Life of a Lazy Blogger

The Secret: First 20 minutes

2006-12-23T11:41:00.000-08:00


This is the first 20 minutes of the global film phenomenon "The Secret". It is authorized by The Secret LLC for personal use only. Please enjoy this gift! I liked this movie. It is very thought provoking.

'Nuff Said

2006-08-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

I will protect you.

2006-08-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a tough few weeks, with all the news of a little girl named Destiny that popped up in the news so suddenly. I didn't know the little lady, though she lived less than 20 miles away. But her name is what first caught my eye.

Destiny.

You see, Destiny is also the name of a special little girl in my life. And so to read the tragedy of this innocent little girl that died less than a short car ride away, and to know she shares the name of another girl that I hold in my heart of hearts so dear.

She's been around for quite some time, helping in small, unseen ways. I love her dearly, and I fear for her in this, all too often, terrible world we live in.

dear sweet child

i saw the news today and there was your name
only it belonged to another sweet child, now of tragic fame.
she vanished one night from her own backyard
friends and strangers searched near and far
but no one could find her for more than a week
hope was waning and the future looked bleak

where was the girl to be found?

two doors down?

that poor 5 year old girl was dead and abused
at the mercy of the pervert now accused.
what kind of world do we live in, my sweet?
it makes me want to make a retreat
and take you away to somewhere secure
some place safer than her's for sure

i will protect you

Destiny Found Dead

2006-07-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Little 5-year old Destiny was found dead today in the next door neighbor's basement. She has been missing for more than a week with neighbors, police and other volunteers looking for her the whole time.

She disappeared from the porch of her own home, dressed in her pajamas. She was sent to bed, but she went to the porch instead. It was just a few minutes later that the parents discovered her missing. And now she is dead.

The police arrested the 20-year old neighbor as the only suspect in this homicide case.

He lived two doors down.

A Neighbor.

She was FIVE YEARS OLD!

Do you know YOUR neighbors? Do you?

What kind of world do we live in? What motivates someone to kill a little girl and stuff her in the basement?

Dear God! I worry about the world I am bringing my own Destiny into...

If you haven't been following the story, my wife has on her blog: A Mom's World

Air Conditioning

2006-07-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Air Conditioning

Who would have thought that there was so much to know, or recycle, about Air Conditioners? Well, I just put online a complete site about Air Conditioning.

Did you know it is going to be over 100 degrees here is typically not-quite-so-hot Utah? Wow. I am glad I have a good central air unit in our place! Whew! That's HOT!

More later,

Jim

Pinch Black

2006-06-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Another one of those funny things Mikki says is when she is describing something that is completely black...She says it's PINCH BLACK...

Because it was a Daddy!

2006-06-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

Two of the kids ran into my office today, a little concerned about what they had found, and Mikki said, "We saw a live spider outside!"

I told them that spiders lived outside, so that was okay for it to be out there.

Davon then said, "Yeah, and it had looooong legs!"

Mikki added, "That's because it was a Daddy!"

Well Behaved

2005-12-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

Around the dinner table the other night the little ones were getting a bit rowdy. So we talked about how they needed to BEHAVE at the table.

Cute little 3 year old Mikki piped up, "Mom, I AM haved!"

Pretending

2005-12-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

So last night we were driving home, and cute little Mikki is pointing out Christmas lights and decorations as we go. On some of the rooftops are inflated snowmen, santas, etc., which we have helped her understand are just "pretend" and not real. She was initially concened about their safety it seems, so that settled it for her. She just thought they were cool, now.

But then as we rounded a corner to turn up State Street, another commercial building had more inflatables on it. And she cheerfully announces:

"If I were on the rooftop, I would be pretend, too!"

We Passed It!

2005-12-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

OK, so cute little Mikki has done it again!

I was waiting to be picked up by Tam, who had all 3 little kids in the car with her on her way to get me. I was talking to them on the cell phone, and when Mikki got on the line, I asked her if she could see the big beautiful moon out. It was HUGE! She looked for it, but told me over the phone that she could not see it in the sky.

I knew it was in the southern part of the sky, and they were travelling north to come to me, so I said, "Look out the back window, Mikki."

She gasped as she caught sight of it, and exclaimed into the phone to me:

"There it is! It's behind us! We passed it already!"

The Car is On Backwards

2005-08-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

My little 3 year old sweetie is the darndest, cutest thing there ever was. She says the funniest smartest things, and I want to start keeping track of them here.

