update...if all goes as planned baby price will be born on 01-02-03. how cool is that?? we have an appointment at 10:00 thursday morning where they will reposition the baby (who is apparently sideways again) and then begin inducing labor. hopefully things will start moving quickly after that.
in the meantime, happy new years to all and look for pics this weekend!

we enjoyed a very nice christmas day yesterday. the day went quickly, as it always does, as we made the rounds to the relatives houses. i got some good digital pics and will post some as soon as i can get organized. today was a much needed recovery day, as we spent a good part of it tyding up the christmas carnage, and trying to take it a little easy for a change. my vacation is winding down but i still have a good solid 3 calendar days remaining until i have to hit the check making factory. even then, i guess it's a short week with the new years day holiday. perhaps by then i'll have another excuse to miss some more work?, hmmmm. it has been a great visit with our misc family members from boston. that is all, my next project will be getting some christmas pics up. peace on earth!

the holiday bustle is in full swing at the price household. it's pretty much been one event after the other since this past thursday. parties, get-togethers, santa encounters, last minute shopping and wrapping, cookie making, etc., etc. it's the most wonderful time of the year! or something like that!
if nothing else, i am fully enjoying my time away from work. it couldn't have come at a better time. hopefully everything that needed to get done, has gotten done. i'm sure they'll be plenty left to do when i return.
no baby news yet, he's due exactly one week from yesterday. so that means pretty much anytime between now and the next three weeks. (if history repeats)
this may be the last post, pending anything really newsworthy, like a family addition, til after christmas. merry christmas to anyone who may be reading this!

this is what would be called an obligatory entry since i haven't anything new or exciting to report. i can at least get caught up since the last update...alaina's advent program went fine, much more people than i anticipated. the christmas party at the st.paul hotel was pretty much the same old same old. except for this year we left by 10 pm. allison's birthday was saturday and we went out for pizza. got the tree in and put up last night, no lights or decorations yet. that's pretty much it. more to come...

alrighty then...work projects move on at a "has to be done by the end of the year" fever pitch. kids and parents are recovering from "the bug". alaina's advent program is tomorrow night. 6 more working days til the end of the year, (not counting the 30th and 31st). baby 99% is still "head down" and positioning for a grand entry at a time to be determined. christmas shopping approximately 75% complete. all known internet purchased packages have arrived and await wrapping. christmas card delivery preperation has begun. allison's birthday is saturday. christmas party friday night at st. paul hotel. no snow now, or in the immediate forecast. brown christmas looms... other than that, not a lot going on.
peace on earth, over and out!

it was pretty much the weekend from hell...at least from saturday on. some kind of super stomach flu virus struck our household and virtually disabled everyone for 36 hours or so. i guess it's a good thing that it happened on a weekend? i'm well enough to come to work today, which is a good thing considering all i have to do around here.
alaina's tooth finally came out, which was the lone highlight, in our otherwise miserable sunday. the milestone is finally reached on a day when we are all lying around the house, rendered virtually useless by this evil bug. a day to remember!
busy week, back to life, back to reality.

baby news...
the baby is still breech which means that allie is going in tomorrow to have the dr. try to reposition it. i guess this isn't all that uncommon and they seem to think it may work. if the baby doesn't turn, that increases the chance for a ceasarean birth.
this is a particularly busy time as you might guess. lots of extra-curricular activities and events happening. will be interesing to see how the timing of everything plays out.
gotta run...

here are some last minute gift ideas in case you are family (and even if you aren't:-) and are looking for a few ideas on what to get me for christmas: (pay attention because i'm only saying this once)

- winter boots
- cologne
- cd-r's for burning music (700-800 mb)
- cd's (suggestions: underworld - 100 days off, amelie-soundtrack, phillip price - music for bi-polar romantics, any?)
- xbox games (suggestions: splinter cell, ghost recon,- tom clancy, nba inside drive 02, medal of honor, conflict desert storm)
- wallet
- david eggers books
- old navy gear
- several hundred dollar donation to mastercard on my behalf

well i have spent some time deleting the oldest of my image archive files in order to save some space. it was kinda sad for me actually, to have to remove some of these old pics. i still have them of course, you just can't get there from here. i am sorta forced to create a new baseline, as it were, and start over from an earlier date which was unavoidable unfortunately. so..we'll pretend i started documenting the image gallery in the winter of 2000, which isn't too bad i guess.
another thing which i found extremely irritating, is i wanted to do some more things but had to quite for now, due to "exessive bandwidth consumption", which means i get hit with charged time even when i'm only updating my site. you see, i am only given a small anount of daily bandwidth (for free) which is why you may sometimes see the site temporarily inaccessible. in fact this post probably won't appear til several hours after i have posted it, which is a crock. you can't get the same amount of things for free on the internet, that you once could. i guess it's only going to get worse.
on other subjects, thanksgiving went well. it was good to see my sister's family from montana, eat a lot, watch some football, and generally kick back and chill.
the due date for the baby, which has been tentatively dubbed "baby 99%", which to explain is: the probability of it being a boy, is drawing ever near. there are some signs which may indicate that the due date may be a bit of a stretch and that the actual date may be sooner. but then again...one obviously cannot control such things. any news will no doubt be reported here, as soon as it is know.
for now, have an enjoyable weekend.

(excerpts from Adam Sandler's The Thanksgiving Song)

Love to eat turkey
'Cause it's good
Love to eat turkey
Like a good boy should

'Cause it's turkey to eat
So good...

