year in review...

another year has come and gone. as is my tradition, below is a high-level recap of the events that were documented at thirdthoughts.

january
2 - owen turns 3
9 - allison and i celebrate anniversary #13
23 - brian and kelly bring home danny flynn

february
10 - i finally get high-speed internet at home

march
9 - my birthday
12 - family mini-vacation to wisconsin dells

april
21 - linksys finally approves my rebate submissions (slow month)

may
6 - alaina turns 9
13 - twins game with the whole family
22 - we purchase new washing machine
28 - i redesign photo albums on this site using zen photo
31 - alaina's piano recital

june
2 - noelle turns 7
12 - the girls dance recital

july
4 - eagan independence day parade
7 - i get my "new" car
21- 20th high school class reunion
31 - we acquire "marcy" the guinea pig for 3rd round draft pick and player to be named later

august
4 - st. anthony village fest parade
16 - family vacation to boston
31 - annual pilgrammage to minnesota state fair

september
19 - i make the somewhat controversial decision to upgrade my home gym equipment

october
1 - annual golf outing with the guys
7 - girls bike marathon
28 - cardinals win world series

november
1 - i paint my bathroom
7 - i rant about "i voted" sticker

december
14 - allisons birthday
20 - girls advent program
23 - snowtubing at elm creek park reserve

by all accounts it was a very good year for the price household. we are looking forward to the new year and the many new opportunities and challenges it will no doubt bring. we have been very blessed!

here's to a very happy 2007!

christmas wrap...

a short post...Christmas day has come and gone but the holiday festivities continue on. we had a great Christmas and spent the day with family on both sides. click here for the photos. i will post again soon.

merry christmas!

we enjoyed a couple of hours of snow tubing yesterday at the elm creek park reserve winter recreation area at three rivers park in maple grove. click here to see the video documentation of one of my spectacular runs.
the christmas festivities are in high gear.
merry christmas to all of you, from all of me.

one of my most favorite christmas stories...
"My Christmas Miracle" by Taylor Caldwell

silent night...

i, like many others, sometimes struggle to get into the spirit of the season what with the hustle and bustle of work, financial stress, and daily life. the holiday music, cards from friends, christmas decorations, and time spent in quiet refelection of what the season means to you sometimes helps. it all clicked for me last thursday, during my daughters advent program at school. it's the standard christmas program, the same story told every year by a million kids in a million school programs, but it really hit home for me this year. i'm sure the video itself may not mean that much to you, but the story rings true, and for me, it encapsulates the entire christmas season into a few moments.
click here to view a 1:05 minute windows media clip.

a flurry of activity...

it's been a wild ride these last few days, barely time to take a deep breath and regroup before the next onslaught. started out thursday which was allie's birthday and also the advent program at st. charles. alaina made us proud with her portrayal of mary, a role which was light on the spoken word (not one), and heavy in the character\visual sense, i.e., rapid hand movement explanations, pretending to ride a boy dressed as a mule, pretending to chat it up with the village maidens, barefoot and robed all the while. the highlight was when they brought out the "baby Jesus" which was an actual newborn baby. seeing my 9 yr old daughter holding a newborn, portraying her own child, produced a wide range of unexplainable feelings. needless to say, we were proud of her, and noelle did a great job too, singing with her class as part of the program. next up was celebrating allie's birthday. we went to dinner at our favorite pseudo-american\mexicana restaurante and then back to the house for cake and presents.
saturday was our annual "sno-ball" christmas party at the st. paul hotel. thanks to grandma & grandpa for letting the kids sleepover and letting us stay out later than 11pm.
sunday was the kids program at church and a visit from the big-guy (see above photo).
thankfully, i have today off from work and can re-boot before the rest of the hectic week begins.
for a few more recent pics check here.
more soon

Happy Birthday Allie!

you're still my best friend!

the most wonderful time of the year?

now that Christmas is only two weeks out the holiday stress is probably starting to creep in. it's amazing really when you think about it. the shopping, the planning & organizing, not to mention the fact that if you have a job you still have the daily stress of that. some people i know get depressed about not having any snow...like you can control that? anyway, i'm fairly certain my Christmas shopping is done, as we made some honest efforts to downsize the gift-giving part this year. the lights are on the house, we have our christmas cards ready to write & send (a fairly large task that is not yet complete), christmas tree purchased and resting in the back yard until we have time to actually plant it in the living room, so things are happening. next week relatives will arrive from out of town which will no doubt add to the business. here's a quick look at this week, thursday is allie's birthday, plus my kids advent service at school (which alaina has the part of "Mary"), followed by celebrating allies' birthday on friday and our annual Christmas party on saturday, not to mention the fact that things at work are in a year-end frenzy. i know i'm not alone in this but i think the key is too focus on the moment and enjoy it and not insist on perfection. a hallmark Christmas season is just not gonna happen. i found a few tips that is supposed to help ease the holiday stress. maybe there's something there we all could use?

floating holiday...

i took my company up on it's 11th hour offer of one additional PTO day (to be used by the end of this year) as a reward for all of my hard work and accomplishments over this past year. coincidentally, it seems that all of the other employees were rewarded this way as well. as i already have some time scheduled off between christmas and new years, the opportunities to use this last day are diminishing. i have elected to take tomorrow (friday) off to hopefully finish up the little christmas shopping i have to do, along with buying allie's birthday present, which happens to be next week. other than that i plan to be completely unproductive. we'll see.

