Family Movie Night

Ryan and I met up at lunch yesterday and ate at Basilio’s. He also gave me half the money for the parking permit. I did the normal stuff at work trying to get this stuff figured out.

At five o’clock I got a pizza and went to Russell’s for movie night. We were going to watch Get Real and Beautiful Thing. Several family members came over to watch them as well. Steve, a friend of Nick’s also came over.

After the first movie most of the people left. Nick, Steve, and I watched the second movie. Then Steve asked how I am a conservative/Republican gay man. I started to explain my underlying beliefs and how those translate into aligning with the Republicans. I guess you could say that we are, but not always for the same reason. But the ends are the same, and the means of getting to the end I would like to see is in the pathway of the Republicans.

I can say some of the things the Republicans are doing go against my beliefs, however, the things the democrats want to do are even farther away from what I would like to see, so I have to take the one that gives me the most of what I want.

We started to watch Dr. Strangelove after that, but it was getting near two in the morning and I wanted to get home. So I gave them a ride back to Waller and went home myself.

Nadirs in the Playoffs

I was excited for this evening to come. The Nadirs were back in the playoffs and we were playing Below Me. We beat them in the regular season sixteen to six. Ryan and I spent part of the trying to figure out a line up and playing positions for everyone. It took a while to hammer it out and see what we could come up with that would be fair to as many people as possible.

I spent some time also trying to debug the negative rental income I am working on. It took a long time to find a spot it would break for me. Finally I found it. So I started to step through the process. I think I found where one problem is. I just have to continue to step through it and see what else is going on. So I recorded some of the information in the journal I have.

Finally at four o’clock I started to get ready for softball. I was putting on my ankle brace and one of the laces broke. I was mad. I have to fix it. The lace is located near the bottom, so I had to do some fancy stuff so it would get tight when I lace it up. Then I drove to the field. Ben and Ryan were there and Oly also showed up. We walked to our field. I was pulling on the shoe lace on my cleats. The eyelet in the shoe broke. I yelled out in frustration. Both problems were on my left foot.

Ben, Mark, and Dave come off
the field after warming up

We threw the ball around to warm up. Ryan brought the line-ups and fielding positions he printed out. I got the line ups written down and informed everyone of their fielding positions. Ryan went out for the coin toss. He lost so we were the away team. We went to work right away. We scored four runs right away. I had a stand up triple.

In their half of the first inning they scored two runs. We had the lead going into the bottom of the third inning when they scored four runs. There was a ball that Ben ran down in the outfield. It appeared that the ball was out of play when he touched it. But the umpire said it was fair. So the ball was thrown in and people were arguing with the umpire and not making the play. They scored an extra run because of that.

Phil trying to get something started

Both teams were scoreless in the forth. In the fifth, they scored another run and were ahead of us seven to four. We were in the top of the sixth inning. That is the last inning of an Intramural game. We needed three runs after having been held scoreless for four straight innings. We went out there and finally started to hit a little bit. We scored two runs on a hit by Ryan, and then they threw the ball out of play allowing one more run to come in. We tied it up. Then we made the final out. They went up in the sixth and we held them scoreless. So it was off to extra innings.

During the game while Bryce was playing second base he ran with his back to the infield to make a juggling catch of a ball. It was great. Later Ryan, while at second, did a long run and caught one over his head. We get through the seventh and eighth inning scoreless.

In the top of the ninth, we finally broke it open with two runs. They took their at bat and scored one with an out. Then they had two on base with two out. Rudolph was playing right field. The other outfielders were all playing in left field, because we had a rover going.

The ball was driven deep to right-center. Rudolph got on his horse and ran like crazy. He back was to the infield the whole time. I did not think he would get to the ball. With two outs the baserunners were running for home. If the ball got on the ground there would have been no time for a play at home. They would win the game and eliminate us from the playoffs. I sat there thinking we were done for. Then with his back to the outfield Rudolph made a diving catch and caught the ball! The team cheering and ran to right-field to meet up with him and give him props. It was in many ways like winning the whole thing for us. We battled andwh battled. We made some good defensive plays and finally the game was won with a catch that would have been on ESPN had it been recorded.

Back: Aaron, Richard, Ben, Mark, Jory, Trent, Ryan R
First: Ryan G, Scotty, Phil, Dave, Bryce

After that game we got a team picture taken. Then we played the Longballs. It was a bad game and we lost after only getting three hits. But in many ways, winning the whole thing would have been cool, but compared to the first game, anything else would have been anti-climatic.

Working from Pullman.

Today was my first day working from Pullman. I got into the office and got the VPN set up and signed into my computer. At first I was using terminal services. Then after Ryan and I met for lunch at Pizza Pipeline, I went to the MSFT site and found they have a Remote Desktop application for Windows Two-Thousand. I got it installed and it is much better than terminal services.

After I was done working for the day I went to Colfax for fire training. It was my first one in about six months. It was good to see people. We did some hose evolutions. There was a new guy there. I showed him a few things about the hoses and flaking them, and putting the together.

I sprayed a little bit of water and helped reload the hose. Then I went into the day room and watched House with Ken. After House was over I went to the jail. I had to take my ACCESS re-cert test. I got one-hundred percent on it. I hung out at the jail until just after midnight when I finally went home to go to sleep.

Cleaning up the jail

I did not go to Pullman last night because I wanted to stay up late, so I decided to go into the office today. Before I could do that I had to go clean the doggie doo-doo from the yard. Once I was done I loaded my truck and headed off to work. I worked with Miki a little bit with the information I found on Friday. She is going to work with Dexma on that. While that is happening I am stuck on the issue.

A couple of us went to Red Robin for lunch. I got a chicken sandwich. We chatted about personal stuff. I mainly listened in on what they were talking about and checking out one of the ten-six-seven waiters.

After we got back I sat around the office getting stuff ready to be in Pullman. I got the next issue I need to work on all printed out. I filled my water bottles and then headed to get some gas. Then I was on my way to Colfax.

I got into town a little after six o’clock pm. I decided that I would go work at the jail. I got my uniform on and grabbed some lunch at Arby’s. I went to Control and ate it real quick. We had three people to get booked into the jail. I started to help Dale out with those. Then we started on the third person. But there was only computer work to do. So I got a crew of inmates and we did some cleaning around the jail. I had the halls swept and mopped on the top and bottom floor. I also had the windows washed and walls cleaned where they were dirty.

