Closet & Garage MakeOver

I love it when we get things accomplished around the house. Of course, sometimes the hardest thing is to either find the time or the energy (And the money) to do all the projects we have to do. I remember our first place in S. Illinois - we had a whiteboard on the wall in the laundry room with a list of everything we needed to do around the house. It seemed like everytime we got it whittled down - we'd start adding to it again.



Well, we've been getting things done around this house and yet the list still grows! :) When we moved in, we stuffed things into the hall closets. Lately it's been bugging me. So we took everything out of the two closets, whittled down what we don't need, or use, then added more shelves and put everything back and it is SOOOO much better!




As we've done some projects around the house, I've occassionally had to cut/trim/paint/stain stuff in the garage and I don't have a workbench out there with it being a one car garage. We do have a little space at the back, but that is used up with storage. So what to do? Yesterday, Doreen and I built a fold away work bench.

It's actually pretty cool. It's up out of the way for us to park the car in the garage, and then when we need to get some things done, out goes the car, down goes the workbench and off we go!

Upgrades to a house are always good! Very, very Gooooood! :)

The Great Travel Bug Race is ON!!!

Geocaching.com has these things called Travel Bugs. They're basically Dog Tags with a tracking number that as the Travel Bug (TB) is moved from cache to cache one can keep up with its travels.

GC.com has come up with a promotion for the United Nations cause against Diabetes. They're sending out all these TB's to encourage people to learn about diabetes.

My brother-in-law, Scott and I got a couple of these TBs.

The plan is for him to start on in Colorado, and I'm going to start one in Tennessee. We'll see which one gets to the others home first.

It's 1552 miles from TN to Colorado. Driving it would take around 24 hours.

I guess we'll see how long it takes for these TB's to make it - that is if they don't get ripped off, lost or misplaced.

So keep an eye on these Travel Bugs, see where they travel and which one arrives first.

Scotts Travel Bug Photo

My Travel Bug
Photo

Pester Family Announcement

The search is over. We've finally found our newest family memeber. She is still too young to leave where she currently lives, but by the end of Jan, 1st of Feb we'll have a new addition to the Pester Family!

Mocha Pester is a Heinz 57 puppy. Her mom is Jack Russell and Beagle, here dad is pure 100% mutt.

You should have seen the way Natalie was holding her when we visited her this morning. We had the choice between 'Mocha' and another puppy, but decided Mocha was the way to go!

It'll be a challenge getting her house broken and trained, but she'll be our famliy puppy and love us all. No previous psycho stuff! That's good! Very good!

Look for more updates!

For now, I've gotta go get a Latte'. I've typed Mocha enough, I'm thirsty! ;)

Geocaching Hides

After Geocaching since 2004, we finally put out 4 hides. I've been wanting too for a very, VERY long time, just haven't ever gotten 'around to it.' I've had the containers and the the SWAG to in the containers and stuff, just haven't ever done it.

Well - finally, I said, "Let's just do it."

So, in Wildwood, GA where Doreen's grandma lives, there are 3 truckstops relatively close together. 2 in GA and 1 actually in TN. We found locations to hide to Micros and one Small cache.

Saturday night on my trip up to Kentucky, I go by a Pilot truckstop that doesn't have a geocache within 20 miles, so I stopped at midnight and left one there.

So that's now four of our own hides out there! Cool man.

Check 'em out if your iterested!

#3 GeoTrucker - Fast Travel

#4 GeoTrucker - Pilot or Co Pilot

#5 GeoTrucker - Co Ne Co

#8 GeoTrucker - Stinking Creek Cache

Oh yeah - Geocaching Rocks! :)

Run Away Shopping Cart

Last week Natalie had her 4 year old well child check. She's growing 'on schedule.' Like a little weed! Anyway, at the same visit we had the doctor look at what turned out to be a bad sinus infection she had.

We got a prescription, took it to Wal-mart then went to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant.

