Aside from my Facebook status, I had not posted the events that occurred on the way to Barbara's viewing. In addition to helping take care of all the arrangements, we had Lizzie's graduation from VPK, Shane's championship hockey game and Lizzie's dance recital. As an aside, the graduation went fine, Shane won his championship, and Lizzie danced her heart out (with a little help from Daddy[no videos will be posted]).
Following Lizzie's recital, we had to go to the funeral home in North Miami for the viewing. On the way we decided to stop for (Lunner, Dinch, whatever). We stopped at a Chinese buffet on N. Miami Blvd. While we were in there, some scumbags did a smash and grab on Brenda's van. People inside the restaurant saw them, but only tried to call the manager. After the smash and grab, it started to downpour, so in addition to having her purse stolen, the inside of the van was soaked.
Once I saw that the van was broken into, I went back inside. The manager called the police while I was on the phone with the bank cancelling Brenda's debit card. We got everything cancelled, put a fraud alert on her credit report, and moved on.
Well, a couple of days later, I noticed two charges for Chevron on our bank account that we did not make. I called up the bank and they reversed the charges, and sent me a letter that I need to fill out (it just came in the mail today). I was hoping that was the end of it, I was mistaken. I have alerts on my checking account that e-mail me and text me when certain things happen within the account. On Thursday the 18th I received one of these alerts stating that a Withdrawl larger than $200 was posted to my account. I knew that all bills were already taken care of then, so I checked it out. It turns out there were two deposits on my account ($1400, and $2400) and a deposit reversal of $2400. There was also a hold of $2300 on my account. I immediately called the bank to let them know that I did not make those deposits and I was very concerned because of Brenda's purse being stolen. They said they would investigate, and put a fraud alert on the account.
On Monday, the 22nd, after paying my bills in the morning, I received another e-mail saying there was a large withdrawl from the account. I thought, it's probably Brenda's car payment but let me check to verify. It wasn't the car payment, it was a "customer withdrawl" of $1800. I was now livid and called the bank again. They said I would have to talk to the branch where it occurred. They transferred me to the branch and the guy who answered the phone said he could not give me any answers and I would have to go to a branch to discuss the situation. I flew out of my office and went to the branch across the street.
The manager at the local branch (David) was very understanding and helped me out. He said he saw the fraud alert on my account and couldn't understand why the idiot at the Weston branch (teller 109) would release the money to the person in the drive-thru. He called the other branch and asked why the teller did that. The teller said that the person had ID that said she was Brenda and she was driving a Cadillac. I said that was impossible because Brenda drives a toyota and was at work all day.
I spent the rest of the afternoon (with a break to pick up the kids) at the bank opening a new account, trying to only leave enough in the old account to cover everything that I had already written a check for, or initiated a payment for, and tried to figure out who I had on an automatic withdrawl. David and Jaime were very helpful where the rest of Chase I feel failed miserably. There is now another alert on the old account stating that either Brenda or I must be called before any withdrawl. Let's see if that happens.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Barbara M Fogg 9/28/1949 - 6/5/2009
I have other updates to come later, but I want to give my thoughts on my Mother-In-Law.
I could start into a long diatribe with things such as she was born in 1949 in Miami and never left (except for vacations), then in 1969 she had a daughter, etc. but I only had the pleasure of knowing Barbara for just about 10 years. I met Brenda on April 16, 1999 so I know I had to have met Barbara a month or so later.
Barbara Fogg always did things on her own terms. If you were dealing with her in a business sense, or actually in any sense, and you told her "no," she would explain to you why you were wrong and give you 5-10 reasons of how you would correct your mistake. She would not take no for an answer and sometimes, yes wouldn't be good enough either. If you worked for her and did not do exactly what she wanted, or screwed around, you would be fired. However, she was also fair, and I have heard of many times where some "long-term" employees would either be fired or quit and come back a week, month, year later.
One thing that was very evident from Barbara, if she didn't like you, you knew it (sort of, because she still kept her southern roots), and if she liked you, she loved you. However, Barbara had her own way of showing love, it was usually by speaking her mind whether it hurt your feelings or not. I found this out by the multiple times that Barbara would be hitting the wine bottle (or even when she didn't) then called Brenda to discuss the way she was raising our kids, or her job, or any other various subject. I also found out in the last couple of days that if Barbara or her mother (Mozelle) did not like who their kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews were dating they not only let them know, but the person they were dating. I suppose I was very lucky in the sense that they liked me, because they allowed me to marry Brenda. The idea of the Father being in charge of the daughter was definitely not the case, and the women were definitely in charge in the Miller-Fogg family. That continues to be the case with Brenda and Stacy.
Barbara really was the best Mother-In-Law that a person could ask for. She was really down-to-earth, and just an all around cool person. After knowing her and Brenda for a while, she took me up in her plane. She told me to make sure I had air coming in on me so I wouldn't be nauseous. When we were up in the air, she tried to tell me to open the window by pointing out where the crank was. The only thing I saw was the door handle, and I wasn't about to open that while in the air. She then turned the plane around and landed before I got sick. For one reason or another, I never got another chance to go flying with her.
