Clint's Blog

Stimulus Package

2008-05-19T11:31:00.002-06:00

What are you going to do with the money you get from the "Stimulus Package"?

I know that the government wants me to go and buy a bunch of junk from the stores to help stimulate the economy but for me, I want to do something really really boring with our money. I want to pay off debt. I know, it is not glamorous, it is not exciting, it isn't even interesting and I am probably turning off a plethora of readers by even mentioning it.

We have a couple of other options. We have talked about maybe using it for a family vacation. Maybe using it for a remodel of the bathroom that somehow didn't get finished. Or, just tuck it away for a rainy day and when the fuel prices are lower and take a long drive across the USA to visit some Church Historical sites.

Well, I'm not sure what we will do yet but that money is burning a hole in our checking account and we need to decide what we are going to do with it before we spend it all on Twinkies and Ding Dongs.

Appreciate your leaders

2008-05-15T22:26:00.003-06:00

Tonight we had a Senior Recognition Dinner for the graduating seniors in our ward. The Laurals agreed to do the dinner and the Priests were to put on the show and setup and take down. Well, the dinner was the hard part. Two of the Laural Advisers went to the church at 4:00pm today to setup for the dinner at 7:00pm. The dinner was amazingly delicious. The tables were set, there were center pieces on each table, it looked wonderful. They worked so hard to put it together and to make it special. I, of course, did my part and the night was a success. I mentioned several times to the whole group of how much time and energy went into doing the dinner and the tables and decorations. The leaders really did a great job.

I am particularly sensitive to this issue of appreciating your leaders because about a month ago I learned what it felt like to not be appreciated at all. Here is the story.

There was an Eagle Court of Honor coming up where two of our Young Men were going to receive their Eagle Scout Rank. The day of the event I realized the no one had planned anything for this historic event except to have a speaker and awards. As I thought about the Court of Honor I realized that I needed to do something to make it more memorable. So, I went over to the church an hour and a half early. I took two tents, all of my dutch ovens, fishing pole, shovel, axe, lantern and any other camp gadget or camp gear I had in the garage. I created a mini campsite in the middle of the gym to set the mood for the Eagle Court of Honor. It took a lot of work but when I was done it really looked cool.

Everyone filed into the gym, we had the court of honor and everyone left. No one helped clean up, no one asked who had set the gym up so nice, no one even noticed. I picked up all of my stuff by myself and took it back home.

I now make sure and thank those leaders that have put in time and effort to make these events special.

Can't live without

2008-05-05T14:22:00.003-06:00

My sister wrote on her blog of something she just can't live without. Here is her little blog article.
Anyway, I started to think about what I can't live without and I really couldn't think of anything until this morning. It is my toothbrush.

My toothbrush is all warn down and half of the bristles are flat. I really shouldn't be using it anymore but I just don't want to throw it away. This morning, it was done so I threw it in the trash and got a new toothbrush out of the closet. You must know that the toothbrush I threw away was no ordinary toothbrush. It is a MONSTER tooth brush called a Radius toothbrush.

Now, I am brushing my teeth with 1/8 of the brush I was using before and I am serious, it feels like I am trying to brush my teeth with a toothpick. Look at how many bristles are on this thing. It is AWESOME!!! I'm going to have to go out and buy another set of 3 or 6 or I am seriously going to go crazy with these small, thin, rinky dink toothbrushes that they have in the stores.

I miss my Monster Toothbrush!

Reward

2008-05-02T09:47:00.003-06:00

Coby has been struggling to keep motivated about getting his Eagle Project complete and his Camping Merit Badge. He only needs a couple of things on each to finally put them to rest. Coby went to the Scout O Rama last weekend and learned about a game called Speed Stacking. http://www.speedstacks.com. He really wanted but buy a set of stacking cups so I told him that if he finished his Eagle Project paperwork, (which only needed one more signature) and he finished his Camping Merit Badge, (which only needed one requirement and a signature) we would let him buy a Speed Stacking Set.Well, yesterday Coby finished his Eagle Scout Project paperwork. He also finished his Camping Merit Badge. We were able to do both in one evening. So, after they were both signed, I took him straight over to Target and picked up the "Glow in the Dark" Speed Stacking set. He loved it and played with it until bed time. His best time was 20 seconds.