An hour and a half later, back at Wal-mart, I go get the 'non-food' items and Doreen does our grocery shopping. I had only a few things to get then went to stand in line at the pharmacy. It was LONG. Took me probably 20 minutes to get up to the front. The needed my medical card for verification, then they were going to mix the medication. (It was a liquid.) I gave 'em my card and waited another 15 min at the side. They weren't getting back to me. Doreen had gotten there long before I reach the window the 1st time, so she took left her grocery cart, took then kids and went to look at the fish.

So after waiting at the side, I got in line again, and Joelle came with me. Doreen was standing in the next isle with Natalie and our cart. A friend called her, so they were chatting on the phone. Then a friend from church came by and they hugged and talked for a sec. When Doreen turned around - our grocery cart was GONE! Vanished, Disappeared. I believe it was an employee who, seeing it sit there for almost 40 minutes thought it was abandoned and took it to be restocked. Doreen found another employee who was obviously clueless, and very non helpful - so she went to do the grocery shopping again. I finally was able to obtain the medication, we met, finished the shopping and headed home!

That was way too much time in Wal-mart, waiting, and shopping twice! :(

Aye ayi ayi!!!

Night Driving

My last couple of trips out it has worked out that I've been doing most of the driving in the middle of the night. Of course the toughest time for me is between 3:30a and sunrise. That's always brutal. Sometimes I get so sleepy. However, chewing ice, gum drinking coffee, Vault or just listening to different stuff on my Sirius radio really helps.

However these last two trips out have been kinda cool. Both times have been either at full moon or nearly full. I don't know if it's the extra light or what but it sure makes it a TON easier!

Things always look 'neater' under a full moon. With no or little moon, you can barely see stuff. With a full moon you're able to see all sorts of stuff along the road.

I like driving at night under a full moon!

Nice!

Time to Crown a New Champion...

The NFL season has ended. Let us pause a sec to mourn the passing...



...It was a good season with many good games and contests. Now it will be interesting to watch the playoffs to see which two teams will square off in the biggest game of the year - the Superbowl!

It is now time to crown this years champion of the Nelson/Pester Annual Pigskin Pick'em family challenge.

Just for a quick reminder, the first two years of this challenge, Scott was the top Pigskin Picker. For the next 4, yes I did type 4 - that number is correct, yours truly was a 4-peat champion of the Nelson/Pester Pigskin Pick'em family challenge.

The time has come to crown a new champion. Someone who has not been in this spot before. Someone who pretty much dominated most of this season. Someone who deserves it.

The Nelson/Pester Pigskin Pick'em Family challenge winner is, Tim. Tim, we salute you. "Salute." Be a good champion! Enjoy your reign! Bask in the glow of knowing you outpicked the rest of us. Then know we will ALL be after you next year!!! :)















Congratulations man!

For the rest of you, here's a quick run-down of where the rest of us finished...

# 1 - Tim!!! :) Score 153
# 2 - Scott Score 150
# 3 - Doreen Score 149
# 4 - Steve Score 148
# 5 - Sue Score 147 - She did an awesome job and lead at one point.
# 6 - Mary Score 145 - She also lead early in the season.
# 7 - Larry Score 140
# 8 - Herb Score 127
And last by not least...
# 9 - Staci Score 100

What a great game - thanks to each of you for playing and making it an even more interesting season.

Everyone send Tim a virtual 'pat' on the back! :)

Sad Beginnings

2007 has had a sad beginning for the Denver Broncos!







For starters, they could have been in this years playoffs. All they had to win was one game against the San Francisco 49ers, a team with a sad losing record. They didn't, they lost and lost bad. So the season is suddenly over. Boooo hooo hoooooooo!






Secondly, and even sadder, one of the bright stars of the Denver Broncos Defense, Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive by shooting. How sad is that. This young man was 24 and a rising star in the NFL.









His life and career has been brought to a screeching halt by some thugs who think they're big men. Unfortunatly this is an awful indictment of today's society!

Sad, sad, sad.

From Our Family to Yours...

Real DOUBLE Trouble

Hey Now!

What a week it has been - and boy am I thankful for the Christmas holiday and the time I have off this and next week!!!

So here's my story.