Turkey for me
Turkey for you
Let's eat the turkey
In my big brown shoe

Love to eat the turkey
At the table
I once saw a movie
With Betty Grable

Eat that turkey
All night long
Fifty million Elvis fans
Can't be wrong

Turkey lurkey doo and
Turkey lurkey dap
I eat that turkey
Then I take a nap

Thanksgiving is a special night
Jimmy Walker used to say Dynomite
That's right
Turkey with gravy and cranberry
Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry

Turkey and sweet potato pie
Sammy Davis Jr.
Only had one eye
Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants
Are corduroys

Gobble gobble goo and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey
Only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

wow, has it been a week already? had a couple of days off last week, in preperation of working all week this week (except for thanksgiving day itself, which i do have off).
took the kids to camp snoopy at the MOA. went to the "bose" store there and sat in a simulated living room, complete with leather loungers, digital flat display hi def tv, and bose sound system. had a brief glimpse of how the "well to do" must watch the evening news. got to scratch a very small number of christmas shopping items off the list, but i don't prefer to christmas shop there anyway.
my fantasy football team had a rare victory this weekend to improve to 3-8 overall. since winning any post season $$$ is mathematically impossible, my new role is that of a "spoiler", which is to attempt to knock as many teams out of playoff contention as possible.
i will attempt to "clean up" this site later in the week. i have decided that due to space limitations some changes must be made, and soon. i'm going to remove the oldest of images from this site and rename the archive folders and basically start over from a predetermined spot. the goal is to continue to add newer images to this site, as needed, say, when the new baby comes, and not really change the makeup or structure of this site overall. that's my intent as soon as time permits, hopefully friday? in the meantime, have a nice week!

well, as promised, i finally made the big jump to windows xp on my home pc. it took several hours to complete considereing i had to burn allof my old data to cd-r, format the drive, load xp, and then fidget with some of my devices to get them to work, reload all of my software, but it is 99% done. i am mostly satisfied with my results. no real major show-stoppers. my dvd rom drive does not play dvd's right now but i think i need to install another decoder. also my cd-burning software is not compatible with xp, but other than that i'm happy. my digital camera, printer, scanner, and mp3 player have all gotten along with xp fine. i also need to load a diffrent anti-virus software so i hope i don't contract any virus's in the meantime! i'm not too worried. all of the kids games seem to work too...i was afraid i'd have to tell them they couldn't play their games anymore because daddy had to upgrade to a better OS. i'm sure they would have understood? i copied all my IE favorites but forgot to backup all my cookies (doh!) but that's ok. time will tell, but so far i'm glad i did it. that's all folks, more later.
sorry mom, another "boring" post. hope you feel better! :-)

guess it's time i posted here again. it's been about a week now. fortunately or not, depending on your point of view, there's nothing too newsworthy to report. there's a lot going on in general and that will remain the case throughout the end of the year. i have a couple of days scheduled off next week, then thanksgiving day the week after that, and then the entire week of christmas off. suffice it to say, much to do in little time.
i ordered a 128 mb dimm for the home pc, still waiting on that. once it comes and i've had a chance to install, i'm gonna move forward with my plans to go xp at home.
6 shopping weeks 'til christmas! i finally started 'net shopping yesterday.
more later...

well, after some strong hints from someone very close to me, i decided to get busy and post the latest and greatest ultra sound pics.it's not that i didn't want to post them sooner, it was a time thing. what could be more important than posting pre-birth pictures of your 99% son you may ask? that's why i'm staying up late on a friday night to get it done. hope you enjoy. you may have to squint to make him out, but trust me it's him.

tech-talk:
with all this xp training i'm seriously considering installing it on the home pc (again). problem is, i have to make sure i'm well prepared ahead of time and there's a lot of work involved in that. i want to create a powerquest image of my current machine in case the unthinkable were to happen, download and burn to cd all of the xp complient drivers i would need for all my devices, and then probably have to work out any kinks with it once it's done. i'm also thinking of getting another 128 mb dimm to max me out at 384 mb of ram. there's no reason xp wouldn't run on a 700 mhz machine with 384 mb of ram and a 30 gig hard drive. hp won't gurantee it'll work since it was never "tested" on xp but i can't imagine i'd get catastrophic results. the worst thing that would happen is i'd be left with some incompatible driver issues. i think it's worth the risk, but it'll take some time to get there.
only 2 more days of class left!

it's been a busy and exhausting week, and it's only tuesday. i'm spending the first part of my days in windows xp training (8-12) & then back to my real job after that. course by the time i get back to work, i have 8 hours of work to do in half that time. however, we're managing the best we can.
today, november 5th, is election day and i exercised my constitutional right promptly at 7am, when the polls opened. i did NOT choose to wear my "I Voted" sticker however. It seems equivilant to a kindergartner getting rewarded with a sticker on a project well done. politics in minnesota is a crazy business these days and i will be definitely be glad when the campaigning ends.
signing out til next time?

halloween went off smoothly. we had the usual number of kids come by, maybe fewer than normal. the wind chill was in the 20's -may have had something to do with it. lainie and noelle went to a few houses in the 'hood and got the usual assortment of candy plus 2 cans of cherry coke(?). allison (and the girls) gutted the pumpkin and i got carving honors. nothing very fancy but it was a classic jackolantern (see images).
checking out for now...