I found out that one of the guys in my crew was going to be going to AA. So, while I was in the male work release unit I was going to get another person to help out. One young kid was playing ping pong. Then he stopped me to let me know that the visiting booths were really dirty and the windows had hand marks and other marks all over them. Sounds like a volunteer to me. So I had him come along. I think that he will think twice about telling me or any other officer where we need to have cleaning done.

When we were done with the jail. I had them sweep and mop the stairs going to the basement. They were in really bad shape. When the was done I went back to Control and rested for a little bit. My ankle is still tender.

Around eleven o’clock pm a deputy was coming in with a warrant arrest from Pullman. It was an eighteen year-old man. He stole some checks and was trying to pass them off. Have I said how much I hate a thief? When I was done I took him to the green unit and then I remember I did not give him a chance to make some calls. I took him back into booking for that. By then it was after midnight. So I had Dale watch him. I was ready to head home.

Opening Season for the Maulers

Today is exciting for me. It is opening of the Season for the Maulers. We have three games today. From the practice from the other night we were not looking too awesome. We are still working to get to our mid-season form. I slept in a little better than yesterday. But I think the work on the bathroom woke me up again.

I helped to get the new bathroom cabinet upstairs. Then I started to get my uniform ready for softball. I decided to do something I have not done in YEARS. That was not wear my Philosophy shirt under my uniform. I did not wear it for two reasons. One I have been having a bad softball season with the IM’s. Two is because under my new uniform it would be visible with all the holes in it because my new uniform has micronetting type stuff so it is cooler, but it is more or less see through.

I got to the field and got my batting bag. It is heavier than I remember. I lugged it to the playing area and got my cleats on. We did some team warm ups and stretching. Then we started to throw the ball and hit the ball. Our first game was against a new team. They beat us seven to eleven. They were getting free-outs. It was not good. One inning we should have had three outs in three batters, but instead they scored several runs on us. Our hitting was not great either. I hit clean-up for the team and I think I got two at bats.

We had an hour off. I watched a couple teams in our league. Neither team had a pitcher who could get the ball across the plate. While I was watching the game Mike called me. He said they need a pitcher for his sisters team. That is the same team that Gary is on I believe.

In the next two games I did a lot better than the first game. I pitched a few innings and played first base in other innings. I was hitting the ball well. I had one ball that I crushed to deep left field. Somehow the left fielder ran that ball down and at the last minute just stuck his glove in the air. The ball just fell into his glove.

We ended up winning the last two games, so we are two and one on the season. I went home with an ankle that was a little bit on the sore side. I decided that I was not going to go back to Colfax tonight because there was no fire training in Pullman and I wanted to sleep in a little bit and stay up late tonight.

I got home at dinner time. I ate dinner and helped to clean up. Then I watched TV for most of the rest of the evening letting my ankle recover from the day of fun.

Patrolling Whatcom County.

I made plans to go riding with Joe tonight. We were going to have a BBQ as well. I got ready and got on the road and headed to Joe’s place in Bellingham. On the way I stopped at Chucks Donut shop and when I was getting in my truck my pants which has a small slit near the pocket ripped and became big. So when I got to Joe’s I used my duct tape to fix the hole.

We decided to go to Billy McHales rather than having a BBQ. So we ate and chatted for a while. When we got back to Joe’s I watched some TV while he changed and got ready for work. We got going. He got his car ready for me. He normally has some of his stuff in the passenger seat. So it was put in the trunk.

Joe getting his car ready

Good winnings at Texas Hold’em

I was doing well at work today. I started with a brunch for a birthday celebration for someone at the company. We went to the Brown Paper Bag or something like that in Redmond. The portions were huge and I was unable to eat it all. The same was the case with everyone else.

Then I started to get real work done. I was getting closer and closer to figuring out the problem with Dexma not responding to my computer. First off actually I needed to know if they requests were getting out. They were. Then I had to figure out if the problem was the outside not being able to get to my computer. It turned out it was able to.

I put a stop in the ASP code and ran a report. Within a few minutes it started the debugger. So I knew it was getting to my computer. I spent time stepping through things and looking at the data to see why it was not working. I think I finally isolated the problem. I have a theory that my problem is also the same problem on production. If that is the case I would have figured out a major problem we have, up to this time, been unable to figure it out.

With not being able to do anything further because it was after five o’clock pm, and all the people I would need were gone, so I went home. I watched the Mariners and had dinner. Then I watched Mr. Deeds. I planned on staying up late so I could be less tired for the ride along with Joe tomorrow.

I got some money from the bank and went to Diamond Lil’s. I got on a four-eight table. It was a really cool table. People were having a good time. I went up more than a hundred bucks. Then I had a ten and something in my hand. The board had a pair of tens and a pair of nines, giving me the third best hand, but because I had a ten, I actually had the second best hand. Only a pair of nines, for quads would beat me. After a fair amount of bets and raises to get to that point, I lay down my ten and this girl lays down a pair of nines. She beat me.

So I was dwindling down a little bit. I got back to my original buy in and then I went down a little bit from there. A guy came to the table. He was a ten-six-seven, but could have been better off with a hair cut. There was something about him made me keep my eye on him most of the time he was there. I am not sure what it was, but he kept my attention.

So I am in the big blind and I get dealt a four-five off suit. Just on a whim I raise. Several people stayed in. The flop was a two-three-six. That gave me nut straight. There were bets and raises. Then on the turn there was an ace. It did nothing to weaken my hand. So I still raised. I was hoping for a card that would not make a flush happen. And something that would not ruin my straight by making a bigger one. A queen of spades came out. That sealed the deal. I bet and one person called. He had put me on pocket aces or something like that because I had raised before the flop. He was shocked to see what I raised on. I was laughing. I won more than two hundred bucks on that hand. It was awesome.

I played until around two-thirty am. The table started to break up. The workers split our table and sent people to other tables. So I took that opportunity to go home. I wanted to stay up a little bit later because I was trying to sleep in a lot on Saturday so I will not be tired when I got on the ride along. I got home and watched some TV before I actually did go to sleep, which was around four o’clock am.

Softball practice with Gay-Rod

After spending a fun-filled day trying to figure out how to get Dexma to respond to my computer and getting the final touches on everything, I left the day without anything working. I did get the latest changes to FootballPA completed. I have the offense indicator that will start the cursor in the correct box.