Barbara also showed her extreme coolness when it came to shopping. She didn't get stuck going to malls or any "girly" type stores, it was usually going to the cool places like BJ's and Best Buy, you know, places that had "toys." This also showed through when it came to Christmas time, she would usually get herself something, like a Wii, a 400 disc DVD changer, or GPS, and she would in turn get the same thing for her girls. I'm sure it was to make sure her girls got the same enjoyment that she did out of whatever it was. I'll also forever cherish the gifts that she found for me including the motorcycle rider and the huge "pocket" knife that are sitting on my desk at the office.
Barbara of course loved her grandkids and would always be there whenever she was called either to babysit or attend whatever function they had coming up. The one thing about her though, you always had to let her know well in advance, then keep reminding her, because she would never put anything in any type of calendar. Many times the week of whatever was going on turned into a mad scramble because she forgot, or we forgot to remind her. Regardless, she would always come through when needed.
I'll also always be impressed with her memory skills when it comes to her personal business. For instance, she would remember who was programmed into her phone, even though the name was spelled incorrectly 9 times out of 10. Additionally, she was always able to log into her various accounts even though she had 20 different passwords for 20 different accounts. I'll never figure out how she was able to keep everything together.
Barbara was diagnosed wit Leukemia in early March, 2009. She spent 72 days in Baptist Hospital in Miami. After two rounds of chemo, none of the Leukemia cells went into remission. Barbara was released from the hospital just before Mother's Day. She was no longer a candidate to go to Moffitt Cancer Center for a bone marrow transplant. On Mother's Day, Brenda, the kids and I went down to their house in the Redlands. We had a great day, we took Barbara to BJ's to get everything she needed, we went to Best Buy to get a couple of universal remotes so she could control everything in the living room and her bedroom. Barbara watched the kids go swimming and ride their bikes. As an aside, Lizzie today said that was one of her best memories, having her Nanny watch her ride her bike. It was just really nice to spend the day with her. Sure it was somewhat shocking to see her without hair and everything, but under the circumstances, I thought she looked great.
Soon after Mother's Day, Barbara decided to try again with an outpaitient chemo treatment, and blood transfusion and getting platelets. A day or so after getting her transfusion and platelets, she said her leg was bothering her. Her doctor said to go back to the emergency room. The pain was not a blood clot. She ended up getting admitted to the hospital and placed in the ICU because of her very low blood pressure and various other things. She was coherent and understood what was going on. In the end however, she just wanted to be comfortable, and she was not comfortable in the ICU. Brenda, Johnny and Stacy arranged to have her moved to another room. They were planning a meeting with Hospice on Friday, June 5 to try to get Barbara home, just to abide by her wishes. On Thursday afternoon, Brenda received a call from the nurse at the hospital telling her that she did not believe that Barbara would make it through the night. We ran down there and sat with her. She was there but not there. We originally thought she was waiting for Stacy to arrive from Orlando. After Stacy arrived, we thought she might be waiting for her brother to arrive from Minnesota. Jerry arrived around midnight, and I was sent home around 12:30 - 1:00. Brenda, Stacy, and Jerry, Jr. sat at Barbara's bed side all night. In the end, Barbara decided she would once again do things on her own terms and not let anyone tell her what to do. She proved the nurse wrong, she waited until shift change, saw the light of day, then passed away at 7:30 am on June 5, 2009.
Barbara will be deeply missed by her immediate, and extended family and by everybody who ever came into contact with her, possibly even the people who told her no.
p.s. Please either join a walk, or donate to my team on Light the Night which is sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. http://pages.lightthenight.org/pb/BocaRatn09/studyaid
I could start into a long diatribe with things such as she was born in 1949 in Miami and never left (except for vacations), then in 1969 she had a daughter, etc. but I only had the pleasure of knowing Barbara for just about 10 years. I met Brenda on April 16, 1999 so I know I had to have met Barbara a month or so later.
Barbara Fogg always did things on her own terms. If you were dealing with her in a business sense, or actually in any sense, and you told her "no," she would explain to you why you were wrong and give you 5-10 reasons of how you would correct your mistake. She would not take no for an answer and sometimes, yes wouldn't be good enough either. If you worked for her and did not do exactly what she wanted, or screwed around, you would be fired. However, she was also fair, and I have heard of many times where some "long-term" employees would either be fired or quit and come back a week, month, year later.
