it's the end of the year as we know it...

and i don't feel all that fine. have come down with some nasty virus or other and have the worst sore throat in recent memory. have spent the last couple of days pretty well hunkered down at home not doing much of anything. i have found time to post my christmas pictures, which can be seen here, although having to ftp my files via analog connection was a major drag. maybe sometime this year i'll actually get setup with broadband? stay tuned for updates on that.
saw a good movie this past week, "the aviator". learned a lot about this howard hughes guy, mostly that he was a very rich weirdo. got a couple of rentals to watch over the next 7 days.
thought about doing a recap of the year, similar to what i did last year, but don't have the energy to do it now. you can always review my archived blogs if you are really curious.
that's it for now, i'm out, happy 2005!

the aftershock...

hope everyone had a great christmas and you got to spend the day with family and friends. ours was great, did the usual 2 tiered christmas day celebration, morning with allies family, afternoon\evening with my family. i have to sort through the 63 pictures i took during the day and will get a few of the best posted in the next few days. as noted, i have the rest of the week off and we still have several more events on the calendar before relatives start heading back home. more later...

although it's been said many times, many ways...

...merry christmas 2 u!
alrighty then. this is probably my last post for a few days as i am officially on vacation after today until january 3rd, 05. don't be surprised if i manage to post a couple of updates between now and then but i will most likely be pre-occupied with many other things.
it appears as though my domain name: thirdthoughts.com has been successfully transferred to 1and1. final note on this and then we will all move on with our lives. if you have this site bookmarked at http://www.s88752791.onlinehome.us/ PLEASE rebookmark to www.thirdthoughts.com, or click here and then rebookmark, (or add to favorites). you will know when this is done becuase you will see www.thirdthoughts.com in the address field and NOT http://www.s88752791.onlinehome.us/. both should work for now but eventually the onlinhome.us will be going away. do it now..please? thank you. i am also receiveing my skip@thirdthoughts.com at the new location so you don't have to do anything differently there.
all of our respective bostonian relatives have arrived. we look forward to hosting the price family version of christmas day at our house. that's right, 19 people (last count, give or take someone i may have missed) at our home. we may have had to move some chairs out of the living room but we do have a nice gigantic christmas tree for everyones viewing pleasure.
that's all for now. will check back in a few days.

update...

just an update to say there is no update. actually a representative from register.com called me yesterday to ask why i was tranferring my domain. let's see, $35 per year vs.'s $5.99...hmmmmm let me think about that one. apparently there are many other reasons besides cost that i should consider staying with register.com. but i couldn't get her to convince me of any of them. they said the transfer would take place in 12-24 hours. so far, at the time of this posting, it hasn't.
today marks the official beginning of the christmas holiday madness and the meriad of get-togethers and activities that will no doubt ensue. it's always hectic and sometimes nerve-wracking but always fun. more later...

just a reminder...

it looks like the domain transfer will go down on monday december, 20th. i will try to get all my pages reloaded some time that day. you may need to re-bookmark this page at http://www.thirdthoughts.com because currently it is being re-directed to (http://www.s88752791.onlinehome.us/). i will transfer my current emails and get skip@thirdthoughts back up and running as well. here's hoping for a seemless transfer!

allie's birthday pics...

...can be seen on the images page. too lazy to post link...you know where to go...

baby, it's cold outside...

8 degrees above zero to be exact...still no snow yet. i think we will have to be dreaming of a white christmas this year with every christmas card we write.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLIE! hope the drives to and from school are a little shorter and owen's nap is a little longer today. i love you hon!
i realize yetserday's post was a little on the dry side. no one really cares where my domain lives or where it is being transferred to, or who my registrar's are or might be. but, due to my policy of full-disclosure, i feel it's my responsibility to keep everyone informed as to the technical aspects of this blog. plus it feels good getting it off my chest, which is really what this site is all about.
a note re: christmas music. i now understand that last year i had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with christmas music and getting as much of it as possible ripped to digital format. the end result is that i now have 1,112 christmas songs on my ipod and ready to go. not all of it is even that good and it's hogging up over 6 gb! i may have to compress that list in the future and just keep the good stuff.
i have some time left to burn this year so a few light work weeks ahead.
i had a grand total of "0" sick days this year but i have accepted the fact that i will get no recognition for being so healthy.
more later...