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.
- Mary Wilson Little

Christmas hits and mixes...

now that thanksgiving is history and your Christmas online shopping has no doubt began, you can shamelessy dust off those Christmas records and get your holiday groove on. me? i'm a sucker for the classics. bing, dean martin, nat king cole, that's where it's at for me. imho there is no such thing as good "new" Christmas music, with the possible exception of some stuff from the contemporary Christian genre. however, my latest kick has been re-discovering the classic hits which have been re-mixed to sound more modern, funky and electronic. there are three essential cd's (with a couple of dupes) that are "must-haves" if you like this brand of music. you are not likely to find these at your local target or walmart but they are accessible on-line at places like amazon, or i threw together an imix that you can see here (if you have itunes installed). listen to samples or download the whole thing for a mere $35.64 (i do NOT get a cut :-(

no itunes? you can get the amazon scoop here:

christmas remixed
christmas remixed vol 2
merry mixmas

you can also stream the entire merry mixmas album here

more soon...

still waiting...

to get some useful assistance from the kind folks of blogger tech support or the blogger help group. so far i have been unable to get an answer to the question: "why can't i publish my template changes or settings without getting this generic server error"? this all has to do with my upgrade to blogger-beta, which in hindsight was a decision i made prematurely. so, until then...we wait. at least i can still post updates & stuff. there will be no changes to this template (layout) or formatting until the publishing problem is fixed.
more soon...

update
my blog is still not functioning 100% but it's close enough now where i think i can deal with it. it appears as though i can make changes to my template and save the edits. also my archives will link to the correct pages it's just that the archived links from the archived pages still don't work. it bugs me a little but i doubt if it really effects anyone other than me :-(. onward & upwards - life is too short.

getting closer?

i just realized that when i made that last post, all of my archives changed format from (example), "04.02" to "April 2002". amazingly the archive links from my main page now seem to work? i noticed that when you get to the archive link that archive format is still "04.02" and those links do not work. hmmmm...time for bed.

don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things...

i have spent a good part of the weekend trying to figure out this dead archive link problem. obviously the recent upgrade to blogger beta hosed the way my template and archives are supposed to publish via ftp to my webhost :-( this is frustrating on many levels but i will be patient and try to wait it out til it gets sorted out. i have been all over the message boards, google blogger support groups, have changed settings within my blogger dashboard related to archives & publishing via ftp and have not figured this out yet. clearly it looks like blogger released it's beta program without adequate research on how it effects publishing via ftp. i have submitted an offical cryt for help from the blogger support team so until they either, a. fix the problem on their end, or b. tell me how to fix the problem on my end, you will be limited to seeing only my current, & last few posts. this is something i can live with for awhile but i want it fixed! otherwise i could start shopping around for a new way to blog.
had a great thanksgiving...took a couple of pics which can be viewed here.
hopefully some good news in a few days.

technical difficulties, please stand by

thirdthoughts has learned that the entire archive section appears to be offline. we suspect that this has to do with the recent "upgrade" to blogger-beta. the archives should reappear (in theory) once i can get in to republish the archives but the blogger server appears to be toast at the moment. thirdthoughts regrets any inconvenience this may cause and is kind of ticked off at itself for even upgrading in the first place.

more proof that it is a world gone mad...

tgdaily.com has confirmed that a sony playstation 3 has recently sold on ebay for $15,000.00

the less useful side of the internet...

i haven't laughed this hard for days. apparently there is a website called "singshot" which is an on-line singing community which provides access to thousands of songs and allows you to record your own version of songs and have others listen to them online (a.k.a. making an ass of yourself for others amusement). i only previewed a couple but they are truly some of the worst singers i have ever heard. if simon cowell thinks he's heard the worst, he obviously hasn't looked here yet. there may be some talented singers out there on singshot but clearly not in the few i checked out. check out nkay, age 15, from the uk, covering the song "take on me" by the 80's pop band a-ha. you'll never make it to the end...

a bite from the apple?...

of course today is the day microsoft unleashes their version of apple's ipod, the zune. i have researched the zune and it seems to have some admirable features, including a huge (by comparison) 3" lcd screen and the ability to view photos in both portrait and landscape mode. there's also some sort of built in wi-fi functionality although i'm not sure if you can purchase tunes using that feature or not...(ok, i haven't researched it that much). i haven't held one in my hand yet so i can't compare it directly to an ipod but i think that generally speaking, competition in the area of digital music players is a win for the consumer.

will i be buying one? no, at least no time in the near future. i'm still set with my 3rd gen ipod, but i wouldn't rule it out some day down the road.

it's way too early to know if the zune will be a legitimate player in the digital music player market or not but this will no doubt fuel the fire that exists between hardcore macvangelists and windows extremists.