my kids might wear a costume and go to a couple of houses in the neighborhood to get candy tonight. however, we are not promoting the "dark side", encouraging our children to celebrate evil, or acknowleding halloween as some sort of pagan holiday. they just want to dress up and get some candy. that's it.

a busy weekend! got my final winter-izing done. mowed and bagged for the last time, cleaned the gutters (not a job for the faint of heart) took dozens of bags of leaves to the compost pile. rearranged the garage, moved the mower to the back and the snowblower to the front. if it snowed 6 inched today, i'd have to say, yes, i'm ready! bring it on!
this daylight savings thing is a joke. an extra hour of sleep 'cuz you turn the clocks back an hour? a myth! the internel clock is not easily fooled. the body does not automatically recalibrate.
look forward to spending an hour or so in the dentist chair this afternoon. nothing major (or so they say).
much work to do before now and then.
later-

i screened my first telemarketer call since i implemented my homemade "fix". we'll see if the startribune calls back!
the news that wellstone's airplane went down was a shock. i didn't like the man and did not want him to win the election but i'm sorry to see him and his family wiped out. i would have settled for him losing the election.
it's been a long week and another busy weekend of chores scheduled. hope the weather is good enough to do some stuff outside.
i think we're getting closer to picking a name for baby boy price...and no, i can't tell you! course we need a girl name on standby just in case.
gotta fly, have a nice weekend!

i read something potentially really cool in "wired" magazine. i'm gonna try it and if it works, i'll let you know if you should do it too! anyway, it goes like this. if you get constantly berated with telemarketing calls, like i do, particularly in the early evening hours, here's a trick to replicate what the "telezapper" does, (if you don't have one-i don't). most telemarketers use what is called "predictive dialer", which are pc's with software designed to dial every number in a phone exchange until it gets lucky. their computer is waiting for a short burst of audio, your "hello" followed by silence. It will then log your phone nuber as valid and transfer you to an available telemarketer. that's why there is usually a short delay before someone comes on the line. How slimy is this?!? here's how you beat them at their own game, using their technology. do a search on google on a file name called "sit.wav" and download it. that file is the famous three beeps you here when a number is out of service, "doo-dah-dee, we're sorry...". the actual frequency of the tones are: 985.2 Hz, 1370.6 Hz, and 1776.7 Hz. when the telemarketers software hears these tones, it thinks it has reached a number that is disconnected and no longer in service so your number is removed from the list of valid numbers. simply record the tones (the first tone is key) onto your answering machine, before you leave your actual greeting, and let the homemade telezapping ensue! your friends may think the tones are weird, but they'll get over it. anyway, as i said, i'm gonna try it and give you my results. this may be the best post i have ever made. thirdthoughts - not only entertaining but educational as well!

a pretty productive weekend. got many chore's done around the house which was the main goal this past weekend. cleaned house, took about 20 bags of leaves to the compost pile, even shampoo'ed the carpet. interesting stuff i know...got washed out on sunday. an impromptu snow fall put an end to my plans to climb the roof and empty the gutters, let alone mow for the final time. winter type weather has appeared to come way earlier than normal this fall. hopefully it's just a tease and we'll have some warmer days to come.
my fantasy team is a viking-like 1-5. i hate football, i hate football, i hate football. it's been a pretty entertaining world series so far.
i'll report later in the week.

random ramblings...
the end of another week. kind of a weird week in many respects. i played most likely my final round of golf this year-in the snow! ok, it was just a few flurry's but honestly. grandma deweese celebrated birthday #93 yesterday. no school since monday for the girls. work is work, pretty consistently busy these days. many leaves to rake this weekend weather permitting. world series starts saturday. need to shampoo the carpet. that's all!

had a good weekend. the wedding was very nice and all went as well as could possibly be expected. the weather was even gorgeously autumn-like, bright and sunny. the couple seemed very happy and we wish them all the best!
my flights two and from were good. first class both ways, which, if you were fortunate to get on the way back sunday morning, provided you with a cold muffin and coffee from a ceramic mug. not that i'm complaining mind you! the poor souls behind the curtain got squat! also, it should be noted that with my flying situation i don't pay extra for fist class (thanks mom).
there was also a hotel "situation" which ended up saving me an entire night's expense which was more than generous. i'll spare the details here.
conclusion: wedding great, transportation great, weather great, weekend great.
on another topic, the twins are done. they over-achieved for us this year and provided a lot of entertainment. maybe next year?
more later.

it's the end of the week as i know it. heading to montana tonight through sunday. not too much here to report.
the "blogging" seems to be working some better. i still get template errors but the posts seem to show up.
been watching a lot of baseball this week, as i am wont to do come playoff time. my teams are: twins, 1-1, cards, 0-2 (doh!).
that's about all i guess. i'll report back after the big wedding.

well, here it is tuesday already. a great weekend if you're a big baseball fan like me. both my teams (the twins and cards) are moving on to the next step, the LCS. (that's league championship series). i'm a big fan but you won't catch me spending $1000 on e-bay for a pair of tickets. you guys are morons. it'll be fun to watch and i'm proud of my teams win or lose. (isn't that nice).
i'm bored with my fantasy football team (1-4), i can't buy a break. my #1 pick, kurt warner is most likely done for 10 weeks and he sucked anyway. why do grown men pick players and pretend to be their coach anyway? it's ridiculous....
took the kids to see the new veggietales movie, "jonah and the big fish". they loved it and so did i.
not much else is news. still pretty busy at work. many htings to do before i leave on friday. catch ya later.