One thing that was very evident from Barbara, if she didn't like you, you knew it (sort of, because she still kept her southern roots), and if she liked you, she loved you. However, Barbara had her own way of showing love, it was usually by speaking her mind whether it hurt your feelings or not. I found this out by the multiple times that Barbara would be hitting the wine bottle (or even when she didn't) then called Brenda to discuss the way she was raising our kids, or her job, or any other various subject. I also found out in the last couple of days that if Barbara or her mother (Mozelle) did not like who their kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews were dating they not only let them know, but the person they were dating. I suppose I was very lucky in the sense that they liked me, because they allowed me to marry Brenda. The idea of the Father being in charge of the daughter was definitely not the case, and the women were definitely in charge in the Miller-Fogg family. That continues to be the case with Brenda and Stacy.
Barbara really was the best Mother-In-Law that a person could ask for. She was really down-to-earth, and just an all around cool person. After knowing her and Brenda for a while, she took me up in her plane. She told me to make sure I had air coming in on me so I wouldn't be nauseous. When we were up in the air, she tried to tell me to open the window by pointing out where the crank was. The only thing I saw was the door handle, and I wasn't about to open that while in the air. She then turned the plane around and landed before I got sick. For one reason or another, I never got another chance to go flying with her.
Barbara also showed her extreme coolness when it came to shopping. She didn't get stuck going to malls or any "girly" type stores, it was usually going to the cool places like BJ's and Best Buy, you know, places that had "toys." This also showed through when it came to Christmas time, she would usually get herself something, like a Wii, a 400 disc DVD changer, or GPS, and she would in turn get the same thing for her girls. I'm sure it was to make sure her girls got the same enjoyment that she did out of whatever it was. I'll also forever cherish the gifts that she found for me including the motorcycle rider and the huge "pocket" knife that are sitting on my desk at the office.
Barbara of course loved her grandkids and would always be there whenever she was called either to babysit or attend whatever function they had coming up. The one thing about her though, you always had to let her know well in advance, then keep reminding her, because she would never put anything in any type of calendar. Many times the week of whatever was going on turned into a mad scramble because she forgot, or we forgot to remind her. Regardless, she would always come through when needed.
I'll also always be impressed with her memory skills when it comes to her personal business. For instance, she would remember who was programmed into her phone, even though the name was spelled incorrectly 9 times out of 10. Additionally, she was always able to log into her various accounts even though she had 20 different passwords for 20 different accounts. I'll never figure out how she was able to keep everything together.
Barbara was diagnosed wit Leukemia in early March, 2009. She spent 72 days in Baptist Hospital in Miami. After two rounds of chemo, none of the Leukemia cells went into remission. Barbara was released from the hospital just before Mother's Day. She was no longer a candidate to go to Moffitt Cancer Center for a bone marrow transplant. On Mother's Day, Brenda, the kids and I went down to their house in the Redlands. We had a great day, we took Barbara to BJ's to get everything she needed, we went to Best Buy to get a couple of universal remotes so she could control everything in the living room and her bedroom. Barbara watched the kids go swimming and ride their bikes. As an aside, Lizzie today said that was one of her best memories, having her Nanny watch her ride her bike. It was just really nice to spend the day with her. Sure it was somewhat shocking to see her without hair and everything, but under the circumstances, I thought she looked great.
Soon after Mother's Day, Barbara decided to try again with an outpaitient chemo treatment, and blood transfusion and getting platelets. A day or so after getting her transfusion and platelets, she said her leg was bothering her. Her doctor said to go back to the emergency room. The pain was not a blood clot. She ended up getting admitted to the hospital and placed in the ICU because of her very low blood pressure and various other things. She was coherent and understood what was going on. In the end however, she just wanted to be comfortable, and she was not comfortable in the ICU. Brenda, Johnny and Stacy arranged to have her moved to another room. They were planning a meeting with Hospice on Friday, June 5 to try to get Barbara home, just to abide by her wishes. On Thursday afternoon, Brenda received a call from the nurse at the hospital telling her that she did not believe that Barbara would make it through the night. We ran down there and sat with her. She was there but not there. We originally thought she was waiting for Stacy to arrive from Orlando. After Stacy arrived, we thought she might be waiting for her brother to arrive from Minnesota. Jerry arrived around midnight, and I was sent home around 12:30 - 1:00. Brenda, Stacy, and Jerry, Jr. sat at Barbara's bed side all night. In the end, Barbara decided she would once again do things on her own terms and not let anyone tell her what to do. She proved the nurse wrong, she waited until shift change, saw the light of day, then passed away at 7:30 am on June 5, 2009.