• update: i found this interesting. the zune is NOT compatible with microsoft vista. how is microsoft supposed to force you to update your OS AND buy a zune? i'm sure the developers are hard at work rectifying this issue as i type.

6 weeks left until christmas...

just an observation...not necessarily the theme of this rather bland post. a few random things. blogger apparently re-vamped their entire back end. i have "upgraded" to the version "blogger-beta", which promises loads of new and improved features. hopefully all of this will be transparent to you. speaking of upgrading, i also upgraded all of my computers to itunes 7 this weekend. also did some scanning, downloaded some stuff via bit torrent, and burned a dvd. i know this is all very useful and interesting information.
i spent a good part of saturday trying to round up the remaining leaves in my yard. ten more bags to the compost pile. never get'em all but that was probably my last serious effort.
nothing new to report on the job search. i'm in my "laying the groundwork" phase and am just trying to remain patient. it's easy to find a job but a lot harder to find that perfect one. we'll see what the coming weeks bring.
more later...

comment: by the way, it's too early to be hanging wreaths on your front door, or stringing lights, or listening to christmas music. do NOT rush the Holiday season! if you must string lights on your house already, you should NOT illuminate them for any reason on or before november 23rd. thank you.

sticker shock...(a rant)

i will never, ever, wear the "i voted" sticker. why do so many people feel compelled to put that sticker on? is it a desire for instant gratification? as if, "i may not see the results right away, but hey, they gave me this little red sticker as a reward, so..at least that's something". is it to make a statement like, "i know very little about the actual candidates or issues here, but by wearing this sticker i can at least temporarily fool some people into thinking that since i voted, i obviously must be more informed and enlightened than you."? why do they even give out the stickers? what if you vote after work? isn't the whole point to announce to the world, or at least everyone you come into contact that day that you did in fact vote? would someone actually stop after work, vote, and then wear their sticker on their 5 minute drive home?
first of all, it's really nobody's business if i voted or not. should i be expected to tell everyone that i meet throughout the day that "i voted, but i choose not to wear the sticker", or, "i'll be voting after work"? watch them give me "the look" like, "spare me the lies". it is my contention that there are a few people out there who actually vote just to get the sticker. yes, really...hopefully a small percentage.
need another reason not to wear the sticker? it damages some materials...such as leather. it actually once left a permanent sticker sized mark on a nice leather coat of my wife's. what do you think the sticker people would have said if we'd gone back to ask for compensation for the damage? "hey, that's the chance you take when you tell everyone that you voted"!
do i think you're a bad person if you wore an "i voted" sticker today? not necessarily... if i saw you, i just assumed that you used it to cover a coffee stain on your shirt or jacket, the only acceptable reason to wear one.

before & after....

here is the proof that i did not spend my entire week watching dr. phil and oprah...

clarification: the order of the pictures is confusing. bathroom was white before, now a delightful emerald green.

downtime...

i took the whole week off of work this week to: A.- use my vacation time (or lose it - NOT an option), B. - get some stuff done around the house. i was able to paint my bathroom, do yardwork, transfer the summer gear to the shed, haul out the winter gear, queue up the snoblower in case it snows this winter, visit the compost pile, wal-mart (our coffee maker died), and the library, plus a slew of other things i can't remember at the moment. i feel like a bit of a slacker cuz i have been staying up extra later and getting up just in time to see the kids off to school, but it'll be short-lived as i get back into action next monday. in some ways i think allie will be fine with that.

halloween 06...

the kids braved the cold and scoured the immediate neighborhood for the usual assorted treats. "dorothy" was the first to succomb to the elements, as expected, and she will be the first to remind you that she had the thinnest layers on. noelle assumed the role of "the witch" complete with green skin and broom, and owen was in fact a "real fire fighter".
here are the pics.

five card studs & tigers fold...

the cardinals completed their unlikely run by winning the '06 world series in five games. the tigers, a great team all year apparently suffered the same desease that st. louis had in '04, when the redsox swept them in 4 games. talented as they are, the tigers simply failed to execute, made too many dumb errors, and plain didn't show up for the series. the cards outplayed them, plain and simple in nearly every facet of the game. credit detroit manager jim leyland for not making excuses and taking all the blame for the lackluster play of his team. it's obvious that the lessoned learned is, no matter how you play throughout the regular season, you have to have play well when it counts, in october, to win it all. congrats 2006 cards!

in control...

the cards are one win away from a world series championship, a feat they have not accomplished since i was 14 and living in missouri. lest i feel too confident in a world series crown, i am reminded of a similar occasion, 1968 in fact, (the year i as born) when the cards were up 3 games to 1, as they are now, only to fall to the detroit tigers in 7. let's hope that history does not repeat itself here. i would like to see the cards finish it off tonight at home, because if they don't they will be forced back to detroit where the tigers have one 2 in a row, dozens of times thoughout the year. anyway, one more time in st. louis, tonight, barring another rain storm - bring it!

