Unbecoming Levity

Happy Birthday James!

Abacquer — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:42:00 -0400

It's that time again! James is celebrating his 39'th birthday for the third time today. Happy Birthday James. Hope you are well and that you are taking today off to relax and enjoy yourself.

Busy Weekend

Abacquer — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:02:00 -0400

Well this weekend has been half-busy. Went to see my Mom on Saturday... Friday was a rough day for her too since it was her and Dad's wedding anniversary. I helped her rake leaves and we got the pictures off her camera for her. She seems to be enjoying her new point-and-shoot and has been taking a lot of pictures.

We had a little cake for my birthday and then I told my Mom about something I had seen on YouTube--the story of Charles Ingram, who cheated at "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" and won the $1000000 prize--he eventually ended up in court and was sentenced to 18 months (suspended) and had to pay fines. It was an interesting story--here are the links if you want to watch it (the entire documentary is about 75 minutes):

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQoNWw0G2AY
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XpDMxyFakY
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOOhfQk5-58
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0K_I4DMX4
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obswP-3JFss
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFpBLsLCMQ8
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve5lx_LowaI
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU14bYbJWVw

Mom loves game shows like Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, and so forth, so she found the story interesting too. We got back here pretty late Saturday night.

Sunday was the slow day. Patty went to Pickety Place with her family and I stayed home with Lynnea. She had a friend over and they seemed to have a good time. I did some photo work, played some video games, and enjoyed my new birthday gift.

Last year, my trusty old SAMSUNG YP7 MP3 player went through the wash in the pocket of my sweatshirt. :( So I was without a player for a long time. Sometime months ago I came into a little money (probably a gift from someone--don't remember now) and Pat asked if I wanted to replace the MP3 player. But at the time I felt it was better to put the money in my photography business account. There's still a couple pieces of equipment I am trying to save up for.

But over the ensuing months I realized just how much I missed having music whenever I wanted it, especially when I go to sleep. So, having received a little birthday money, I decided on Saturday to go out and get a new one. It's a Sansa Clip (4Gb)... and I can fit almost my entire song library on it. (No iPods for this music lover!) Plays great, and it includes an FM tuner and voice recorder for those rare moments when I want to take notes.

Let's see what else has been going on? I've been watching the election polls with trepidation I *really* want Obama to win... 8 years of Republican mismanagement has been more than enough. I'd like to finally see universal health care become a reality in this country. I'd like to see a serious move away from fossil fuels. I'll probably run a blogathon on election day.

So here it is around dinnertime on Sunday, and I am trying not to think about work tomorrow. Figured I'd write a blog post for y'all. It's been forever, it seems, since I was blogging regularly.

Oh, I've had Mara and Kennis knocking about in my head again recently... I may write a little more of their story at some point.

Happy Birthday Patty!

Abacquer — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:56:00 -0400

Today the lady of my life is another year older.

Happy birthday hon!

Let's go out to breakfast!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Abacquer — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:14:00 -0500

I just found out that today is the birthday of my old friend Mike. Mike and I met in college some 20 years ago. I was a CIS major and he majored in math. Here's a picture of Mike from a get together we both recently attended where we talked about (among other things) cameras and photography. Years ago I encouraged Mike to pursue a degree in computer science, and recently I've been encouraging him to move up to a DSLR camera.

He's a good guy, and I hope he has a great birthday.

Happy Day, Mike!

Happy Birthday James!

Abacquer — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:03:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing one of my best friends, James Burke, a pleasant birthday. I met James about 22 years ago in college and haven't regretted a single day of knowing him since.

This past Saturday we attended a birthday gathering in honor of James turning 40. We had a good time socializing and watching game 3 of the world series. It was great to see all my friends again, especially James, who was as charming and witty as I remember him always being.

Happy Day James! Don't work too hard.

Happy Birthday Maggie!!

Abacquer — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:14:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing one of my best friends, Maggie Burke, a pleasant birthday. I've known Maggie a long time, and I value her wisdom and insight, and enjoy her company. Hope you have a great day Maggie!

BTW: I *have* been reading your blog btw, just not leaving comments. Always a pleasure to hear your thoughts.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Abacquer — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:43:00 -0400

Just wanted to take a brief moment here to wish my friend, Tom King, a Happy Birthday! Please join me in wishing Tom a pleasant day. This is one of those special birthdays, a real milestone, because my good friend Tom is turning 39... again! Congratulations buddy!

Happy Day my friend, happy day.

Happy Birthday, Donna!

Abacquer — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:37:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing my wonderful sister Donna a Happy Birthday to-day! My big sister has always been there for me when I needed her, even when I didn't know it. You're the best, Donna, I hope you have a great birthday. Love you!

Happy Birthday Lynnea!

Abacquer — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:03:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing my awesome kid Happy Birthday to-day! Lynnea turned 10 this morning--she's entering that middle ground where big girls turn into teenagers. But she's still my angel and always will be.

Happy Birthday, Lynnea! Mom and Dad think you're the best!