Barbara will be deeply missed by her immediate, and extended family and by everybody who ever came into contact with her, possibly even the people who told her no.
p.s. Please either join a walk, or donate to my team on Light the Night which is sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. http://pages.lightthenight.org/pb/BocaRatn09/studyaid
Monday, June 1, 2009
Busy, Busy, and other stuff
The kids and I had a busy weekend this past weekend, and next weekend is going to be even busier. We started off on Saturday with Lizzie's dance class in Coral Springs. While she was in Dance, Shane and I ran some errands, then got back, picked her up and bought a hockey bag at Play it Again Sports which is right next to her dance studio. Quick plug, if you ever need skates sharpened, or reasonably priced equipment, go to Play it Again Sports in Coral Springs. He really knows how to sharpen skates. Anyway, after that, we went home for a short bit, then had to go to Shane's hockey game. Shane played great, his team was outstanding, and the goalie was phenomenal. Shane's team won 7-1, and Shane scored on a shoot-out goal. After the game, we had dinner, then went home to watch game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
On Sunday, we had to wake up early because Shane had practice at 8:25. After practice, we saw 'Up' with Eric and Dave. I thought it was good, and there were parts that the kids probably did not understand. Overall a well-done movie, and we will probably see it again so Brenda can go. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel after the movie then went home. I seriously thought I was going to fall asleep on the drive home. After relaxing for a couple of hours, we had some great ribs with Mom and John, then finally got home just in time to go to bed.
Next weekend is Shane's championship game on Saturday, and Lizzie's dance recital on Sunday. This of course doesn't count the dress rehearsal tomorrow, skating Wednesday, and hockey Thursday. Sometimes, I just want to strap a bed to my back so I can sleep wherever I am.
I haven't really done this yet, but I wanted to give my opinion for some things happening in the news. First, I'm very pissed off at the stupid fuck who thought it would be a good idea to kill a doctor while he was at church because he performed late-term abortions. Give me a fucking break. I can't speak from experience, but I feel that 99.9% of the time a woman has an abortion performed, it is a heart-wrenching decision. I really don't think that people use an abortion as a crutch or as birth control. I also don't think that an abortion performed after the first tri-mester is something that somebody wakes up 6 months into a pregnancy and decides that they no longer want the baby. I think that if the health of the mother, or child is in question, there are extreme thoughts that go into any decision of that matter. To say that this lunatic was justified because of the services the doctor performed is insane. I think if these people are true Christians and they want to make sure no abortions are performed, they should help the mother through the pregnancy with anything she needs, then adopt the baby once it is born. Additionally, these are the same people that don't want homosexuals to marry or adopt kids. Seriously, it's a no brainer, let the gays adopt the kids, then there will probably be less abortions. If these people just thought about things rationally, then the world just might be a better place. I could go on. . .
Another thing that is pissing me off is this whole idea of people on the right calling Sonia Sotomayor a racisit because she essentially said that her life experiences will help her reach conclusions. At least that is my interpretation of what CNN wrote in its story. If Sotomayor is a racist for that comment, what does that make Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings? Rush Limbaugh and the others calling her a racist should shut the hell up and let the Senate do their jobs. I did not elect Limbaugh, the senators are the ones who need to be asking questions, and let the facts speak for themselves.
I just found out that Jacques Martin is no longer GM for the Panthers. The Panthers let him walk out of his contract with no compensations from the Canadiens so he can now coach the Habs next year. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think he has done a serviceable job as GM, could be better, could be worse. I will say that if the owner brings back Mike Keenan as GM, I will find a new team to support.
On Sunday, we had to wake up early because Shane had practice at 8:25. After practice, we saw 'Up' with Eric and Dave. I thought it was good, and there were parts that the kids probably did not understand. Overall a well-done movie, and we will probably see it again so Brenda can go. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel after the movie then went home. I seriously thought I was going to fall asleep on the drive home. After relaxing for a couple of hours, we had some great ribs with Mom and John, then finally got home just in time to go to bed.
Next weekend is Shane's championship game on Saturday, and Lizzie's dance recital on Sunday. This of course doesn't count the dress rehearsal tomorrow, skating Wednesday, and hockey Thursday. Sometimes, I just want to strap a bed to my back so I can sleep wherever I am.
I haven't really done this yet, but I wanted to give my opinion for some things happening in the news. First, I'm very pissed off at the stupid fuck who thought it would be a good idea to kill a doctor while he was at church because he performed late-term abortions. Give me a fucking break. I can't speak from experience, but I feel that 99.9% of the time a woman has an abortion performed, it is a heart-wrenching decision. I really don't think that people use an abortion as a crutch or as birth control. I also don't think that an abortion performed after the first tri-mester is something that somebody wakes up 6 months into a pregnancy and decides that they no longer want the baby. I think that if the health of the mother, or child is in question, there are extreme thoughts that go into any decision of that matter. To say that this lunatic was justified because of the services the doctor performed is insane. I think if these people are true Christians and they want to make sure no abortions are performed, they should help the mother through the pregnancy with anything she needs, then adopt the baby once it is born. Additionally, these are the same people that don't want homosexuals to marry or adopt kids. Seriously, it's a no brainer, let the gays adopt the kids, then there will probably be less abortions. If these people just thought about things rationally, then the world just might be a better place. I could go on. . .
