A few months ago, shortly after finding out that Kim was pregnant with our second child, we decided to plan a vacation. We wanted to go on one last childless get-a-way before baby number two arrived. We assumed that it would not be that difficult to find childcare for one kid for a few days and that it would be much more difficult to find childcare for two children starting next year. So, this was sort of our last chance for several, maybe twenty, or so, years to get-a-way without any children in tow.

Well, here we are a mere seventy-two hours from our projected departure and we are still not sure who is going to be watching our son. Now, we are not completely unprepared. We have childcare lined up from the time he gets out of day care on Monday afternoon until we return on Thursday evening. The problem is that we do not have any definite plans from the time we leave late Friday night until he gets dropped off at day care on Monday morning.

Our original thought was that my family would/could watch him over the weekend, but that assumption seems to have been wrong. My mom's health is unpredictable. She has some intermittent back problems. So, she can't be relied upon because on bad days she can barely walk. My younger sister does not do overnight with children, which per her words, "is one reason she doesn't have any children of her own, yet." I get that. So, she is watching Palmer on Thursday until we get home. My older sister has two kids of her own and she and her husband have work and coaching scheduling conflicts. So, they are not an optimal choice either. We've been trying to work out a good plan with my sister around her work schedule, but it has not been that easy.

So, here we are. Stuck. That assumption that "it would not be that difficult to find childcare for one kid for a few days" has not been all that true. Or, maybe we just have not asked the right people. I'm making another assumption, but I bet there are some people out there that are saying, "All you had to do was ask." So, I am asking.

Would you be interested, willing, and able to watch Palmer anytime this weekend?

Labels: family, travel

I have been charged with creating a slideshow to be shown at my ten year high school reunion, which is coming up this weekend. Over the past few days, I have been spending a considerable amount of time scanning pictures from the pre-digital photography days of 1993-1998.

I have an idea for the slideshow. It includes me using the pages of our yearbook. So, this evening, I was looking through the yearbook from our senior year and I started reading what everyone had written. This was the first time I had done this since high school. I'm sure that I read what people had written shortly after they had written it, but a lot of the things I read tonight I had no recollection of ever reading them before.

A lot of the notes said the same sort of stuff: "you're a great friend", "you are so funny", "I enjoyed getting to know you", "I hope you do well at State". Others were more heart felt. I was somewhat surprised by the maturity displayed in some of the notes.

I think that in the final days of high school, it settles in that you have spent the majority of the past four to seven years with these people, and there is a good chance that you are not going to see most of them again. That came across in some of the notes. In years past, these same people may have written, "Have a great summer! See you next year." However, in your senior yearbook, things have a little more finality.

It was a great half an hour that I spent reminiscing. It made me even more excited about the upcoming reunion.

I'll finish this off with what I thought was the best line from all of the notes that I read. It came from a girl that ran in a different circle of friends than me. We had a class together our final year and sort got to know one another. Here's what she had to say...

Well, well, well, it's been an interesting ride now hasn't it. I think you are a great guy even though you annoy the hell out of me sometimes. I'm glad that I got to know you a little better this year. I hope you have a wonderful life.

Thanks Megan Cottrell, you made my night with your "you annoy the hell out of me sometimes" comment. It's too bad she's not coming to the reunion or I'd let her know that she made it into a blog post. I'm sure that would surprise her. It may even "annoy the hell out of her".

Do you have any high school yearbook strories to share?

Labels: books, high school, the 90s

Last week I had to drop Daniel off at Just Tires to pick up his car. As I was leaving the parking lot, I noticed a small deli on the other end of the small strip of stores.

Then, on Friday, my friend, and co-worker, Weston wanted to get some lunch. We examined the SAS cafe menus, but nothing looked good. So, we decided to go to Subway. As we were driving out of SAS, I remembered seeing that deli. So, we decided to go try it out instead of Subway. At the time, I couldn't even remember the name of the place. I just new where it was located.

We made our way to down town Cary and to the deli, which we found out later was named the Food Factory. When we got there, we saw several cars in the parking lot. We took that as a good sign.

The atmosphere in the deli was nice. I was crowed, but the place was big enough that you didn't few encroached upon. The sandwich I tried, 'The Bravest', was great. The only complaint I have was that it was a bit more than I wanted to pay; $9 for a sandwich, chips and a drink. Also, Weston got the banana pudding for dessert and the portion was tiny.

I really like that it is a local joint. I'm a big fan of the non-chain places. Overall, I'd give the place a 7. I'll probably go back. Next time I'll just get water and save two bucks.

Do you have any local places where you like to grab lunch?

Labels: Cary, food, local

We own approximately 11,000 candles.

The last couple nights, I have been burning a candle, as a part of my get rid of some stuff in our house campaign.

Tonight, I decided to light two candles. Turns out that was a bad idea.

The smoke alarm went off. Twice.

One positive by-product of my candle burning: Kim thinks I am romantic. Score.

So, in the few hours we have been home tonight, the power has went out, which was followed by a sound that could have come from an episode of 'Lost', which was followed by the power coming back on and later the smoke alarm went off twice.

