Swimming in Dividends

Well, today I spent 8 hours comparing the U.K. dividends at work again.  seems to be a lot of what I am doing. sheesh.  tomorrow I am going to write a program to automatically compare them for me.  I'm standing on a 47% match rate right now.    only about 53 more to go or I'll just need to let them know, they won't match.   oh well..

 

Got home and Nate was his unusual grumpy self.     I tried to help as much as I could.  I got to feed him tonight.  that is always cool.   he went down with not much problem again tonight.

 

Did another workout tonight.  Lynn came down with me to read her new Farm and Ranch magazine.  she made a comment that I seem to be working my arms a lot.   Shah.    I am...

 

Well, I am pretty tired right now.  Think I'll put in a couple minutes playing Baldur's Gate and then turn in. 

 

Later,

Review: H.S.A.'s

No, not Health Saving Accounts.... Husband Sitting Area's.   WEnt with Lynn to the mall today cause she was shopping for shirts.  Here's my findings:

 

1. Eddie Bauer - Not just a women's store, so there is no HSA, although there are some normal chairs in the back for you to sit in.
2. Famous - No chairs here either.
3. J. Jill. had some chairs, nothing extravegant.
4. Coldwater Creek.  had some nice leather chairs, but they were already taken up by some ladies, so I had to sit on the shoe bench.   had nice chairs, no magazines though.
5. Christopher & Banks - didnt' think they had a place until I found a chair put in a corner with three mirrored walls?   Not excactly a good place to sit.
6. Peas in a Pod and etc.  - this was a three stores in one place, it actually had a decent area, with love seat and two oversized chairs.   Reading material was restricted to "rizty" travel magazines..   Yeah, like I'm ever going there....

well, that is all for now.   Lynn is craving pizza tonight so I thought we might try out Fortel's Pizza Den.  Also trying to rebuild my old computer.  thougth I might use it as a good backup util and a gaming machine.  try to keep the new one kind of cleaned up...

 

Later,

It's finally Friday!

Well, not much happening.  went in to work at 6 this mornig to monitor a change i had go in.  non-event.

 

got home at 3.    Played with Nate a little bit.  He's such a cutey.    Lynn went to the mall at 8:30 and left me alone with him going to bed and he went down at 9:00.    good boy!

 

Lynn didn't find anything.  I went down and worked out, not my best so far, but I did a few bench presses and some bicep training.     Also worked my calves more.   HOpefully I can be up early to go to the Y tomorrow before 7 so I can get back b4 8:30 so Lynn can go to her Bible study and Me and Nate can have the morning to ourselves....

 

Well, gotta go to bed.

 

Later,

Stupid DASD

So, today at work, around 9:30 the DASD decided to conk out.  So pretty much the mainframe died.   Didn't affect us too much, just needed to keep an eye on it to be sure that everything was okay.

 

Not much else happened today.. I made a video with Nate, but I didn't like it as much as I thougth I would.  I need to work on the lighting and try again.  It's funny though.  I'll have to find a few props to make it more authentic.  Him in his Rams outfit doesn't quite cut it....

 

Got my Getting Stronger book from Ebay today. I had had it from the library, but it had such good info, I thought I might get it permantly.  I can't spell tonight.  Have to send spell check against this one.

 

Watched Biggest Loser while I was working out tonight.   Would be really cool to go to CA and work out at the fat farm Ranch for a solid week.   That would be cool.   My life insurance guy said that if I drop 10 pounds in a year, I would be eligible for a better premium.  so, that is one of my "new years resolutions...."   I'm going the route of laura and doing the whole Manifesto thing.  don't know if I will share it with you all though.

 

Got 80% of my tax paperwork in already.   have to wait for the JOnes LP to come in, but that won't be till the end of Feb.  Good news is that we should be getting a BIG payout for the LP Bonus from last year.  I'm going to install the old TurboTax tonight and see how much I can get done for now..

 

 

Later, 

More Pictures of Nate

Just thought you all might want to see some new pics of Nate....

Oh that's funny.....

LYnn and I have just read the funniest thing.   Maybe we'll share it with you all someday.

 

Well today wasn't too much different then any other days.   I did find out that my son, my son, likes disco music...