quick weekend update. i'm bailing a little bit early to go watch game 3 of the american league division series, (a's vs twins).
it's been a long couple of weeks so i don't feel too guilty.
my posts are sporatic but seem to be appearing despite error messages i receive while submitting a post. we'll see how it goes.
i have lots to do this weekend, hopefully the weather will cooperate some. next weekend i'll be in montana for my neice's wedding.
the new "interpol" cd is awesome. i can't stop playing it.
that's all for now, go twins, go supa freaks!

i am still having some problems making posts here. of course again, if you can read this, it is working. i hate to spend a lot of time on a lengthy post only to have it crap out. i also tried changing the picture on the main page, from me with headphones, to me with a ballcap on. i got a "104 java null pointer exception" error message. great, now i have to troubleshoot errors for fun! there are issues, i am trying to work throught them when i have time.

ok, so that one worked. maybe we are back on track? what i was trying to say earlier is this: things have really picked up the pace at work, for at least the next 2 months. i have to do some stuff with this site as i am getting daily messages from angelfire telling me i am nearly out of space. i may cut back on the number of posting here in the next few weeks as i am really pressed for time and the last thing i want to do at night and on weekends is fire up the pc at home, go online, and work on this site. i'll do the best i can..anyway, that all for now and i'll check back as soon as possible.

well, i have been trying to post here and i keep getting error messages from blogger. so...i am posting but it's not showing up here so therefore you are not reading it. this can be very frustrating. i'll try it again. if you can read this, it works.

ok, to anyone interested i added a couple of pictures to my image page from my recent trip to milwaukee, specifically, miller park. click on the "image" link above as I am too lazy to provide a direct link from this post at the moment.
i am reaching a crossroads of sorts with respect to my image gallery. i am close to reaching my 20 mb limit here. of course i can purchase additional space if i so desire, but my interest has always been to keep the overhead of running this site to a bare minimum.(as free as possible). sooo...herein lies the dilema. do i weed out the oldest pics and bring in the new? do i buy more space on the server?? i will have to figure something out soo. in the meantime, feel free to browse my images in thier entirety as that may soon change.
that's it for now. enjoy the weekend. go twins, go vikes, go a.k.a. superfreaks (my fantasy football team)

wrapping up the last day of class here...then it's back to work tomorrow. not much else to report unfortunately. (depending on your point of view.) i still plan on posting a couple of milwaukee pics, just haven't had the time yet.
it's noticably cooler outside today. is that the first hint of fall? we are over halfway through september already.
that's all for now.

ok, i am writing this from class. i am attending a 3 day windows xp class and it is the tail end of our lunch hour. some of you may think i haven't been at work much lately...that is correct. don't worry, i don't have any time scheduled off in october at all (yet:-)
actually i am missing an IT golf outing today, to better my skill-level and make myself a more valuable employee.
that's all for now...check in later.

ooops...i think i accidently deleted a post on sept 9th. oh well, i don't think it was that important anyway! :-)

back from milwaukwee. had a great trip and a good time! miller park in milwaukee is da bomb! course the brewers suck but that's fine with me. the cards swept the series which rocked. i took a couple of digital pics, i may post one or two. had an uneventful flight back on 9-11 which of course i knew we would. did i mention i sold the cavalier? can't remember. it's officially history. got a cd deck put in my "new" car yesterday. i'm in catch-up mode at work now. later.

the short week windeth down. for a four day work-week, it sure seemed long! next week i am in milwaukee monday-wednesday. that means i'm down to a 2 day work-week. that's more like it! gonna catch my "other" team, the st. louis cardinals play the brewers in a couple of games at miller park. should be fun. yes, yes, i will work a full week again someday. actually, after this, no more vacation scheduled until thanksgiving day! we'll have to see what we can do about that. i am scheduled to take some windows xp training on sept. 17th-19th but you can't count that as vacation.
what else? allie is still ill, alaina finishes week one of kindergarten. hey greg, come pick up the car!!! go fantasy football team, go vikes. more next week.

wow...heckuva weekend. it's already wednesday so i'd better catch up here. went down to cedar rapids, iowa for the ASA class "D" nationals. we lost our first game saturday morning 11-10 in the last inning, & then went on a tear winning 5 straight between saturday night and sunday, finishing 5-2. that's 9th place out of 40 some odd teams. not bad at all! we had a good time but i've never been more exhausted and sore than i was sunday and monday. course had fall league last night too. that's 9 games in 4 days, enough softball by anyone's standards. fortunately i have a couple of weeks off of ball as i'll be in milwaukee next tuesday.
looks like i sold the cavalier finally. guy is supposed to come pick it up later today. never sold a car before so i gotta figure out how to do the whole transfer of title thing now. fascinating i know....
everyone's still kind of sick at our house, especially allie. she went to the dr.'s yesterday and she has pneaumonia (sp?) and an ear infection. when mom's not happy, ain't nobody happy. more later...

i've got the boston pictures uploaded finally. click here to see them, or on the "image" link above.
i have come down with whatever bug was being passed around by the kids in boston. don't feel great but can manage if fully drugged.
another short week, much going on however. gonna try to get to the state fair tomorrow if possible. i'm supposed to play in the class D national softball tournament in cedar rapids, iowa this weekend.
plenty of stuff going on at work too! that's all for now.

