26 July 2007

Names

Cory: a form of Corey
Joseph: (Hebrew) God will add, God will increase.
Conlan: (Irish) hero.
Henry: (German) ruler of the household.

As D-Day approaches for the launch of number 2 a certain amount of anxiety is rising because a name has not been selected yet. Amy and I have decided on Cathrine Mae "Katie" for a girl. In the event that we have a boy, no name has been selected. I do not quite grasp why it has been difficult to come up with a name for number 2. Perhaps it is that we do not spend as much time talking about it because we have Cap to keep up with. I have read a book that has 30,000 names, and highlight all the names that I liked. We, or at least Amy, actually has a book with 100,000 names. I did not know that the world had that many names, of course they are not all American names.

Alas it is time to start the water in the backyard. Hopefully without any tractor sprinkler incidents.

20 July 2007

Stomach Issues

I have been feeling ill the last couple of days. On Wednesday the Administrative Assistant tried to convince me to go home. I did not, I compromised and said that I would not be in on Thursday if I felt the same. Thursday morning I felt a little better so I went on to work. Upon my arrive I went to visit the summer intern. After announcing my presence at work he said, "Well you look pale." I thought it was a great way to start the day. In the end I went to the Doctor who gave me a prescription antibiotic. I am feeling better now, I really do not like being sick...

I have been cleaning out the closet in the cave, a tedious task to say the least. Most recently I have been sorting boxes of pictures. During this sorting I ran across a few that I really liked, and thought that I would share. (If you thought I am never in any pictures these will prove you wrong. These pictures are from 2001).
This is me and Bear, I have the grey hardhat on.

This is me running the rig. Stuck pump...



Again, this is Bear and me. I am not entirely sure what we are doing.

15 July 2007

Return from Lubbock

The wedding that we attended was very nice. It was an outdoor wedding, which added another level of enjoyment for some, challenge for others. Cap did well during the praise and worship part, but became insistent on chasing a peacock once the exchanging of the vows began. (That is right, there were peacocks all over the pace.) In fact, one of the peacocks strutted in front of the mother of the bride and began flapping and making noise. Cap and I went to the back of the area and chased peacock's with the rest of the children 3 and under.

Saturday morning we went to the Science Spectrum. We all had a good time, I think that Cap and I had more fun that Amy. Cap enjoyed all the exhibits, and was enamoured with the model RR that they have along with the fish exhibits. It was a tiring trip, as Cap did not go to sleep early. Tonight he did go to sleep at his normal time which is a good thing. I took a few pictures of where I used to live and work in Lubbock, they are at the bottom, along with one of 126 picture I took tonight.
Tonight I mowed the front yard, ate supper, took Cap to the Forrest (Honey and Bear's house) played with the boys, read a bed time story, mowed the back yard, changed the oil, air filter and blades on the lawn mower and started the tractor in the front yard. That would be a sprinkler, I am not plowing it up to plant corn.

This is where I lived in Lubbock, not to shabby...

This is where I used to work in Lubbock.

Central Heating and Cooling Plant 1

Blowing Bubbles

13 July 2007

Random Thoughts on July 13, 2007

Tonight while we were driving in the car we heard a song about the 70's and 80's on a country station. I do not know what the title of the song is or who sings it. The point of the song is that the singer would not trade his childhood for anything, even though we jump at each and every fad that came along.

I feel rather distracted by life and work, and have had a difficult time connecting with anything other than work and working on the house. Both of which are tiring enterprises. I have come to realize that I am most likely an introverted person. This is particularly true in the warm summer evenings when I sit on the back porch with Mazie (she is not a person, only the wonderdog) and read a book. Or perhaps I chersih the time I get to spend alone because there is not much of it...

On a side note, I still have a cold and a cough, I have had these for about 3 weeks. It is really getting old. Also, it is fun coming to a place that you once lived and seeing the changes that have occurred. Tomorrow we get to attend a wedding, one of Amy's cousins. It is the Annual family wedding. I am sure that we will all have a good time.

10 July 2007

Closet Cleaning










Tonight I started cleaning out the closet in the cave. It was not a very exciting adventure, it was however an adventure. I found hats, shirts, boxes, and shorts that I had forgotten. I gathered a nice size pile of clothes that I do not wear anymore to give away at the salvation army. In the middle of cleaning it out, I looked through some pictures from 2001. That summer we went to Virginia to a wedding, and afterwards Amy and I went to D.C. for a few days an looked around. It was a blast.

The Korean War Memorial



Bloody Lane at Antietam

Arlington





08 July 2007

More Books

This afternoon I set out to sort books into three categories. The first categories is books to keep out in the one bookshelf that we will be using. (We are preparing for the arrival of #2, do not know the gender, have not selected names... although I am leaning for Ebenezer). This category will have books that we reference on a normal basis or that we read at least once a year. The Left Behind series gets to hand out also because it is the complete set, and you never know when someone wants to read about the end of the world. The second category is books to put in a box. This contains a lot of text books that we have accumulated, I do not for see a need to keep The Sociology of Religion or Hitler out on the bookshelves at this point. It would be different if we were researching either of these subjects, but we are not. The third and final category as Amy likes to call it is, "do whatever you want to with that book," I say it is more of a, "we have not used this book in two years, nor do I foresee either of use using the book." The is the occasionally, "where did this come from book," also in pile #3.

Tomorrow I will be attaching a shelf full on nick-knacks, which in the language of men means, "Some small fragile decorative piece with no manlyness to it, which I have to pack an move each time so that it can sit on a shelf and stare at me."


Below is a picture during the book sorting...

Books

Tonight I stayed up late and finished reading Deception Point by Dan Brown, it was a riveting novel to say the least. I was quite captivated by it, of course tomorrow I will be tired all day, and with out a book to read. I have always like books, when I was in college I would go to the library to study. When I would take a break from the course work, I would stroll the isles and pick random books to review. Flipping though pages, reading chapter titles or random excerpts. We currently have to many books for the size of our house, which is an unfortunate situation. Books that range from Steinbeck, Ansel Adams, A Handbook to Literature, Fundamentals of Petroleum, the Bible (we have more than one copy), all the way to Hank the Cowdog. Marian, my grandmother whom I called Marian my entire life, always encouraged us to read. While I did a limited amount of reading for fun during college, once I got out I began reading.

I am also interested in photography and below you will find a few images that I snapped.




The original one was the first picture.

04 July 2007

4th of July

What do other countries think about our Independence Day or 4th of July celebration? Have you ever though about that? Do other countries also have a national day of celebration? I think that politicians should spend sometime today in retrospect and think about July 4, 1776.

Tonight I cooked some hamburgers and bratwurst for Amy, Cap, Father and Bear. They came over and we had a good meal and a good time. We watched some of the show that took place on the mall at Washington DC. I always liked going to Washington. I think it is a neat city. Father and Marian took me and my cousin Loa when we were 12. It was a blast, we looked all over town and rode the subway. Amy and I went a few years ago for three days after a wedding. It was also a great time, we managed to get an almost private tour of the Capitol building with a congress persons' staff.
Since is was a national Holiday, we did take some pictures.


Cap the Photographer


Four Generations of Patmans
(or would you call them Patmen?)