Another thing that is pissing me off is this whole idea of people on the right calling Sonia Sotomayor a racisit because she essentially said that her life experiences will help her reach conclusions. At least that is my interpretation of what CNN wrote in its story. If Sotomayor is a racist for that comment, what does that make Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings? Rush Limbaugh and the others calling her a racist should shut the hell up and let the Senate do their jobs. I did not elect Limbaugh, the senators are the ones who need to be asking questions, and let the facts speak for themselves.
I just found out that Jacques Martin is no longer GM for the Panthers. The Panthers let him walk out of his contract with no compensations from the Canadiens so he can now coach the Habs next year. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think he has done a serviceable job as GM, could be better, could be worse. I will say that if the owner brings back Mike Keenan as GM, I will find a new team to support.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Random Updates
I forgot where I left off. I guess the most important thing that has happened in the last week or so is that we got a new puppy. We got Duke last weekend
from the Animal Rescue Force. Duke is a Labrador/Basset Hound mix. He's doing good right now, is still having a few accidents in the house, but what can you expect from an almost 4 month old puppy? Lizzie and I had to rush around to get him. After her dance class ended at 11:00 in Coral Springs, we ran up to Delray, met my Mother and decided he would be a good addition to the family. After that we had to rush back to Coral Springs to do the rehearsal for the Dad's dance at Lizzie's recital. Before you ask, there will be no videos or pictures posted.
I've been skating a lot, due to a learn to skate lesson on Wednesday, learn to play hockey on Thursday, and usually one public session during the weekend. I am really liking this, but my wrist has been bothering me this weekend. Everyone at learn to play was asking me if my legs hurt the next day, they didn't (even though I usually work out my legs on Friday morning), but my wrist is. Hopefully I'm not falling apart.
Which reminds me, I want to send a good luck for a speedy recovery out to Erin. Even though her ankle should be telling me that I'm too old to learn how to play, I am still going out and doing it.
Brenda and I saw "Angels and Demons" last weekend. I have to preface the review with the fact that I had "read" (audio book) prior to seeing The DaVinci Code. I thought for the most part the DaVinci Code followed the book, however of course there were some mental images I had that the movie did not follow. Regarding Angels and Demons, I have not read the book. The movie was for the most part entertaining. However, there just seem to be some contrived hokey parts that just wouldn't make sense in real life. I am not sure if those same parts are in the book or not, so I can't say whether it was Dan Brown, Ron Howard or a combination that put those parts together. I would definitely see Star Trek first, but if you have nothing else to do, this is a serviceable movie.
Another serviceable movie that we saw last night is Wolverine. This pretty much did what the title said it would, which was to set up where Wolverine came from (for the most part). The story somewhat jumped and didn't really set up much character development outside of Wolverine, and even with him, there seemed to be something missing from the movie. Once again, the entire movie was a nice escape, but not as good as some of the other X-Men movies. I'm tending to side with Rotten Tomatoes for some of these recent movies.
I think we may see Night At The Museum tomorrow, but at least with that I pretty much know what to expect which is something similar to the first one. The kids will probably really enjoy it. They will also enjoy spending the afternoon with Eric. I'm really looking forward to seeing Up next weekend.
I'm getting a little tired of some in-fighting at work with certain sales people arguing over what goes in which territory, and the fighting is over what I feel are secondary, or even tertiary markets. I feel like there is a huge primary market with low-hanging fruit and nobody seems to want to go after it. I will change this way of thinking this week. I'm also in the process of negotiating a new licensing deal, we'll see how the other company continues to respond.
from the Animal Rescue Force. Duke is a Labrador/Basset Hound mix. He's doing good right now, is still having a few accidents in the house, but what can you expect from an almost 4 month old puppy? Lizzie and I had to rush around to get him. After her dance class ended at 11:00 in Coral Springs, we ran up to Delray, met my Mother and decided he would be a good addition to the family. After that we had to rush back to Coral Springs to do the rehearsal for the Dad's dance at Lizzie's recital. Before you ask, there will be no videos or pictures posted. I've been skating a lot, due to a learn to skate lesson on Wednesday, learn to play hockey on Thursday, and usually one public session during the weekend. I am really liking this, but my wrist has been bothering me this weekend. Everyone at learn to play was asking me if my legs hurt the next day, they didn't (even though I usually work out my legs on Friday morning), but my wrist is. Hopefully I'm not falling apart.
Which reminds me, I want to send a good luck for a speedy recovery out to Erin. Even though her ankle should be telling me that I'm too old to learn how to play, I am still going out and doing it.
Brenda and I saw "Angels and Demons" last weekend. I have to preface the review with the fact that I had "read" (audio book) prior to seeing The DaVinci Code. I thought for the most part the DaVinci Code followed the book, however of course there were some mental images I had that the movie did not follow. Regarding Angels and Demons, I have not read the book. The movie was for the most part entertaining. However, there just seem to be some contrived hokey parts that just wouldn't make sense in real life. I am not sure if those same parts are in the book or not, so I can't say whether it was Dan Brown, Ron Howard or a combination that put those parts together. I would definitely see Star Trek first, but if you have nothing else to do, this is a serviceable movie.