Today we pulled into a parking space, but instead of going in nose-first like normal, I instead backed into the space. Mikki, from the back seat, exclaimed, "The Car is On Backwards!"

ROFLMAO!!!

Settling In

2005-07-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to life settling down a little and all of us settling in. I don't have especially high hopes of that happening, but it's nice to think about. I think it will happen, though.

I came home from work yesterday and found that Tam had unpacked and arranged everything in the "Wood Room" so that it looked wonderful! I call it the wood room because I am not sure what else to call it. It is the only room in the house that has all hardwood floors. It's not really a living room, and it's not just a dining room, though this is its primary function. This room is the first room you enter when you come in the front door. We have a couch along the left wall (because it's too big to take downstairs into the living room, and there's already a couch down there that's too big to get out of the place, so the owner left it for us instead of chopping it up and removing it in pieces--it's a nice couch downstairs so we are glad to have it there!) and a couple of bookshelves. The stairs down are across the room to the right, and the kitchen is further to the right (a right u-turn from the front door will land you at the kitchen counter). Between the stairs and the kitchen we have our fridge (a second fridge since the place comes with its own), and the stand-up freezer. In the move, we acquired a second clothes dryer, so it's currently next to the freezer until we decide we want it downstairs in place of the other dryer or not. I joked during dinner last night that it looked like I was eating in the appliance department showroom floor...LOL!

For a housewarming gift, since this will be our home for the longest period so far in our marriage, I bought a nice little wall clock that does Westminster (and one other kind of) chimes every quarter-hour and it's now on the wall in the Wood Room. Hearing that clock reminds me of home as a child when an old German Grandfather clock in our living room would sound of like it. It's fun, and the kids love it when it gongs the number of hours.

This place is really shaping up to be a place that feels like home. I just wish it felt like that outside the door. There is no place for the kids to play unsupervised. With the population being what it is in the condo complex, it's hard to feel safe letting the kids just run around and play at will. We have good reason to fear child molestors or other dangers. To remind us how legitimate our concerns are, there's this website (http://utah-sex-offenders.com/) that keeps us grounded. It ties into Google Maps and the Utah Sex Offenders List to show us how many offenders are within a mile of our home. SCARY!

Here's a view of our last place we lived, and who was nearby as a threat to our kids!

This guy lived just around the corner!

I am not going to post the address to our new place here publicly. If you know us, you have our address through other means. But know that there are actually EIGHT offenders living within a mile of our place now. The last place (and there is no way you could have guessed it by driving the cozy little neighborhood) had SEVEN. Unbelievable. At least in the last place, the kids could ride their bikes across the street to play with their friends and we weren't too concerned. There were fewer people to get to know, and people who didn't belong there stood out. In the new place, we live in condos, and there are just too many people to get to know them all, too many coming and going, too many visitors, too many ways for someone who doesn't belong to go unnoticed. And that offender list is only of people who got caught...there are more of them...

Our goal is to be ready to move in a year into a much safer place where kids can play freely, and we can really settle in for a while. Here's hoping!

The End of a Chapter...

2005-07-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

...and I have to admit that it is a relief, albeit a frustrating one.

Last night we went to the old house to finish up all the cleaning, and found that the water was off. Well, there would be no cleaning without water, so back home we went. I would have called the landlord, but it was 10:00 pm, and I thought that would be too late to bother him. Tam would be back today to finish then, after stopping by the city to reconnect the water first. When she arrived at the house at Noon, the landlord was already there with a cleaning lady! WHAT?!?! He told Tam that he was afraid we were not going to get things done in time for the new tenants to move in this weekend, so he decided to have someone come in and finish for us. UNBELIEVABLE! Not a single word to us about it. Just showed up. He had our cell phone number, and could have called. That's lame. No doubt he is going to deduct that cleaning cost from the deposit he is supposed to refund us.

So Tam got the last of our garbage and cleaning supplies out of there (vacuum, mop, brooms, chemicals, etc.) and took off, calling me to let me know what happened.

Oh, we are going to have words. Yes we are...and I will have lots to say when we do...

Moving Limbo

2005-07-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

As of this moment, it feels like we are in moving limbo. We have 80% of our stuff at the new place, and are still finishing cleaning this place. The last thing to take down is the computer. Tam says this is because she is listening to yahoo music, so of course, it must stay online to the last minute. :)

But it's good that it is still up because I can post this during a break from the final boxing and cleaning. So here I sit while the sweat dries and cakes onto provious layers. All of our stuff is still in boxes and mostly in the front room at the new place. We collapsed last night on mattresses and slept for 7 hours before forcing ourselves up and at it again.