After work I went home and got my softball stuff put on. Then I headed to Auburn to pick up Mike. He seems to think I am gay for some reason. Mainly because I am playing in a gay softball league. I keep side-stepping the question. Only one person in my class from high school knows and I want to leave it that way for now. I don’t think there would be real harm in him knowing, but I still don’t want him to know.

So when I picked him up he said “okay… now come clean.” After side-stepping the question we headed for Woodland Park. At practice Mike did really well, and he showed the coaches that he would be too highly rated to play on the team. So he would not be able to play with us.

I took him home and then I went home myself. I chatted with Ryan about the Mariners big ten to two victory and we also talked about CSI that I has missed. I did not get home until close to eleven o’clock PM. I watched the news and the Simpsons before finding my way to bed.

Trucking along

Today the table is completed and I was able to test it. But before I could test it I had to figure out why my XPA application was not working. I put a stop in the ASP code and stepped through it. It took just under an hour to finally step through all of it. It was long. I did not see why it was happening at first. Then later on I got an idea to search for the error message text.

When I found it I saw where the problem was happening. So I put a stop in there. I stepped through it and read what was going on with a watch. There was a problem with an Extended Stored procedure. I got that taken care of and then it was working. I ran a test and my new table was working. The problem I was now having is I needed to get the Fannie Mae Case File ID to get updated upon return. So I had to figure out where that was coming from. That was a long process. I had to go through a few components before I found it.

I traced it to a stored procedure. I put some code into that SP and it should save the data, but I need to test it. To test it I need to be able to see the outside world with my box. The guy who I need to do that was gone for the day. That was okay because it was about six pm. So I left to go home myself.

At lunch today I found out that Terry would be leaving the role as CTO and going to architect. He will be working from home from now on. We were going to have a pizza meeting at work to discuss that with the company. We will hire someone to replace Terry. I hope whomever we get will let me start to work from Pullman. That should be soon. *crosses fingers*.

Terry and I threw the baseball around a little bit while we were waiting for the pizza to come. I was okayed to work from Pullman all next week. I am stoked about that. I hope that I can show that I can work from home just fine and they will allow me to do so in the future.

I went home and we had pizza there for dinner. It was good. After dinner I worked on the FootballPA for a bit. I was trying to implement some of the ideas I got from the game while I was using. One is for a tab-like button to move from field to field using a key on the ten-key. That way I can do it all with one hand. I also wanted the text to be high-lighted when entering the field if there was text in it, so I would not have to delete text. Lastly, I wanted to add something that would allow the cursor to start in the field of the team that was on offense. I got the code for the highlighting online. Jon sent me the code for the tab-like workings. But I could not get them to actually work.

I wanted SouthPark before going to my room and getting ready to go to sleep. I was really tired.

Getting some places

I got a fair amount of stuff figured out with the problem of the XPA application. We need to store the data in a new table and then it can be kept as a historic look at the data that was entered when the pre-approval letter was given. The problem is now that when the application changes the letter goes away and we want it to stay, but with the old data. I could stop the letter from going away, however, the data could be changed when the application changes.

So it did require the new table. I got that figured out. Then I started to look for the place the data was actually stored into the database from the XPA application. It took a while to sort through all our stuff to find it. When I finally came across it, I was ready to go home. So I marked my place and took off.

At home after dinner I watched House. They have a new character on the show I do not like to much. He takes away from the show. So, I think I will be happy to see him go. I looked at some stuff online and according to what I found he will be off the show pretty soon.

A new project

With the new week I now have a new project that I am working on. It is one that I spent most of the day trying to run down and figure out how the thing works. It was slow going at first as it always is when I first get going on something.

On my way home I called Mike about playing softball on the Maulers team. He asked if I was gay. Because he does not understand why I would keep playing in the league. I side-stepped the question. Only Matt from my high school friends knows I am gay, and I will leave it like that for a while.

I told him that I want to play softball and if he can find me another team I will play on it, but until then I am going to play ball with these guys. I talked him into coming out and practicing with us. I hope that he will work out.

I got home and worked on a problem with the credit cards on the Janders site. It is not taking payments like that. I am not sure why it popped up, but there was a problem with the SQL statement. There were also some other problems that related to that elsewhere. I spent a while trying to run down all the problems. Finally I was able to figure them all out. For a while I was getting mad because I could not get it working correctly.

Regular Season games

After waking up I was having a hard time walking because of golfing yesterday. But after a while it warmed up and life was good.

I went to the fire station and talked with Carl a little bit. The people showed up for the Hazmat class. I took off and went home. I watched some TV and relaxed waiting for game time.

Once it got close to five o’clock pm I got my uniform on and then headed to Pullman. I got the fields and waited for the others to show up. We had two games today. But we were informed that one team did not show up. So we were going to get a forfeit. We played the first game and we could not get a rally going. I had the best hitters at the top of the order and no one was hitting. So we lost four to two. We turned in some great defense. We had a double play that went five-four-two. Then we had back-to-back-to-back six-five plays that stopped runs from scoring. But we still ended up losing.

Then the second game was a forfeit like we had been told. The Longballs had a forfeit as well. We played a scrimmage game against them. We took them deep twice and held them to one long ball. We beat them four to two. It was funny because we always beat them in games that don’t matter and lose when it does matter.

I went home and got some dinner. I watched TV before going to bed hours after I really wanted to. I was mad at myself.

Mad Cow without the disease

This morning started off with meeting Ben at the Colfax Golf course for a golf tournament. It is a scramble and I am playing on Ben’s team. I am not that good and he is really good, so I am surprised he asked me to play. I feel bad for the other guys on the team. I hope that I do not hold them back.

Ryan from the softball team and a guy named Mike were the teammates. We started on the sixth hole. The problem is that we had to use four drives from each person on the eighteen holes. I don’t have a great drive so I was hoping to do well on the short holes so the team would not be handicapped by my short drives. We used one of my drives on the first eleven holes. So on the final seven we had to use three of mine. I was worried about it. But it turned out I had two great drives in a row. I had a two-hundred and twenty-five yard drive followed by a two-hundred-fifteen yard drive. On one short Par four Ben drive to the green in one. We were about twenty feet or so out. I took the first put and sank it for the Eagle! I was really happy about that.

