Callahan’s Corner

The project continues. It’s nice to have the outside ready for paint. Of there are a few odds and ends, but it’s about done. The inside is a different story. The inspections (structural, electrical and heating & air) are complete and we are waiting for the sheet rock to go up. There’s also a lot of floating and painting on the inside of the house to be done to patch up the areas that used to be windows and door. I’ve got ten Cat 5e connections in the walls of the office, so I’ll be ready for the computers. My only nagging concern at the moment is the concrete floor in the addition. There’s a hump in one area and the concrete finishers are coming back out to grind it down. Since they left it there in the first place, it doesn’t instill a lot of confidence that they’ll know when it is right now. We’ll see how it turns out since they should be here Monday.

As sort of an anti-Jimmy, Connie is lovin’ it. Usually she’ll go into the new office before bed and then in the morning (as well as a few times during the day) to look at things. I suppose that she’s laying out everything in her head. Maybe she’s just taking it all in (what’s she’s taking in is probably the dust from insulation). Regardless of that, my guess is that she’s excited about the progress.

Tags: Family

You may either love or hate Microsoft Windows (and Microsoft), but it’s hard not to like Bill Gates. The personality (or lack there of) at the head of Microsoft is spending his last day at the company that he helped start (check out the video spoof that was shown earlier this year). Although I’ve never met him personally, I have listened to more than a dozen of his live presentations over the years as well as seeing him a few feet away on the show floor at COMDEX a few years back. He was never the most articulate nor was he particularly appealing visually, but I always thought that he was one of the good guys in the industry. He never seemed to look down on anyone and you could tell that he loved working with technology. Given the millions (or potentially billions) that he’s given to charity, you would assume that he is altruistic as well.

I can remember working with the first DOS from Microsoft as well as the first versions of Windows. I can remember how the cost of development tools and developer resources in general plummeted as Bill invested in the future. I’ve spent my entire career working with the software that Microsoft created. Hard to imagine. So for all your hard work Bill Gates, I salute you. Well done!

Maggie Moo turned two years old today! It seems like just a year ago that she was one. To say that Maggie is a accomplished and complex girl would be an understatement. she holds several of the “family firsts” awards like walking, climbing up on the table and the earliest open tauting of her parents (just guessing). You can always count on Maggie to have something brewing in that cute head of hers. She’s mentally sharp and is always quick to flash a princess like smile when advantageous. You are a delight and I hope that you continue to be the sweet little Maggie that has stolen our hearts.

Tags: Birthday, Family

This past weekend we attended the Elston (and to a great extent McReynolds) family reunion. Every four years, the descendants of Ben J. Elston come together to share some time and stories with each other. Even though I married into the family, I still enjoy the events. Thankfully I enjoy visiting with Connie’s side of the family and I always learn a few more connections each reunion. The food was great and the weather wasn’t too bad (for June in Louisiana). Downsides? The girls sleep patterns were off and neither Connie nor I got a good nights rest. In fact, Connie spent one night in the van with Maggie and I spent a good bit of time the other night walking the camp grounds with her (Maggie, not Connie which would have been enjoyable). It wouldn’t have been so bad had we not been sharing a cabin with her parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. The boys had a great time though. They had several cousins that they already knew there as well as a few that they didn’t remember. Even the girls had fun during the day roaming the hills around the mess hall with their cousins.

I used to enjoy the ruminations of talk radio (or blogs), but over the last couple years as their influence has grown so has their rhetoric. It has gotten to the point to where their importance trumps any potential insight they could give. They now tend to just repeat phrases rather than give new ideas. Callers that try to provide a new angle just get blown back with the same oft repeated phrases. This seems to be true at the local and national level. With the recent political fodder over legislative pay raises (which I’m okay with given the ethics reform and term limits), one local talk show host said that if Jindal didn’t veto the measure that he would never vote for him again. First off, Jindal is a politician and not the leader of a religious sect. He makes decisions on what he feels is best for the state (hopefully) at the time. Some I agree with and some I don’t (which I’m okay with this one). For the talk show host to have the attitude that you either do what I want or I’m going to publicly punish you is pretty childish and self serving. Don’t get me wrong, he has the right to say it and vote for anyone that he wants (and so do I). All of these talk radio and political TV shows are there to make money and what they think will generate ad revenue. Well they’ve lost me.

Follow-up: On June 30th, Gov. Jindal vetoed the legislative pay raises due to the public outcry.

Tags: Jindal, Louisiana

We arrived back home last night after seven days of vacation. It was nice to get home even though we discovered a little water had gotten into the house due to the construction. Oh well. My stress level is already elevated so I’m trying to do my best to keep things in perspective. The trip was enjoyable and it was great to visit with all of our friends that have moved on from Baton Rouge. From the Johnson’s in the Huntsville area to the Lawrences and Hutsons in Pigeon Forge and finally the Brauds in Chattanooga, we had great visits with everyone. Thanks for putting up with us.

Tags: Family, Holidays

Since we moved into our home in 2002 we’ve had a couple more kids. With the addition of two girls, we’ve found ourselves in need of additional space. Giving up the office wasn’t really much of an option and I wasn’t really crazy about moving again. That got Connie (not so much me) thinking about adding on to our existing home. For me, I was just fine with the situation and didn’t want the hassle of a construction project. On top of that, I generally don’t like to modify things (other than my computers). Hey, my twelve year old truck has the exact same equipment that it came with from the factory (broken antenna and all).

I finally relented to the project and Connie took the lead on setting things up with a local contractor. We came to agreement on a plan to add a new office in the back of our home and then having the current office back as another room. I’ve attached a serious of photos that show the progress of the addition. I would say that we are almost half-way through the construction phase. When you consider the cost of selling/buying a new home, the addition has almost paid for itself.

Although I’m sure things will turn out adequately, I’m not nearly as excited about the project as Connie. Call it pessimism or maybe a healthy does of “just leave things alone”, but I’ll be extremely happy when it is completed. The stress has not been enjoyable at all. Connie will be as well, but for obviously different reasons. I can’t even imagine building your own home. Stay tuned as there will be more to come.

Tags: Family

Things are going well this week. We are enjoying ourselves, however I’m looking forward to my own space. I’m completely exhausted from the the long days. We’ve been staying very busy and that just keeping track of the kids. One thing is certain. Good friends are hard to come by, but well worth the effort. It’s been great to catch up with some of ours. More later.

Tags: Family, Friends

Oil futures have soared in recent months sending the price of crude and gasoline up. I think this graphic on the left pretty much sums up the high gas prices. Even though we’ve felt the pinch in our budget, I really feel bad for the people who drive a vehicle (truck, van, car… doesn’t matter) for a living. Hopefully the government (IRS) will adjust the standard deductions on mileage to at least affect their tax liabilities. In the short run, this is going to put a lot of people (further) in debt and in the long run will continue to stall our economy.

From a political standpoint, it’s almost a draw on which party this benefits (seems morbid to say that) the most. For the Democrats, they will point the finger at corporate America and try to turn it into a “power to the people” issue. Of course their obvious downside is that the eco-fanatics within their party are bubbling over with excitement at the move to alternative energy sources due to the high prices. They don’t want them to drop anytime soon. The Republicans will benefit by pointing to these eco-fanatics that have been keeping domestic oil production low by making coastal areas and Alaska off limits to new exploration. The weak point for the Republicans is their business friendly side will defend the oil company profits and make them targets for protecting our “evil task masters“. All the while, the suffering continues.

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Tags: Energy