we are back. i am trying to get caught up here at work so no pics available quite yet. we had a great time, i really love the boston area. except for the "rotarys". if you've ever driven there, you know what i mean. we had a couple of beach days, a ballgame, and my sister's reception, so there wasn't much down time, but that was to be expected. the kids did great on the plane and our flights were pretty hassle-free. all in all, the trip was a complete success by any standard. i will try and get busy on uploading the pictures as soon as time allows. more later!

ok, we'll keep this short 'n sweet. i'm bloggin' boston-style right now. we are very much enjoying our trip so far. the weather has been pretty good, a little rain here and there but pleasant for the most part. sunny & warm enough for a day at the beach yesterday. dad and i took in a sox game at fenway last night. watched pedro martinez do his thing and dominate the angels for 8 innings. got my sister and bro in laws reception tonight. that's it for now, more later!

a couple of inquiries on the cavalier, but no check in hand yet. i guess we'll have 3 vehicles at least for awhile.
guess i need to get serious about packing for our trip since we leave tomorrow a.m. hey, maybe i'll try to "blog" from out there. that'd be kinda cool. won't be taking a laptop however so it'll totally depend on my access to a machine.
i will be taking the commuter rail from west medford friday night, to the 'north station" where i will the board the "green line" downtown' til the "kenmore" stop. sounds simple enough?
more from boston?? peace out-

the car looks nice in the garage. i'm slightly paranoid about it getting scuffed by a car door, a bike or trike handle, but i'm trying to relax about it. i know that it's in the best shape now that it will ever be. thing will happen, we will deal.
still trying to sell my '94 cavalier, with 86,000 m. let me know if you know somebody who's looking.
the zetwick construction softball squad out of hasting's did well in the ASA class "D" district tournament this past weekend. in fact, we went 6-0 to win it! that automatically qualifies us for the national tourny labor day weekend in cedar rapids, iowa. not sure if i'll be going to that or what. too many other things going on right now to think that far ahead.
speaking of,... we are gearing up for the big trek east in a couple of days. i hope the plane ride is a positive experience for the girls. that's what i'm worried about the most. my instinct says that they'll do fine with it. it's along time to sit when your'e little and squirmy. flying in general honestly does not bother me. especially with the heightened awareness and all the new safety precautions. we're looking forward to getting back to boston. i can't wait to get back to fenway park either. i plan to take a ton of pics, will no doubt post some later.
maybe one more post before we leave, maybe not. keep it real.

well, the day has finally come. i'm on my way to go pick up our new ride. it is as hip as can be possible for a family car\wagon. we have managed to so far avoid the "soccer mom van". it's a 02 ford taurus wagon se, with a 3.0L V6 vulcan engine, anti-lock brakes, cd, the works. it's the only "new" car i've ever bought. more later....

our ultra-sound picture taken last monday....



anybody who know's me at all is probably aware of this already but based on our visit to the dr. last week, it looks like we are expecting a boy this time! of course, it is never 100% until he or she actually arrives but it looks likely. mom is doing well so far...we're about half way there. still dec. 29th. more later....

me and my homies had a good time golfing on friday. it was our fifth annual golf get together. we'll have to come up with a flashy name and maybe get some t-shirts printed up for next year? played a very hilly course (keller in st. paul) that should have required a cart. we walked a five hour round and were all pretty much beat at the end. golfing again tomorrow in my dad's credit best-ball tournament at prestwick. so this is one hack that's getting in his swings lately!
back to work, back to reality on tuesday...at least for a few days before the big boston trip.
my sister and nephew are in town for a few days, it's good to see them.
thinking about catching austin power's goldmember later tonight. more later....

ok, ok, message received loud and clear...i have FINALLY updated my images page to reflect pictures taken on our recent vacation. you can view them here, or click on the "images" link above. people sometimes forget that someone actually has to take the time and upload the pictures, edit them if needed, create additional pages, i.e, image archive 9, copy & paste the required code appropriately to make it all look nice and pretty. you think this site updates itself? that someone of course would be ME. anyhoo, it's all there..i picked out a representative 12 images out of the 80- some that i took.

i have finally received the two tickets to the boston redsox vs. anaheim angels game i purchased via ebay. they had to be "signed for" copywrite FedEx and the $9 it cost to ship them here, but of course we've been gone on vacation.

More BIG new coming soon!....

ok, we're baaaaack. we had a great vacation and the weather was semi-nice. it rained pretty much every day, except one. but it was never an all day thing. we were able to salvage several hours of sun per day. the lodge is recommended, if you ever find yourself in the bayfield\iron river area. much time was spent on the beach at the resort, in boats, on docks, etc. golfed a couple of short rounds but neither the course or my play was very pretty. trying to ease back into work-mode, something not easily done. i'll post some vacation pics when i get a little more caught-up. more later...

with everything going on these days i have a one week reprieve. i am in full-blown vacation mode now...the lawn is mowed, the car top carrier packed, the last e-mail has been sent and received, the last entry made here. (for at least one week). there will be no cell phones, tv's, laptops, or other distractions. things i plan to do:

- lay on the beach and catch rays
- golf (hopefully multiple rounds)
- finish "the blue nowhere" by jeffrey deaver
- fish ('i'll wet a line but i am a complete novice)
- spend quality time with the wife and kids

i also plan to preserve many moments using my digital camera

be good..no parties or sleepovers and we'll see ya in a week

ok, it's thursday, we are almost there. still have quite of bit of packing & misc stuff to do before our trip. i'll miss my cat and my xbox but other than that, i'm really looking forward to it.

other news...i'm the leading bidder on an ebay auction that closes in a couple of hours from now. there's an amusing story behind it, but i'm not compelled to make it public domain yet. they are for 2 red sox tickets to the august 23rd game vs. anahiem at fenway park...wouldn't that rock? we'll let you know what happens.

haven't made a move on a vehicle yet...sort of waiting until we return from vacation. more later!

