and very quickly took the advice of my wife and went to the Emergency Room to get checked out.

My wifes folks were nice enough to drop what they were doing and watch my sons while we went out.

No break, just a sprain, but at present I can't put weight on it. I took viactin (sp) at the ER which let me sleep half the night. I have a prescription an my darlin' wife is out now picking it up for me.

With three young boys, and a severe lack of mobility I am not going to be much help. I feel guilty about burdening my wife, all though I know she's happy to help. I feel angry about hurting myself in a silly pointless manner. We were supposed to take a trip to Chicago on Sunday, but I think I've fouled that up pretty badly.

Synopsis:

My ankle is broken.
I feel like an idoit
My wife is great, and will be overburdened.
I screwed up a nice trip to Chicago.
Vicadin (sp) makes me feel good. :-)

Illness Trifecta

All three of my sons are sick today and each with different symptoms. My youngest is throwing up and has a fever, my middle son has a fever, and my oldest has upper respiratory stuff going on. I'm off work to watch them, it would be nice to split the day with my wife, but she's a few meetings she can not move so I'm up for today! If I could only get my kids to all be sick on the same day more often I think my wife and I would both miss less work. :-)

Winter Storm

We had a winter storm in Central Illinois last night and it's continuing now. Last night we had a lot of ice on the trees. I can normally walk under the limbs of the tree in my front yard, and they were so heavy with ice they were touching the ground.

It warmed up a bit in the morning and the ice melts, but we're getting some snow now. It was slick on the roads and visibility was extremely limited due to white out conditions, but it's supposed to improve by noon. Other areas were much harder hit than Champaign, IL. My folks live about 20-30 minutes west and they had no power or heat last nigh and this morning.

The company I work for is supposed to have a Holiday Party tonight. I'm speculating it will be canceled due to the storm, but you never no. Too bad if it is, it's always a fun time.

A Cold?

I think I have a cold. I'm not sure, but I have had mild fatigue for days, and today, I feel a bit foggy headed. This stinks!

Weight

I've got to get my weight under control. I'm not happy with the extra weight I am carrying and no I can do better. I've added a link to my fit day journal to share. In 2000 I was walking 1 hour a day and got down to 238 lbs. Today I am around 275. It's not healthy, I don't feel good and I'm not happy with my appearance. I need to do better.

Last year at my physical, I did well. All results from the doctor were good except my weight, I had momentum and felt like I could get that under control. Instead I've gained 15-20 pounds this year, the worst for weight gain in recent memory.

Losing weight isn't rocket science, it's like a bank account, I can only spend what I have (in terms of calories). I need to not eat garbage (I eat unhealthy snacks), I need to control my portion size and I need to add exercise.

With three kids I don't have luxury of walking for 1 hour every day as soon as I get home, but I can find other ways to exercise. At lunch I can walk, and I can get on the elliptical at home for a few minutes each night. I can try to walk with the kids.

With kids it is easier to create barriers to prevent exercise. Regardless of weather they are real or invented to give myself an convenient excuse not to exercise I have to deal with them. Staying healthy for my wife and kids should be a strong motivator for me. The strongest motivator.

Ah...well. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't get discouraged.

Happy Thanksgiving

The bird is in the oven, the house is being cleaned by my beautiful wife and we're watching the Macy's Day Parade.

Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Got the bird and we are putting up the tree.

I picked up the 'bird' today. 21.5 lbs of turkey goodness defrosting in my fridge.

We are also putting up our Christmas decorations tonight. I know it's a bit early but it is a tradition. We started the year my wife and I got married. Our anniversary is on Nov 25th and we were very busy the week before and had the honeymoon afterwards, so we put up the decorations almost two weeks before Thanksgiving.

The next year, one of our sons was due about the same time, so everything went up early again.

Since then it's just been habit.

Bring on that Christmas Tree. Crack out those carols, the holiday season beings tonight!