Sunday morning, I take a 36 hour run to Chicago, IL. I get back 9ish Monday night.
Tuesday morning they have me scheduled out at 8am for Baton Rouge, LA. Cool.

Get to the bakery and the guy I'm running with wants to drive all the way down, we unload, and I drive all the way back. Fine, it's only 500, or so, miles. No big deal.

So we get to Baton Rouge about 4p and I'm hearing every time he hits his brakes, a serious air leak. Turns out, on the interstate, he was following a doublewide being transported. Well that doublewide blew two tires and rubber was flying everywhere. It just so happened that one chunk flew under out trailer and broke an air hose to one of the brakes. So everytime he stepped on the brake, pffhhhhhssssssssssttttttttt!

Once we got to the warehouse, the first thing we did was call the shop back at the bakery to get us someone to come out and fix it while we were working. They did, and called back to let us know they'd be out soon. So the towing company calls and my co-driver tells them we'll be working here for 4 hours just to make it in that time. Mistake!!! They didn't end up showing up until 10:40p. Of course it only took 10 minutes to replace the broken airline, but meanwhile we sat for 2 1/2 hours waiting. I of course saw no need to just sit and wait, so I climbed in the bunk and slept.

We finally got to the 2nd drop, emptied out and I started driving us home a midnight. At 3am I crossed the state line from LA into MS and had to pull into the weight station. I got the green light and as I worked my way up through the gears heading down the on ramp, I hear this extremely loud 'Pop' under the hood. Well, that got my adrenline a pumpin. The by product of this pop was that I had no power. The truck wouldn't go more than 45 miles per hour.

I pulled over at the next off ramp and looked under the hood for problems. None to be seen. So again I called the shop at the bakery to let them know of the problems. I found a truck stop at exit 15 and pulled in and shut it down. This truck stop was also 'shut down.' Nothing open. So the bakery calls back telling me they're trying get in touch with the Supervisor at our Pervis, MS outstation to get them to bring us a tractor. I figured it was going to be a while, so I climb into the bunk to snooze. They call back at 7:20a to say a replacement tractor is on the way and after it's delivered, we need to hang out with the broken down tractor until the tow truck picks it up.

All right. At 9a, the replacement tractor shows up. We talk with the guys for a few minutes, then they take off. We swap tractors, and the gear inside, then settled down to wait for the tow truck. It was supposed to be there by 10:30a. That time came and went, 11:30 came and still no tow truck. I call the bakery, "Where's the tow truck?" They call the towing company, um He had and emergency run for the police and is leaving to get our tractor right now. Should be 40 min. An hour goes by, I call again - still no tow truck. They call - Oh he's getting close - should be there soon. We wait 40 minutes, still no tow truck. Another call, and then another call. The tow truck didn't get there until 1:30p. We sat there for 14 1/2 hours. Over all we got close to 17 hours of delay time on this trip for the 2 breakdowns.

Aarrrgh. What an annoying trip!

I am thankful to be home for the holidays!!!

Merry Christmas you all!!!

Family Photos

Every 6 months we go to the Wal-mart portrait studio and have a picture taken of our Birhday Daughter. Of course they LOVE to take extra photos to try and sell you a BUNCH more pics and poses etc. So a while back we decided to get an updated family photo every year and this year we decided to change it to the fall.

So when we went in to get Natalie's 4 year old pic, we had some other poses taken and here they are!

Happy Holidays and Enjoy!



This pose was actually 100% Joelle's idea! CUTE!!!

GeoCaching Milestone - Belated

We recently hit a big milestone in our hobby of Geocaching and I'm extremely suprised that I neglected to mention it at all on my site here. Shame on me. Wonder what else I am failing to post about?? Probably quite a bit because I don't have the time or the access as I once had to update on a regular basis.

On the trip in Oct to Myrtle Beach, Doreen and I found ThePesters4 100th Geocache. We got into geocaching in Nov of 2004 and it took us almost 2 years to rack up 100 finds. Well, as of today (this week we found 4) we now have 110.)

