Soooo then...

yeah. I've been sick. or at least playing at it. Not sure if it's pig flu or not but I figured I'd better make myself scarce at least until the symptoms were milder. I've been out for three days which is rare for even a sickling like me. But since I got since sunday night, I pretty much have been sick for the entire work week. Although, simply to stay connected and not feel like such a leech, I've been working about 4 hours a day from home. This day is getting to be more like 8 though. I feel pretty decent right now, so I'm hopeful that I can get back to a semi normal routine. It's been interesting being home with the kids and seeing what Rebekah deals with every day. I freely admit that she has the toughest job. But hey, she likes it. At least some of the time. I think...

Anywho, half the fam is at church and I put the girls to bed with a perfunctory "good night" answered by wails of life-altering woe. Titus has found my soft spot and used his charming smile and good behavior (he must have been saving it up) on me to watch some cartoons and now he's playing the wii. Personally, I'd like to get back to watching Psycho. I've never seen it before so it's pretty interesting. on a side note, Titus is playing Wii Indiana Jones and finds it quite amusing that by pushing a button he can make the blonde chick from the temple of doom scream. I think that's supposedly her "weapon." silly woman.

Anyway, I still have to get up on my roof and clean out the chimney. Hopefully I won't fall to my death, but if I do Rebekah has it made. I hope she doesn't read this....

Fall is one of my 4 least favorite seasons

I know people like fall because it's cool and ooh, the leaves change color and stuff. But hello people, Fall is a season of death and dying. The leaves are pretty because they are dying. The days are cooler because the sun is no longer smiling on us. There is less light too. And worst of all, Fall brings Winter. But Winter is just doing its job so although I find it unpleasant, it's like the Grim Reaper or maggots. It serves a valuable purpose. Ok, so my logic is flawed but I still don't like Fall. I've been working hard the past month and a half trying to get ready. I'm not quite there, but I've got most of the critical items crossed off my list. Now it's just the normal fallish stuff I have to worry about. I put a pellet stove in upstairs, but since it's in an enclosed alcove (aka attic) I  need to do some re-arranging with a power saw. Last weekend I bought two more cords of wood so hopefully those needs have been met. And we put plastic on the depression era windows. And I sealed up the swamp cooler. And I, geez I'm boring myself.

Ah well, Rebekah has been blogging so I'm not sure that I have to really say too much about the fam. The kids are doing pretty good. Swine flu (I've given up on calling it h1n1) has been running through the area pretty bad, but i'm hopeful the worst is over. I have heard from several people who know people who were put in the hospital by it but no deaths. Of course, they're no vaccine available and by the time there is any it'll be too late to make much of a difference. Such is life. Or death. If you die that is. But then the swine flu vaccine is the least of worries.

I took the kids to a corn maze. correction, I took the boys. Forrest enjoyed it a lot, but Titus was scared of being lost forever. There were three mazes but since Titus wasn't having as much fun and time was an issue so we wandered around a bit. Fed some goats (see facebook for a picture) and then mozied on out. I've had to work a lot this weekend due to problems so I'm missing church now much to my irritation. Well, not much to say of interest. my brain is tired from being up late last night and I have to go to work now.

BTW, did you know they're airing a remake of that great mini-series (and subsequently a series) V? Check it out on ABC.

It's no fun...

...picking on your colleagues if they are mentally impaired by a migraine. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. dead fish.

For the first time since I've had kids

I had a knock down drag out (yeah, there should be some dashes in there but you're not my english teacher :p)
... with my kids. 4 of them. The babies stayed in bed. The girls and the boys did a cage match with me. Since I've been exercising and lifting weights a bit, i had a bit of stamina. The girls would launch themselves at me and I'd catch them and toss them at the boys. Of course, Titus did that a bit too but he's 45 pounds so I had to be a little bit more careful when I tossed him. It worked well and although Titus hurt my ear, Forrest's ear, and Serenity's head he seemed none the worse for wear. Everybody had fun and no major injuries resulted. The girls got tired though and ran a little short on patience so I put them in bed and bailed. They screamed bloody murder at me since they were so wound up, but I haven't really heard them since. Right now I'm waiting for Rebekah to get back from the store. babysitting 6 kids. Who would've thought I could do it and not end up in leavenworth?

Avoiding electrocution...

...is time consuming. I spent a long time today adding three circuits to the house. I thought I just had some simple stuff to do, but avoiding electrocution really slowed me down. You can add a circuit to a breaker relatively safely without turning off the power, but it's dangerous. And by adding three at once it was really slow. Also, none of my circuits have been grounded (the third prong) so I wanted to do that with these. Unfortunately, that required some adjustment to a clamp which once I loosened it enough for the wires fell off. So, I spent 10 minutes saying to myself "I'm gonna die" as I tried to fit it back on without bumping the Idaho Power line. Ok, so the burning (or shocking hehehe) question you have been asking is why didn't I turn the power off? Two reasons. First, because last time I turned it off the breaker wouldn't "click" back on and I had to call an electrician who gave me some tips and tricks. Second, because I knew it would probably take me a couple hours under the best circumstances and I didn't want to further torture my wife without heat and electricity.

OK. I'm tired. Rebekah is blogging pretty regularly which is great, but a consequence is I'm not very motivated anymore. plus I'm tired. Did I mention I'm tired?

Ironically enough, I did get shocked pretty good once but it was inside the house on one of the new circuits that had a tiny strip of insulation stripped off it on the back. I didn't make a mistake but I still got a nice little "shock to the system."

Hey, maybe I"ll go to bed. seems like a good idea since I'm tired. Oh, and sore. Did I mention sore?

Favorite question of the day

"Do you guys have any kleenex that I can take into the conference room?"

Why? Lots of crying going to take place?