And put in an application for a parking lot attendant.
Who would ever guess, they'd give a MATH test.
And why?
It could be, that sitting in somewhere in a parking lot booth,
there's an 'idiot savant; calculating the size of the universe?
They asked her questions like:
"If a person parks at 10:32 am, and leaves at 2:17 pm the next day, how many minutes did they park".
Anyway, she's terrible at math, and I don't think anyone is good subtracting time.
They didn't even her an interview.
But she passed her background test, rode the transit system, knows the town better, and her spirits are high.
We were both in the dumps, so we hit the road to Cincinnati!
On the way back, we stopped by General Butler State Park.
They offer cabins in the mountains, next to a lake. They have mini golf, a pool, and daily hikes/activities for their guest. Tommorrows activity is a hike using a tobacco stick...hmmm.
We saw two fawns, and a racoon.

The drive to Cincinnati on I70 is hilly and scenic. It takes over an hour to get there, but it feels like 20 minutes.

Cincinnati just pops up over a hill.
The downtown area looks like its probably twice the size of downtown Louisville.

The buildings have a unique styles.
Most of the buildings look like apartments, or condos. A lot of the shops have upstairs lofts, where the owners probably live.

The impression I got of this place,
was, its where you could get lost forever, along with a million other people.
People used the streets like they might a sidewalk, not even watching for traffic.

The bridges and stadiums are awesome.
I couldn't quite get a good picture of the bridges, but theres five of them in a row, with different styles and colors.

We came on a Reds game night.
The riverfront was swamped with Reds fans.

I just wanted to tell you, you are my very special angel.
I love you with all of my heart.
These times may seem great to some, but they've been rough on us.
We don't know where we are going to be in four months.
We can't settle in, or make any long term plans.
Its feels odd to me, not being in full control.
Our horses are running full bore, and we've lost the reigns.
From what I can make of it, there's nothing I can do at work to change my fate. The best option we can choose, while I'm working, is to save all of the money we can and hope for the best. We don't want to settle in Vegas, and we don't know if we can settle here. It all seems like a mess, but everything will work out just fine. It always does.
Trust me, trust life, and trust your instincts.
This may be the most interesting time of our lives.
If you feel you're ready, finding a Monday through Friday job on day shift might go a long way. You could save everything you make, and thats a really good thing. If you don't want to, thats fine too. Whatever you decide, I'm behind you all the way.

I slept in most of the weekend.
We rearranged the furniture, so now we're actually sleeping in the bedroom.
I hung some blackout blinds so we can use the projector in the living room any time of the day.

I know what you mean there.
I woke this morning and looked at the clock and said "DANG IT. IT'S 11 O'CLOCK".
Its nice to sleep in and watch the cows fly by, isn't it.

Its a, ahem, unique arrangement. We are in apartment limbo.
We can't buy too much furniture, but we need to be comfortable.
I was told Friday that a full time position wasn't going to be created.
Thats good, because nobody ever made me an offer, and I'm still getting settled in anyway.
They were concerned that I might have taken it the wrong way.
I'm not sure what exactly goes on where I work.
I know they have a lot of meetings, and I know some of them are about me.
I can only guess whats been said by studying the behaviour of the people who attend the meetings.
It almost feels creepy. lol.
All I can do is give them my best effort, try not to make any waves, and see what happens.
Anyway, getting back to the apartment
If my contract runs out in November, we're going to have to move again.
Which means, we shouldn't buy furniture.

Another visitor has arrived.
Her name is McKenzie Jackson.
She's almost 9 pounds, the daughter of Renee Spurling and Jonathan Jackson.
She's Becky's grandaughter, and Ruth Czachorwski's great grand daughter.
And she's beautiful.
One wonders what will she see in her lifetime.
What beautiful things will come her way?
And soon, after we're all laid to rest, she will have her first grand daughter,
and she too, will be beautiful.
And she will come into a world so wonderful, we can't even imagine it.