Another serviceable movie that we saw last night is Wolverine. This pretty much did what the title said it would, which was to set up where Wolverine came from (for the most part). The story somewhat jumped and didn't really set up much character development outside of Wolverine, and even with him, there seemed to be something missing from the movie. Once again, the entire movie was a nice escape, but not as good as some of the other X-Men movies. I'm tending to side with Rotten Tomatoes for some of these recent movies.
I think we may see Night At The Museum tomorrow, but at least with that I pretty much know what to expect which is something similar to the first one. The kids will probably really enjoy it. They will also enjoy spending the afternoon with Eric. I'm really looking forward to seeing Up next weekend.
I'm getting a little tired of some in-fighting at work with certain sales people arguing over what goes in which territory, and the fighting is over what I feel are secondary, or even tertiary markets. I feel like there is a huge primary market with low-hanging fruit and nobody seems to want to go after it. I will change this way of thinking this week. I'm also in the process of negotiating a new licensing deal, we'll see how the other company continues to respond.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Mother's Day Weekend
In addition to the hockey which I spoke about in my previous post, we had a good time this past weekend.
Brenda and I had arranged for my mother to baby-sit so we could go out on Saturday night. We sort of had an unsaid understanding that my mother would not leave the kids on the leash. Anyway, we had dinner at Bogart's which is located in the upstairs section of what used to be Muvico, but is now owned by Cinemark. The food as always was good, I had the turkey meatloaf, and Brenda had one of their specials for the night which was the kobe beef brisket. I don't think it was real kobe, because it was a large portion and only cost $16.95, regardless, it was a good dish. After dinner we saw Star Trek which was a very good movie. I was never a huge Trekkie or anything (I was always more of a Star Wars geek). I thought the movie and the story were well done. The special effects were great, but really the fact that they were somewhat not noticable speaks to the way the story was done. I thought the overall movie was well cast, although I kept thinking of Sylar when Spock was on screen, and couldn't get Harold and Kumar out of my head while Sulu was there. Anyway, if the same cast and crew does another Star Trek movie, I will definitely go see it.
After the movie, we went and saw some old friends at a local bar. My friend Dave, who I would say I hadn't seen in 10 years, and his band were playing at Turn 3 in Boca. In addition to seeing Dave, we also caught up with more friends who I would say some of them I have seen more recently, others it has probably been longer. I guess I can thank Facebook for putting me back in touch with old friends. Around 1:45, we figured it was time to leave because. . .
We got up Sunday morning to meet my Mother for breakfast at 8:00. After breakfast, we drove down to spend the day with Brenda's mom. All things considered, Barbara looks great. I just hope we didn't push her to do too much on Sunday. After going through some things, and having Brenda help her Dad with some paperwork for the home health agency, we went to pick up some lunch. We got the KFC grilled chicken, which was pretty good, considering it's KFC. After luinch, we all went to BJ's so Brenda's parents could stock up on some stuff. Brenda's Mom, I think, was just happy to get out and about. She got one of those electric carts, and was just tooling around the store with her "bird flu" mask on, and her oxygen tank in the basket. After BJ's they went back to the house, and I went to Best Buy with Johnny to buy them some new remotes. We got back to the house and I was in charge of programming the remotes. The kids went swimming, rode their bikes, and played the Wii. I got the remotes working for what they needed. we hung around a bit longer, then took off around 8:00. After getting home at 9:30, I sat down and watched/skimmed the Celebrity Apprentice, then went to sleep. I think I still need to catch up on some sleep tonight.
Brenda and I had arranged for my mother to baby-sit so we could go out on Saturday night. We sort of had an unsaid understanding that my mother would not leave the kids on the leash. Anyway, we had dinner at Bogart's which is located in the upstairs section of what used to be Muvico, but is now owned by Cinemark. The food as always was good, I had the turkey meatloaf, and Brenda had one of their specials for the night which was the kobe beef brisket. I don't think it was real kobe, because it was a large portion and only cost $16.95, regardless, it was a good dish. After dinner we saw Star Trek which was a very good movie. I was never a huge Trekkie or anything (I was always more of a Star Wars geek). I thought the movie and the story were well done. The special effects were great, but really the fact that they were somewhat not noticable speaks to the way the story was done. I thought the overall movie was well cast, although I kept thinking of Sylar when Spock was on screen, and couldn't get Harold and Kumar out of my head while Sulu was there. Anyway, if the same cast and crew does another Star Trek movie, I will definitely go see it.
After the movie, we went and saw some old friends at a local bar. My friend Dave, who I would say I hadn't seen in 10 years, and his band were playing at Turn 3 in Boca. In addition to seeing Dave, we also caught up with more friends who I would say some of them I have seen more recently, others it has probably been longer. I guess I can thank Facebook for putting me back in touch with old friends. Around 1:45, we figured it was time to leave because. . .