22 Pound Turkey

My wife and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I think I need a 22 pound turkey, which is close to what I have done the past. At one point the turkey was bigger than my kids. Now my children can eat a 22 pound turkey in a single sitting. When did that happen?

No Photos

I was trying to upload photos but the blog doesn't seem to want to take them. The two photos I have included will only show the smaller inline versions, not the full sized images. Hmmm...

We put a barracuda anti-spyware/anti-virus appliance in place at work. I can read my blog, but can't post from work anymore. I didn't post from work very often. At lunch occasionally, but that was pretty rare.

It's been a long and busy few weeks at work.

Neverwinter Vault Interview

I was interviewed by Neverwinter Vault, for Eye of the Serpent, a module I created for Neverwinter Nights. The interview is posted here. Take a peak and let me know what you think!

Star Wars Humor

My wife found this clip on you tube. I found it entertaining. Someone put some work into it. Star Wars Lego/Music Video

Neverwinter Nights 2, Tired and Work Stuff

I worked with the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset over the weekend. I converted an old TSR module for Neverwinter 1, and it really helped me learn how to use the toolset/editor. I thought converting the same module would be minimize work not related to learning about the new toolset.

The two screen shots here represent my initial at creating the external of the shirne that players will see at the end of the module. I am pretty happy with how they look. I've built a few other areas. The toolset is powerful and complicated. I have a lot to learn, but I am enjoying myself so far.

On an unrelated note, I am tired. My eldest son is serving as an acolyte at Church each day this week. I am excited and proud, but we are getting up about 30-45 min earlier to get him where he needs to be on time. UGH! I am exhausted. I need some coffee.

I have I busy week at work too. This Friday Chapter Executives from around the world will visit ISA. I will speak briefly to them on Friday, hang around for meet & greet dinner, and then go back on Saturday for lunch to help with any IT questions they might have. One week from Friday, I will install new hardware, specifically a firewall and anti-spyware/anti-virus appliance. We've got outside help, which should help the installation go as smoothly as possible.

Cold

I have a cold, or perhaps a virus, and it is quite cold today. It was freezing when I woke up and has reached 43 degrees now (about 11am). Regarding my cold, it's not bad, I am just tired and feel groggy. It's a little hard to concentrate.

There are a few sick people at work, and I took my 4 year old to the doctor yesterday, so I could have picked something up from a variety of sources.

Hall of Fame Module

The last module I wrote for Neverwinter Nights, Eye of the Serpent, made the Hall of Fame on Neverwinter Vault. The module is posted here.

Someone is reading my blog!

Someone is actually reading my blog! I didn't know anyone was, but my cousin, Chris Gould, posted a comment yesterday. It really made my day to hear from him and be back in touch with him.

On another note, I am tired. I was up WAY to late. I was invited to be interviewed from a Neverwinter Nights module I wrote that made the hall of fame on Neverwinter Vault I wrote answers to the interview questions and have my wife and friend proofing and commenting on them. I'll post them soon.

SQL Server Issues

We did some network maintenance for work last weekend. We hit a problem after changing the serivce account SQL runs under to an account with least permissions. We fixed it this week, but I'm not sure why the fix worked. I'm trying to research it. More on the issue and resolution can be found here.

Happy

I'm having a pretty good day. I have to work late and possible some or all of the weekend, but I still feel good. I stopped at home over lunch and my wife had cleaned up a bit. I looked around and was greatful for my wife, and not just because she cleaned. I am blessed with a wonderful wife, three great kids and a fantastic house. I am very lucky.

Burgers fried in 94 year old grease

This is too disgusting to imagine. Burgers fried daily in 94 year old grease. Link to news article.

Another funny video

This video is pretty good two, watch the lizard in the lower left corner.

Funny Videos

This is too good to let it pass by. Weird Al's new video.

Also funny is this video about D&D. The humor is somewhat in appropriate in places.

Toys in the Toilet

Yesterday I decided to cook something nice. I spent the afternoon shopping and making home made pizza. It was going great, the crust was rising, it smelled terrific. I sat down with my wife and kids, and took two bites, when my three year old started crying in the bath room, "Daddy I'm all wet".