Cat + Celling Fan = Comedy

a buddy of mine is helping me install a ceiling fan tonight...couldn't pass up this video

back on track...

chis carpenter throws gem, blanks tigers 5-0, cardinals back to playing like cardinals, up two games to one, jeff suppan waiting in wings.

ipod turns five...

and now for a non-baseball related post...
apple's ipod turns 5 today. you don't need me to tell you that the ipod has completely revolutionized the entire music listening public, much like, but more so than sony's walkman did in the 80's. my 3rd gen 40 gb ipod converted my rack of nearly 1,000 cd's to something as small as a deck of cards (minus the slick "iskin" i purchased for it). the ipod has also evolved a lot in the last 5 years, from a mac-only, music only device, to a mac-windows crossplatform, music, video, photo, nearly all-in-one entertainment system. i have resisted for now the urge to upgrade from my original ipod as it still performs the task of kicking out the jams like a trooper, and i have never felt the need for video and photos' on an ipod, but that will probably change at some point down the road. i dare say i probably use it's little brother, the 512 mb ipod shuffle, even more than than the full-size pod. read more from ipodlounge...

The original iPod, which cost $399, had a cutting-edge 1.8” 5GB hard drive that could be filled with high-speed FireWire connectivity, and used a brightly backlit 2-inch monochrome screen and innovative Scroll Wheel for control. It was about the size of a deck of cards, weighed 6.5 ounces, and worked only with Mac computers. “With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again,” Jobs said at the time. Almost no one believed the man, or understood why the iPod’s design was importantly different from previously released MP3 players, but his words turned out to be spot on.

Five years later, the iPod is now a true cultural icon, and has in fact changed the way the world listens to music—more than 69 million iPods are now in the hands of music fans around the globe. The iPod accounts for over 75% of all portable music players sold in the U.S, and is the leading such device in several other major countries. Over 3,000 iPod accessories are said to be available for purchase, while approximately 70% of the 2007 model year cars sold in the U.S. will offer direct iPod integration as an option. Apple’s iTunes Store continues to ring up sale after sale of music, movies and TV shows, with iTunes accounting for 85% of digital media purchased and downloaded in the U.S, and leading each of the markets in which it sells music worldwide. And neither the iPod or iTunes show any sign of slowing down.

now i still believe that apple has some hurdles to cross, particulary with respect to their embedded DRM technology on all tunes purchased from the itunes music store, but the ipod remains without question the digital music player standard to which all others are compared.

anything is possible...

in one of the best game 7 battles i've ever witnessed the cards upended the heavily favored new york mets to advance to the world series. the game was close thoughout and despite jeff suppan's outstanding pitching performance, (7 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 0.60 era) the game remained tied 1-1 going into the ninth. there were several momentum swingers, including endy chavez's miracle catch robbing scott rolen of a 2 run homer, but unlikely hero yadia molina launched a 2 run homerun in the 9th to give the cards the edge. cards rookie closer, adam wainright, made it much too interesting in the bottom of the ninth loading the bases before getting carlos beltran looking on a sweet 12-6 curve to end it. most say that the cards are still overmatched against detroit and on paper, it's hard to disagree, however, it's been proven that at times, especially in the post season, you can get by with momentum and grit. there is no real reason that the cardinals should win the world series which is precisly why they might. win or lose, i look for it to be a close series, closer than in 2004 when the redsox swept the cards in 4, and it's nice to know that tony larussa will be calling the shots. in my opinion, he gives them the best reason of any of knocking off the tigers.

one win away...

ahh, my favorite time of year. i'm happiest the week(s) when forced to stay up late watching october baseball, especially when one of my 3 teams is in the hunt for the world series. my second team, the st. louis cardinals, are one win away from advancing on to meet the tigers in the fall classic. it's been fun watching them upstage (so far) the mighty bats of the new york mets. up until now they have over-achieved given their undeniable role as underdogs. this is not the same cardinal team of past years, admittingly backing into the central division title on the last day (due to a houston loss), but alas, it has been said that october spawns unsung heroes and unlikely role players (i.e, scott speizio, chris duncan, so taguchi) often step up and make the difference. tonight the series moves back to shea and with it the mission to beat the new york once, in a possible two games. win or lose, the redbirds have played well enough to make me a proud member of cardinal nation.

unlucky?

friday the 13th has long been known as a day of bad luck in english and portuguese speaking cultures around the globe. some say that evidence suggests that friday the 13th actually is unlucky and that people are more likely to have accidents or feel ill on this day. i guess it seems appropriate that friday the 13th falls a couple weeks before halloween, undoubtedly the king of all spooky days.
i may have dodged my unlucky bullet this morning when i was backing out of the driveway. i was having problems with the automatic garage door opener and was not paying attention to where the car was headed. i swerved at the last second to avoid taking out our mail box. i will be extra cautious the remainder of the day.

