Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Day off with the Family

Have a ton of Vacation time to burn through, due to a change in Company Vacation policy. Used to be able to carry a fair amount, now you have to use it during the year you 'earn' it, or lose it. Still have an abundance from the old policy that I have to use up, and come into compliance with the new policy.

Anyway, will probably start using up as much as I can work in (only have until next June to be complete), and spend extra time with my wife and daughter. Weekends always go too fast, and there are the inevitable chores to catch up on. We really just hung out today, but it was great.

My wife and I sat outside with our morning coffee, and just chatted. Talked about nothing and every thing, just 'connecting'. We did a few light chores, and she worked on some of her cards.

She paints very nice pictures and then gets them printed in town. Then she manually applies them to a real nice card stock. She selects either poetry that she likes, or that fits with the picture, or has her own poetry (excellent) available and prints that out. Again she applies that to the card, and then it is just about ready. She has a few leads on where she might be able to make them available for Sale. She will find out more in the next couple of weeks.

Later in the day, we sat outside again, and kicked back with a couple of Corona's and limes. Had some more alone time, to relax and enjoy each other. My daughter was busy in the house, just doing 13 year old stuff (that's right a TEENAGER in our midst).

We went in and started dinner, we had a great dinner that we love every Late Summer/Early Fall, Green Tomato Taco's!!! Of course this is the only time of year that you can have/get green tomatoes. No one sells them, and it is the only time of year to have any fresh in the garden. Maybe I will need to follow a friend’s lead from his blog and start posting recipes that we like.

All in all a great day at home. Relaxing, connecting with family and getting away from work for a little bit. Can't wait to take some more time!!

Fantasy Football

Well spent a couple of hours last night hanging with some guys at work, and we drafted our Fantasy Football teams for this year. Had a lot of fun last year in this same league, made some trades, and played with the Free Agents through the season. Did ok for the regular season, squeaked in for the playoffs and did ok, fourth I think.
This year I started at the 4th pick and missed out for who I would have taken first if I could have: Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson or Shaun Alexander. Settled for Edgerrin James. Our league will be giving points for Receptions this year, so Backs who get yards, TDs and can catch the ball were premium. I also grabbed Brian Westbrook my next pick (25th overall). Concentrated on RB and WR, and got left in the dust for QB's, hope it doesn't come back to haunt me. Picked a decent TE in Dallas Clark, and got last year's best Kicker in Vinatieri. Defense is Indianapolis (!), which I hope will surprise me. They were in the top 5 on nearly every list I saw on the Net for FF, I suppose because once Manning gets up 3 TD's, the opposing Offense starts making mistakes trying to catch up...hope they are all correct.
Hoping on a good season, with the team, but will no doubt have lots of fun giving and getting crap about wins and losses with everyone in the league!!!

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Unusual !

A buddy of mine Phil told me about a competition he and a few friends were having with Digital Photos. The topic this week is Unusual, so here is something I took.