 

Lynn had left for a while to go to the library to pick up some books.   well, that left me to do what I usually do, and I messed around on the computer for a while.  well, Nate wanted nothing to do with it so i put in the most upbeat song that I could find in my Real Audo Player, "It's Raining Men" by the Weather Girls.....

 

Humidity is rising - barometer's getting low
According to all souces, the street's the place to go
Cause tonight for the first time
Just about half-past ten
For the first time in history
I'ts gonna start raining men.

That got him quieted down.   I think I can actually say, this is one of my more favorite songs from the disco era.  it's very upbeat....   Oh, and I mentioned Gloria Gaynor in the previous post.  seems she played at a Howard Dean function.  Ugh!.

 

So, past the disco music and I went to the Y to get some cardio done.  worked the legs a bit and then did 40 minutes on the recumbant bike.  Started reading a new book I got from the Library "Book of the Dun Cow".  Can't really say what it is about right now, but it is by the same guy that wrote the book we are doing as a group study with everyone on Sunday nights.   And, yeah, the author isn't black.

 

It seems to be some kind of Christian Allegory though, using farm animals. Kind of like Orwell's Animal Farm did for communisism and stuff.   Napolean the pig.  hehehe. 

 

so far the cast of characters is a stuck up rooster, thirty hens, a weasel named Wesley, a self loathing dog and a rat?!?    And their is a Character that is supposed to be Satan and he's already tempted another rooster.   So, yeah, it's a little odd, but it's what I live for in BuckyWorld...

 

Lynn got the original Parent Trap at the library and we are watching it now.  Funny how much the remake followed it, but you can tell their are definite changing times associated with it.

 

 

Well, I need to be getting to bed.  I've got Phone Support at work tomorrow and I need to get in a little early so I can do some testing.

 

Later,

Shoes are Clothes, Aren't they?

Well, pretty uneventful day.   Was announced at jones this morning that Sheila Burkett was quitting and going to go take over her husband's Car Racing business. Tuxedo Park Racing or something.  All the best to you Sheila.  

 

I'm still struggling with U.K. dividends. I got a call from a canadian boa today and she was complaining that my print enhancements are slow and print out of order.   oh well. what you going to do.

 

 

got home and Nate was a much better baby tonight.  Last night we tried the cry it out method and he cried for FOUR Hours.  sheesh.  went to sleep at 1 A.M.   At least tomorrow Lynn is going to go visit Sally in the morning.  That will be good.  It's nice when people offer more than a word of advice or a "I'll pray for you" sentiment.    Are they sincere?   Don't know.

 

Went to Baby's 'R' us tonight to get some baby essentials.   More formula for supplementing.   

 

Also did another aggressive workout tonight.  Tried not to have rest period's between sets.   Got done in pretty much half the time.   Hard to work around Jackson though when he lies underneath the bench.  Hopeing to get some lower body stuff tomorrow night at the Y.    and my cardio then too.   

 

WEll, gotta go now. 

 

Later,

Thank you For Christian Brothers and Sisters

Had another great Bible Study tonight. Actually, it isn't a BS, it's a Small group, discussing Walter Wangerin's book, As for me and my house.     He's not black.  

 

We had a great discussion about stuff and then we let them all know about our struggles with Nate lately, and they gave us the encouragement and support that we have been so despertately needing.  It's good to get sympathy for folks and not be lectured or given advice on what is wrong.  They just listened.  That was nice.   Good news is that LYnn will be going to spend some time with Sally on Tuesday. Sally's cool.  She's straightforward and will tell you what she thinks.  

 

Well, It's late and I hope to get to bed soon.  Nate has been not going down too well tonight, but I think we'll see him sleeping by 10:30. 

 

Jackson's Tail has had marked improvement.   I'm hoping that it will be back to norm by Wednesday.

 

Later,

Limber Tail.

Well, have had quite the exciting weekend so far.    Friday got home and Lynn made me notice that Jackson's Tail wasn't quite hte happy thing that it used to be.  took him to the vet Saturday and seems he has limber tail.  pretty much he just spriained his tail muscle. he should be fine though. he's on some anti-inflamitory to reduce swelling.   He is still in good spirits, just his tail is broke.....