Coby has one more merit badge to complete. It is the Citizenship in the Community. He needs to volunteer for a Non-Profit organization for 8 hours. Once he completes this requirement he will be ready to submit his application to receive his Eagle Scout Award.

Go Coby!!

Overwhelmed

2008-05-01T14:50:00.003-06:00

I know it is hard to believe, but I have been overwhelmed with the mountain of activities and responsibilities that have come my way. It really feels like college finals week every single week. You've been there before, you know you have tests all week. You haven't studied enough and if you study every hour of every day before the test, you know you still won't know enough to get an A in the class. Then, your car breaks down so you have to walk everywhere and you were just reminded that you haven't paid your rent yet. Plus, you have a 40 page report due on Friday which is worth half of your grade. Well, I would really like to go back to finals week. Why you ask?Here is a copy of our schedule for this very week. Keep in mind that all of these things have to be done AFTER we get home from work. I generally get home about 5:00pm and Deanna gets home around 4:00pm.

Monday: family home evening, baseball practice; ship some figurines, dinner
Tuesday: piano for Coby, Piano for Andy, Piano for Savanna, Baseball game, Soccer game, fix dinner
Wednesday: Baseball practice, clogging practice and tryouts, dinner, temple interviews and Mutual, Home Teaching
Thursday: Baseball game, Soccer Game, Temple interview, mow neighbors lawn, ship some figurines, fix dinner
Friday: Date night, and some other stuff I think I forgot, fix dinner for kids
Saturday: Youth Temple Trip to Boise all day long, mow lawn, plant garden do yard work around the house and clean up the disaster that happened all week.
Sunday: FAST SUNDAY!!!!! Meetings, meetings, Fast offerings, High Adventure Meeting.

Ok, am I through? No, I still have many other things that I just couldn't fit into the day. Do I sound a little overwhelmed?
Wouldn't it be nice just to go back to college and have finals week again? I am having finals week every week. AARRGGHH!

Stock

2008-04-17T08:50:00.002-06:00

I don't know why but I have been really interested in the stock market lately. I try to watch Jim Cramer when I get home from work to learn more about what is happening in the stock market. Recently I have been following and buying stock in a company called ISRG. It has done really well since I bought it so I am happy. Google did not do well so I had to let it go. My next stock purchases will be FSLR or MRK so keep an eye on them for me.

Currently I own ISRG, QQQQ and EWO.

I'm not making millions yet.

Your friendly stock picker!

BOOYA!

Garden

2008-04-06T13:14:00.004-06:00

In a feeble attempt to fulfill a commandment from our Prophet, I have planted a garden. We, the kids and I, have planted one whole row of beans. (I think I will be the only one eating this bumper crop of beans). One row of Cantalope. (Which I have never planted before). One row of carrots. (Which I have planted several years but never sprouted). One row of radishes. (which have been my saving grace each year I have attempted a garden). And two rows of peas. (why two rows of peas? I don't know.)

Since Blogging has technically satisfied the commandement to keep a journal, I am hoping that this garden will fill the check box next to my name in heaven that says, "planted a garden".

Here is a picture of the garden.

Click on the picture to enlarge the photo. The green toothpicks are peas, the red is radishes, the blue is carrots, the purple is cantalope and the brown is beans.

I know you were expecting a plot 30 x 100 feet but this is about all I can do right now until I find a roto-tiller. The new and improved garden which I affectionately call gardan version 2.0 will start out in my yard at the end of April.

Stay tuned.