I went to see what was up and the toilet and all the nasty stuff you'd expect to see in a toilet was overflowing on the flow. I kicked off my good sandles and walked in, my socks and jeans quickly becoming wet with... stuff. I got my three year old out, pulled off the top of the tank and stopped the flow of water.

My wife brought me a plunger, and I plunged and plunged until a few duplo blocks came up. I fished them out (now up to my ankles and elbows in stuff) and tossed them in the nearby trash.

With some work the toilet would almost overflow and flush very slowly. Not good.

After a quick check of my plumbing book and a consult with my dad, a handyman around the house, I determined I needed to remove the toilet and check the trap for more toys. If they went past the toilet trap into the house pipes or house trap I'd be in big trouble.

I get the toilet apart and almost removed. I struggled to get the nuts holding the toilet to the floor of, but avoided using the hacksaw, which was almost necessary.

After two hours I was still laughing about the whole thing and had kept my sense of humor. I asked my 11 year old what I was still doing, hoping for an answer along the lines of "laughing" or "keeping my sense of humor". He said, "You are still removing the toilet." Oh well.. he did eventually get the lesson.

After 2.5-3 hours the toilet was in the front yard. My wife, eldest son and I shook, flipped over, poked and prodded the toilet until we produced 6-12 duplo blocks, 1 thomas the tank engine caboose, a small car, 75 cents in change and a ... a... well something you'd expect in a toilet.

The toilet is on our front deck. I purchased a wax seal today and will re-install it today.

My three year old seems to understand the problem and has promised never to flush toys down the toilet again.

I forgot the toilet was gone late last night and went in to relieve myself. I came back out and asked my wife if I should go in the hole in the floor or step out on the front lawn and aim at the pot.

I'm still laughing. Got to keep my sense of humor.

ASP.NET 2.0 (continued)

I picked up Visual Studio 2005 at work and have been converting 1.1 site to 2.0 web application projects. It took 5 work days of mis-steps, learning, research and interuptions, but yesterday I finally had it down and really started cranking through the converstion.

There will be clean up ahead but it's a good start. I learned a lot, and expect bugs and more learning ahead but thus far I am pleased.

iPOD

The iPOD my sister gave me is dead. Totally dead. I had someone at best buy look and they are pretty sure it's the hard drive. I've heard it's $50 to have apple replace the battery, I expect the hard drive would be more, so... that's the end of the iPOD. :-(

ASP.NET 2.0

We upgraded to the asp.net 2.0 framework at the office today. We havne't altered the site, just the frame work on the servers. All the sites are still configured to use ASP.NET 1.1.

We upgraded the development server. No problems. 5 min, piece of cake. We upgraded the intranet server, again no problems. Finally we updated the live web server. BAM! Problems. Anti-virus warned someone was tampering with the computer. Then it wouldn't shut down IIS to complete the installation. I couldn't cancel or roll back. Two restarts later the server booted up with A/V off and IIS off, then the install went fine. Services were down for 30 minutes. UGH! Pain in the you know what.

Jury Duty, Books and an Old Friend

I just wrapped up Jury Duty. I was called for a week, but only needed to be there 2.5 days. Of those days I sat in the jury assembly room 90% of the time and read some books. I made it into the court room twice, but was never called to sit in the jury panel. No one asked questions, and I didn't get on a jury. I would really like to do so, and although I understand simply by being present I was participating and helping, it would have been nice to see the whole process.

One of the books I read while on Jury Duty was 1776 by David McCullough. I would HIGHLY recommend it. I'm a Revolutionary War buff, and learned a great many new things. All of McCullough's subjects came to live vividly. It was an entertaining and informative read.

I got an e-mail today from an old friend. Someone I had not heard from since the mid 1980's. He saw my posts on some gaming sites and dropped me a line. It was a very pleasant surprise. Hopefully we'll write from time to time.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Beta Test

There is a closed Neverwinter Nights beta test coming up. One for the game and the other for the toolset. I have applied to participate in both. Could be fun!