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
Certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky.
It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.
At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye .
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30am. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Another day, another month, and now, another year has gone by.
Here, I got you a coupon for your birthday


BTW - Your hotmail keeps bouncing your emails back. It must be filtering them based on content (whats said in the email).

At least, I think she is.
We got a call this morning on our new phone around 1:30 am last night.
I'm not used to this new phone.
When someone calls, it announces their caller id, in a voice that sounds like the FBI is giving you their last warning to come out with you hands in the air. Anyway, that fit with my dreams, because I had just ordered some inhalers from India. They're illegal drugs, because I can't afford a doctor or American labeled drugs, and I don't have a prescription. I put the wrong apartment number on the order. To a straight laced guy like me, thats horrifying. Thats all that I do that's illegal.
ANYWAY, back to the phone call.
Renee and Becky were on the phone most of last night, talking about all kinds of things a guy shouldn't know.
I didn't hear both sides of the conversation, but I heard Becky talking about the color of Renee's fluids (pink or clear) and I knew it was personal. Then I heard Becky yelling "GO TO THE DOCTOR NOW! GO! GO! GO!".
So, I went...to the Sealbach Bar downstairs to try a Mint Julep.
Those phone conversations have been happening almost nightly, and all I can do is stare at the big screen TV with the sound off, so why not have some fun. Sealbach's Mint Juleps ($9.60) are actually quite good. Becky joined me about a half hour later, then we went to an antique car show on Fourth Street. We stopped by TGIF's and babbled with Jeff, the waiter.
Later, we came back, nestled into bed, watched Rambo, then nodded away.
At 1:30 am we got the call,
Renee was in observation.
I'd just have to assume she popped one out in the middle of the night.
Becky said, with glowing eyes, "She's at 5 centimeters".
I still don't know what that measures, because I'm an inch guy, and I'm not sure I even want to know.
But Becky said "At 10 centimeters, she's ready to give birth".
Its just another sleepless night here in Louisville for us.
Another sleepless night.

Lynne's Café on Baxter Road
Here, you get fresh veggies, unique entrées and extremely friendly service. A waitress here sat down at our table and told us that the locals read 'The Leo' to find all of the happenings around Louisville. Its amazing, the number of name bands who just slide in and out of this place! Counting Crows is playing just 5 blocks away next week.


I really don't get why anyone would pour beer from a pitcher into a coffee cup.
Thats just disgusting. But another sign said that management isn't responsible for items left in the coat room, and there is no coat room. So, thats it, they're crazy, and they're lots of fun!
Lynnes Cafe is hosting an ugly lamp contest. The person that wins the lamp contest gets free breakfast for a year.

Bardstown Road is the place to go in Louisville.
Louisville is all about small businesses. They're motto is 'Keep Louisville Weird'.
They like the chains here, but the push is to keep the Mom and Pop stores open.
I just think thats GREAT!
 
Bardstown Road Houses
Musicians and other talented people live in houses along the road. Most of these old homes are residential, but also host some kind of business. I think I'd like living in one of these, and maybe have a Tarot Card reading / Web Site building combo in my living room. A customer would enter, I'd go through some a beaded curtains and ask them, "What would you like today? Would you like a website built, would you like to know your future, my sweetheart also does manicures, if you'd like that.". That would be cool.

Rod BBQ'd corn in the husk, garlic potatoes, T-Bone steaks and um, his trash!
The corn was especially delicious cooked that way.

Rod and Jessica swung by after they got out of church this morning.

The zoo was nice, but it was a lot of walking. Thats why you don't see my picture in here.
I think I melted somewhere along the way. At $11 a ticket, its one of the best deals in Louisville.
We left the zoo, drove around for an hour, then went to a Bats baseball game.