Class President

2008-04-03T11:09:00.004-06:00

Andy Carter ran for class president this week. Deanna made some cookies and I printed up some fliers for him to deliver to each of his classmates to persuade them to vote for him. Here is the little Flyer.

The first round of voting was completed on Monday and it ended in a virtual tie. The teacher announced that the voting was too close to call. (where have we heard that before?!) There were three students that were absent that day so the three students would have to vote on Tuesday which could decide the outcome of this election. I guess you could call them Super Delegates!

So, to make a long story sort, I am please to announce that the wait is over, the results are in, the dangling chads have been reviewed. Andy Carter has officially been elected Class President of Mrs. Noah's 5th Grade Class.

Andy would like to thank all of the little people involved in his campaign for President. His first order of business is to make sure that everyone in class gets the opportunity to be first in line when going to lunch. The second order of business is to install a Coke Machine in the back of the classroom and to get student passes to spend their lunch hour in the Teachers Lounge. I think he was making campaign promises he knew he couldn't keep. But, I guess that is politics. *shrug*

130 in 1 hour

2008-03-27T10:22:00.002-06:00

Last night Coby executed the BURN activity of his Eagle Project. He arranged to have 3 people bring their laptops or PC's. I brought my PC with 3 external burners. We were able to burn 130 CD's in one hour. Coby had all of the scouts there making labels, putting CD's into Jewel cases and marking on the CD's "K-9 Web Filter". Coby did great at organizing and executing this task.

He has talked with the Bishops in our Stake and they will contact Coby on how many CD's they will want for their wards. When I talked to our Bishop to see what he would want, he said he would like all 130 CD's but he felt that was a little too much to take them all so he would settle for 70. So, all Coby needs to do now is deliver the CD's and he will be ready to have his Eagle Project signed off.

After the Eagle Project is completed, he only has his Camping Merit Badge and his Citizenship in the Community and he will be ready for an Eagle Board of Review.

Congratz Coby!

Now, we just need to keep this momentum up for our 11 year old scout.

I'm Famous?

2008-03-16T17:15:00.004-06:00

I received a call from my Mother in Law last week that I was famous because I was in their local newspaper. She told me that "The Southern Idaho Press" (SIP) had written a story about me.

I could only think of one thing. It can't be good!

My Mother in Law brought over the newspaper clipping a couple of days ago so I had to post it to my blog for all to see.

If you look through the rest of the report, there were 3 other poor souls that decided to plead guilty to the misdemeanor change and pay the fine. So, the guy in front of me and they guy behind me weren't so lucky.

I might also tell you that I received a bill in the mail from the lawyer friend of mine. He spent 2.75 hours on my case. At $170 per hour I was really swallowing hard and didn't want to look at the bottom of the page for the total bill. The total said, $0. What I super nice guy!

Parable of the washing machine

2008-03-14T11:48:00.004-06:00

A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.

At stake conference this last weekend we had a visiting GA. He is a member of the Quorum of the Seventy (how many quorums of 70 are there now?). Anyway, he told us of a parable that he had heard from one of the Apostles. I hesitate to put this on my blog because it will be totally from memory and I would hate to miss quote a 70 who was telling a story about an Apostle. So, this is not fact, this is a parable told 3rd hand. I will not even mention the 70's name nor the Apostle.

Here is the situation. The visiting GA said he was in a meeting with a number of brand new Mission Presidents and their wives. The Apostle told them a parable then left the room. He told them to figure out what it meant and then call him back and let him know.

Here is the Parable of the washing machine.

"At the front of the store was a new washing machine. There were a number of salesman standing around the washing machine. The inventor of the washing machine was also there. The wife of the inventor walks up to the group standing around the new washing machine and asks, "What is this supposed to do?"."

Well, that is it! The GA then opened up the room for discussion to come up with the meaning of this parable.

What do you think it means?

Inspection

2008-03-14T11:30:00.008-06:00

I have implemented a new program in the Carter House. It is called inspection. I wasn't sure if it would work or not but so far, it has been great.