Ben, Scotty, Mike, Ryan

We ended with a four under and ended up in fifth place. Last time Ben’s team took first place. But I don’t think I really handicapped the team that much at all. We won some prizes. I got a three pack of golf balls.

Colfax Police Officer Nebe and the Steer

While we were on the course around the second hole I looked over and a steer was running on the course. Ben got some pics. It was running around and Bryce from Colfax PD tried to get it back to the slaughter house. The steer had nothing to do with that and ran across the course and across a green leaving hoof prints all the way across it. When we got to the seventh hole we heard a gunshot come from the neighborhood to the South. A tiny bit later we saw the steer run back really close to the ninth hole that we were on. It was bleeding and pretty mad at that time. It ran past the ball that Mike drove on the ninth hole and got some blood on the ball.

Mike with the blood red ball

Finally it made its way back to the slaughter house and Scott from Colfax fire was asked to come down and finish it off. With one shot between the eyes it was dropped.

I went home and grabbed my computer and stuff for the football game. I called Ryan twice and left messages. He never answered his phone nor returned my messages. I am disappointed that Ryan is not willing to help me when I need him.

I made my way to the Kibbie Dome. After the eighteen holes of golf my ankle was really sore. I was hobbling everywhere. I got my computer set up and got the final touches on the teams’ roster text files. I got the script for the game. I was going to have to do it on my own today again. But I am hoping with my FootballPA application that I will be able to do it.

Brian’s, the teams’ PR guy, brother was going to ask his girlfriend to marry her at half time. We set up a screen to read out “Lisa, will you marry me?” At half time I made an announcement that there was a special message on the screen. I never heard what the answer was because Brian’s brother never showed back up to the stats booth where he did stats. So I am not sure if things went well. I am sort of thinking they did not go well.

I was able, with the help of the FootballPA do the game by myself. For the most part I was able to keep up with things and did a good job I believe. I made notes of things I would like to change about it to make it easier to use for the next time.

After the game I got some dinner and drove to Colfax. I dropped some stuff off at the coroner’s office and then went to control and talked to the guys up there for a tiny bit. I was tired so I went home and watched some TV before falling asleep.

Two movie night

On my way into work I was thinking about the FootballPA application I created. I was thinking about a way of making it work a little better. When the players’ numbers are entered it would display the players’ names and also clear out the entry box as well as put focus back on the first box. That was the clear button would not have to be clicked between plays. When the next numbers were entered it would clear out the output boxes before displaying the new information.

Following that I went to lunch with Ricky. We got some subs. I went back and started to chow on it. That I realized it was mom’s weekend. That means the roads will be filled with slow moving cars. It was not too bad until I was around mile post eighty. Then it started to get thick. I was able to pass the cars pretty easily. I finally arrived in town and then headed to Pullman. Ryan and I were going to see Sahara. They were talking with Steve Zahn on K-Rock this morning about the movie. It turned out to be a good movie. There is a lot of room for a sequel to this one. I asked Ryan if he got my message about helping me at the football game. I still had not been able to find anyone. The reason Ryan doesn’t want to do it is because he does not think he will have fun. He does not see it as helping a friend in need. It is about him.

After the movie I saw a couple Pullman Fire Reserves and a Colfax Volunteer going to see the same movie. Ryan and I went to get a pizza and then to his place. He rented National Lampoon’s Golddiggers. That had a few laughs but over all was a painful movie to watch. Following the movie I headed home.

Football PA

I started out with an idea and by the time I went to bed it was a version one-point-oh really. The idea was to have a computer application that I could type in the numbers of a football player or players into a home team and away team text box. It would then print out the names of the players I needed to read off. It would give their number, name, and phonetic pronunciation if it is a hard one. This will make it easier for me rather than looking up numbers on two lists, trying not to lose my place and announce them. Now it will all be in one place.

I was last thinking of added a little yardage calculator that I could use to type in where a play started and ended for long plays and it will quickly tell me the yardage. It would have a button that would tell the computer the user crossed the fifty-yard-line. That will be an upgrade.

So far what I have is the simple form and a simple way of running it. It will read in text files, but they have to be formatted just right. I thought about using XML but I figured it would be easier to work with text files rather than XML because they are being built by hand. Maybe a future improvement will allow a copy and paste from something like an Excel spreadsheet that will have all the data there and then simply save as a text file. Then it would format the textfile for me. One other nice thing would be to read in a file and tell it to print it out on a legal size sheet of paper so I always have a paper backup just in case something goes down on the computer.

So when I got home from work Jon helped me out with some things to tie together the loose ends. It is working and ready for use this Saturday. I hope it will work like I want it to.

I may have to go and get a ten-key add on for the laptop or I may bring a normal size keyboard so I can more quickly type in the numbers. I choose to use the period as the number separator because the period is on the ten-keypad if that is the way I go, so I can do the whole entry and read out with one hand.

More of Janders

I spent some time chatting with Joe online today. The plan after work was to go to Microsoft and listen to a talk on best practices. It turned out to be more or less a waste of time. I did not walk out of there knowing anything of importance.

Then I went home and worked on the Janders Electronics website. There were some changed Joe wanted to have implemented. I got those taken care of.

Finally I watched SouthPark and watched the boys trying to lose at baseball because they did not want to play. But the other teams were in the same boat. And the other teams were better at losing that SouthParks’ team.

Coaching little league baseball

I got the LPX XML validator working correctly, so I started in on the console application that will check the date on a file and E-mail our network admin if it is wrong. I got most of it written, but at four o’clock PM I had to head out for a baseball game.

I went to the baseball field. I helped to line the field first. Then I worked with the boys. I did grounders to the second baseman who would throw it to first. But these are all first graders so it is pretty hard to keep their attention. Like Jon said it is like herding cats.

The game started and I hung out in the outfield helping the kids stay focused and telling them where to throw the ball when a play happened. I also played first base coach. It is funny these kids have such a different level of experience and ability.

When the game was complete I went home and got some dinner. I watched House and I tried to watch Deadwood, but I was so tired I kept dozing off. I finally decided to call it a night and went to bed.

Mariner’s Opening Day 2005

I woke up before five o’clock am today so I could get a few things completed before Ryan and I were to meet up at Rosauers. I went to the coroners office and checked out the new computer in the coroners office. It is a four-hundred MHz system. Pete wanted me to see if it would work for what we need. It needs a CD-burner and a card reader but it should do okay. It is maxed out with two-hundred-and-fifty-six meg of RAM. So it is slow, but for what we need to do that should be okay.