A Summer Wasting

Belle and Sebastian

Summer in winter
Winter in springtime
You heard the birds sing
Everything will be fine

I spent the summer wasting
The time was passed so easily
But if the summer's wasted
How come that I could feel so free
I spent the summer wasting
The sky was blue beyond compare
A photograph of myself
Is all I have to show for

Seven weeks of river walkways
Seven weeks of staying up all night

I spent the summer wasting
The time was passed so pleasantly
Say cheerio to books now
The only things I'll read are faces
1 spent the summer wasting
Under a canopy of

Seven weeks of reading papers
Seven weeks of river walkways
Seven weeks of feeling guilty
Seven weeks of staying up all night

Summer in winter
Winter is springtime
You heard the bird say
Everything will be fine

what's new? let's see...my man geno called back as expected. he's ready to make a deal. says he'll pay half of my license fee. that's $50-$100 from where we were when i left the dealership. nice try geno! now we're toying with the idea of just buying new. there's some things that are making that option a bit more attractive. we'll see...

we leave for vacation one week from today. looking forward to a week of fun & sun (hopefully). still have to get through one more week of work...more later.

well, it's wednesday..."hump day" as we say in the business. i dealt on the taurus wagon yesterday...it didn't happen. my used car salesman, "geno", wouldn't budge an inch...he'll come calling...he's got my ph #....

it looks like the whole family is going to boston at the end of august for the reception. it was kind of up in the air for awhile...now it looks like it will happen. let's see, vacation in wisonsin in a couple of weeks, trip to boston in august, trip to milwaukee in sept (barring a baseball strike), trip to montana in october...house, car, baby. hmmmmm. one day at a time i guess!

another work week has come and gone...again, nothing much new here. guess you can tell when i'm busy by my frequency of postings?
doing a lot of car researching...might be closing in on a deal for a ford tauras wagon. that's "wagon", NOT "station wagon". station wagon conjures up images of the olive-green country squire with simulated wood grain paneling and a luggage rack. ok, the taurus might have a luggage rack but it's a pretty sweet ride. snicker if you must...
more later

i have not been motivated to post much here, however i do have a couple of new pics on my images page. one from alaina's dance recital, one misc., and a couple from the 4th of july parade in eagan, mn.

i feel like a bunch of things are about to happen, but haven't really started yet. we're having a new baby, we need a new vehicle, perhaps a new house too? we are going on vacation in a few weeks, we may go to boston, i may go to milwaukee, allie and the girls may go to chicago....the only thing i know for sure is that i'm going to the ymca but that's within the next few minutes...maybe next time i'll be less confused.

well, it's a short week. got a couple of days off for the fourth.a nice looooong weekend. hopefully the weather will be nice, it's been dreadfully hot and humid but it is summer after all.

allie had a dr.'s appointment on monday and heard the baby's heartbeat. everythings progressing fine.
happy independence day and be back in a couple of days.

Dear thirdthoughts,


We contacted you 30 days ago to remind you to reduce the size of your
Angelfire site to
comply with the Free service disk space quota of 20 MB.


Our records indicate that as of June 21st your site still exceeds the Free
service disk
space limit of 20 MB. Accordingly, your account is now frozen and you may
only delete
files or move them to another location until your site meets the quota.


As of this notice, you have an additional 30 days to comply with this
request. If you fail
to do so, files from your account will be deleted to ensure your site meets
the quota.


Thank you!

The Angelfire team.

what does this mean exactly? not much really...in all honesty i don't remember receiving an e-mail from the "angelfire team" asking me to reduce the size of my website. had i received one, i would have responded accordingly. unless you were downloading mp3's here (don't worry, you weren't) than the size limitation is a non-issue. i had to delete, at least for the time being, my self-produced, legal, non-copyright violating mp3s, merely to comply with the size restriction. after having deleted said files, i am now sitting at 14 mb, well under the 20 mb limit, and still have a little room to grow. this solution suits me fine for now, until such time when i deem it more critical to have additional space for downloading of files, hosting files, etc..i realy don't have a legitimate complaint as the 20 mb is still free, and they do permit you to purchase additional space and band width. for now, my free, ad banner filled site, lives on. God bless Amererica!

i guess i should post that i've been too busy to come here and post...whatever! work has been interfering with my "free time" lately but that's just how it goes. is this post worthy?

going to the twins\brewers game on saturday night. looking forward to the weekend in general. always lots to do...

check in early next week, cheers.

congratulations to brian and kelly!

the wedding went down as scheduled this past saturday in boston. my folks were able to go and said it went very well. best wishes to the couple and we hope to see you later in the summer!
other than that, a pretty typical weekend for me. very hot, hot, hot, and humid. enjoyed the peter himmelman show saturday night. now, back to work.

some heavy summer-like rain is falling this morning...
the ball squad is having a bit of a "june swoon". dropped 2 last night which puts us at 8-4 and out of the first place tie.
i'm definetely ready for the weekend. going to the peter himmelman gig tomorrow night at the fine line. thanks for scoring the tix jeff!
have a good weekend, i'm out...

i had my six month checkup today and all is well. next month i will be two years post chemo which is kind of a nice milestone. it was pretty much routine, chest x-rays, blood tests, and exam. my actual time spent with my dr. was probably less that 5 minutes. (that's a GOOD thing). it's nice to know my dr. has bigger problems than me to worry about now...my next checkup concides with our afore mentioned due date!

worth mentioning...my sister left for boston today. the wedding is on saturday. best wishes!