I have two daughters that don't think twice about dropping anything and everything they have on the floor of their room. They have 200 million stuffed animals, they have 100 million books, and 50 million crayons. In a matter of minutes their room can be so cluttered with stuff that you can not even see the floor. Then, every Saturday we go through the process of yelling and screaming at them to clean up their rooms. It really never gets clean. SO, last Saturday I held to my guns and made sure that EVERYTHING was picked up off of the floor. I mean everything. Not one animal, not one shirt, not one sock. Then, I told the girls that I would inspect their room every day.

First day, I found a few things on the floor during inspection and I found their drawers open and shoes left out. I pointed them out and the girls put the stuff away. The room was clean. The next day, less items were on the floor. Each day there have been less and less stuff on the floor. Tomorrow is Saturday and I think they are starting to see with a "small" amount of effort all week they will have a clean room the next Saturday.

The girls like it so much, they find me when I get home from work and ask for an inspection of their room. I have started to have fun with it and I am now requiring them to salute. :-)

The next disaster area I am hoping to clean up with my inspection tactics will be unleashed on the boys. I'll let you know how it goes.

Eagle Project

2008-02-29T11:00:00.006-07:00

Coby has been trying to put together some ideas on what he can do for an eagle project. He first wanted to do a project where he would gather a bunch of stuff to send to the troops in Iraq but he didn't get it done and thought out fast enough to get it done for Christmas. So, he started thinking of other things he could do for his eagle project. Of course, I have been looking for something for him as well. So, last week we started talking about some possible projects. One of which I brought up he decided to pursue.

Here it is. I have come across a web filtering software that is FREE. Not just an evaluation copy or a trial copy but completely free for home use. I thought this was a pretty cool product and I have installed it on a few computers to test it out, including my computer at home. The software is excellent and again, free. So, my idea was to have copy talk to the Stake and see if they would allow him to give out 100 free CD's with this web filtering software. Oh, I should probably tell you the software, it is called K-9 web filtering. http://www.getk-9.com

Anyway, Coby liked the idea so he started putting together some ideas.

Here were the ideas;
1: Put together a fireside where the threats on the internet were discussed and then Coby could make a presentation about the software. He could explain how it worked and how to install it. He would then make 100 CD's available to those that wanted to take it home and use it.
2: Make 100 CD's available for all of the bishops in the stake so that the bishops can give out these CD's to people who want them.
3: Make 100 CD's available to the High Council speakers to distribute when they give a talk about the internet and pornography.
4: Offer the CD to those that want them as part of a 5th Sunday lesson.

We then went over to his the Eagle Project Review guy and talked to him about it. He thought the project would be great but he would need to get the Stake President or Bishop to approve this project first. So, Coby called and setup an appointment with the Stake President and went in and presented the idea. The Stake President liked the idea and asked Coby to present his project at a Bishops meeting in March. All those bishops that would like to participate could then opt in or opt out. The Stake President thought it would be best to make it an options for a 5th Sunday lesson. Anyway, he signed Coby's paper and the next day he had the Scout Committee, Scout Master and the Eagle Project Review guy. He now has a completely approved Eagle Project in hand and is just waiting to put the rest of the pieces together for the presentation in March.

I think Coby is excited about it and the bonus is that it has to do with computers and CD's and programs which he really enjoys.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes from here.

Clint

Does this count?

2008-02-26T11:22:00.008-07:00

On Sunday I was taking an inventory of all of the things that I still do not do in my life to be perfectly in line with the teachings of the Prophets. One of them that came to mind was a journal. I have a small journal writing program on my computer that I use to type up some of my journal entries. Every time I look at that program, my last entry is inevitably 6 months to 12 months ago. I always start out my next entry with, "I know it has been a long time since I have written in my journal, I will recommit to writing more often". And so it goes each entry.