 

Did a great workout Saturday morning, and got Lynn a couple doughnut's at Tony's (our local shop).  YOu can definitely tell he's italian.   I wonder if he is related to teh Sierra's people?

 

delivered food to teh Herron's yesterday and then Lynn went out to hang with the girls.  Me and Nate were left alone.    we stuck around the house for 1.5 hours and then we went out the the Fantasy Shop, Bandana's, and Hallmark store to pick up a card for Lynn to encourage her.    We've both been having a hard time dealing with Nate.   Just thought I would offer a little support to her.  I got her one of those musical cards, and it plays "I will Survive".   Gloria Gaynor.  I think she became a Christian after the whole disco era.Although, she loooks a little scary on her website.

 

But through it all Nate and I had a great time.   Can't wait until we can hang out again.

 

Oh, and Jackson has markedly improved since yesterday.  Vet said that we should see him back to norm in 2-3 days anyways.

 

 

Later,

Pics of Nate

Since I mentioned New Orleans in my last post, I thought I might post some pics of Nate also.  he's really eager for Mardi Gras!!!  Sorry for all looking at this on my blogspot website. You will need to go to my MSN blog to see these pics.

Chocolate milk comes from a Chocolate Cow, Of Course

Well, news has been buzzing about the Mayor or New Orleans and his Chocolate Comments.  Idiot.

 

Well, today I got a lot done at work.  I verified over 100 U.K. Stocks dividends for my project.   27% were okay. The rest have problems.   guess I have my work cut out for me.  Kind of cool to be involved in writing a new feature of an application. 

 

Went to Baby's R Us tonight to find Nate some decorative shoes.  all they had were airplanes and firetrucks.   nope.  not going to work.  we found this cool exercisor kind of thing that he could play in though.

 

Had another good workout tonight.  worked the upper body again.  Need to still work on some strength in my abdominals though.  I have no strength in them.  pitiful.

 

I might go munch on some of Lynn's chicken salad stuff for a late night protein snack....

 

Well, tomorrow I have to back to my U.K. dividends.  Fun.   Hope everyone reading this is doing okay.

 

Later,

 

bizness

why is it that people keep trying to stick their noses into places they just don't belong?

Shortest implementation

Well, tonight I had a short implementation to fix a small problem I had introduced with Saturday's implementation.  It only took 20 minutes this time.  so nice to work by yourself sometimes.

 

Nothing too exciting today.  Nate got his booster shots.   I didn't get a chance to work out, today is cardio day, and I was wanting to work some lower body, but maybe tomorrow I might get a chance to go to the Y.   Maybe Lynn will come with me too.

 

Tomorrow, the in-laws are all coming into town to spend time with Lynn. Don't know if I'll make it out to lunch here or not.

 

Later,

MLK Day

Well, had a great day, once again.  And is starting to look even better cause Nate seems to be going down pretty good.

 

Well, what did we do today?

 

This morning we got up and rushed around the house to get it all clean cause Jim and Barb were coming.  (They are some of my friends from College.  They adopted me through the church as a student.)   I developed a really neat relationship with them and it was cool to see them again.   We went to Lumber Liquidators to meet them and ate at Chevy's.    I had some kind of combo platter, really don't have much opinion on it, I'll eat the rest tomorrow.   Just had a great visit with them, so everything else was peripherial.

 

They gave Nate a new outfit, which I am sure he'll look great in.

 

This afternoon, we went to Best Buy and purchased a Sony HandyCam DCR-Hc21.   It's a pretty cool camera.  I had to go onto e-bay and get some firewire cables so we can transfer the video to our computer so we can edit it into videos to actually present to people.

 

Pretty cool what they can do with things now.

 

Had another good workout tonight.  Nothing really new.  I tried using a jump rope that Lynn had downstairs but for some reason, I couldn't get my feet off the floor.    rope was pretty flimsy also, so I wasn't able to swing it around unless it was really really fast.    that kind of contributed to my problem there.  Just need to have Lynn and Nate do double dutch with me instead....

 

well, Nate is still quiet.   hope that lasts.  I need to go into work early tomorrow and see what kind of fallout my implementation from Saturday caused.

 

later,

Implementation night.

well, last night I was at jones from 7 P.M to 4 A.M. doing the bundle installation.    turns out there wasn't any work on our part, so I spent most of the night playing computer games off games.yahoo.com.    All finally went in well and I got home and we went to church this morning.