Punny

“Did you hear about the vampire who used to torture his victims with music? His Bach was worse than his bite.”

Google Home Page

I am stuck on yahoo mail and have been for years, but now I'm really excited about the customizable google home page. It's very cool. I highly recommend checking it out, there are MANY cool plug-ins ranging from radar and weather, to earthquake alerts, news, feeds from gaming pages, etc... You can also direcly add rss feed.

Cool stuff.

Ebola Virus

I've missed the past two days of work. I was sure I had the ebola virus, but the doctor assured me it wasn't. (I just like to be dramatic). I've been sicker than I don't know what. I've slept most of the time and felt like total garbage. My wife has picked up the slack with the kids and the extended family has helped as well.

I'm back at work today but still feel pretty crappy.

Speaker Blowout

The speaker in my van blew out. My wife got them for me as a present about 6 months ago. They were under warrenty and the were fixed at circuit city for no charge.

At work, Bruce and I fixed a problem with the router that had been hanging around for months. We had to call Nortell tech support to get the issue resolved. I think we sounded like the Pakleds from Star Trek the Next Generation during the call. Who are the Pakleds, here's an audio clip to give you an idea, it sounds about like Bruce and I did yesterday on the phone with nortel real audio clip 1 or real audio clip 2

Neverwinter Nights Module of the Year (2004 and 2005)

Hey

I have a favor to ask. I've got my Neverwinter Nights modules posted at Neverwinter Vault (http://www.nwvault.com). They are finally getting around to selecting the 2004 and 2005 module of the year. I have 2 modules up for the 2004 mod or year, and one for 2005. If you have time, and are so incline please drop by and vote.

2004 Mod of the Year: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=40
I have 2 mods, Hythum and C1 Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan.

2005 Mod of the Year: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=41
I have one mod up, Hythum II: The Halls of Kilgirn.

Give them some votes please!

Thanks

Ernie

Saugatuck, MI

I took my family up to Saugatuck, MI over the weekend. My wife has been going up there since she was a kid. The trip is largely a treat provided by my in-laws. They rent a couple of cabins and we spend a few days relaxing near the shores of Lake Michigan. My sister-in-laws, their husbands and kids all come up too. The town, Saugatuck, reminds me a lot of East Northport, NY, which is very near Greenlawn, NY, where I grew up.

The trip was fun and relaxing. My youngest son yelled/cried in the car for 2+ hours on the ride home, but otherwise it was a great weekend.

Quote of the Day

My office mate was working on a problem with our phones at the office and came across the following quote... Definatley one to remember:

Are you trying to use some kind of low pressure digit routing through the parnatic channel of the CPU instead of call forwarding?

Too Much Coffee

I made the mistake of drinking coffee after 1pm. I think that's like giving a gremlin water or feeding them after midnight. I've been jittery and irritating the hell out of my office mate.

T-Ball

One of my younger sons started T-Ball yesterday. He's a pretty physical and energetic kid so I thought he'd like it, but he fought it tooth in nail, ulimately crying and shaking telling me he didn't want to play. I did get him to participate in 20 min of the hour long practice.

My Monitor Flamed Out!

My monitor literally caught on fire last Sunday. I was working away and heard a static like sound. I looked for the problem, unable to find it, then another crackle and a bright yellow flash under back of the monitor and it went out. Then the smell of smoke. I'll pick up a new one today. It was 1o or 11 years old so I can't complain.

Working Hard

I'm transitioning from one project at work to another large project and have the better part of the day to work on nickle and dime time issues. It feels good to cross so many items off my to do list.

I am eagerly awaiting the next podcast from the World of Skell, but have been enjoying podcasts from rpgmp3.com until the next WOS recording is out. Episode 34 from rpgmp3.com was particularly exciting.

First Entry

Welcome to my blog. I have no clue what I'll post or how often. I've tried other blogs and lost interest, but hopefully this one will take off.