As I was kicking myself for not writing in my journal, I then realized that I might be able to "count" my blog entries as a journal. Wow, what a concept. All I will have to do is copy and paste my blog entries into my journal. Do you think that when I get into heaven and the checklist is read off, that a check mark will be placed in the "journal" column? Or, a demerit might be placed in it's stead and in big red letters it states, "A blog is not a journal!".

The journal software I purchased is is called It's Personal. Unfortunately it has been discontinued, http://www.rkssoftware.com/misc/discontinued.html.

Plead Guilty

2008-02-25T09:13:00.003-07:00

I plead guilty on Friday and I'm happy about it?

So, my lawyer called the prosecuting attorney to discuss a lessor sentence than a misdemeanor citation. The prosecuting attorney agreed to drop the charge of misdemeanor citation and lower the charge to a traffic violation. The traffic violation that I was charged with, and plead guilty to, was a speeding ticket. So, I went into the courthouse in Burley Idaho and paid the fine for my speeding ticket and somehow, I was happy to pay it.

The misdemeanor citation would have cost me $90.00 but having a misdemeanor citation on my record could have cost me a lot more.

Now, the final chapter in this story will be the cost of the attorney. I had my friend work on the deal and I am not sure yet how much he will charge me. It could be up to 3 hours worth of work and at $170 per hour, it could cost over $500 for the whole deal.

What a lesson to learn about using the Emergency Cross Over on a Freeway. Don't Do It! Not even in an emergency.

Earthquake!!!

2008-02-21T09:32:00.005-07:00

This is Clint Carter reporting live from Twin Falls Idaho were it has been reported that there was an earthquake this morning February 21 2008.

At about 7:20am this morning the Carter Family felt a 6.3 magnitude Earthquake rattle through their house. Clint, the father of 4 children, was resting nicely in his bed when he heard a loud rumble and heard and felt the house shaking. Being wide awake in an instant, he immediately jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. His wife and 8 year old daughter were sitting at the kitchen table with wide eyes. His wife asked, "did we just have an earthquake"? "Yep, that was an earthquake", he said. As they sat around the kitchen table Mr. Carter noticed that the kitchen chandelier was swinging back and fourth a little and on the wall, Mrs. Carter had hung a number of wooden painted signs that had the 6 Be's on them. All of them were swinging back and fourth on their strings. Mr. Carter remarked that is felt like a large truck had just rumbled past the house (which is almost impossible since they live at the end of a cul-de-sac). Mrs. Carter stated that it felt like about 10 seconds of shaking whereas Clint felt only about 3 seconds. Deanna likened the jolt to a sonic boom. Mr. and Mrs. Carter then turned on the radio and listened to News Radio 1310 KLIX as they reported, within minutes, that there had indeed received a 6.3 shock wave with an epicenter just east of Wells Nevada. Wells Nevada is approximately 100 miles from Twin Falls Idaho. Other reports have been streaming in from Burley and the surrounding areas. No reported injuries or damage at this time.

This is Clint Carter reporting from the Carter News Network. Now back to you in the studio.

$500 or 5 years in prison

2008-02-15T09:19:00.004-07:00

So, I talk to my lawyer about this Misdemeanor Citation and he tells me that this charge has maximum penalties of $500 or 5 years in prison. YIKES!

I talked to a lawyer friend of mine and had him look at the citation I received to get his advise. He told me that I could plead guilty and pay the fine and have a misdemeanor on my record, or I could go and plead not guilty and explain my situation to the judge and hope of a lessor charge. He also said that he could represent me at the court and take care of it for me but he would charge $170 per hour for his time. Burley is 1 hour away, so it would be at the very least 2 hours in travel and then his time at the court. Holy Cow, That is over $500 right there!!! I don't see how people can afford to use a lawyer.

Anyway, I am having the lawyer call the Prosecuting Attorney and see if I can get a lessor citation of an infraction. If that works, I'll no longer be a hardened criminal on the lam. I'll be an infractor. (if that is a word)

Misdemeanor Citation

2008-02-12T10:05:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? I have been Cited with a Misdemeanor!!!!! AAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!