8 mile...

the girls and i successfully completed the bike marathon today. it was a spectacular indian summer day, windy & warm as predicted. the route had changed from years past, staying on the minneapolis side of the river rather than across the bridge to the st.paul side. it was four miles down and four back, winding along the parkway with several scenic views of the fall foliage & river below. we biked through the flying leaves and bright sunshine til about the 7 mile mark when unfortunately noelle's back tire blew out. noelle and i pushed our bikes the rest of the way but we would have finished in record time otherwise. the batteries in my camera were dead so no pics this year. all in all, a great day & lots of money was raised for their school.

pedal on for miles...

i am anxiously awaiting the weekend once again. lots going on but the main event will no doubt be my kids bike marathon to benefit non-public education at minnehaha falls park in minneapolis. it's a nine mile trek that we have participated in before but never completed the full distance. we skipped out last year due to a fall soccer game but this is the first year that all three of us will all a., be on bikes, and b., not using training wheels. one year i walked, while the kids biked but this was not an ideal scenario as you might imagine. the weather is supposed to be warm an windy, a perfect fall day! our plan is to finish the nine miles and short of any unforseen pulled muscles, sore butts, are complaining riders, i think we'll be ok. we will collect the full pledge amounts either way :-) wish us luck and i will report back soon.

twincredible!

yesterday was an absolutely thrilling day for twins enthusiasts such as myelf. the twins completed a remarkable comeback to their season by winning the a.l. central - with a lot of help from the kansas city royals.
there's nothing i could write that hasn't already been said here - but suffice it to say it was un unlikely ending, considering how the twins started their season. they have a ton of momentum rolling into the alds. i'll be sitting in section 230, row 17 tomorrow afternoon to watch johann santana & the twins take on the oakland athletics in game one. bring on the a's!

mr. brightside...

i am reporting back as promised with more of a glass-is-half-full perspective. yes, there is little doubt that my future with my current company is uncertain, and the general state of it's relationship with the company for whom we work as contractors is unstable at best, i believe that things will work out in the long run. there are several scenarios in which i could actually end up in a better position when things finally shake out. it's the uncertainty of it all which causes stress, but much of it is beyond my control. in the meantime, i will continue to try to remain optimistic, focus on the positives, and open to whatever opportunities arise.
that said, there's alot of other stuff non-work related going on as well. wrapped up my fall softball league last night, went 8-3-1, which is not bad, but not as good as we've done in other years. no championship t-shirts this fall however.
also, it the final week of mlb and several last minute playoff spots have yet to be decided. as it stands right now, my twins are in and the cardinals are struggling to hang on to first in the nl central.
friday is my annual golf outing with jeff & al. it's a little later in the season than we normally play but it's hard to align everyone's schedules.
saturday allie has an overnighter planned with a few of her girlfriends from college so i will be in full-time dad mode.
i'll report back in a day or two or whenever the next blogworthy event occurs.

road to nowhere?...

i don't often discuss my professional career here, however, i feel like i'm stuck in a bit of a rut these days and that there's no place to go in my current situation.
on the one hand, i have a pretty good job, that isn't awlays very rewarding, but it is a gig that a lot of people probably wish they had. there are not really a lot of surprises anymore, not that i never learn anything new, but the challenges appear to be fewer and further between. it's sort of like a comfortable relationship that you may take for granted. it's there and you play your part and perform your duties and responsibilities but you have to wonder where it's going (note: i am NOT referring to an actual relationship here!) also, there's the bit about instability. things have changed a lot in the last couple of years and there appear to be major changes to come. what happens when the dust all settles remains to be seen, but i am not ashamed to admit that i an keeping my eyes open for opportunities on the outside.
it's also possible that when the changes do occur that they could be positive. there's awlays the chance that my situation here will improve and that i'll still be here in five years, but i am keeping all options open at this point. it's important to me to feel that i am at least active in controlling my own career and destiny. what will actually end up happening is anybody's guess. can you tell it's a gloomy, rainy day? it's probably not as bad as i made it sound. more upbeat next time...

stepping up...

i made the leap from casual home gym equipment to the "most motivating and versatile crosstrainers in it's class". as explained earlier, i was in need of a home-workout solution after my previous crosstrainer bit the dust so i opted to pony up for a good quality tunturi c35. i plan on getting back on my "3 x's per week for 30 minutes" workout schedule this week and i feel pretty good about this machine lasting a lot longer than my previous one. you can tell by looking and feeling that the quality is far superior to my old pro form. i guess it's not as exciting as a new hi-def tv, or a brand new computer, but i believe that regular exercise is important and i needed something reliable.

why blog?