Here is an interesting observation. We have had NO HELP from the neighbors here at the old place. We have had a UHaul parked in the driveway for 2 days now, and not a single person has so much as offered to help except one person across the street (which was for a time that we couldn't really use the help anyway). Most people avert their glances as they pass by. Very interesting. There were about 20 people from the neighborhood here when we moved in on X-Mas Eve to help us unpack. But then again, the neighbors have been less then social during the week with us. I guess social hour is between 11am and 2pm on Sundays, and if we miss that, we just aren't being friendly neighbors.

Last night, we had about 8 people show up out of nowhere to help us unload the stuff from our truck. They were very friendly, of course. They had a good time examining our belongings, comparing our condo with theirs, and scratching the wood floor, doors, walls, and furniture. ;) I wonder if they will find us unfriendly neighbors if we don't join them for social time each Sunday as well? I hope not, because (ok, I am a little biased here) we are pretty nice people, and generally quite well-behaved. Time will tell, eh?

Well, back to the cleaning and packing the last stuff in the truck for final departure from this address...

Moving Sucks

2005-06-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's late Wednesday, and we have to be moved out of one place by tomorrow night, and the other place by Sunday. We can't move into the new place until Sunday, so what a mess all this is, eh?

Moving Sucks.

That's all that can really be said about it safely, because as soon as you start talking about it, you suddenly realize that you have been ranting for the last 20 minutes...and that can be embarrassing in the wrong crowd.

Anyway, Gary's place was such an Effing Nightmare, I can hardly believe it. A couple of the things we expected to get back from him that Tam loaned him while the boys were staying with him have been completely trashed. DI won't even take stuff in that bad a shape. They have to go the dump. Great. We thought in a moment of weakness we would sublet his place since he got all kinds of married on his 4th date with this (turns out to be a very like-minded) woman he met a month earlier. She's from Idaho, so they have uprooted and moved. We thought at first, hey the rent's cheap, let's move there...and then thought through it some more and decided it would be hellish living there. Unfortunately, the thinking-it-through part came after being pressured to sign the lease really quickly.

So in order to get out of the lease we signed, we have to clean the place up. WHAT A MESS! I can't believe how pathetic this guy is. I can't believe Tam was ever married to him!!! Wow! Pigs live clean, respectable lives compared.

And get this. We told him he needed to come back and get all his crap out of the place that he left behind. We had gone there to clean the place so we could move in (the very day we came to our senses about NOT moving in), and the place was totally filthy. There appeared to be a small effort to clean the place, like maybe a couple of 10 year olds that were told they needed to tidy up before they could go out to play were there...

He came down to do that, and actually STAYED in the place, with his new wife, and dirtied the shower again, left dirty dishes in the sink, and didn't hardly take a THING back to Idaho with him. The place was left with everything still in it, and dirtier. UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE.

So we have to take a whole bunch of crap to the dump, as much as we can to DI, and keep a few things that remain that are actually worth keeping, and that were Tam's in the first place.

THEN as if that wasn't enough all by itself to make this a sucky weekend...

...we need to move out of the house WE have been renting, and move into a new condo we found in Orem that we like. That's a whole new adventure, just not one of cleaning up after a freaking 40-year old pre-teen. It's a matter of packing and moving, and so many things are so heavy, and there is only Tam and I to do it all. We have not made many friends in the neighborhood here, and so I don't think they will offer to help much. But who knows. I would feel a little odd about accepting their help anyway, but I am desperate enough to accept it no matter what if they show up to help. But I won't ask for it.

And all this has to be done sometime before the end of Sunday the 3rd, and before I keel over dead from exhaustion. Poor Tam is in bed right now, sick, stressed, and I don't know how, but she is sleeping. Normally she can't sleep when things like these press on her mind. And they are, I can tell. But I think she is perhaps even more exhausted, and sick on top of it...so sleep forces itself upon her against her will.

I'll let you know how things went after the move. I am sure I will not be posting again until after the PC is set up in the new place, and Internet has been connected.

See? I should have just left this as "Moving Sucks" but instead I went on a ranted for 20 minutes. Sorry... :)

My job does not suck...