I was driving to Malta last Monday and expected to take I-84 south down to Malta. When I reached the interchange I was met with a sign that said "Road Closed, Detour". The detour pointed further down the road towards Pocatello. I didn't want to drive to Pocatello. I continued down the road looking for a detour so I could drive back to Declo and take the back roads into Malta. As I looked ahead I saw a truck crossing the middle using the emergency crossover. I figured that this must be the detour. (conveniently leaving out details) I was then met by a police officer standing in the middle of the road which motioned me to pull over. He then informed me, as his teeth chattered from the cold, that I would need to wait for him to give me a citation. I sat and waited to see what would happen. Hopefully, I thought, he would just give me a warning and let me go since it was a wintery day and due to the unusual circumstances. Well, that didn't "detour" (no pun intended) our friendly freezing police officer. He gave me a Misdemeanor Citation for using the Emergency Crossover. I asked him, "when can someone use the emergency crossover"? He said "never!". I said, "If there was an emergency, I still can not use the crossover?". He said "correct".

I then find out that this is not a ticket that I have to pay, it is a Misdemeanor. I have to show up to court! WHAT? So, a week from Monday I have to go to Rupert for a court hearing in front of a judge about my Misdemeanor Citation. YIKES!!!!

How am I going to plead?
Could I get excommunicated?

I have decided not to contact my Idaho State Representative on the matter since he did not handle his own "Misdemeanor Citation" very well.

Reading A Book

2008-01-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Because I grew up with a minor case of Dyslexia, I really haven't ever liked reading books. To this day I struggle reading books because it takes so darn long to get through them. I read at a pace of about 20 pages per hour. I know, it is terrible. I am probably not reading correctly. For some reason I read every single word. I have tried reading faster but I alway lose the meaning of the story or I missed a "NOT", or a "DID" or "Didn't" that would totally change the view of the story. Anyway, I am doing something that I have never done before. I am re-reading a book. Deanna has always talked about re-reading books and I have always thought she was crazy. Why would you want to re-read a book? It is hard enough getting through it the first time. The book I am re-reading is "Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card.

I really enjoyed reading this book the first time, plus, it doesn't have a thousand billion pages. I am half way through the book and I am really enjoying the second read. I remember bits and pieces from when I read it the first time which excites me more to keep reading.

The down side of me really liking this book is that I found it in the Juvenile section of the Public Library. So, I figure, I am probably reading at about a 5th grade level to a 9th grade level. That is ok with me.

Don't bother sending me your list of books that you know I will love. I probably won't read them. I tried to make a new years resolution a few years back that I would read 6 books during the year. Well, I didn't make it. I haven't had the courage to make a new years resolution like that again. I think I'll stick to movies and television.

Zoey

2007-12-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

My daughter of 8 years has been watching Zoey 101 on TV. I have watched it with her (trying to stay as macho as I can) and have found the show to be clean so we have let her watch. For Christmas I gathered up all of the manly courage I could and walked into a Clair's store to buy her a Zoey 101 Key Necklace. I thought it would be a great stocking stuffer. After this news about Zoey (Jamie Sears), we are no longer allowing are daughter to watch the TV show and we are taking the Key Necklace back to Clair's.

I will bet that Nickelodeon will continue to air Zoey 101 without any regrets. I have heard that they have the whole next season already filmed so it would cost them a lot of money that they have already invested in the program to shut it down now, or to even bring in a new Zoey character. This is all around bad news.

I'm sure glad that I don't have a teenage movie or TV star. It seems that early fame and fortune ruins peoples lives. I guess I'm glad to be living in Po Dunk Idaho working as a computer geek with a mediocre house at the end of a cul-da-sac.

Clint

Kindergarden

2007-12-20T14:37:00.001-07:00

Hummm, is it spell Kindergarten or Kindergarden? Well, it look like the "T" version wins as far as my spell checker is concerned. It will always be a garden for me.