We got up Sunday morning to meet my Mother for breakfast at 8:00. After breakfast, we drove down to spend the day with Brenda's mom. All things considered, Barbara looks great. I just hope we didn't push her to do too much on Sunday. After going through some things, and having Brenda help her Dad with some paperwork for the home health agency, we went to pick up some lunch. We got the KFC grilled chicken, which was pretty good, considering it's KFC. After luinch, we all went to BJ's so Brenda's parents could stock up on some stuff. Brenda's Mom, I think, was just happy to get out and about. She got one of those electric carts, and was just tooling around the store with her "bird flu" mask on, and her oxygen tank in the basket. After BJ's they went back to the house, and I went to Best Buy with Johnny to buy them some new remotes. We got back to the house and I was in charge of programming the remotes. The kids went swimming, rode their bikes, and played the Wii. I got the remotes working for what they needed. we hung around a bit longer, then took off around 8:00. After getting home at 9:30, I sat down and watched/skimmed the Celebrity Apprentice, then went to sleep. I think I still need to catch up on some sleep tonight.
Learning to Play Hockey
I'm not listening to the inner voice that sounds like Erin telling me I shouldn't try to play hockey. Instead, I'm trying to learn how to skate and learn how to play. On Friday I went to Glacier for their "beginners" clinic. The beginners in the class were me and one other guy who had only started trying to ice skate earlier last week. The other guys in the class seemed way more advanced and were there for some additional ice time. They were nice in the sense that they let us try to work through our incompetence, and they still did all of the drills and such they wanted to. After that ended at 11:30 pm, I went home and went to sleep because I promised Shane that we would do the stick and puck thing on Saturday morning. I find it is somewhat easier to skate in full pads because I am not as concerned with falling, and the shin/knee guard help stabilize my ankles a bit more. I just need to find a way to keep the velcro straps closed. The pads I have seem to be somewhat odd for anyone with slightly bigger calves. If I can't work through it with these, I may have to find other ones that fit better. Well, this week it's skating again on Wednesday, maybe doing the adult learn to play at Incredible Ice, then possibly doing the Friday night thing again, and seeing if Glacier is offering stick and puck again this weekend.
Lizzie's Birthday
As I stated in earlier posts, we went up to Universal Studios for Lizzie's 5th birthday. We headed up on Friday night (5/1/09) and arrived at the hotel around 10:00 or so. The drive up was uneventful except for the construction on the freeway exit we had to use, and closed roads to get to the hotel, but we made it there. The hotel was nice, we stayed at the Royal Pacific hotel on Universal's property. I noticed the "pet park" sign and wondered if we could have brought our dogs. We checked in and got to the room, which was comfortable enough, definitely a hotel I would stay at again.
On Saturday morning, Lizzie woke up and started opening the curtains because it was "morning time, and time to get up." We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and took the boat to Universal Studios. There was no crowd to speak of, which seemed odd for a Saturday, but considering the economy, and the swine flu, I guess people just decided to stay home. We were able to use our room key as an express pass, which made life a little more convenient, but if we had paid for it, I probably would have been upset, since there were really no lines anywhere. When we first arrived, I noticed the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. The coaster looks phenomenal and I cannot wait to ride it. We did all of the rides the kids wanted to, including Jimmy Neutron, Shrek, and Disaster. During our walk around the park, my Mother called to let me know that the dogs got out and ran around the neighborhood for a little while, but the neighbors helped get them back. She said she just wasn't fast enough to get in the front door without letting them out. I said that we would just look for another option next time. After we finished Universal Studios, we went over to Islands of Adventure and rode Spider-Man, then we went back to the hotel so the kids could go swimming.
As the kids were swimming, I stayed in the room just to relax a little bit. While I was watching The Matrix, my phone rang, it was my mother calling. I asked her what happened now, did the dogs get out again? She said that Carsen was gone. I said gone? She said gone, gone. She had put them on the leash outside (there is afternoon shade based on how the house is set up) and left water out there for them. She left for a little bit, when she came back, she saw Carsen laying there motionless. We are still not sure what happened, whether he got into something when he was running aorund, the heat, or if he tried to get out of the leash. I had to go downstairs and tell Brenda. We didn't know what to do, but we didn't want to break it to the kids then, and ruin Lizzie's birthday, so we had to keep it from them the best we could.
We all got back to the room and got ready for dinner, I had made reservations for the character dinner at our hotel. The only characters were Shrek and Fiona (as a human). The waiter we had was really good, and got Lizzie a chocolate cake for her birthday, and was just all aorund very attentive.