What's Goin' On, What's Goin On

Abacquer — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:26:00 -0400

Life has been a little hectic for me, and while I've had time to take part in interesting discussions on articles I posted over a year ago (weird) I haven't had much time to post any new articles. So here's what's goin' on, reduced to a bullet list, just so I can get the shite out there:

Went to see the oral surgeon on Tuesday, no real surprises there, it was just a consult, they wanted me to know what to expect and to talk to me. Had to read some scary consent forms where they tell you everything that could possibly go wrong during your procedure... we might break your jaw, we might puncture your sinuses, we might damage teeth you were planning on keeping, you might have a heart attack from the anaesthesia, you might die, the world might end. Great stuff to read if you are a person with an anxiety disorder triggered by medical situations. Thanks guys.
I go in for my impressions at the dentist this afternoon. Probably have to have the surgery in about 3 weeks.
Celebrated Easter with Patty's family on Saturday, and with my family on Sunday. Plus we had a little egg hunt for Lynnea at our house Sunday morning. Total of 3 egg hunts, and I hid somewhere between 85 and 145 eggs over the weekend (I had help on the last hunt.)
Atheist's don't believe in jinxes, but lately it's hard to shake the idea of misfortune following me around. During Saturday's get together, I noticed that the dog of one of my sisters-in-law, who had been brought to the gathering, was acting funny--labored breathing, strange movements. I told my sister-in-law about it, and she took the dog to a vet during the celebration and was informed that the animal needed to be put to sleep. Happy Easter kids, the dog is dying. They had the dog put down that same day and a lot of the kids were crying about it.
Continuing the jinx thread, I was on the phone with a friend yesterday afternoon and we were discussing all the things that had been going on in my life when suddenly I heard a loud bang on my cellphone. My friend had been rear ended by another driver and terminated the conversation with "my back is hurting, I can't talk now". Later in the evening I heard back that after a trip to the hospital my friend was okay, but he didn't yet know how bad the damage to his car is. We joked that I should try to capitalize on this Hurleyesque bad luck of mine, have people pay me to stay away from them, or pay me to hang around with folks they don't like until the meteorite hits them.
I've been seeing my Mom each weekend and helping her to get things taken care of now that Dad is gone. Mom runs a small business out of her house and depends entirely on an ancient Windows-98 box to do her work, and the box is acting pretty spotty lately. A few weeks before Dad passed away he had purchased a new computer, and so now I am trying to repurpose that box so that when my Mom is ready, she can switch to the new box and run her business on that. Unfortunately the new box comes with Vista which my Dad hated, and after spending a couple of hours trying to use the box I can see why. Microsoft completely changed the standard windows interface, all the control keys are different, and no functions are where they used to be. They also decided (apparently) that menus are overrated, so the standard office suite doesn't have menus anymore... yeah you heard that right. Everything is now reorganized on a new fat toolbar with tabs on it so that you can switch between toolbars. Microsoft calls it "the ribbon", I call it "thumbing your nose at everybody who already learned how to use your shitty applications". Vista does not come with a "classic mode" option like XP did... they really expect you to relearn where everything is. I refuse to subject my 68-year-old mother to this nonsense. So I backed up Dad's files, packed up his computer and all his peripherals and disks, brought it to a computer shop and told them to wipe it, and then install XP home edition and Office 2000, and get all the drivers to make sure the peripherals work. In the end, my Mom will be happier for it. And having a chance to check out Vista I am now quite certain that I won't be upgrading to it.
Had a little birthday party for Pat at home last week, a little cake and song, and a couple gifts (taking our economic situation into consideration of course). Pat got the movie "Eragon" which was -eh-. It's basically Star Wars... AGAIN, and progresses far too quickly. I kept saying "these guys forgot the montages" while watching it. But the dragon was pretty, and it was still fun to watch.
Oh, and I am saddened to report that Kurt Vonnegut passed away. Thanks for the stories Kurt, we'll miss you.

Guess that's about it. Gotta get to work! See ya later.

Happy Birthday Patty!

Abacquer — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:31:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing my lovely wife of 15 years Happy Birthday to-day! What can I possibly say that will accurately capture how wonderful she is? She's my partner and I depend on her every day, and she has always been the best to me, especially lately when I have needed her more than ever.

Good times and bad, love. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Abacquer — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:57:00 -0500

Today is the birthday of my friend, Matt-man the Barbarian. I met Matt about 10 years ago through a mutual hobby -- Magic: the Gathering. He's a good guy and well liked by Patty and me, and his ladyfriend Sarah.

So please join me in wishing Matt "McNaughty" a happy day.

Cheers Matt!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Abacquer — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 06:00:00 -0500

So today is my mother's birthday, and once again I am reminded of how lucky I am to have had such a great mom throughout my childhood and into my adult life. Thanks for everything Mom! Hope you have a happy day!

Happy Birthday James!

Abacquer — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:00:00 -0500

It's that time again! My best buddy is turning another year older. And he's still six days younger than me. The bastard. Please join me in wishing my friend, James Burke, a happy birthday. I hope you all have had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know my friend James, and if you haven't, well, you're missing out.

Happy Birthday James. Hope you and yours are well and enjoying this day.

Thanks Everyone!

Abacquer — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:11:00 -0400

Yes it's true, today is my first of many 39'th birthdays. I want to thank everyone who e-mailed, called, or sent me an instant message to wish me a happy day. I feel very lucky to have so many people who care about me. Especially my parents, who called at like seven in the morning to sing Happy Birthday to me while I was half asleep. So thanks everyone! (Thanks also to James, for posting an article about my birthday today on his blog.)

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Abacquer — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 06:00:00 -0400

Please join me in wishing one of my best friends, Maggie Burke, a pleasant birthday. I met Maggie in college years ago, and I'm very happy that she and my good friend James found each other and made a life together. Any big birthday plans today, Maggie?

Happy Birthday Tom!

Abacquer — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:00:00 -0400

Just wanted to take a brief moment here to wish my friend, Tom King, a Happy 39'th Birthday! Please join me in wishing Tom a pleasant day. Tom, I hope you're kicking your feet up and relaxing today. I'll be thinking of you today with a grin on my face and a lightness in my step. (And not just because I'm a month younger than you are.) (Well okay, not completely because I'm a month younger than you are.)

(Hey, I'm a month younger than you are... have I mentioned that lately?)

Happy Day Tom!