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham
English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)

see? i have to do this...

elliptical illusion...

recently my crosstrainer which i have used religiously 3 times a week for the past 2 and a half years, began making a clunking noise. i did some research and was able to see where the crank was dipping further than it should and rubbing against the frame. i decided to continue using it until i could determine if i could get replacement parts and if so, if i could get it repaired. the other night i was using it and the crank completely severed rendering it completely useless. i contacted a local guy in the yellow pages who alledgedly repairs home excercise equipment and he said he wanted $92.50 to come out, troubleshoot and diagnose the problem. at this point we both agreed that after the bloated cost of replacement parts and shipping cost, it may not be worth trying to repair the crosstrainer. it may make more sense to just replace it with a better model. being the shrewd business mind that i am, i asked him if he would either a. - quote the repair costs for gas & time (this doesn't need to cost $100), or b. - offer a diagnoses (if possible) from digital pictures to save him time & money. here is how the exchange went:

him:
Hello Skip: I would suggest that I trouble shoot and dismantle prior to you ordering parts. Be aware that Proform has a stiff fee for S&H. Email me back. With name address city and Zip code and phone numbers. Thanks *** P.S. I am about a week out.

me:
***,

Proform told me to expect to pay $12-14 for shipping. I agree that the best approach would be for you to troubleshoot and diagnose the exact parts needed for repair, however, I have some reservations about paying nearly $100 to learn that. Once I've invested that much money into it I'm almost committed to repairing it rather than scrapping it and getting a new one, and like you said, we are not sure which option makes the most sense yet. I do not know how much disassembling you would have to do as the pedal disk is off and exposing the inside where the broken crank is. Would you be willing to make a diagnosis at a reduced rate? I understand that you must be reimbursed for gas & time. Or, would you be interested in seeing some digital pictures to see if you can determine anything from those? You might be able to guage from those if you think it is worth trying to fix or not.
Let me know your thoughts,
Thank you,

Skip

him:
Hi again Skip: My answer is no!!! I am too busy and to experienced to agree to your proposal. Thanks, *** P. S. My rate is not a 100. But rather 92.50 Good Bye, and luck! ***


okay, some may call me cheap for trying to talk him down from his $92.50 and that's fair, but apparently i struck some sort of nerve by rounding the $92.50 up to "nearly $100". what was i thinking?? another thing, i am no english major but one thing i AWLAYS notice is when people use "to" instead of "too". as in he got "too busy" correct but missed "to experienced". 50%...not bad. or should i round that down to 0%?

life is random...

here are the four songs that my ipod graciously produced during my short ride to work this morning. as far as i know this is the first time these particular tracks have ever been played consecutively at any time in the known world.

dead can dance - ullyses (a passage in time)

bob dylan - just like tom thumb's blues (highway 61 revisited)

lali puna - everywhere and all over (tridecoder)

beck - ghost range, e-pro (guerolito)

it's fair to say summer is almost over

the time has come once again for our annual trip to the minnesota state fair. the state fair has come to symbolize many things to me. it's the unofficial official end of summer. i know deep-down that when we finally load the tired, grumpy, and sugar-buzzed kids in the car to head home that it is time to turn the page on another season. not to say the weather won't be summer-like for the next few weeks, hopefully it will, but it is definitely a sign of changes to come. school starts for the kids on tuesday, days are getting shorter, the next door neighbor's tree is already starting to change colors. pre-season football is winding down, the pennant races are heating up. it's one of my favorite times of year!
no big plans for labor day except maybe a couple of electrical projects around the house. it has been nice coming back from vacation to a couple of four days work weeks. more soon...

we're baaaa-aaack...

UPDATED!
see the pics here

had a non-eventful and relatively easy return to mpls yesterday. the only minor hiccup was the fact that the boston airport enterprise car rental location isn't actually at the airport. "oh, you want the airport enterprise? you have to exit the airport and drive north on 1A a couple of miles". hmmmmmmmm. after a shuttle bus back to said airport we wisked through security and had time for a quick lunch before our flight back. owen, who had been sick the last two days napped most of the way and the girls watched nemo for the 113th time on the portable dvd player. we got home and regrouped and hit the hay. thank god i took today off as i will need the time to mentally re-boot before i go back to work tomorrow. i'll sort through my pics and hope to have some posted a little later today. more soon.

reality check...

today is the last full day of vacation as tomorrow bright & early AM we make the 2 hour drive back to boston to catch our early afternoon flight home. we spent about 4 hours on the beach today...the weather was absolutely perfect! i was a little smarter today and was a bit more liberal with the sunscreen. we plan on going to dinner tonight and maybe hit a gift shop or two. have to start packing before bedtime but it's a bit too early for me to start thinking about that yet. it's been a wicked cool time! that's probably it for me here until i return to mpls. i have taken a ton of pics and it'll take a day or two to sift through them until i can get a few posted. wish us luck on the return trip. this time it involves the extra step of returning a rental car and shuttling it to the terminal in logan. more later!

part 2: the cape

had a blast at the sox game saturday despite the fact that the yankees have been dominating the series. it was the atmosphere around the ballpark and just being a witness to this historical rivalry that made it so cool. the score was almost secondary.
yesterday we left for my sister and bro-in-laws place at the cape which is where i am writing this now. the blackberry does not get a signal here and cell coverage is very sporatic. i'm typing this from my bro-in-law's dell inspirion. this resort is awesome, although i haven't had a chance to do too much exploring yet. it rained all night and it's sort of cloudy at the moment but the clouds are supposed to break and a sunny day is predicted in a couple of hours. we hope to hit the beach but the indoor pool will do in a pinch.
i'll post again if i get a chance.