If we went yesterday, we could have seen Herman's Hermits!
I heard they got captured, and were put on exhibit.
They were singing their number one hits, like:
"Mrs Brown you've got a lovely Orangutan"
"Something tells me I FELL into something good"
"Silhouettes on the Cage"
"There's a kind of a hush, all over the Zoo"
And last but not least: "I'm Henry the Ape, I am"
To those of you who didn't blow out a candle when the light bulb was invented,
Those were English/American hits sung by the Herman's Hermits in the 60's.
Life back then was all about Peace, Love, Go Go Boots and Mini Skirts!
(I just loved the boots and skirts, cause I was a pubescent kid and we didn't have the XBox)
Can ya dig it?
They Were Really Groovy Man!
That band was Really Far Out! 
They were a Trip, cause those Cats were Swinging, dude!

We do now.
Finally, after all these years, I've got some new glasses. one set for reading, the other for driving.
I rarely need them, but when I do, I REALLY need them.
Becky got a new pair too. Her new pair is practically indestructable!
We both left the optometrist with dilated pupils.
So, we were both nearly blind, seeing rainbows around everything.
Driving home was a real challenge.
I didn't learn what I needed too though.
I wanted to learn what might make someone's eyesight fluctuate between fuzzy and good over a couple of days.
All the optometrist said was, try some Refresh Plus Eye Drops, and maybe take some Omega-3.

In heavy 1 quart saucepan over low heat, in 3 tablespoons hot butter,
cook 1 tablespoon minced onion until tender.
SLOWLY
add 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; cook until lightly browned;
add 1 tablespoon chopped parsley,
add 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves,
add 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.
add one 10 1/2 ounce can condensed beef broth (bouillon),
add 1/2 cup red wine,
add 1/4 cup water.
Increase heat to medium-high; cook mixture, stirring constantly, until sauce boils and thickens.
Apply to hair for 10 minutes. Wipe remainder all over your body.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In large oven roasting pan on rack, form tenderloin into ring so that thick end rests on thin end to hold securely.
Brush beef with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Insert meat thermometer into center of tenderloin.
Roast tenderloin 40 minutes or until thermometer reaches 120 degrees F (very rare).
Remove tenderloin from oven and let stand 30 minutes. Do not turn oven off.
2. Thaw pastry as label directs.
3. Meanwhile, in 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat, in 3 tablespoons hot butter, cook onion until tender.
Add mushrooms, thyme, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all liquid evaporates.
Stir in red wine and cook over medium heat until mixture is dry.
Remove skillet from heat; cool slightly.
4. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 sheet puff pastry into 14 x 12 inch rectangle.
Place puff pastry sheet on ungreased large cookie sheet.
Center partially roasted tenderloin ring on dough.
With knife, cut pastry with 1 inch border all around tenderloin.
5. Spread pate evenly over tenderloin; top with mushroom mixture.
With pastry brush, brush some egg white on pastry around tenderloin.
On lightly floured surface, roll second sheet puff pastry as above; place loosely over tenderloin ring, pressing pastry around base of tenderloin to seal; crimp pastry border to make a pretty edge.
6. In cup, with fork, beat egg yolk with milk; brush top and sides of pastry with egg mixture.
Bake Beef Wellington 10 minutes; reduce heat to 375 degrees F; bake 20 minutes longer or until crust is golden.
With 2 pancake turners, transfer roast to warm platter.
Let stand 15 minutes for easier slicing.
7. Prepare Bordelaise Sauce.
8. To serve, garnish with parsley, cut Beef Wellington into wedges.
Serve with Bordelaise Sauce.
Makes 10 hockey puck sized servings for the Cub Scout meeting.

Its kind of being forced on me at sofk.
They have a weather channel on TV above all of the cubicals.
I walk by some cubicals, and there on someone's screen is the weather channel.
The other day, someone wanted to show me where they lived. The used the satellite map from, the weather channel.
Okay, I get it! The weather channel is a hit here.
Its kind of digitized version of laying back, and watching the clouds float by (although it would be from outer space).
Whats funny is, if it said rain every day of the year, it would be 80% correct.