Palmer slept through all of that.

Anything interesting happen at your house tonight?

Labels: candles, fire, indiscriminate, Lost

I've written about this before, but it is something that I am thinking about today. So, I'm writing on it again.

...



It's quick. It's simple. It's convenient. It's twitter.

The combination of being more busy with work and family, with the convenience of twitter has led to my blogging has been sporadic over the last several months. Today, something happened to me and I wanted to let you all know about. My first inclination was to tweet about it. However, after thinking about for approximately 1.8 seconds, I determined that this was something that pre-twitter, I would have blogged about.

Then, I thought, "this happens a lot." I often, due to the circumstances I find myself in, choose to tweet instead of post to my blog. Ideas that once would have been expounded into a few paragraphs are conveyed in 140 characters or less. For some things, this is probably a good thing, but for others, the 140 characters is not enough to get my thoughts out.

I enjoy writing, especially when I can sit down and put together something well thought through that I feel others may enjoy reading, something others may have their own opinions on, which could spark conversation, or something that I feel others could gain something from. This is something twitter doesn't offer.

I think I'm going to make it a point to take more of the ideas I have and convert them into blog posts.

Labels: blogosphere, twitter

I started the Ragamuffin Top Challenge at the beginning of June. My goals were to drop from 225 lbs. to 210 lbs. and to ride my bike "faster". Here we are four months later. So, I wanted to give you all an update on how things have been going.

Starting with my second goal, I trained for and participated in the Triangle Triathlon in July. My times steadily improved as I trained and I cut an additional couple minutes off my time in the actual race. Well, like I said, the race was in July and since then, I have ridden my bike only a handful of times.

I can blame it on a couple things, but the real reason is that I haven't ridden much recently is that I have not made it a priority. I look forward to getting back on the horse, or bike, as it were. I enjoy riding my bike very much. I think that I am going to try to work it into my schedule.

Goal number one is a lot easier to measure. I get on the scale twice a day, nearly everyday. That may come across as a bit excessive, but as of a month, or so, ago, I made it down to 210 lbs.. Now that I have hit my goal, I have moved into "Maintain Mode". Maintain Mode means that I am not really trying to lose any more weight. Now, my focus is on not back-sliding.

To get the weight off I stopped drinking sugar drinks, e.g. sodas, sweet tea, kool-aid, etc., and I stopped snacking on unhealthy things like brownies, ice cream, cookies, etc.. Well, now that I have met my goal, I have sort of let those restrictions go. I drink less sugary drinks than I did before starting the challenge, but I am having about one a day. Also, I am not eating zero unhealthy snacks. So, I get on the scale everyday and that lets me know how I can eat or how much I need to work out in the coming day, or days.

Aside from changing my eating habits, I have also increased my exercise regime. In the beginning, I rode my bike quite a bit and I played basketball a few times a week. Recently, I have stopped doing both of those things. Now, I play flag football on Mondays, I am participating in a Sprint and Agility class on Tuesdays, and I am doing the hundred pushups challenge.

I got on the scale yesterday and I weighed 208 lbs.. That's the lowest, non-dehydrated weight I've been at in a long time. So, my maintaining is going well. I am looking forward to getting my body fat checked again. Last time it was 8.7%, but since then I have lost another seven pounds and I can definitely see more muscle definition after doing the hundred pushups challenge for over three weeks.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me in this. This will probably be the last Ragamuffin Top Challenge post. It's been a good ride. I hope everyone else that participated was able to meet their goals.

Shalom,
Shannon

Labels: exercise, health, weight loss

The other day, I got the following email from the YouTube Content Identification Team.

Dear rShannonSmith,

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video One Step Away. The audio content identified in your video is Black And White by Three Dog Night. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.

Replace Your Audio with AudioSwap

Don't worry, we have plenty of music available for your use. Please visit our AudioSwap library to learn how you can easily replace the audio in your video with any track from our growing library of fully licensed songs.

Other Options

If you think there's been a mistake, or you have other questions, please visit the Copyright Notice page in your account.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

I wonder if it was difficult for the super sleuths at YouTube to determine what song I had used given that I put the song title and artist in the credits?

I used their AudioSwap application and was able to find another song that works. The application was very easy to use and has some decent music.

Have you ever been busted by YouTube, the RIAA, or the law in general?

Labels: internet, video, youtube

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson was found guilty late Friday on all 12 counts stemming from a confrontation in a hotel room last year, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

The verdict, which comes 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend, concluded a four-week trial that many have seen as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome.

I remember a lot of small things about the last OJ trial: the white bronco, the glove, Judge Ito, Johnnie Cochran, Kato Kaelin, etc.. I guess I would have been 15 during the trial, but I can't seem to remember what I was doing in those days.

What were you doing back in 1995? What do you remember about the OJ trial?

HT: RevRock and NY Times

Labels: history, news, the 90s

Today the House is voting again on the $700bn Wall Street bailout. In the midst of that, here's something else to think about. It comes from a quote from Bono from earlier this week.

It’s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.
- Bono

Thoughts?

HT: Justin

Labels: activism, business, government