So that tells me, we've got to step it up a bit and get out more to go GEOCACHING! Yeee haw! :)

Today, we just found our 1st "First to Find." Basically that means that someone hid a geocache, published it on the the geocaching.com website and we were the first to go find it! Sweeeeet!

It was a fun find too. Had to scale a small 'mountain' to get up to where it was hidden. What a blast!

I love Geocaching!!!

What a Week

Hoooooowwwwwwwdeeeeeeee!

Well, we have had quite the week here. Plus the weather is getting freaky, so - quite the week, quite the week! (It got down to 12 degrees last night, that is EXTREMELY cold for TN! :)

It all started with me only asking for 2 trips this week because Joelle & Natalie were going to ride a float in the Collegedale parade and I wanted to be here for that.

So I had the pleasure of being home the entire weekend, last weekend.

Got to enjoy my little ones in the parade - I'll have to get caught up on some pics here soon - and then got home, chilled for a bit, then left for work. Took a trip up to Toledo, OH. Not a bad place - just a kind of a pain on the where we pick up our back haul - slowville! It kills us on our log books.

Got home Tuesday at 8am and left back out at 3pm for a Mississippi run. 3 Simple stops, easy run.

On the return home the bakery called asking me to take another quickie run. So I said "yeah." The plan was to arrive at the yard a 2a, hook the tractor up to the trailer and run for Dallas, GA. Well - you know about the best laid plans of mice and men, yup that's what happened here.

Got in and my co-driver wasn't back from his previous trip yet, the trailer was waiting on some cases they were short of and to boot, my name had come up for a random drug screen. I had to go pee in a cup before leaving on the trip.

I headed over to the nurses station disgusted, because I had JUST gone before leaving the house.

So I sat there for about 45 min, drank about 8 glasses of water and finally was able to 'participate' in the drug screen.

All told, we get through the gate on the way out at 4:45a. So on the way south, we do run into a bit of rush-hour traffic in N Atlanta. We get to the drop and empty the trailer and head home. Week over - work wise.

So we've been 'gearing' up for a baby shower we're throwing for some good friends of ours on Sunday. Unfortunately, I've been at work, Doreen has been studying for some tests and we've had other things taking our attention.

Well, a few lists later, we get a plan of attack and get to work. This afternoon, we got a HUGE chunk of stuff done.

Hope it comes off right or this will be a 'bad' week.

So far, it's been unusual, extremely busy but very, VERY good!

What a week! :)

Little (but growing quickly) Elves

We finally were able to get our Christmas stuff put up this week. We were gone for Thanksgiving, which is typically when we put up our holiday stuff. So - when my trips for work finally finished for the week, we had Thursday afternoon to put up our Christmast stuff. Of course the girls HAD to put on the Santa hats we have. It was so VERY cute that I had to snap a quick photo of my little elves! What precious cuties!!!

They're going to be in a Parade on Sunday. Hope to get some good pics of that to put up for your enjoyement in the future!

Happy Holidays All!!! :)

A Walk Thru Bethlehem OR Project Almost Done

It was cool. We ran some errands today and ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant after Doreen finished an A&P II test at school. (By the way, she scored a 98% on it. Awesome!!! She only missed one question. During lunch she kept 'kicking' herself for missing that "easy" question.) We got home at 3p and about 3:15 some friends called wanting to know if we wanted to go to a local church in Ringgold, GA to 'Walk thru Bethlehem?' tonight at 5:30p? Sure we replied and so we quickly did some things that NEEDED to get done, slapped a quick munchie dinner for the girls and headed out. It was awesome. This church does a GREAT job of recreating Bible times on their property with stores, and the inn and the gate going into Bethelehem - with a 'tax collector' to Roman soldiers and angels, disciples, wisemen, shepherds etc! It is very uplifting and we're super glad we went.

So, a few weeks ago, I made a passing mention on a project we were working on. Well - it is 95% finished - so let me unveil it. (Especially for those of you who can't or won't ever see it in person.)

I've always wanted a 'Denver Bronco' room - and NOW, now I have it.

We've been working on painting it and getting stuff - read "JUNK" - cleaned out of it and getting it fixed up to be the ultimate 'Pester's' Bronco room.