I went to Rosauers and I was ahead of schedule so I got an omelet for breakfast. Ryan showed up and he grabbed a donut. I ate and then we headed out. I had my personal radios so we could talk. He kept up with me just fine. We cruised across the state talking about everything.

When we got into Bellevue he followed me to my work. I made him instructions on how to get back. He was going to meet me at noon for the Mariners game. Terry gave me permission to skip a meeting so I could hit the game. I spent some time at my desk working until a little after noon. Ryan showed up and we headed out. I was in my truck and he drove his car. We planned on going to the Bellevue Park and Ride and going from there. But it was packed so we went to the Factoria Mall. I parked my truck and got in with Ryan. There was a lot of traffic on I-ninety when we got close to the field so we went South on I-five. But it was not much better on the surface streets.

Finally after finding no free parking and no place to park for pay, we drove to the Seahawk Stadium parking garage. We parked there and got inside about ten minutes before game time. We missed the Presidents of the USA concert, but we did see the salute to the ninety-five season and we saw Edgar throw out the first pitch. In the first inning Sexson hit a three-run homerun. In the third he hit a two run homerun. That was all the Mariners scored. Jamie Moyer pitched really well and got the win. The Mariners beat the Twins five to one.

Then we left and got a polish sausage for each of us. They were pretty spicy. When we got back to Ryan’s car at the top of the parking garage we sat there for a while. Ryan talked on the phone and I took two more pictures. I had a water. We thought about waiting for the traffic to settle down but I said we would be better off going. I expected to sit for an hour to get out. It only took about fifteen minutes. Then we got on I-ninety and cruised to the Factoria Mall. I got my truck and headed home. Ryan called and said his parents wanted me to go to dinner with them. But they were eating back at Factoria and they were all there. I said that I was pretty much home and my parents were expecting me for dinner there.

Before the game Boone was given his Gold Glove Award.

Edgar throws out the first pitch. It was a little outside.

The final score of the first Mariners win in 2005.

Intramural’s week two

I was woken up to a EMS call. I rushed to the station and made the call. It was a lady who was sick. After the call I hung out at the station. I talked with Carl and watched some TV. I was going to hang around to see if any more calls would come out. I was getting tired so I went home and I planned on taking a nap.

When I got there I found out I was supposed to be on call for the coroners office. I didn’t think I was on call today. So I called Pete and let him know I was around and available. I then went to my bed to take a nap. I slept for about an hour when Pete called.

There was a death at the hospital. I called the Colfax hospital and found out the details. It sounded like a case we would turn down because the doctor would sign off on the death. I was happy because it was getting close to game time. I went back to sleep.

My alarm clock sounded and I drove to Pullman for the games. The weather was better. We started by playing the Longballs. We lost two to fifteen. We did not make it through the order twice. I only had one at bat and it was an out.

We went to the next field and did some BP and infield practice. Then the second game started. I pitched the first one so I let Dave pitch the second game. It was a closer game but we still lost. Three to four. So we have to win one of the two games next week to make the play offs. I again went oh-for.

I grabbed some dinner and went home. I watched the Simpsons and the Sketch Show then I went to bed. I had to get up early and get some stuff done before I left Colfax.

Thunder Home Opener

This morning I was woken up by my pager, but I never heard the call out. I missed the call. I went to the station anyway and hung out for a few hours. Ken and I talked about religion and watched a movie call the Doctor. Then I called Reggie because I had not heard from him. He flaked out on me and now I don’t have a spotter. So I started to call everyone in my phone book to see if I could find someone. I could not. As a last resort I called Ryan hoping he would help me out in my time of need. He did not.

I stopped at Big-Five and got some binoculars to use at the game. I drove to the stadium. I met up with Brian. I got the team roster and I got the other teams’ roster. I started to get their names written down if they were hard to pronounce. Several players said hello and shook my hand. It was good to see people. I went into my booth and set up my stuff.

I had a real hard time at first trying to say the offense and defense players when they made the play plus all the announcements. Finally I decided that I would only do defense if it was quick and easy. Other than that I only announced the offense. I think I started to better after that. I still made a few errors with saying things. I got tongue tied at times. But over all I think I did an okay job.

After the game Jerry said he wanted me to be a lot more one-sided in my announcements. He pretty much wants me to be a cheerleader and get people to make noise on third down and other things. I am not sure that it is right, but he is the team owner so I will do so.

After the game I went home. Then I stopped at the jail. I hung out there most of the evening. Ryan tried to call about eight times. I did not answer the phone. I just let it go to voice mail. The last time he tried was about one am. I was not much in the mood to talk with him.

A day of Jokes

I was thinking about going down the the radio station (K-Rock) and trying out for the Jerry Seinfeld show. I did not do it though. I got up a little later than I wanted and headed into work the new way, going through Issaquah. I don’t know if it is any faster, but there is a lot less stops. So gas mileage should be better.

I went to work for a while but I wanted to get going because I was going to meet up with Ben and we were going to watch Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle. I was excited to hang out with Ben again. Before I left work I saw a cake in the kitchen. It said to cut a piece. I started to and saw that it was an April Fools joke. It was a box with frosting on it.

Then I posted on G-Shack that it was going to go offline forever at the end of the month. Many people were fooled by it. It was funny. I also posted on Cougster.com that WSU sold the rights to Tully’s coffee to put a big green T on the top of Bryan Tower.

I helped him set up his new computer with his E-mail and other files from his old laptop. I also brought over my external drive. I gave him all my MPThrees. I also gave him a few other things from it. We watched an old episode of South Park. Then we watched our movie. Ben made me a couple DVD’s using his new burner. He gave me Caddyshack.

I had a good time hanging out with Ben. He is a super nice guy and a ten-six-seven.

Not working on anything

So I am still in a holding patter at work. Just waiting for stuff to come down the pipeline. I spent most of the day just doing stuff on the Nadirs’ website.

My dad’s stuff

I got the records page completed. I also updated the rest of the site with the new records page replacing the standing page I was never able to properly keep up with. The site is new and cruising along.

Jon came over with stuff for my mom because of her birthday yesterday. He also brought over the stuff that my Aunt Karen brought to us that had belonged to my dad. It included his first wedding ring. He was married for about a year. The women he had married moved to California and was murdered down there by her new boyfriend.