Day three...

We spent the first part of today around the house sort of relaxing and
recharging as the kids enjoyed my brother-in-law's somewhat extravagant
inflatable water slide. This afternoon we took the T to downtown boston,
rode the swan boats and checked out the sights. Tonight we took out on our
own and braved the infamous boston roadways and rotarys and went to my
sister and brother-in-laws place in melrose. We met danny and he is, in
fact, as cute and sweet as previously advertised. I took plenty of pics
but don't look for any til I return next week. Tomorrow is the sox/ yankees
game and we leave for the cape already on sunday. More soon!

Sun 'n fun

We spent pretty much all day at a beach up north yesterday. The weather was
absolutely perfect! Took a lot of pics and will post later. I think we are
keeping it local today. We are stopping by my sisters place tonight to see
danny and their house. After tomorrow (game day), phase II, the cape part
of our vacation begins. More soon.

We're here...

Here is my first attempt at bloggin' boston-style. After a frustrating near
two hour delay (due to mechanical problems) we switched planes and finally
got off the ground. The day started for me at 4:10 a.m so despite the
complication we are all extremely glad to get here. The rest of today we
will probably be in settle-in and recovery mode. Not sure if there are any
plans for later on but I think we will all sleep well tonight. I'll check
in again later...

boston bound!

despite the recent flight restrictions we are scheduled to fly out of mpls bright and early wednesday morn. a 3.5 hour trip with 3 sleep deprived cranky kids spells f-u-n! there are a few unknowns on the entertainment docket but we will for sure be meeting nephew danny, hitting the beach one day, a redsox game saturday (for me), and 3 nights at the ocean edge resort on the cape.
i'm planning to pack light technology-wise (sans laptop) but i will have my ipod shuffle, cell, & digital camera. i may be able to post an update or two on location based on my access to a computer. look for a recap and plenty of pics when i return.
until next time...

back to full strength...

to follow-up from previous post, my squadron of taurus's is now complete again. it was in fact a bad starter. said bad starter has been replaced (with a life-time warranty minus the cost of labour if it ever breaks again - whatever), blue wagon once again fully functional. i'm told that these things happen with automobiles. onward and upward.
me and a few of my work mates went to see the st. paul saints in action last night at midway stadium. turned out to be a lovely evening for baseball and a little tailgating.
looking at my calendar i see that i only have 3 full days of work left before the big boston trip. should be wicked cool. more soon.

"we'll see how it plays out"...

i'm sure everything would have been fine had i not uttered the immortal words, "a more laid back less hectic weekend is planned for a change. we'll see how it plays out". we'll it's not the end of the world but we are temporarily down to one car. the taurus wagon refused to start after the street dance last night. i went to turn the key - nothing. no "r'rrrrrrr", no stutter, nothing. dead. i didn't even have a sound i could awkwardly discribe to a mechanic. a good samaritan stopped by and attempted to give my car a jump to no avail. jeff took my wife and kids home and i hitched a ride with good samaritan. long story short, my car spent othe night on a lonely street in st. anthony. this morning i had a roadside assistant try to jump it, again nothing. everybody seems to think the starter went belly up as i still have some juice for the lights & radio. had to get it towed to an auto repair shop where i will try to get it repaired on monday. other than that, the night was virtually stress-free. thanks to jeff for providing the digital stills here.

i love a parade...

or more accurately, my kids do. either way we plan on attending the st. anthony village fest parade on silver lake rd tonight. last year alaina was actually in the parade as part of the girl scout troops march. truth be told, she probably prefers to be on the recieving end of the candy throwing anyway. should be a good night weather-wise. maybe hit the street dance afterward depending on owen's mood. a more laid back less hectic weekend is planned for a change. we'll see how it plays out.

marcy's playground...

a couple of weeks ago we adopted "marcy" or "marcie" the guinea pig from my sister's family (thanks sis?). marcy is a female of unknown age. as far as pets goes she is pretty low maintenenace, especially for me as i vowed from the get-go to play little to no role in taking care of this animal. she's still little skiddish when someone tries to handle her but she does like to be let outside in the backyard occasionally to nibble on grass. anyway, it looks like she is staying around so i though it was worth mentioning here.

hot in the city tonight...

i know that it's summer and all but 99 degrees with high humidity in minnesota is just not right. one of the great things about living here is that minnesota truly does experience all four of the seasons, but come'on! it's normal for our friends in the south and west to be hot & muggy and i'm sure they think we're all wimps for complaining about double-digit heat (like we think they're wimps for thinking 45 degrees is cold) but it's getting a bit ridiculous around here. each day is hotter and more humid than the one before. what's worse is that i actually played in a softball tournament yesterday and in my leagues playoffs tonight. that's 7 games, a ton of water and powerade, and a couple less pounds, in 2 days. they say that more normal temps are heading our way by the middle of the week. i'm ready. in the meantime, thank God for central air.

a blast from the past...