Anyway, little Katie had a Christmas program yesterday. She was very cute but a little sick. She only smiled when she had to. Here are some pics.

Also, I heard something interesting when I was watching Cranky Geeks the other night. They were talking about writers and that there are a lot of people out there that want to be writers. One of the "writers" talking about the subject said that anyone can be a writer, all you have to do is start writing. In fact, he said, if you can write 300 words per day, in one year you could have a full novel. Well, I decided to take him up on that idea and try and write 300 words each day. Well, I didn't get very far. I started writing and found my self writing about writing 300 words. It won't make much of a novel. I have decided after one full day of being a writer, that I am a terrible writer and I should just stick with fixing computers.

For a copy of my first page as a writer, please click this link. It is really horrible so unless you have a good 15 minutes to waste, please don't read it.

My Inner Pain

2007-12-07T21:14:00.001-07:00

I really liked watching the TV show "Love Monkey". I thought it was a really strange title for a show and a little "turn offish" but I decided to watch because I really like the main character. One of their last episodes they played this song and I loved it. I couldn't find it for the longest time and then I found it on YouTube, so, I'm posting it on my blog. The song is called "My Inner Pain" with Teddy Geiger

StrongBad and Homestar Runner

2007-12-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, this post is a little "out there" but I thought I would share a couple of my favorite Home Star Runner episodes. Those of you that don't know anything about Home Star Runner, sorry, I really can't help you. You will just have to watch the three episodes that I have posted. It is a little childish but it is hilarious. You need to be in a goofy mood to watch them so don't watch them while at work, watch them at 1:30am after watching the full version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

http://www.homestarrunner.com/firsttime.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs4.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail50.html

Last Pack Meeting

2007-11-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

We have hit a milestone in our lives this week. This could possibly be out LAST PACK MEETING. Yes, I know, it is hard to believe but Andy is now 11 and he earned his Arrow of Light. So, he is now officially out of the Cub Scout program.

Although there are some real positives to Pack Meetings, I am finding that I like the idea of not having to carve a pine wood derby car. It was always depressing to see the sad look my boys gave me as the block of wood that I slaved over just hours before the event, slowly hobbled down the race track at snail like speed. My pine wood cars were never flashy, always had a residue of wet paint and almost always lost a wheel on the way down. I am definitely not good with wood, paint, or art. For the longest time I didn't even own a power drill. So, it did not have the skills nor the tools to produce an award winning pine wood derby car. So, in some ways, I am glad that era is behind me and I hope I didn't do too much damage to the ego's of my two boys.

clint

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

2007-11-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a weekend where it felt like all you did was work? Well, Sunday night I felt like I had been through "The Wringer". (I am guessing that this reference is to the old fashioned way of washing clothes where you stuff wet clothes through two rollers called a "wringer") if this is true, that is how I felt, like someone took my head, stuffed it between two rollers and cranked away until I was squished out the other end. This whole weekend was so full of activities, meetings and parties that I don't know if I can even list them all. Let's see; Andy's Birthday Party (Lan Party), Court of Honor, Camp out, Scout Meeting, Coby going to NYC, Church meetings, Priesthood Preview, set up, take down, Stand up Sit down Fight Fight Fight!

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

I guess, if you really look at it with a positive attitude (which I don't usually do because I am a pessimist), you would see that I was living life to it's fullest. I really gained some valuable experiences and made some awesome memories. The Pessimist in me just wants to take a long nap.

BTW, I wanted to report that the LAN party was a huge success and over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm planning on taking my game on the road and setting it up at Melinda's house. I don't know if she will hate me, or thank me for it. At one time I think we had 7 computers going. Everyone was shooting everyone else. I even jumped in the middle of the battle to see how I would do against these intimidating 5th graders.

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I hope I get plenty of nap time, I mean, I hope I live life to it's fullest.

Clint