There was also his old grade school report cards. Some of his books. It has some pictures. There was a photocopy of a letter he wrote while in the military. There was also some funeral programs for a couple guys who were my dad’s age who died in a car accident on December seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-seven. My dad was in the car as well. Two guys died. My mom told me one guy who died was alive at first and he had a hole in his lung and when he would breath blood was coming out his mouth. Sounded very violent.

I watched SouthPark and they did an episode that was a commentary on the Terri Schiavo case. It was an interesting take that they had on it. Kenny was Terri and Cartman was Michael.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom’s birthday. I got her a card when I came home from the office. I spent the day today doing more work on the website for my softball team. I even put together a “records” page with the old era records and new era records. With the change in style of doing stats I figured it would be unfair to have stats that covered everything because in the past we use to count anything that got you on base as a basehit, even if it was really a fielders choice or an error. The old batting averages were artificially high because of that. So were other stats.

I got home with the card for my mom around eight pm. We had dinner then I went to my room and talked to Ben and Ryan on the phone. We talked about softball and I asked Ben if he wanted to watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. He said he did. So we will do that on Friday.

I watched some TV and then got on the computer and checked my E-mail and a couple message boards before finding my way to sleep.

Short work day

I got to work around ten-thirty am because I got a late start from Colfax. I hung around work doing work on the Nadirs website. Around three-thirty I talked to Terry. He said I could cut loose and go home. So I headed home and that was it for work.

I sat around the house and just relaxed. I did not have anything going on at all. It was nice to just sit around and do nothing.

Softball Season is GAME ON!!!

What excitement is hovering over me. Today is the first softball games of the season. It has been raining all weekend and I am slightly concerned that they will be cancelled, but the IM’s hardly ever get cancelled.

We had a practice at noon at the Valley Road Playfields. Everyone except Mark showed up. We practiced for about one hour. I gave everyone some BP. I watched the new guy do some pitching. Some of the new guys look good.

After practice Ryan and I went to Cougar Country for dinner. Then I decided to go to Moscow to get some new plastic spikes for my cleats. But the mall was closed. I went to Tri-State. They did not have any, but I got some batting gloves for the cold weather. It stings my hands when it is cold. I also got a new thirty dollar bat to use for cold weather. I figured I would not mind if it got ruined. It is a twenty-six ounce thirty-four inch bat.

I went to my office and went to sleep for a while. I was really tired. I did not get a lot of sleep. When it was getting closer to game time I got ready and headed to the Valley Road Playfields. I waited until some other people got there. I met up with other players on the team and we headed to our field. We played our first game. It was so wet it was crazy.

Phil was not going to be there for the whole game so I volunteered to sit on the bench and replace Phil when he had to leave. We were playing Below Me. They are a good team. They only had eight guys. We beat them sixteen to nine. I have the stats from the game on the website http://www.softballteams.org/nadirs. I got in and played catcher when Phil left. I had one at bat and it was a single. So I am batting a thousand for the season so far. The second game was a FFT by the other team. We we are two and oh. With one more win we go to the playoffs for the first time in about two seasons.

Following the games I went to Cougar Country. I got some hamburgers and went home. I watched some TV before going to bed. I had to get up and travel to Seattle tomorrow so I need to get some rest.

All day with Ryno!

With my alarm clock buzzing I got up and headed to the coroners office for the meeting. We went over the last few cases and we looked over the autopsy shots from the murder that happened a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see the bullet path and the damage to the brain.
Following the meeting I went into the SO and printed off a few things for my softball team and checked my E-mail. The plan for the day was to hang out with Peter like we had planned. I called him around noon and let him know I was free and to give me a call when he was available. I sat around the house for a while relaxing.

Then I decided to go to my office and get some stuff on the computer done. I had a few thousand E-mail messages I had to sort. I spent a lot of time doing that. I hate paying first step internet for spam service and still getting as much spam as I do. It is horrible.

It was getting later. I was going to get a pizza from Little Caesars. When I was there I called Ryan. He said he was at Blockbuster. So I went in there and found him. We rented a movie called Blackball. It was about a young guy who breaks into the British Bowls scene that is dominated by old high-class people. It is by National Lampoon. It was okay, but I understand why it never had a huge following. Ryan has a membership at Blockbuster where he can rent as many movies as he wants for a flat fee.

We went back to Blockbuster and got Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. I also bought a couple movies that were on sale. I got Saw, Anchoman, and two other movies. We grabbed a pizza from Little Caesars this time through. I was still waiting for a call from Peter but none were coming and by now it was after five pm.

We started to watch Harold and Kumar when I got a call from Ben. He was going to have a poker game and wanted to know if Ryan and I wanted to come. I did but Ryan didn’t. I didn’t want to leave Ryan, but I wanted to go. I tried to get him to go but he was refusing. He is like a bump on the log. If he does not *think* he will have fun he will not do it. It limits some of the things we can do together. So after much coaxing I got him to go. I was surprised because normally he will not change his mind about that stuff.

So we stopped the movie where it was and went to Bens. We were only going to be there for a couple hours. It turned into about four hours. We started by playing tournament style Texas Hold’em. Then when enough people were eliminated we played Apples to Apples. It is a real fun card game I had never heard of until tonight. Ben also got Ryan and I in the helmet club. When I get a copy of the pic I will post it. It is terrible!

After the tournament was over we started to play four-five-six. I played that for a few hours. Everyone was really liking the game. At one point Ben was up more then twenty bucks. I did a twenty dollar bet. Ben “aced-away”. His girlfriend got really mad. We joked about Ben sleeping on the couch because of that.

Later on Ryan and I left and finished watching Harold and Kumar. I laughed a whole bunch more. I took off after the movie and went home. I watched TV for a while before finally finding my way to bed.

As it turns out Peter never called. I am glad I did not sit around waiting for him to call me. It seems that he is really flaky. I am not sure what the issue is with him, but I have to believe there is still something there.

Happy Birthday Nick!

I had big plans for the day. I was going to get a new battery in my truck. I was going to drive the Bumblebee around. I was going to get my trucks’ license renewed. I was going to work at the jail. Then I was going to go to Nick’s surprise birthday party. Well that was all dashed when I woke up a few hours later than I had planned. I set the alarm clock, but did not turn it on.