BIG NEWS!
i guess the time has come to make it "official"...allie and i are expecting child # 3 in december! 29th to be exact, at least that's what we're told so far. we have known for some time but decided to wait for the full 3 month before we went public.
now some questions remain such as, where will we live?, what will we drive?, etc...not sure on any of those things right now. stay tuned, could be a busy summer!

hey, pretty good weekend. spent a good part of it playing ball. squad went 5-2, much better than i thought we would do! needless to say, i'm a bit achey and sunburned today.
yesterday afternoon was our "father's day\ kelly farewell" gig. mom & dad get to go the wedding now, which is huge! i'm a bit jealous but i still hope we all get to go later on in the sumnmer.
i have some more news to post here, which i probably will once i have a chance to tell a few more people in person....check back later!

"i hate you (but you're interesting"...) - beautiful south

our softball team marches onward...split our doubleheader last night, makes us 8-2 for the year. good enough for a first place tie. another state qualifier this weekend in faribault, mn.
happy father's day on sunday dad! (or fathers not my dad)
we are also having a family get together on sunday, a "send-off" of sorts for kelly. she leaves for boston next week and is getting married next saturday. we will more than likely be making a trip out there towards the end of summer for an official celebration. MUST SCORE REDSOX TICKETS! did i say that out loud?
another tired friday...must feign interest for several more hours @ work.
much love..

greetings to any and all. as you may have guessed by my preceding post, the outdoor music festival was pretty much a rip-off in my mind. you expect a certain amount of access to the events you are there to see and it simply did not exist. chalk it up as a learning experience, hopefully on both ends. i'll post mr. engen's response (if he sends one).
did catch "the sum of all fears this weekend. it was decent but not a "must see".
saw an excellent baseball game at the dome last night. our twins did in the might atlanta braves in 15 innings. didn't stay to the end but caught it on the radio. feeling a little road weary today just the same.
that's all for now...

Mr. Jon Engen,

I am writing this to express my disappointment in the organization of the Summer Music Festival this past weekend on the Northwestern College Campus. What promised to be a fun outdoor concert event turned into a logistics nightmare once you entered the gate. My wife and I spent $75 on wristbands for admission and had absolutely no chance whatsoever to see the performers on stage, from any perspective, due to the amount of people at this event. We spoke to people who had waited over two hours in the concession lines and were still waiting! We had planned to spend at least 6 hours at this event but were compelled to leave after about an hour and a half. It just wasn't any fun for us. We saw some of the same folks on our bus ride into the event and on the way back to the parking lot who had had similar experiences. I am sure the organizers of this event had the best of intentions but you simply cannot plan to host 13,000 people and not have the means to accommodate them. Perhaps more care can be taken the next time an event of this magnitude is planned, or maybe an alternative site could be used? The transportation method to and from the various lots worked well and was very efficient. Unfortunately, that was one of the few positive experiences I took away from that day. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Harvard (Skip) Price III

my hair has once again grown beyond the acceptable lengths...must get haircut! i wasn't crazy about my last one...wasn't short enough. i'm kinda picky about it. i want it OFF the ears, meaning i don't want any hair touching my ears when you're done. is that so hard!? about once every 6 weeks is ideal...this last one didn't make it. i've go the "horns" already forming on the sides. maybe i should go for the "moby" look? anyway...i'm giving them another try this afternoon. that is all...

grandmother's song
by steve martin

Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
Be gentle and peaceful each day,
Be warm and human and grateful,
And have a good thing to say.

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike,
Be witty and happy and wise,
Be honest and love all your neighbours,
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant.

Be pompus, obese, and eat cactus,
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent,
Criticize things you don't know about,
Be oblong and have your knees removed.

Be tasteless, rude, and offensive,
Live in a swamp and be three dimentional,
Put a live chicken in your underwear,
Get all excited and go to a yawning festival.

Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
Be gentle and peaceful each day,
Be warm and human and grateful,
And have a good thing to say.

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike,
Be witty and happy and wise,
Be honest and love all your neighbours,
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant.

Be pompus, obese, and eat cactus,
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent,
Criticize things you don't know about,
Be oblong and have your knees removed.

Be tasteless, rude, and offensive,
Live in a swamp and be three dimentional,
Put a live chicken in your underwear,
Go into a closet and suck eggs.

hey, it's thursday already...i love these 4 day weeks! back to reality next week. going to the ktis summer musical festivel this saturday. it's sort of a lollapolooza of christian bands. i guess the only performers i am very familiar with are: sara groves, chris rice, and michael w. smith. should be good. i hope the weather is nice!
it's been a fairly busy week...seems like something going on about every night. check back later...

