Great trip home and great visit with the family too bad it was so short but well worth it. Getting caught up with family and friends was good. My best friend from childhood and his family came out it was like old times I swear the more people change the more they stay the same. I am very happy that he and his wife have found there nitch and it’s nice to see that there are some women out there that are not afraid to get there hands dirty. Work is the same as ever and there is never enough hours in the day.

Sitting in Dallas Int on a WiFi connection headed towards Detroit should be a fun 3 days and look forward to seeing everyone.

<P>Well it looks like I am going to be able and take a couple of days off and see my folks at the end of the week. Airline ticket is purchased car rental is setup should be fun and I am looking forward to it. Almost two years since I have been home it’s always curious to see what has changed in the neighborhood.</P>

<P>Most conservatives cringe when&nbsp;they read some of the biased stories in the news or watch some of the news stories being reported. I get so disgusted that I tune the coverage out. Well apparently that some top level editors are trying to irradicate reporting bias. I am all about fair and balanced repoting. Which is the Fox News Channels slogan. If a reporter reports both sides of the story without bias, prejeduce and gives both sides equal coverage so long as those they are quoting are credible most people can make a educated decision on the story. </P>
<P>Obviously political agendas and extremist can never be persuaded one way or the other but those people are truly ignorant in that they fail to even try and find out the truth. </P>
<P>But I am very proud a editor in California who had the courage to send a stern memo to his underlings at the paper reports for. [<A href=”http://www.laobserved.com/carrollmemo.html”>L.A. Observed</A>]</P>

<P>Today being Memorial Day&nbsp;made&nbsp;me&nbsp;reflect while watching the ceremony in Washington DC. For reasons I will not go into there are a couple of guys that made the ultimate sacrifice&nbsp;who’s life was cut short by the ravages of War. There families and many others have been ever changed by the events that happened that night. The events of that night will forever be etched in my mind. War is hell and so many American Men and Women have made that sacrifice so that others may continue to live in a Free and Safe United States of America. </P>
<P>Someday I may write about it but I imagine it will be many years in the future as some things are better left unsaid</P>
<P>God Bless there souls and God Bless the United States of America</P>

<P>Waco Texas what a wonderful place ;( here I sit and the wife and kids are headed for Tokyo tomorrow. Very depressing I am so spoiled by Hawaii that I have forgotten how utterly boring it can be. Waco Texas is kind of a weird town. Large in size but it seems everyone knows everyone if your a outsider it is difficult to break into the inner circles that people develop here. There is also is seems an alarming number of people that drink and drive. I am unsure what the local Police are up to but they do not pay much attention to the alcoholics. Baylor University is just down the street from the Hotel I am staying and all I can say is this traditional Southern Baptist school is no different than any other University in the United States. By the amount of money these kids spend I would venture to say that most of them don’t have to work very hard. But I do see some earning there keep in traditional college jobs. </P>
<P>I just haven’t been able to place my finger on the pulse of this town though. I have spent considerable amount of time here but it is just weird. I do know one thing the town is in need of a place that doesn’t play country music. Every damn place I go in is playing country. Now don’t get me wrong I like Country but jeez they need to get a clue. Country 4-5 couples dancing for 45 minutes then they throw on some top 40 and the dance floor fills up. But you can tell the DJ’s are clueless. They need to travel around a&nbsp;little and get a clue. </P>
<P>I could guarantee from my previous DJ experience where I was pulling in capacity crowds at the clubs I worked which the smallest had a capacity of 750 and the largest 2500 we always had people at the door waiting. I tried giving a guy a hint the other night but he would not listen. I could make someone a but-load of money in this town they just need to wake up.</P>
<P>The Hotel is decent it’s a Residence Inn I am a bit pissed that they are not honoring the military rate and I will be paying out of pocket a little which is ok as I am making it up in food cost savings. The rest of the hotels here in Waco are pretty standard and no others offers suites that have kitchens. It was hard to find one with a fridge and microwave. </P>
<P>The place I am working is off tomorrow for Memorial Day I think I will drive up to Dallas and see if I can find something to do. There is absolutely nothing to do here thats for sure. I also wish hotels would hurry up and get with the program I need broadband bad and I am stuck on dial-up that max’s out at 24.4 which sucks ass.</P>

<P>The Sony Vaio that I am using now the PCG-GRV670P has been terrific. Even though it is a desktop replacement it has been easier on my eyes with the 16′ screen and I am sure will be my companion for the next several years. WIth a 2.4ghz and 512 megs of ram and a awesome video card and software package It should do everything I need it to. Working with Autocad drawings has been remarkable as I can actually get work done without moving the damn sceeen all the time. </P>
<P>Several people that have seen it have commented on it as it is so big that it draws attention from the most unlikely people. Even a friend of mine who is a MAC lover had to comment that it was a nice machine. Pretty big admission from a mac loyalist. If some gace me a Mac I would probably play with it and see what it could do but I am not going to go out and buy one.</P>
<P>One thing I did have to dump was Microsoft Works I can’t beleive they still that piece of Garbage. My office has been pretty supportive and we got Office for it and loaded it up. Not Office XP but Office 2000 which is still a sight better than Works.</P>