Today we put most of the final touches on it by hanging my Bronco memorabilia, putting up a curtain (Which is Bronco Navy Blue) over the closet and hanging a new window shade, which is also Bronco Navy Blue.

We've still got a few small things to finish and stuff, but for the most-part it is all done and just very, VERY cool!

You gotta come visit and sleep in the guest/Denver Bronco room. It is awesome, and would be awesome to have you come visit! :)

Selective or Not Selective Hearing??? Eh?

You know it's funny how an ear works. Since I've had some kiddos, I find that hearing is optional.

A couple of times this weekend, both Doreen and I at one time or other tried to get the attention of both girls for various reasons. Typically we were usually within a foot or two of them, we spoke the name clearly, usually 3 or 4 times trying to get their attention, even going so far to 'tap' them on the shoulder to further attempt to gain their attention. Finally they'd respond.

Well, Doreen and I were in a conversation with some family. The girls were about 25 feet away up at the top of the stairs playing and making noise etc. Anway, we were talking about music and going to see the Gaither..., and Joelle popped up with "Vocal Band."

See - her ears work - when she wants them to.

Fascinating! :)

Thanksgiving And/Or Laser Tag

Hey, I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving as much as we have been. It has been awesome being here in the hills of North Carolina visiting with family, enjoying delicious meals and just being thankful to be together!!!

I was talking with my mom from Colorado on the phone yesterday and as I was talking, I was sitting on this huge porch, in a rocking chair, looking out over the hills with the blue sky all around. Gorgeous!! Maaaaaavelous! Very Cool!

Today, we all decided to go to the Fun Factory they have here in Franklin, NC. Basically it's like a Chuck E Cheeze on steroids. The building used to be an old factory, so it's about 56,000 square feet. It is huge. They've got it filled with a play area for kids, arcade games, mini golf courses, bumper cars, 3 eating places, laser tag, bowling alley, etc, etc, etc

Well, while the kids were in the playland area we decided to play laser tag. Man - I have never done that before and now am wondering why. It was an absolute BLAST!!! Doreen played once and I played twice and for each 10 minute segment, you're running around like crazy playing 'tag' with laser guns. What a fun thing to do.

I think Doreen scored a Space Laser Cadet and I got to level of a Laser Private. Pretty low, but not bad for our first time in the game.

You know what? I'm 'a gonna have to do that again in the very near future.

I love hearing "Great shot" and HATE the 'hit' noise and the vib on the pack I was wearing.

Man - what a complete blast!

Yeah haw!!!

Don't Hang Out in the No Zone OR I had a Fender Bender Last Week.

I'm sure that many of you have seen this logo OR seen this on a semi-trailer OR seen this slogan on a TV commercial at somepoint - however why is it that SOME people do NOT get a clue!!!

So, I was working Local on Monday. Basically taking full trailers to a location to be emptied, take it somewhere else to get it filled up, then doing a drop-n-hook and doing the same thing with another trailer.

I'd taken a full trailer to Rome, GA to be emptied. After making the drop, I left the warehouse and headed to the next pick up. I had to take a right turn on Broad street from 1st Ave. Sitting at the red light, I watched the cars cross thru the intersection. After they all passed, I decided to go ahead and turn. I looked out the right window to see if I saw any pedestrians about to cross, none, looked back at the light, still red, look to the left to see if any more cars coming - none, I began my right turn. Half way thru the turn I looked in the right mirror to watch the trailer come around the corner and WOAH, A CAR's THERE! So I slam on the brakes, but too late. the front tire of the trailer axles hit and crunched the front left quarter panel of his SUV. Hyundai Tuscon.

Oh - I was mad. So I pulled the brakes, jumped out and said, "Man - did you NOT see my blinker? Did you not see the sign on the back of my truck that says 'Wide Right Turn?'" He said "It doesn't matter because you hit me." A witness who had stopped said, "Man, you know better to try and beat a truck through a right turn - it was your fault."

Thankfully all this info was given to the police for the report.