So I got up and went straight to the jail. I got lunch at Bulldog Pizza on the way. I mainly stayed in control the whole time and then I helped the captain with a computer problem at his house. I had him buy some new equipment for his computer. So I will be installing that stuff for him one of my next trips into town. I went to the auditors office and got new tabs for my truck. While at the jail Sgt Poffenroth asked if she was the only who did not know that John (name changed) was gay. She said that she was really surprised. She said that she had no clue but it was clear that everyone else seemed to know. I played dumb with her and tried to get more information about how she had heard about it. She said everyone knew. One day the topic came up and when she found out, everyone else in the room was shocked that she did not know. I told her that it was just rumors. I said that he had said in the past it was not true. I asked what evidence others had, if John had told them. She said it was the other officers figured it out because of the guy John was always with and whatnot. Then I went home and got ready for Nick’s surprise party. I got Ryan and we drove to Russell’s place.

We were the first there. So we went inside and waited for Russell to show up. When he got there I helped him get a few things set up. Then he went to get Nick and took him out to Dairy Queen for dinner. Everyone else was gathering for the party. When they finally showed up, everyone yelled Happy Birthday. Nick was really surprised. He was happy and had a good time. He did not know we were doing that.

The people at the party were on the left side of the isle politically. So I was the only conservative there. A few of the people were on cougster.com. We talked about the WalMart thing and joked around a little bit. Ryan and I left to get some dinner at Taco Bell in Moscow. The others were planning on going to the Show in Moscow.

Ryan and I went to his apartment. We ate and then played Madden Football. I threw for almost eight-hundred yards of passing. My team is currently undefeated. It is going well. I also spent time when I was not playing trying to get Ryan’s computer cleaned of spyware and viruses.

An Evening with the Peterman

At work today I spent most of it helping to clean a computer of spyware. It was so bad it would not get on the network at all. It was really slow. It was in bad shape. But I used my magic fingers to type in the address of the spyware applications I like the best and I get the computer responding and working like a champ. The coroners meeting for tonight was cancelled but I planned on going over anyway because Peter and I had plans on hanging out.

I did not have to be in a huge hurry so I left work after I got the computer taken care of. I got some lunch and I got some chew. It was my first dip in a week. I hit the road and the traveling was pretty tame. I made good time and I got to my house a little after six pm. I hung out at home for a while watching some TV. Peter and I had planned on meeting sometime after nine, but I was free earlier. So I called him and he said he was doing something on the computer but would be done in about an hour. So I drove to Pullman and got some dinner and stopped at my office. I did some stuff on the computer and waited for Peter’s call.

Around eight he called me and I went over there. We started to talk about the small stuff. What each other has been up to and all that crap. Then we started to talk about his project that he is doing and presenting. He is interested in seeing what I can do or offer for the business plan. We talked about the business plan in depth and we talked about programming in general.

At one point I had his cell phone and took a few pics with it. He has it set up with my first name. But I never go by my first name with him. I have no idea why he set it up like that. So I was going to change the name to Scotty Walkin like Ryan’s phone is set up. As I was trying to do it he wanted to see what I was doing with it. He was wrestling me for the phone just like we did back in the day. It was always fun to wrestle like that with him. Finally I got done with the phone what I wanted so I gave it to him.

He looked at it and asked where the name Scotty Walkin came from. I said Little Ceasars. He thought the back story was lacking. We started to laugh then I told him it was the name they had on the pizza receipt one day when I got a pizza that was carry-out.

I hung out for several hours with him. We watched SouthPark and the Jeff Foxworthy Roast as well and just talking about everything under the sun. I still have not asked the question that I want to know the answer to, but that will come someday. He said he puts a lot of trust into me. He knows that I am trustworthy and he values that. So I hope that someday he will admit to me what the issue was. He admitted to me that he was an “asshole” to me and was sorry for being that way to me. There is still some tension between us and I don’t know if it will ever go away. Maybe I would feel more at ease around him if he were to tell me what the issue was.

At the end of the night we decided that we would get together on Saturday and watch Saw and do stuff.

T-Ball Practice with Justin

Jon is down in Arizona for the Mariners Spring Training. I was asked to take Justin to his practice because Lisa would be taking Logan to his practice. I got off work a little early and drove to Jon’s to get Justin.

We started to go to the field and I asked Justin if he knew where we were going. He said he did not. So I said, let’s drive around until we find it. He said okay. So I went to where it was. And then he got all excited. He said we were in the right spot. Then we got his stuff from the truck and he hurried to the field because he thought we were late. We were the first ones there. I threw the ball with him for a while. Well it was more like ran after the ball when he threw it and rolled it back to him. Then the practice started. That takes a lot of talent to work with a bunch of five-year-old kids with an attention span of about thirty seconds.

Follow practice I took Justin home and waited for Lisa. Justin and I played a Scooby Doo video game while we waited. When Lisa got home she fixed pizza for us. Justin, Logan, and I played some board games. The last game we played was sorry. I lost to Logan on it. I think he played with some rules that were not regulation, but that was house rules, I guess.

I headed home after that. I watched my CSI TV shows. I decided to go to bed earlier than normal because I wanted to try to get a decent night’s sleep.

Can’t eat vinegar

Went to lunch with Jon and Jim today. They are heading off to Arizona tonight. I got my normal BBQ diplet from the Three-Pigs. As I tried to eat the BBQ sauce it had a horrible taste. But it was not the BBQ sauce it was the way my nose and tastebuds were reacting to my meds and my sickness. I am pretty sure it was the vinegar because that was sticking out in a major way. It almost made me sick just to smell it.

Then at home when I was trying to eat dinner. I was using ketchup. The same thing was happening. I don’t know when that will go away. But it was not like that on Saturday night when I went out for the hamburger in Bellingham.

More than sick?

Well I talked to Pete on the phone about the Coroners meeting on Thursday and I was telling him about my cold and the symptoms. He said that it sounded like the flu his wife just had. It is a different kind of flu. He said in her it turned into pneumonia quickly. So I looked up the symptoms of pneumonia. Several were similar to what I had, but the one that stuck out was the singular or multiple episodes of teeth-chattering-shivering and feeling cold. I had that on the night I started to feel sick. So I think I could have or do have pneumonia. I don’t know if that is totally correct, but that one symptom seems to go well with the other symptoms.