 

Nothing really planned for today.  Hopefully get Nate down for a nap and I'll get a chance to read the book for tonight's study.

 

later

Snowing

Well it snowed today here in st. louis.  It actually stuck but I doubt it will stick around tomorrow since it will be like 46 or something.  Missouri weather is very confusing.  

 

Well, I made it through the week.   I've got a big implementation tomorrow night with work, so I will be there from 7 to 2 a.m. or so.   fun.

 

did another workout tonight.   getting to really look forward to them now.  decided that I will work arms, shoulders and chest at home and work the legs at the Y cause they have better machines to work with there.   

 

Nothing else really exciting.  Lynn is goign to the hair salon tomorrow to get some kind of hair makeover.    I like her hair long so I'm hoping they  don't cut it off too much.We took Jackson to the groomer and I think Robin cut off way too much of his tail.  his feathers on his tail is 1/2 his personality.   So, my dog has no personality.

 

oh well.

 

later,

6 years

well, I finaaly gave blood again for the first time since '99.   I had been tested for a hepatitis antibody back then and I guess that had scared them and they said, "don't bother giving to us again".   but last month, they recanted on that, and so here I am now..

 

it's a little different then i remember it.    gave you the elastic stretchy bandage afterwards.  lime green.  the lady even topped it with a red bow to match my tie.  funny.

 

turns out I wasn't ever able to compile that program.  the licensing for the graphing piece was on a server that is a landfill right now and the licensing company is out of business.   So, we can't make any changes to the front end, but can massage the data in the background.   fun.

 

well, i'm going with lynn tonight to her la-leaky league meeting.   last time there was one other dad there, I hope that is not repeated tonight.

 

later,

Beautiful Day... Yesterday...

Well, Sunday was a pretty good day.  we actually made it to church on and went to YMSC also.   then we came home and just relaxed.  I gave Lynn a break away from Nate and Jackson and took them both for a walk for 30 minutes.    Tried doing the power walking thing, where I just walked a little faster then normal.   Easier to do with the stroller.  will look a little weird walking like that without the stroller.

 

Then we went to the McGhee's and did our study on marriage.   Well, actually this night was on Adultry and the steps we need to take to prevent it.  I really enjoy these nights with them and appreciate the friendship that I have with the McGhee's, Evans' and the Silvermans.   I am glad that God has given us this study and we have these friends.  

 

Last night was a little rough with Nate.   we are still struggling with bed time.  I almost feel it would be better to have him being 3 and doing this.  At least then you can reason with them.  at least a little.

 

Had a good day of work.    Boss Matt went around the table and talked about our priorities and what is to come.   But then he just kind of skipped me when it came to what I would be doing in the future.  Oh well.

 

Tonight's Vision?

 

Well, hopeing to get a good hour's workout done.    Also, Lynn mentioned going out and finding a 2006 Calendar.  we always wait till after the new year to get our calendars.  cheaper, but sometimes the selection suffers.

 

Later.

Don't you understand the concept of "Workin In"

So, it happens every year.   The New year's resolutionists start coming to the Y.   I am proud of them for trying to get a  little fit, but it is interesting to watch some of them sit on teh leg extension machine for what like seems to be 10 minutes between sets, staring out into space.....I think I may have been like that before.  Tried out the rowing machine today also.  That is hard work.....

 

So, today at work was a little rough.  Got a call from our Research Principal, saying they changes they are making this weekend to another system is going to require changes to teh Research opinions.  Oh, Thanks for the heads up.   3 days before the imp date.  Thankfully, Greg took the responsibility for doing the brunt of the work, but I got to work on a program that hasn't been touched in 5 years.  I'm trying to compile it, but we don't have licenses for some of the pieces.  I'm hoping tomorrow I am able to get it going. 

 

Nate thankfully went down early tonight.  before 9 apparently.  that is good.

 

well, I need to shower and get to bed.

 

later,

Here we go again.

Well, it's another fun night of trying to put Nate down.  Lynn got some advice from the lactation consultants on what we may need to try, so I hope it works better.   The way it is looking now, I hope to have Nate down by 10:00.    It's been like 11 in the past.