2005-06-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have a great job, actually. It's on the better side of the scale than most jobs, better than average for sure. If you think your job sucks, think about the kinds of jobs you COULD have. Here's one that looks fun at first, but upon closer inspection, I think I can see the horror and misery in his eyes...

The Laughing Guru

And then there's always this CRAPPY JOB!!!

Changing Blogs

2005-06-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

I used to use MSN Spaces for my blog. It has some nice features, but it's a pain, and is often down. So maybe when they figure out how to make it easier to post to, and stay up longer, it won't be an issue. So I have moved all the posts from there to here, and I won't use that one anymore.

If you want to keep up on what I am doing, look here. ;)

June 19 - Father's Day

2005-06-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

It's the first Father's Day since being remarried. And frankly, it was WONDERFUL.

Last Father's day, Shaine was living with his mother while we were separated, so he wasn't interested in talking to me. Dallin was in Kentucky with my brother, supposedly out of harms way while the divorce proceeded. Dallin sent me a little care package with a movie ticket, a hat that said #1 Dad on it, and a framed picture of him. That was cool. Enclosed instructions told me to put on the hat, take the photo with me to a movie, and watch a good flick with my son. That was nice.

This year, I have several new step-kids, three of which are living with us right now. They call me Dad, and I feel like it with them, even though their bio-dad is here in the area and sees them overnight once a week. He's a bit of a jerk, and they know it. But heck he's their Dad, and wants to be in their lives, so they usually see him without too much ire. But last night they called us late and cried that they wanted to come home. But the jerk made them stay there, and kept saying that everything would be alright. Those poor kids.

Anyway, I got to sleep in for the morning, and woke to Dallin trying to barricade the kitchen off with chairs and a sign telling me to go back to bed! Ha! A little while later, he shows up with a tray of French toast and scrambled eggs for me and Tam. Very cool. That was nice! Later, I took him to see Star Wars, Ep III. He wanted to see it badly. I wasn't able to go with him since there were things that needed to get done at home, but he loved the movie, so that's GREAT!

Tam had already spent time with the little kids writing some eCards for me and today they arrived in my email box. They were so cute. There was a card from the older kids in Idaho (ok, so Mom helped there quite a bit), and then another from the 3 little ones. And then a special card just for me from someone special. I couldn't help but be touched by the beautiful words they all wrote to me. Wow!

We wrapped up the day with Tam and I driving into the mountains to Cascade Springs. The beautiful countryside was wonderful to drive through. A short walk through the springs brought scenes of nature's beauty all around us.

Just before finishing this post to the Blog, Shaine popped up on IM chat with a Father's Day greeting for me (Thanks Tam!). It was a very fine day!

May 16 - Boston Last Week

2005-06-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

So I was on Boston last week for a business conference, and was able to bring my beloved wife along for the trip. It was a lot of fun! I have uploaded several pics to my space, and will add more as I pull video and more pics into my PC.

May 05 - My wife the proofreader

2005-06-24T10:53:00.001-07:00

So I added some cool features to a training DVD I made, and thought I would bring it home to show off to my beloved partner, friend, lover, and wife. Add to that list, proofreader.

I popped my final product into the DVD player and showed her the cool special effects and features I added. She was impressed...and then pointed out a couple of spelling typos in some of the text later in the video. AAAAARRRRGH!!! How many people at work had already seen draft after draft of these videos, and my brilliant wife is the only one to catch the typos?!?! What the heck?!?!

My dearest friend has saved me from some real embarrassment later! She is brilliant. I love her so dearly. I just need to learn to bring stuff home more often for her to see so she can catch these kinds of things BEFORE I make the final DVD!!!!

So here I am at work this morning, finishing the re-rendering of the DVD since I really hate stupid mistakes in my work. I don't consider myself a perfectionist, but I am a picky sort. So it's burning to a new DVD right now, and will be used in 40 minutes for the next training session. Ugh...clock's tickin'!

Thanks Beloved! You are awesome!

May 05 - Decent Commute Today

2005-06-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

OK, so I think I might have this down. My Plan A commute is not too shabby. The first bus that I get on in AF only had 6 people on it this morning, and was nice and quiet. It's about 30 minutes to the TRAX station on this bus, so I caught a quick catnap. The TRAX arrived only about 4 or 5 minutes after we did, and since it's the first stop, I virtually get my pick of seats. Another 30 minutes later, and I am getting off about a mile from work, where one more bus almost drops me right at the front door. So in about 70 minutes or so, I am at work and had a quiet commute I could try to catch a nap on.