UPDATE!
more pics added here courtesy rebecca whitney.

as previously mentioned, had the 20 year class reunion this past weekend. i didn't take a ton of pics but there are a few posted here. it was fun to see everybody, although there are a few that couldn't make it, and a few i wished i would have got to talk to more. thanks to kathy and everyone who worked hard in throwing it together. the booklets that were printed were awesome, although i wished now that i would have spent more time on my answers :-(. also, it appears that i misspelled my URL to this site, but if you are reading this, you have found it so it doesn't matter. it was fun to get caught up on people's lives, tell a few war stories, and have a few laughs.
also the cruise on lake minnetonka saturday night was spectacular (this was NOT related to the reunion!). another perfect summer night and the view of the sunset over the lake was truly amazing.

'86 kix...

it's hard to believe but i have my 20 year highschool class reunion tonight. there's no way it seems like i could be that old but i've ran the numbers and this is in fact true. (i wonder if my english studies have paid off as i struggle with whether or not the previous sentence needs a comma or two somewhere). it will be fun to see some people that i haven't seen in years and probably won't see again for many more. my school was small enough that everybody pretty much knows everybody else. unfortunately a couple of my better friends will be unable to attend but it will still be fun to see everyone. tonight is the dinner and there is an all-family picnic tomorrow. i'll report more about this later.
it's a busy weekend in general as tomorrow night the wife and i are attending a friends birthday party on a private yacht on lake minnetonka. yes, that private yacht. i plan on squeezing in some softball on sunday too. this is a weekend that i know will positively fly by.
more soon...

correction...

thirdthoughts would like to make the following correction. it was noted in a previous post that the redsox\yankees game would probably be the highlight of my trip to boston. of course this is not the case. the highlight will most definitely be meeting my new nephew in person for the first time. thirdthoughts regrets this error and apologizes for the oversight. i will be sure to list the highlights of the trip in the apropriate order after the trip.
i can't imagine the redsox\yankees game to rank any lower than second however :-). we'll see...more to come

feeling strangely fine...

went to the kickoff of the alleged "10 best days of summer" friday night in downtown minneapolis. caught the semisonic performance at the "subway block party" on washington ave between hennepin and third. it was a hot & humid day, but as the band played and the sun went down, it went from tolerable to a downright pleasant evening. good times & good people watching too.
went to snail lake park for a swim with the wife and kids saturday evening. have had to think of creative ways to beat the heat these last few days.
oh, and i almost forgot, i sold my buick (yay).
rest of the weekend was fairly nondescript. more soon...

greatest rivalry in sports?

we our firming up our plans for our vacation to boston next month. i received great news yesterday in that my brother-in-law scored tickets for me for the redsox-yankees game on saturday, august 19th, (also the fox game of the week). if you know anything about this rivalry you would know that is among the best in sports, and i can't imagine how difficult it must have been to get tickets. the sox\yankees games sell out basically as soon as they are available to purchase. thanks bro, for coming up with these! we have a lot of things planned and i will enjoy all of them but this will probably be the highlight for me. can't wait!!!

common courtesy...

know what i hate? people who make arrangements to come see your car for sale at a specified time and place and then fail to show up...or call. i'm talking to YOU donna from oakdale. i left work a little early, spent $25 on gas and a car wash. i left you 2 voice mail messages on your cell ph and you didn't have the courtesy to call me to tell me:

A. i'm sitting in traffic - sorry i'll be a little late

B. i had a a family emergency to deal with - let's reschedule

C. i've changed my mind - i don't want to see it

so, no more leaving work to show the car. car showings are now available ONLY at my convenience. nights an weekends. good day.

"not too rusty but plenty trusty"...

was a slogan i considered briefly. for about 8 seconds until i realized how lame it was. anyway, i've had the buick posted for about 2 days now on both craigslist and carsoup. have gotten 2 calls and one test drive but no buyer...yet. we'll hope someone moves on it this week. i spent 3 hours saturday cleaning, scrubbing, and vaccuuming. the whitewalls are actualy even white now.

how i roll...

for the last several years i have been driving a '92 buick century. a pretty classy ride in it's day, it is now pretty much considered a grandma-mobile. let's just say if that car was a computer, it'd be a p133 mhz processor, with 64 mb of ram and a 2.5 gb hard drive running windows '95. yesterday i purchased a 2000 ford taurus sel. another taurus you say? yes, but it really was very close to what i was looking for. the mileage and price was in my zone, and i pulled the trigger on the deal last night. above is the actual photo of the car. here's a sample of what it packs.

power steering, brakes, windows, locks, mirrors

leather seats

anti-lock brakes

heated side mirrors

alloy wheels

auto-climate control

24 valve engine, 3.0L V6

it's black with only a couple minor scratches. it'll look even better once i get the car seats in. ok, maybe it's not your average dream-car, but it's a nice upgrade for a guy that's been driving a ancient relic from the past. it's also nice to have an airbag as they have been standard now for about 10 years.

click here to see craiglist ad for buick. adding a carsoup ad tomorrow.