Sunday morning, for Lizzie's actual birthday, we had the character breakfast inside Islands of Adventure. Brenda and I were still obviously torn up about Carsen, but, we had to try to have a good time so the kids would enjoy themselves without knowing. The breakfast was a small buffet, one item they had which was actually quite good was the green eggs and ham. I'm assuming it was eggs with food coloring, a slice of ham, cheese, on a bun. The characters that came to the table were Spider-Man, who oddly enough carried on a conversation with the table (you don't normally expect that out of characters), The cat in the hat, and thing 1 and thing 2. After breakfast we started on the rides, I went on Hulk while Brenda and the kids did the storm force accelatron . After that, we started towards Spider-Man but is was closed. We went to the water rides and I rode Dudley Do-Right where I lost my Dolphin hat, with Shane while Lizzie played in the water, then we all went on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. After we were significantly soaked, we tried to talk the kids into going on Jurassic Park, Lizzie went, and I was stuck going on Dudley Do-Right again. We made our way around the rest of the park including doing both Fire and Ice on Dueling Dragons, and the whole Dr. Seuess area. We got back to the water ride area, and I was stuck doing Popeye with Lizzie 5 times in a row as Shane and Brenda did Dudley Do-Right again. We rode Spider-Man, then because I had to dry off, I did the Hulk two more times.
When we got back to the car, we had to break the terrible news to the kids. We hated ruining Lizzie's birthday, but it's the only thing we could do. Everyone cried for a few minutes, then we were on our way home. We are still deciding what to do next. Sandy seemed a bit depressed for the first day or two, but she seems ok now. We still want to get her another friend, but we need to find the time to actually go out and look.
On Saturday morning, Lizzie woke up and started opening the curtains because it was "morning time, and time to get up." We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and took the boat to Universal Studios. There was no crowd to speak of, which seemed odd for a Saturday, but considering the economy, and the swine flu, I guess people just decided to stay home. We were able to use our room key as an express pass, which made life a little more convenient, but if we had paid for it, I probably would have been upset, since there were really no lines anywhere. When we first arrived, I noticed the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. The coaster looks phenomenal and I cannot wait to ride it. We did all of the rides the kids wanted to, including Jimmy Neutron, Shrek, and Disaster. During our walk around the park, my Mother called to let me know that the dogs got out and ran around the neighborhood for a little while, but the neighbors helped get them back. She said she just wasn't fast enough to get in the front door without letting them out. I said that we would just look for another option next time. After we finished Universal Studios, we went over to Islands of Adventure and rode Spider-Man, then we went back to the hotel so the kids could go swimming.
As the kids were swimming, I stayed in the room just to relax a little bit. While I was watching The Matrix, my phone rang, it was my mother calling. I asked her what happened now, did the dogs get out again? She said that Carsen was gone. I said gone? She said gone, gone. She had put them on the leash outside (there is afternoon shade based on how the house is set up) and left water out there for them. She left for a little bit, when she came back, she saw Carsen laying there motionless. We are still not sure what happened, whether he got into something when he was running aorund, the heat, or if he tried to get out of the leash. I had to go downstairs and tell Brenda. We didn't know what to do, but we didn't want to break it to the kids then, and ruin Lizzie's birthday, so we had to keep it from them the best we could.
We all got back to the room and got ready for dinner, I had made reservations for the character dinner at our hotel. The only characters were Shrek and Fiona (as a human). The waiter we had was really good, and got Lizzie a chocolate cake for her birthday, and was just all aorund very attentive.
Sunday morning, for Lizzie's actual birthday, we had the character breakfast inside Islands of Adventure. Brenda and I were still obviously torn up about Carsen, but, we had to try to have a good time so the kids would enjoy themselves without knowing. The breakfast was a small buffet, one item they had which was actually quite good was the green eggs and ham. I'm assuming it was eggs with food coloring, a slice of ham, cheese, on a bun. The characters that came to the table were Spider-Man, who oddly enough carried on a conversation with the table (you don't normally expect that out of characters), The cat in the hat, and thing 1 and thing 2. After breakfast we started on the rides, I went on Hulk while Brenda and the kids did the storm force accelatron . After that, we started towards Spider-Man but is was closed. We went to the water rides and I rode Dudley Do-Right where I lost my Dolphin hat, with Shane while Lizzie played in the water, then we all went on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. After we were significantly soaked, we tried to talk the kids into going on Jurassic Park, Lizzie went, and I was stuck going on Dudley Do-Right again. We made our way around the rest of the park including doing both Fire and Ice on Dueling Dragons, and the whole Dr. Seuess area. We got back to the water ride area, and I was stuck doing Popeye with Lizzie 5 times in a row as Shane and Brenda did Dudley Do-Right again. We rode Spider-Man, then because I had to dry off, I did the Hulk two more times.
When we got back to the car, we had to break the terrible news to the kids. We hated ruining Lizzie's birthday, but it's the only thing we could do. Everyone cried for a few minutes, then we were on our way home. We are still deciding what to do next. Sandy seemed a bit depressed for the first day or two, but she seems ok now. We still want to get her another friend, but we need to find the time to actually go out and look.
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