Not bad.

I really hate that it leeches an extra hour or so from my life every day that I don't get to spend with my wife and family, but it's cheaper.

I just found out this morning that my office sells discounted bus passes. DANG! I could have saved $10 or so on a pass if I bought it here instead of through normal channels. I sure wish I had knows that before I paid $47 for my monthly pass! I guess they are $30 or $35 if I buy them here! I hate finding out stuff like this AFTER it's too late.

May 03 - Day 1 of Mass Transit Survived

2005-06-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

So it really wasn't all that bad. There was a little anxiety because I was concerned I would miss a bus somewhere and get back to AF much later that I was planning, and make Tam wait too long for me, but other than that, I was fine.

To go home today, I walked a bit to catch a bus that took me to the train (light rail) called TRAX. I took TRAX south to the end of the line, and then hopped on a bus that took me across the Point into Utah County, and finally to the Park and Ride where my lovely bride had just arrived a few minutes before me. It worked out great.

Actually there is one thing. There is a stretch of tracks on the south end of the line that make that train wobble back and forth pretty heartily. I guess that's something I will get used to if I take the train a lot, eh?

Another one misses the bus...

2005-06-24T10:49:00.001-07:00

So I was planning on starting to ride the bus to work today. I got the itinerary all planned out. Got it all figured. Times all straight. Alarm set for 5am. Good to go.

Then Davon knocks on the door at 4:30am. He's had an accident and needs help. We scramble to solve the problem, and flop back into bed. I have 30 more minutes before the alarm goes off. Good 30 more minutes of sleep.

Beep...Beep...Beep...

The Alarm goes off, and I shut it off...now more tired than I was at 4:30...I take a second to roll over and breathe (still fighting this sinus/cold/sore throat/cough thing)...and suddenly it's 5:45!

Crap! I jump out of bed and into the bathroom. A quick shave and shower later, and I am waking Tam so she can take me to the Park and Ride by 6:14am when the bus (express to SLC) is supposed to arrive. We approach the P&R and see te bus getting back onto I-15.

Gads! Missed it! So I pull onto the freeway after it, and in a frenzied moment of way-too-early-in-the-morning thinking, I pull past the bus and head for what I think is the next stop, so I can beat it there and be ready to board it. As I go past, the bus unexpectedly exits the freeway to make a stop I didn't know about, and so at THAT point I realize that I should have just been FOLLOWING it instead of RACING it. Oh well, I have my plan to meet it at the next stop, right?

Well, two exits later, we pull over and join a bunch of cars parked on a frontage road, and wait, watching the freeway offramp and overpass. A few minutes later...and there goes the bus!!! It didn't stop!!! HEY!!

OK, so back on the freeway, and this time I am going to be smart and just follow that darned thing...

...all the way into downtown...

...it never stopped again...it's an express. Ha. Jokes on me.

So Tam and I drove to my office (which is actually just south of downtown), and I got to work almost 30 minutes earlier than I expected. Yay for me. Poor Tam, not expecting the 60 minute commute this morning got to drive all the way back home. Poor girl. And we discovered that one of the headlights on our car is out, too. Great. One more expense. Seems like every time we find a way to save some money, more expenses pop up to more than make up for any savings...

It makes me tired.

April 27 - 8 Months of Wonder!

2005-06-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 8 month anniversary of my UberMarriage! This has been the sweetest 8 months of my life. It must be a rare thing to be married to the one person who truly completes you in every way.

I used to think, back when I was a kid, that there was a single Mrs. Right for me. I met Tammy and knew she was the one. But later, when we were separated by huge distances, and life-changing misunderstandings and assumptions occurred, I was so broken by it that I no longer believed there could be just one person that is perfect for me.

I settled into the notion adopted by all of my peers and teachers...that there is no ONE person, but that it could be ANYONE who wants to grow with you, experience life with you, and shares your beliefs and goals. So I met someone that SEEMED to be like that, and married her. That single act brought on over a decade of unhappiness and abuse, and not just for me but also for a child born of that marriage.

And so while bringing an ultimate end to that hideous relationship, I felt a strong need to look for Tammy. God's hand guided me swiftly, and suddenly the beginning of an incredible and beautiful reuniting began...

And now we have been married 8 months. It's much later in our lives, and I still feel deep regret for missing so much with her, but I look to the future where the light is brighter than I ever imagined it could be!!!

Today, I celebrate how heaven smiled upon me, and made me whole again!