<P>I swear packing my bags and getting on a airplane is getting harder to do. I enjoyed one of the longest periods home the last few months and it was tough packing the suit case and heading back on the road again. Being the Navy is in charge of my travel they do all the flight, rental car and hotel booking. The only flexibility we have to the hotel booking. If we can find nicer accomodations at the same rate that they booked they do not mind us moving from one location to the other. If you exceed the rate then you pay out of pocket. I normally prefer not to do that. But on this trip I am going to pay $5.00 a day out of pocket. But the choice is simple. Regular hotel you have to eat out 100% of the time. The place they had me staying in did not even have a refrigirator in the room. In the past I have been able to get Residence Inn’s to match the government rate. But some Residence Inn’s have limited Gov’t rate rooms. The Waco Texas Residence has been extremely difficult due to the president flying into Waco from time to time and I imagine that the Secret Service guys don’t like to stay in a regular hotel. Although I have never seen any of them in the hotel. So I begged and pleaded with the General Manager and he set me up with a room a little over Government Rate. We have threw that place a lot of business and I really don’t understand why they are being so hard headed the initial rate he quoted me was almost 2 times the Government rate. Waco is not the center of the universe amazingly though this particular hotel has the highest regular rates in town.</P>
<P>But back to leaving. With the wife pregnant it sure made it tough, she had morning sickness real bad last week and was loosing weight but over the weekend it cleared up and I hope she can maintain the tolerance of food the rest of the way through. But there will be no fried foods in my house for the next 9 months. We went to a movie and was a super trooper and made it through I was ready to pack it in as the popcorn smell was nauseating.</P>
<P>She will nto be alone though as she loads the kids up this Saturday and heads for Japan. We have a surprise for them as she is hitting Tokyo Disneyland on here way to Okinawa. Been pretty good about keeping it a secret. I gave them both some extra spending money and told them it was for something special so there brains are working overtime. Picked up some calling cards as it is cheaper to call Japan while on travel with thouse than incur the hotel rate which would put this entire trip over budget. The wife gets us .05 cents a minute from Hawaii to Japan which is pretty amazing as it is now cheaper to call Japan that it is to call the mainland. This is for calls over 10 minutes if she calls for under 10 minutes it is cheaper to use AT&amp;T&nbsp; at .13 cents a minute to Japan. But 90% of the time she plans her calls so they will be longer than 10 minutes. </P>
<P>With the prospect of not seeing her and the kids up to 60 days has me in a quandry as my schedule is such that it could be 90 if all the pieces do not come together as planned. So if any of you that read this are in the Dallas / Waco area give me a holler and we will have to hook up would love to talk to are Bloggers.</P>

<P>Your Not Going to believe this.</P>
<P>We announced to the world via this website and several others on Mothers Day that we had found out the week prior that my wife was expecting. Up to that point we had told only a few friends. We withheld the big surprise for the grandparents on Mothers You will not believe what I found in the mail today! Read on.</P>
<P>So here’s the background on April 28th we decide we better go down to the local supermarket and get one of those home pregnancy kits. The wife pays for the purchase with a Visa Checking Card. She comes home and we do the test the morning of the 29th. Results are positive, so a call goes into our Doctors office to make the appointment to get an official test done. She goes in late on the 29th submits the sample as she is leaving minus the results the doctor gives her a prescription to pre-natal vitamins when she leaves the doctors office goes to the pharmacy and picks up the vitamins. She goes to the Pharmacy and gets the prescription. Note: My insurance requires no money change hands just the insurance card etc. On the morning of the 30th we find out the official lab results which are also positive. Then we sit on this information for the next 10 days to try and give everyone an extra surprise on Mothers day.</P>
<P>My youngest child is 5 thus we have no babies in the house at the moment. So what do we find in the mail today the 13th of May? Check this out! A card that say Congratulations Baby (our last name) with an offer to subscribe to Parenting magazine. We have never had a subscription to this magazine. SO how in the hell did Parenting magazine find out my wife was pregnant so quick. </P>
<P>My bet is on the Visa checking credit card. I will be calling the associated bank in the morning and reviewing our privacy settings. I explicitly went to all of my banks last year and made sure those accounts were locked down. I will be expecting an answer from them on this. Someone is going to give me the info I am looking for, as I will find out hell or high water how parenting magazine was able to get this info so quick.</P>
<P>Being I am in Hawaii and mail takes about 5-7 days to get here the data had to be gleaned from the purchase of the pregnancy test. But here’s the kicker what if the test had been negative? Did this purchase tip the CC marketing company to query my Insurance Company and her picking up the prenatal vitamins confirmed the pregnancy? </P>
<P>A bit surprising to say the least to get this in the mail less than 2 weeks since we have had the results. I knew that these companies are good but geez I am totally surprised. I also checked the Internet Explorer history files and the wife has not been visiting baby sites. Being she is a pro at this having kids thing she said that there was no need to go looking for information.</P>
<P>If you find this as surprising as I do drop me a line and let me know what you think. Also I know the Info did not get released via the Doctors office as they have a strict privacy policy in place. But I wonder if the Lab is so inclined not to release results like this. Makes you wonder ehhh…</P>

<P>We waited until the flowers for Mothers day where delivered to make an announcement to our families via a hidden URL on our website thru the enclosed card. Earlier last week I said I had big news to impart to everyone and not to get to excited. Well we have been pretty excited but we announced it with some clues, one of the clues was 3+3=6 and 3+4=7 and some other neat stuff. Well for those of you puzzled, my mom and dad currently have 6 grandchildren and in January we are expecting to increase that number by 1 thus the 3+4=7. Obviously we and they are completely elated. I have rolled back into the over protective husband roll. But this will be it for us. I will be going thru the outpatient procedure that starts with a “V” anyway we will keep you updated here from time to time. With a 13 yr old from a previous marriage and 2 that are 6 and 5 and soon to be newborn</P>
<P>But most of the pregnancy news will go on the personal site. I plan on blogging the hell out of this. What a way for a kid in 10 year&nbsp; to read about what dad was thinking about before, during and after birth cool ehhh.</P>