keep it together...

i am in the process of moving my domain name "thirdthoughts.com" from it's previous registrar, "register.com", to "1and1.com", who is my actual web host. what, you may ask, does this mean to you? hopefully nothing. except that you should no longer see http://www.s88752791.onlinehome.us in the address line of your browser anymore. the transfer usually takes 7-10 days and is actually a pretty formal process. being that i am the owner of the domain there isn't any transfer of ownership, it should be easier....i hope. there is a chance that this site could be temporarily down for awhile over the next couple of weeks while i sort all of this out. i will probably have to transfer my entire site via ftp to my new domain space. i haven't figured out the full impact yet, but i will no doubt have to do some tweaking to get this completed. for example, my current skip@thirdthoughts email address is with register so i'll have to set up an email address with 1 & 1. why am i going through all of this? the domain name is only $5.99 a year as opposed to $35 per year with register.com. so...this is just a warning that there may be some technical difficulties ahead until all of this transferring stuff is resolved.

enterprise, we'll pick you up...

ok, trying something new. i'll go with this for awhile and see how it works. the idea is to try to come up with a clever 2-3 word summary of my subsequent post. all the kids are doing it....why can't i?
the chicgao trip went down. it was a loooong day, as i knew it would be. the best part was actually seeing the t-systems headquarters and meeting some of the people and putting names with faces of people i talk to alot. the blackberry device is a cool thing. hopefully i'll be getting one soon.
a couple of things...the first hitch i ran into was, funny, no rental cars at midway! not just with "enterprise" with whom i had my reservation, but no rental cars to be found with any agency, period! a couple of things came to mind, one was the seinfeld episode, you know the one. "anybody can just take a reservation...it's holding the reservation that's really the most important part of the reservation." also the scene in "planes, trains, and automobiles" that earned it an "R" rating. if you saw the movie, you know of what i speak. had to take a cab from midway to lisle, illinois for $72. on top of all that,i had a screwdriver (from my latop bag), and a small size swiss army knife from my keychain confiscated at midway. it was my own fault for being so careless. what bothers me a little was, why was it ok to take those things from the mpls-st.paul airport? there were a few other amusing anecdotes from the trip, but i'll either post later or tell you in person.
good news, my original recipts turned up in the mail. this is huge because this will facilitate a more timely reimbursement, which is critical due to the time of the year and the fact that we are spending money like rock stars at the moment.
more later...

the new looks been up for a couple of days. i know there's still a few broken links to deal with. i have been underwhelmed with feedback from at least 2 individuals, both in my immediate family.
it's been busy at work to say the least. a rather challenging week as well due to the fact that apparently my expense report and original receipts from my recent trip to LA got lost in the US mail. this means that getting reimbursed for my expenses may be a bit harder than it's really meant to be. i accept responsibility for the fact that i neglected to make photo copies of all of my original receipts and i will chock that up as a lesson learned. hopefully, this dilemma will have a happy ending? stay tuned...
speaking of trips, i have a whirlwind trip to chicago and back scheduled for tomorrow. rest assured all receipts will be accounted for and photocopied immediately upon my return. the trip is to my t-systems home base in lisle, illinois to attend a 2 hour meeting on blackberry devices that my group will soon be supporting. i also have an unscheduled, and unannounced meeting planned with accounts payable to beg for forgiveness and reimbursement in full.
more later...

well, here it is...what do you think? don't savage me on the broken links. i realize some of the image archives aren't linked yet. i'll figure that out another time. at least it's a fresh new look just in time for '05 (whatever that means?). hopefully, it will last me at least a year. more later...