Terri Schiavo is not a vegetable

Why is it that many people are trying to say that to take Terri Schiavo off a feeding tube or not is a private matter and now that the federal government passed a bill there is doubt whether other private matters will remain private?

This case is not like many others that people are trying to say it is like. Dori Monson, a right-wing talk show host from KIRO-Radio in Seattle claims that no one was fighting for his relative in the final months of the disease that took her life. He said it was a private family issue and he is glad the government did not interfere. The difference that Dori is overlooking includes the fact that his relative was in a terminal illness and even with machine would die in short order. Dori is also ignoring the fact that in Schiavo’s case you have a public issue. It has been in the courts for years and there are questions whether justice is being served. In Dori’s relatives’ case there was a choice for no machines. So there was no argument, there were no issues. In Schiavo’s case there was no living will. There is a husband who claims she said she does not want to live that way, but there is also an affidavit from a former co-worker of Schiavo where she made a statement about someone else being taken off of life support and how the person should not have been taken off of it. Leading people to believe that maybe she was not against life support.

Many people are trying to compare apples and oranges in this case. In most cases the family makes a joint decision or there is a living will that states the person’s wishes. Schiavo’s case is different.

In this case you have her parents who say she is responding and there is hope. You have a husband who claims she wished not to live this way and is only trying to follow her wishes. In my view it is not in writing so it did not happen. I say that because we are talking about a life and death issue and we should err on the side of life if there is nothing in writing. Maybe the day Schiavo told her husband that she did not want to live on machines was an anomaly and she would actually prefer to be given every chance. I think the lower courts have made some presumptions that I would hate for someone to make on my behalf. Also, I could not imagine how hard it would be for the parents who want to give Schiavo every chance to rehabilitate. I think of the situation of Nick Berg. He was decapitated in Iraq. His parents were helpless as someone else made decisions about his life and his parents were only able to sit by and watch him die. Schiavo’s parents can see their daughter, hold her, feel her, and are able to do something to stop her from dying, but the court said no, she will die. That would just eat me up inside.

I spent some time at http://www.terrisfight.net and watched some of the videos. This was after listening to a Nobel Prize-nominated doctor in the field of head injuries. He spent more than ten hours with Schiavo and said she can be rehabilitated. That she can swallow and eat. That she could watch movies and interact with people. But she has been held back by her husband who has not allowed those things to happen. The doctor spoke of things she was doing I had no clue she was doing. I have always thought she was a “vegetable” just lying in bed doing nothing at all. That is far from the truth. Now more than ever I think that if she dies it will not be a nice thing for her finally, instead that it will be a tragic situation where a life was cut short. There is no reason she should die right now. She needs to be given to the custody of her parents who will work with her and rehabilitate her.

Happy Birthday Wenis

I feel a little worse today than I did yesterday. I am still not getting good sleep, but I don’t seem to be too tired. I am coughing a lot but I am not getting the phlegm out so when I breathe deep it sounds like gurgling. Yes, this is quite nasty, isn’t it? One of the worst things is my nose is either really stuffy and I cannot breathe through it or I use some meds to reduce the stuffiness, but that dries it up so much that the cold dry air going through my nose causes a stinging-like feeling each time I breathe in. Yeah, it sucks to be sick. I have not been sick like this for a long time.

I went to he store to get some NyQuil because I figured that I would use it to help me get a good nights sleep. While at the store I saw Gary’s mom, Natalie. It was great to see her. We hugged and then talked for a few minutes.

I went home and checked on the webcam that is monitoring the backyard. I still have to work on getting the settings so it only records when major movement happens. It seemed to be hit off by anything last time. It actually filled up the hard drive with twenty-second videos.

I came inside and I talked to Ryan on the phone for a little while about my ride along from last night. I also called Richard and wished him a happy birthday. He sort of sounded like he was wondering why in the heck I would be calling him. Oh well, I wished him a happy birthday all the same.

I had dinner and did the dishes and rushed to my room to watch my normal Sunday night TV shows. I also spent some time talking to Peter online. After my shows were over with I took my NyQuil and went fast to sleep.

Riding with Joe — Again

I planned on sleeping in as much as I could so I would not be tired tonight. I stayed up until four o’clock am. But duing my sleep I found myself waking up every few hours. I was not sleeping well.

I pretty much sat around the house watching TV and doing stuff on the computer while waiting to find out if Joe would be working tonight or if he would be sick again. He said we would be working. So I left around three o’clock pm. I got some corndogs and cough medicine from Safeway.

I hit the road and was cruising along. There was a slow down around Everett. But it got cruising again. I was talking to Ryan about a lot of things. We spoke about the basketball tournament mostly. He was telling me about yet another of my teams losing.

About ten miles outside of Bellingham there was a slow down. I thought it was a traffic jam. It turns out some small convertible rolled over on the right shoulder. People were stopping to help. About ten people had stopped. I kept going because there were so many people there and I was in the wrong lane to stop quickly.

I got into Bellingham and drove to Joe’s house. He just bought a new house. It is three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. It is a pretty nice house. He got a call from John, another deputy, about going out to dinner. So we drove to downtown Bellingham and got a hamburger at this bar and grill. It was good food.

Then we went back to Joe’s. I set him up with FTP access to the website so he could move over pics and PDF files. He got ready to work and I got one more shot of medicine taken before we headed out.

The night was pretty uneventful. It was really windy and that caused many alarms to sound, most likely due to poorly shut doors blowing open in the strong wind. We also helped a local city PD arrest a guy for domestic violence. I also told Joe the Green Golf Balls story. He was not impressed and vowed to get me back.

One of the things Joe loved to do was get me on a road and ask what direction I thought we were heading. Most of the time I was off by one-hundred and eighty degrees. So I would say East and we were going West, etc. He got a kick out of how backwards I was.

He also drove me to the boarder and I got to see it. It was seriously a ditch. There was a residentail two-lane road on the American side and the same thing on the Canadian side. There was about a eight to ten foot grassy area and a ditch that was about two to three feet deep. It is funny was separates American and Canada. I could litterally get out of the car and walk into Canada with nothing but a three foot deep ditch to go through.

At about two-thirty we were close to Joe’s place and I was planning on calling it a night at three so he headed to his house and dropped me off. I drove home as quick as I could because I was getting tired and I wanted to get to bed.