The Parking Lot
On Wednesday, we came back from Walmart with a rolling laundry hamper.
There, in our small, but extremely convenient parking lot, sat the attendent and some guy.
They looked like they were hanging out, (in the parking lot, with lawn chairs?).
I rolled the hamper up to them and blurted 'Nice night to take your hamper our for a walk'.
Becky asked the parking lot attendant, "What kind of training do you need to be an attendant", and  I chuckled.
Then the parking lot attendant (Susan) said, "None, but we don't have any openings. They might have an openning in the next parking lot". Then I chuckled again.
The guy (Peter) says, "Yea, I help her for free. They won't hire me and I've got nothing better to do".
We all started talking. Peter, who's a contract programmer like me, is goofing around, just like I did for 6 years. It turns out he used to be with the Tears For Fears band. He played the piano in 'Everybody wants to rule the world'. 
Anyway, we babbled, I told them my Elephant jokes, and we took our hamper home.

---

Outside the hotel, in the rain
Tonight, Becky and I were leaving the building to go grab a bite to eat or do whatever.
In the lobby, we bumped into Susan and our hotel security guard (Tim).
She said, "Hey, where ya going?".
Then she said "Peter and I are going to TGIF's once he gets back from the cleaners. Wanna come?".
We said, "Well, uh, we, um....Well YEA!".
And the next thing you know, we're waiting outside for the Peter to arrive with his laundry.
It was raining hard outside, but nobody seemed to mind it. 
A girl hit me up for a cigarette, then four gay guys hung out, and people coming in and out start collecting,
The next thing ya know, its like a big party....outside, in front of the hotel, with rain falling down everywhere.

---

TGIF's Restaurant.
Peter finally arrived, dropping off his tiny bag of laundry, and the four of us strolled around the corner to Fourth Street Live. A band was playing in the street, and there were 100s of people there. Thats home to the TGIF restaurant.
Peter and Susan were clowning with the hostess, and we got a booth.
Every waiter, waitress and bus person in TGIF's swung to our booth to clown around and introduce themselves.
These two knew everybody there! You can't buy entertainment like this. You have to live it.

---

The People
Peter is an older, but good looking, ex New Yorker, who has a radio announcers voice, and does impressions very well.
Susan, is an throwback from Woodstock, with no teeth. Her hair seems to fly around everywhere when she talks.
Tim, is our security guard. He's quiet, smiles a lot, and is an athiest.
Scott, not mentioned above, is our other security guard, and he's a preacher.
These four people as a group, can put first name to every body in this 300 room high rise.
Everybody here is good looking and they all have wild personalities.

---

This Hotel
It seems to have ghetto levels, retirement levels, party levels and posh levels.
If they put a convenience store on the bottom floor, some people would never the block.
Living in this hotel is the experience I was looking for.
Its like living in a Seinfield episode, but its much better.

Got up this morning to brush up on my stock jargon.
Chatted with MIKEY!!! YEAH!
Wrote a program at work today, to create test data, then tested it.
Writing programs from scratch is fun! YEAH!
Got home, went to Sam's and Walmart to get Becky a homeless cart...
You know, one of those carts that have two wheels.
She needs one to shuffle laundry up and down the floors here.
We also picked up an air mattress for Rod.
We popped his while camping...lol.
Swung by Rod's house, but Rod wasn't home. awe.
We dropped an air mattress off anyway.
Got home, and webcamed SONNY!!!! YEAH!
We spent about an hour or or so enjoying pleasant conversations about the whacky worlds we've been thrust into this last month. He's at Circus. I'm in Louisville. Everything is whacky!
Got off, and webcamed GMa!!! YEAH!
We chatted for some time, then Paul came down and got her microphone working, and life was GREAT!
We topped off the night by swinging by Hilton's bar next door!!! YEAH!
I wanted to try a shot of their famous Kentucky Bourbon.
It was a beautiful bar, all woodsy, plush and beautiful.
But, they were busy, it would have taken too long,
So, now its BED TIME!!! YEAH!!!