surprise to anyone who didn't think noelle's birthday pictures would be here yet. you can check them out on my images page or click here. i've been in the habit of staying up late these past few nights. one more doesn't hurt, plus...i don't have to go to work in the morning. i antcicpated a whirlwind weekend and need one more day to catch up. good choice, aya? alaina's dance recital is tomorrow night. won't be too many pictures from that as are seats are pretty far in the back i guess. should be a good night. ice cream at dq to follow...life in the fast lane :-)

wow, summer seems to have arrived ahead of schedule! it's been very warm the last couple of days, near 90 yesterday! we deserve it.
i guess it's time to put a softball update in here. if you didn't know i'm playing thursday night double-headers in hastings (ASA) class d\c. so far after 3 weeks we are 5-1. not bad...0-4 in tournaments. not good.
lot going on this weekend. alaina's dress rehearsal for her dance recital (which is monday night) is tonight. noelle's birthday is sunday, she'll be 3!! look for pics next week. taking monday off to catch up on stuff.
that about catches us up...check later.

what a great weekend...and memorial day! yesterday was one of those days you hated to see end. i got to golf in the morning (2 birdies!), weather rocked. got to relax and spend some time with the family in the afternoon\evening. it was sort of a buzzkill coming back to work today but oh well...someomne's gotta help keep the economy rolling.
saw a bizarre film this weekend, "mullholland drive". i mean, i expected weird being a david lynch film and all, but wooooow! you almost have to watch it again to understand it better. i was pretty lost for most of it.
i chickened out on upgrading my home pc to xp. i did all the preliminary stuff, was cocked and loaded and ready to pull the trigger when i got the report on how many of my current devices "probably" would not work under xp. so, my printer, antivirus software, and digital camera may not work. it wasn't worth the headache of risking all that when it all works perfectly fine with win '98. so...i'm putting that off for now...more later.

happy friday to all! it's especially nice because there is a three day weekend ahead - woo hoo! gonna golf for the first time of the season on monday. i'm thinking of upgrading to windows xp on my home pc this weekend. that could mean a late night. i think i'm prepared enough. gonna update the bios too. i read on hp's website that they do not recommend upgrading to xp on my model because it's never been tested. whatever...guess i can't say i wasn't warned. no real big plans for memorial day..enjoy what you do...see ya next week!

.

ok, i thought i was having some trouble posting updates..i think i'm back on track? ignore the 2 previous posts:-)

i discovered a cool search engine called kartoo which is a metasearch engine which draws animated web maps. i believe it is a french site and that "kartoo" is french for "cartoon". could be wrong about that though. i also discovered that there is a website called thirdthought.com, (drop the "s" from thoughts) which is a smalltime consulting company. bet they really wanted the domain name "thirdthoughts". ha ha! i got it first!! sorry..."thirdthought" just doesn't sound right...but maybe, that's the sound you were going for?
guess the lyric i posted yesterday made a devoted reader of my blog go, "hmmmm...".that's ok, any reaction at all is a good one i guess. later!

when my honey comes back, sometimes
i'm gonna rap that jack, sometimes
get a hump in my back, sometimes
i'm going over here, sometimes

way down yonder, sometimes
gonna get my pal, sometimes

ok, so it wasn't THAT official...the wedding date has moved from monday, june 24th to either the previous friday or saturday (21st, or 22nd). since i won't be there anyway, it doesn't make that much difference to me, as long as they keep the dates straight :-).
had a nice weekend, weather has been cool but sunny. won't complain...
for the record, i have NOT seen Spiderman, OR the new Star Wars film, and have no future plans to.

happy friday! a bit tired this morning...i'm having to caffeinate a little more heavily this am than ususal. looks like a good day...finally a couple of days in a row where it's actually sunny.
today is alaina's pre-school graduation...or as she says, her "congratulation". remember summer breaks? they rocked, didn't they? up until midnight...sleeping 'til 10:00. i think a similar idea should be employed in the corporate world.
well, have a nice weekend...back early next week.

it's official...kelly and brian are getting married on monday, june 24th, in boston. how cool is that? at least we finally know!! hope i can make it to the reception! i'd love to go back to boston again.
perfect night for a picnic last night...somebody picked the best possible day for that.
typical mid-week day around here. more rain expected...got a state qualifier this weekend. don't forget, mom's birthday is saturday!

it's a lovely spring day outside today, (finally!). this afternoon is alaina's pre-school picnic. should be nice weather for it. then, the rain is supposed to come back, but we're not talking about that. not much else going on...back to work!

"hey, hey, hey, but i like it when that lightning comes"...
as afore mentioned, the new site is up and running. feel free to poke around. let me know what you like and don't like. not that it'll change anything...i just like to know :-) i'm 99% done, just a little tweaking to do here and there. happy monday to anyone reading!

ok, it's nearly midnight but i wanted to get this site "live". it's finally done, except for a few minor details. it's a different look (as you can tell if you've ever been here before) but most of the content is the same. to be completely honest, i'm a little bit tired of looking at it so i think i'll just chill for awhile. i'll try an post comments a little more often now that that part is automated. thanks to simon and garfunkel for getting me through this last hour...it's late, i'm tired, nighty night!

i'm finalizing the details and getting all of my pages in place...i haven't had time to focus on content too much. it's all been pretty much design. anyway, by this weekend i should be set to go.

i'm getting really close now...just have a few more pages to put together. i'm excited about the "new " look. it's rather cool if you ask me:-)

the countdown begins!...i'm getting closer to my new "launch" date...i'm guessing about 5 more days.

alrighty...i'm doing some more experimentation here. i think i'm going forward with the new look. less clutter...i'll still have all the old pics and archives. just less useless stuff...we'll see what happens

can i change my template format? hmmm....still in discovery mode here

ok, we're having fun now!

hey..this is a test to see how it works....nothing real interesting to say yet:-)