 

Skipped workout last night, cause we went to the Maul to get a calendar.    Annual tradition in the Starbuck household, Never pay full price for something so trivial.  Why pay $15?   I could print one out on my computer for free.  Hopefully next year, we'll have some great pics of Nate and maybe we can have one made up at Sam's or something.  That would be cool. 

 

Back to the workout.  did the upper body tonight.  Thinking is that I can't really do too much lower body stuff with the weight bench I have, so maybe I can do legs when I go to the Y.   I'm getting braver in using some of the machines there.  some I still need to grow a little stronger to use.   But this week I'm switching it up a bit some my early Sat. morning workout will be weight training vs. my normal carido workout.

 

Work was good today.  I'm working on a program to calculate dividends in the United Kingdom for our Quotes Application.  kind of in a sticky wicket though, because some companies over there can declare dividends in GBP or USD or EUR (that's Pounds, Dollars or Euro's for The ISO Currency Standard illiterate).   so I have to write the program to make a separate call to do the currency conversion for the date of the dividend payment.   problem is, my numbers aren't quite matching our "official" source.   Need to work a little harder to find out what these numbers need to be.

 

Went next door to Vesta's tonight for Ben's B-day.    We got him a card, and Vesta had made her Spaghetti.  Funny, cause we're planning on having Spaghetti on Thursday or Wednesday or something. Actually, we are supposed to have Broccoli soup tonight.  Guess we'll find out something later.

 

Well, I've bored you all enough with the mundanance of the Starbuck Household.  May you all have a blessed evening.

 

Later,

Nate and Rubber Ducky Tubby

 

Review: Windows Movie Maker

Well tonight I used Windows Movie Maker to make some movies of Nate.  The software seems pretty basic and easy to use.  I made two movies.

 

One was a series of pictures of Nate from his Birth to today.   I also included some movies I took with my camera (not the greatest of movies, but it is something).    Lynn was very impressed.   I set the whole thing up against a lullaby C.D. that we play for Nate.   Pretty cool.

 

Second movie was a series of movies I took with my camera of Nate taking his first bath in his "Rubber Ducky Tubby".   It was hilarious.  He kept kicking the water.    My boy will either be an Olympic swimmer or an oyster diver. don't know which yet.   The "Tubby" was a gift from my friend Kate, so I pieced a movie together and will be sending it to her via snail mail for her to play on her  computer or other High Mat player.   I will need to either look into one of those for a DVD player or find software I can use to burn these as DVD's.  Pretty cool though.

 

I will post pics of Nate's bath with "Tubby" after I post this...

 

Later,

 

Ooopss.

Well, seems I made a small mistake on Blogspot and actaully have two different Blogs going.  The one that should be being used is http://buckyworld2.blogspot.com/.  

 

Later,

A great Saturday Morning

Got up at 7:00 this morning and went to the Y.  worked on the full body elliptical for 25 minutes and then went to the treadmill for a while.  Almost seriously maimed myself several times on the thing by dropping my towel and other acts not meant to be done on it, thankfully, Saturday mornings are very scarce there, so nobody was watching me....

 

No goals for today.   Just going to spend time with Lynn and Nate...

 

Later,

Review: Red Burrito

So, today for Lunch, Scott asked if I wanted to go to Red Burrito. Seems to be a part of the Hardee's corportation. I said yes. turned out there were 3 other guys that were going and we all piled into Bob's Saturn. we calculated there was about 1150 lbs in the car. pretty funny.

I ordered the Standard Red Burrito Combo with rice and beans. They kind of slack on the rice and bean parts and give you like 4 chips, but the burrito was very good. Also, the diet Coke helped round out the meal. No HFCS, please. On the way back, we almost ran over this guy crossing the street. It was quite dramatic. okay, maybe not.

Waiting now for Lynn to come home. I set up a blog also on the site that my bro-in-law has one. I don't like the fact that MSFT only allows comments from MSN userid's. I'm going to dual post for a while and then maybe switch over. The other site doesn't allow posting of pics through e-mail. that is a nice feature of MSN as well.

Later,

Jason Starbuck Fishy Obama Hater

Pic of Nate and Aunty Amy

Picture of Nate and Aunty Amy