Yield - What the bonds have paid in the last 7 to 30 days. Kind of worthless to look at.
Net Asset Value (NAV) - What the bond fund is worth, per share.
Total Return - What the bonds have paid dividends, along with their Net Asset Value changes.
However, I can't seem to pin down what period of time this value uses. Hopefully, its over 12 months.
Without knowing the time frame, its worthless.
The way it plays, if I remember right
The bond funds spit out a dividend, and the NAV goes down.
The NAV eventually goes back up...and it spits out another dividend.
While its doing this, it becomes very hard to track, unless you have kept a log of everything.
For example: Take an instance where you invest $100 to buy 100 shares in a bond fund for $1 a share(nav).
When the bond fund pays a dividend, its NAV drops to $.90 a share. Fair enough.
The bond fund pays out a 10% dividend and you don't reinvest it in the fund.
You get $100 because the Dividend=$.10 . You have 1,000 shares worth $900.
You gained nothing. You only gain $10 gain when the NAV goes back up to $1.
The bond fund pays out a 10% dividend but you have the dividend purchase more shares.
You get $0 because you rolled the Dividend over, the NAV drops to $.90 .
You now have have 1,100 shares worth $1,000 (1000x$1 + 100x$1)
You gained nothing. You only gain $10 when the NAV goes back up to $1.
There may be an advantage to buying the bond fund, right before it pays the $10 dividend.
The price of the fund before it pays the dividend should be $1.10, I'd think.
All of this makes funds very difficult to track without keeping a log.
If you have the dividends payed to you, then you have to keep a log of all payments.
Its comforting to know that if you have the dividends paid to you for years and years and years, its unlikely that the NAV of the fund would ever drop much less than your original purchase NAV.

Today, I spent the whole day fighting Freddy Kruger.
I only slept a few hours last night, and that Vicodin doesn't leave your system like it should.
So, I kept nodding off.
It was harder staying awake today, than it was on our 35 hour drive to Louisville.
Rough day!
I had two meetings today, on top of it all.
One was a conference call with about twenty people connected. Very anticlimactic.
I hear, that if I worked salaried at my job for a year,
I could pretty much transfer anywhere in the country.
I could even end up working in that old data center in Las Vegas, right around the corner from GMa's.
Wow....it is a small world.
hmmm.

I bought a years subscription to Morning Star, and have sent you 4 emails trying to tell you how to get into it.
Morningstar is a really good investment site.
The site is at: http://www.morningstar.com
I'll call tonight and give you the logon and password for it.

I invested in the SWHFX mutual fund.
I invested in Schwab’s Schwab Health Care Fund (SWHFX)
Its Average Return runs around 8%
If anyone has any investment suggestions, I'm all ears.

Now how does that work now Squirt?
We shower you with treasures and you shower us with...ahem...gold,
haha.

Now how does that work now Squirt?
We shower you with treasures and you shower us with...ahem...gold,
haha.

Up most of the night.
The dentist gave me a script of Vicadin, which I gratefully took.
Vicadin seems to make me itch, and it keeps me up for some reason.
hmmm.
I guess it'll take a few days for the infection to go down.
And I thought it was all over, too.

He told me we could save the tooth, like it was a cherished life form...haha.
I told him the tooth had no use, it had nothing to grind against. It wasn't a chomper.
Once again, I heard the story about how I'm going to look all goofy.
They always say its because my teeth have nothing to rest against, they'd fall over or be pointed in all kinds of directions (they teach that story in Dental School, I guess).  I told the dentist what I really wanted was dentures or plates. And I'd like two sets of them made. 
I told work I'd be coming back in unless they turned me into a drooling idiot.
Well, that's what they did, darn-it! Taking any kind of time off at this job is insane. But then again, coming in, frothing at the mouth and sounding like I lost half my brain could damage my already, odd, reputation worse.
I really wanted them 10 years ago when I had more jawbone.
The jawbone deteriates from tooth decay. If you have no teeth, you don't suffer as much jawbone loss (as I understand it). Anyway, I'm scheduled to come back 8/27/2007 at 2pm

Eva Park - Dumpy
Louisville Soccer Park - Busy but nice
Hutchins Park - Okay
Cherokee Park - HUGE, long windy roads, a golf course is next to it. Its a jungle
Seneca Park - Very LONG, lots of soccer fields, very nice
The houses around Cherokee and Seneca were ancient and unique.
Iroquois Park - Beautiful - We saw 360 degree views of the entire Louisville area.
The houses around this area were new, and unique. They looked GREAT! I want one.