It just so happened that 1 mintue later a cop pulled thru the intersection. So I whistled her down and she flipped a U-turn and came back so we both talked to her and then another cop pulls up and we both talk to him, and then the two officers talk and then they end up citing the SUV driver. Thankfully!!!!! Of course this whole process took about 40 min.

After the report was 'filed' I had to call work and answer a series of questions. Then finished my day and then back in the dispatch office - I had to fill out a report. Then in a couple weeks or so, I have to make a verbal report to the transportation safety committee.

All that trouble for some guy trying to 'beat' a truck around a corner.

Aaaarrrgghhhhhhh!

Full Circle - Teacher to Student to Teacher Again

So I get a phone call from, I'll call him Buford (you know who you are) tonight. He got it working.

Ok - here's the whole story.

"Buford" got a GPS for his birthday and was looking for a Topo map program for it. My brother-in-law had one, so I asked to borrow it from him so Buford could see if it would work on his GPS.

When Buford got it in the mail - he couldn't get it working. So he's had it for the last month or so. Finally to get it back to my brother-in-law I work stuff out that I'll get the CD's back, call Garmin, get the unlock codes and get it working with both their systems.

I get the CDs in the mail, call Garmin and lo and behold, with the Topo Map program
an unlock code is not required - I had loaded up the program in my computer and when the tech told me that, I tried and opened it right up and voila - it worked.

So I call 'Buford' and let him know an unlock code was unnecessary and to look in a drop down menu for the map. He said he'd try it when he got off work.

Then he calls me tonight and it works. It was there the whole time - he just didn't look in the right place. Most excellent.

So I got to thinking, years and YEARS ago, I showed 'Buford' how to turn on a computer and get on the internet. Well, Buford has completely surpassed me in computer knowledge. In fact, a couple of times I've called him for assistance on computer related things. It's nice to know that I can still teach him a thing or two about computers, albeit a very small thing!

He, he, he!

Enjoy 'Buford!' :)

Girls 1st Concert

Tonight we took the girls to their very first concert. It was a Mark Lowry concert along with LordSong. Man what a very, VERY good event. The girls didn't get all his 'joke's' but I tell ya what - the music was fantastic and the message in with the humor was awesome!

What a cool event! If you ever get a chance to go see him - GO! It'll be worth it.

It's just a great top off to a great week.

Only had to take 2 trips this week. Left Sat night for Nashville, TN. Was home by 1:30p on Sunday. Then left for Houston, TX on Tuesday at 5 am and got back Thur at 2a. So I was home Sat, most of Sun, Mon, Thur & Fri. I'll be home Sat & Sun and have to work local on Mon, so I'll be home Mon evening. Don't know when I'll go out next, but whenever will be fine. We're getting stuff done around the house. (Specifics will be a later post when it's all done! :)

Since I'm gonna be home tomorrow night, we're having some friends come over to watch the movie Napoleon Dynamite - we've been waiting to watch it with them. Should be a good evening!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Movie Weekend

Hey - hope you had a great weekend!

Ours was great. Had lunch with some friends, went to a work party/dinner thingy. It was OK - last years was much, MUCH better!

Had a quick run, left Sat night back Sun by lunch.

Then had all day at home today - getting stuff done, running errands etc. Sure nice!

Gotta go to Houston, TX tomorrow am (Tue).

Got a chance to watch some movies this weekend - hadn't done that in a while.

Watched "Inside Man." Didn't realize it was a Spike Lee directed film. Very good.

Got "Curious George" for the girls and we all loved it!

This evening we watched Oceans 11. My In-laws hadn't seen it. Kinda along the same lines as Insdie Man - but much'a more better!

Gotta get to bed! :)

82nd Airborne - Paratroopers

Recently while on a trip I was driving in the middle of the night, sometime between 2 and 5am. The hardest part of the day for me to drive. Even after a good 6 hours of sleep! Anyway, I was flipping channels on my Sirius satellite radio and came to the Discovery Channel and heard some stories of the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers in World War II.