Waverly Park - Ok. Lots of trees. It ended with a home made lake...but I'd call it a mossy swamp.
Someone is building the lake with a backhoe. You can tell too. It has no water supply so the water is stagnant.
The ranches out here are spectacular though.
River Gardens Park - What park...it was less a baseball diamond with overgrown grass.
Campground Road - had no campgrounds to it, just factories.
Pleasure Ridge Park - nasty
Shawnee Park - Okay...we didn't really blend in.
There were only two parks where people parked in the grass, and blasted their music.
Both parks were 100% Hispanic.
Along the way, we stopped at a Fresh Produce Store
I ate almost an entire bucket of strawberries during the trip.
We watched a Railroad Bridge descend to let a train go over.
That was cool. I don't know what's more beautiful about this place, the area, or the sparkle in Becky's eyes!
Last of all we ate at Joes Crab Shack.
Half of it is on stilts overlooking the Ohio River. The food was the same, but at this altitude, with the air being more humid, the food tastes better. They're drinks are fantastic. Becky had a strawberry margarita, and I had a Pina Colada. 
Great people. Great scenery. Great food.
I'm beat.

I bought two season tickets from this fellow at work for 50% off regular rates.
This afternoon, we swung by just to make sure there wasn't going to be any hastles about us being non-residents.
Disneyland wouldn't give us our annual tickets, even after we paid for them online, which stunk! They wanted to see an apartment lease or utility bill. BTW - I know now, how I could've have beaten that.
We watched a Looney Tunes show which was pretty cool, and went on a ride that went up and down, in circles.

I called it a kiddie ride, along with the Marry-Go-Round and the Bumper Cars, and Becky got mad!
That was funny. She said "I'M NOT A KID!" and I laughed.
I should have Fear-Of-Park-Amusement-Rides (FOPAR)
myself, but I don't. FOPAR seems to be a genetic thing.
A thirteen year old girl lost both of her feet on the Superman ride, at this same park, about 3 weeks ago. I think that made national news. The Superman is a pretty tame ride, and its in a lot of amusement parks. A cable snapped and must have whipped around on its way down. I suppose that could happen in an elevator just as easily, but I'm not afraid of them either.
We polished off the night enjoying a nice Web Camming with GMa and Jennifer.
There's some kind of big party going on down stairs, but I'm just too burned out too join in.

Mike, Melody and a horse, of course. We met them on the Belle of Louisville, and we just clicked. Next thing you know, we're hanging out all night. I really enjoyed the last part. They put couches on Fourth Street with pillows, and we just kicked back and joked. It was like we were in an open air living room.
 

The $15 three hour tour goes north up the Ohio, and includes dancing and an optional $15 buffet. We wouldn't have missed the buffet. The band was very uplifted. We'd heard them on 4th Street Live earlier in the week.
Its a non-smoking tour, but ya know, 33% of the people here smoke. They were all around cuffing their cigs, haha.
The people on the cruise are just out to have fun and to socialize. We did a lot of that.

The lanes are all decorated, and there's a TV screen right above the bowling pins. Its cool!
But the people are SO polite here.
I just wanted to watch a clip from a Bruce Willis movie, and a guy next to use, kept motioning me on,
letting me know it was okay to bowl, he'd be more than happy to wait.
Now, its not like we were actually taking turns.
I know its supposed to be polite not to bowl a ball while the person next to you is bowling.
But sometimes, manners can just go too far.
I also noticed these guys couldn't remember which ball was theirs.
They kept using my ball every several rolls...hahahahaha. And they weren't drunk either....lol.
Manners in Louisville are extreme!
It shows up at its worst at 4 way stop signs.
Everybody's trying to let the other person go ahead of them, and nobody goes at all!
My head could actually explode here.
Just kidding. I love it here. Its like being in an episode of  "The Waltons".