Of course, when I think of paratroopers, I automatically think they're a bit mentally unstable because they're willing to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! But my grandfather, Gerald Sabes was a paratooper in the 82nd airborne. He jumped out of a plane and he was one of the most sane men I know! But knowing my grandfather was part of the 82nd airborne division, kept me awake and listening for the next two hours to the stories of all the 82nd airborne did to help eventually secure the Omaha and Utah beaches on D-day in Normandy from the Germans.







These guys floated down and had to caputure objectives behind enemy lines to interrupt supply lines to the front and help box the Germans in once the beach was secured. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Once these guys landed they were automatically surrounded, just by their location and had to fight hard just to get to their objectives, then had to fight even harder to keep the guys back they just fought and try to capture a bridge or something essential to a Normandy D-day victory.



My grandfather never told me many stories about his time fighting as a paratrooper. I know that until the day he died, he carried German shrapnel in his shoulder that would bother him occassionally, but wasn't worth the risk of having it removed. He was injured, shot, as he floated down on a jump behind enemy lines.

All I know is we can be very thankful for the men of the 82nd division, actually of all the regiments of all the branches of the military that volunteer to keep our country safe!

Hip Hip Horray - Hip Hip Horray - Hip Hip Horray!!!!

Toy Assemblage = *&$@##&(*$#&!!!

My youngest just had a birthday. So being good parents and grandparents and friends, we all got her some gifts. Of course we're still at that stage, where we still the our oldest a gift at the same time so she doesn't feel left out. That's all cool.

So we had a meal and some cake. Unfortunatly we dropped the ball and forgot to get ice-cream. How in the world do you have cake and no ice-cream. That is a travesty! :)

Then came the gift opening. What a ball. To watch my youngest open all her gifts and the simile on her face was amazing. Of course my oldest was pleased as pudding as well.

After all the presents were opened - then we had to take all the 'things' out of the packaging these companies put them in. Not only that, a number of them required 'assembly' as well. I tell ya - it took twice as long to de-package the things and put them together as it did to open the presents in the first place!!! Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhh! I kept hearing "Daddy hurry, I want to play with it! Daddy, are you done yet? Daddy, just open it!"


I used a knife, scissors, my teeth, anything to try and speed up the process and there was just no easy way to do it. One person said to me once, "I can just see some little old guy in China chuckling to himself as he packages these toys thinking about some frustrated parent trying to get the toy detached from the packaging. Oy!

Unbelieveable how thoroughly they tie these things into the packages! Wow!!!

I prevailed though. (Said with a triumphant voice.)

Then I became my kids 'hero' for getting their stuff out!

Ok - it was worth it.

:)

Service or Lack ThereOf

As I was riding with a co-driver recently, we started talking about the 'lack of service' in service oriented businesses. A number of experiences I've had in the past few months - and I can't remember most of them right now to elaborate - has been sub-standard. It's like most people want to be served, and not to serve, even if it's their job.

One thing I remember. I was a McD's and placed my order. There were 4 people wandering around the front counter area, 2 in drive-thru and about 5 in the grill area. It took almost 10 mintues to get my meal. Even with the fancy computer system - they still forgot my order. What is that?

I did have one awesome experience recently. On my last trip to South Miami, FL - we delivered at a shipping company that was going to take the product on a cargo ship to the Bahamas. Now, as most of the 'truck drivers' in our family will attest - the majority of dock workers are extremely rude to truck drivers. And some of them rightly deserve it - but the majority of us want to come in, unload or load and head out - that simple.

Well - this dock foreman was EXTREMELY nice. Everything was Mr Pester, yes sir, no sir - very patient and even looking out for me to check and see if the pallets had been handled and the paperwork finished. That RARELY ever happens. Most of the time I've got to 'pester' them. (Believe me, I USED that name-pun to death - it does help a LOT!) I loved going to that warehouse and would go back there at the drop of the hat.

Service - yeah - it's still there, but not a prevelant as it used to! :(

Busy

Hey - Yup - I'm still here, just been extremely busy lately and not had time to write here recently.

Got a little list going of things to write - just haven't gotten to it - or the 'pics' option hasn't been working, etc!

Anyway - take care of yourself!!! :)