Piece Pizza and DaveCago 3

So we had a whole crew at Piece Pizza again (we were there two years ago), thirteen people I'm thinking. Mostly people I'd met and a few wonderful new people! Our first photo is a little blurry (but that's because we were drinking) but it's got the most people in it. Starting on the left is Kevin and Katie, Suzanne, Mrs. RW and Tori in front. Tori I hadn't met before but since she brought brownies she was quickly treated like family! Suzanne was another new person and even though she was a non-blogger she was really fun too!

This is Robin and Leah at our third location for the evening (we got around). I've met Robin before and was thinking I didn't know who Leah was on-line but I just didn't remember that I did know, because when I got back to the hotel and turned my computer on, the first thing I saw was her tweeting about being pulled over by the police during her cab ride home.

As usual Dave made us cool badges to wear and these had a "Piece" theme. Get it? (Guess whose site I stole this badge picture from?) And not only did we have cool buttons too, Piece Pizza gave us some of theirs!

Speaking of Dave is it a coincidence that he's wearing his "Zombies Ate My Brain Shirt" in this zombish looking picture (you really need to click for the full effect). That's RW sneaking up behind him.

That's Jenny and Mocha Momma whom I've both met before but I don't have a photo of Lynne and Kosh.

We just ate and drank and chatted and after we ran around to a few other places The Velvet Hour and the Tequila bar where we went a few years ago (name anyone?). It was just a bunch of old and new friends getting together, it seems much simpler than when I have to tell people who I'm going to go see in Chicago. Some of the people didn't get to stay the whole evening and coincidentally (sadly) some of those were the ones I talked to the least earlier in the evening (I'll talk to them first next time!).

Argh, that's a lot more cutting and pasting than usual. But I think I got everyone and all the names right...

I didn't have as many photos as I thought, so maybe I didn't get all of them recovered (or maybe they were more blurry ones than I thought).

Technorati Tags: blogging, Chicago, DaveCago, DaveCago 3, DaveCago3, Piece Pizza

Blogger Meet-up in Chicago Tomorrow

So a bunch of bloggers are getting together tomorrow and I'm going. It's officially DaveCago 3 which means Dave from Blogography is in town and organizes a get together. So tomorrow evening we're getting together to have drinks and dinner and drinks and just generally have a great time. I've gotten together with some permutation of this group the last two years and I wanted to do it again. I'm not even sure who's coming, I only know of a few for sure but I'm assuming the group is more like 10-15+ people.

What else? I'm not sure if anything's up for Sunday but if not, I'll have my roller blades because down by the water in Chicago is one of the best places to go blading. I going to try to hit Standing Room Only for my ribs one of the days (it's not too far from my hotel).

I'll be taking the train, because I love the train!! I get too tired if I drive in on the same day to do stuff, the train lets me go in the morning and be awake the rest of the day (and also lets me be semi-productive for those five hours). If only I could take my bicycle on this stretch of the train, I really like having my bike in Chicago (you can really cover some ground).

Technorati Tags: Chicago, DaveCago, DaveCago 3, DaveCago3, puppy, roller blading, rollerblading, train

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my Mother and I, it's not the best picture but it is the most recent one, just a few months old (I was showing her my QuikPod more than we were posing); you can tell we were just goofing around since she didn't make me fix my hair. Maybe we'll take a better one later today.

She's a been a great Mom and she had to work hard at it, she had to drop out of High School to have me and that can't have been easy in her very Catholic family. I do remember her going back to High School when I was in the first grade; she actually went back to school during the day, she didn't just get her GED she completed the Diploma. I don't really remember a commencement ceremony or anything like that (although I'll ask today if I can get it to come up) she must have just gotten the paper.

I'm sure having me changed her plans for life in many many ways. I don't know if she ever even got a chance to think about life after high school or if al of a sudden it was all over...

Thanks Mom! You brought me up pretty good and I came out mostly okay. Statistically, I'm doing pretty great - I'm gainfully employed, educated, not in debt (other than my home) and my only complaint is that I'm single with no kids (but I've still got some time for that). Thank you again and I Love You!!

Technorati Tags: Mom, Mother's Day

Holiday Best Wishes For Everyone!

Have a great a happy holiday and / or vacation!

Be nice to everyone!

It's easier to smile than to frown (it's a scientific fact) and the results are always better (another fact).

Drive safe!

If you're a few minutes late everyone will still be there. (I promise).

Don't fight with your parents! Or your kids!

It really doesn't matter who's right. (Although, I sure like to be right).

It's not the dollar$ $pent, it's really the thought.

It really is, think about the times you're gotten a useless gift, or thought they spent too much. (Yes, I know it's nice to get expensive gifts).

Be thankful for everything and everyone you have!

It's all you have so take care of all of it and them.

Just smile and be nice to everyone as much as you can for the next few weeks...

Technorati Tags: Christmas, family, holidays, puppy, thanks

So far behind!!!

I'm SO far behind for the holidays. All my family get togethers start this Friday and I'm just not ready. I guess I'll have to worry about it for another few days and I'll either be caught up or I won't!

I think a vacation day on Thursday will help me get the job done...

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Christmas Shopping

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Drive Safe! Eat Lots! And don't forget to Be Thankful!

I know life can get crappy at times, but be thankful for the little things. I know if you're reading this you've got access to a computer with Internet access, so that's soemthing :)

I know even when I get down about the things I don't have (which are not material things), I know I have family, friends, a home, a car that runs and a job (even if it is making me insane right now). I do have a million other things (mostly things I probably don't need), but those material things really aren't what matters at the end of the day.

Technorati Tags: be thankful, Thanksgiving

There's (not) a reason for everything. At least I don't think so...

"There's a reason for everything", I've heard this a lot lately but I don't know if I believe this. I like to think the universe and everything in it is in some kind of strange harmony but it's times like this when it doesn't make any sense that makes me think there is no rhyme nor reason.

In case you don't know, I'm in charge of a very small department at work, there's only four of us (including myself). Two of us meticulously manipulate lots of data & records, the genius 'computer guy' works on all 1000 computers and the network, I do the audio/video, paperwork, meetings, and a little of the computer stuff. Last month was really busy, it was the start of the school year so it's always cRaZy but the only part that's important to this story is that the computer guy was off for a few weeks since they were having their second baby his wife works elsewhere in the district so we all know her. I probably mentioned to you how insane it was at that time (plus that's when I was sick which made it even more insane). I don't know how we made it without him for those few weeks, it seemed like everything that went wrong were all in the areas that I had the least expertise, the few weeks he was back were wonderful!

If you haven't figured it out by now this story isn't about me, it's about the 'computer guy' and to move this story along we unfortunately just have to rip off the band-aid to get to the next part -

Early this Monday morning, completely and utterly out of the blue he just died. He was unconscious, they don't know why and they couldn't revive him and I don't know if they'll ever even figure out what happened. I'd have said he was a pretty healthy guy, he was 37 and he could have easily passed for thirty, so it's just bizarre...

To me, this makes no sense. There is no reason. Everyone keeps talking about it different ways. I know I'll hear it all again and they'll probably say something like that at the funeral. But it just makes no sense to me. He had a wife he was in love with and two babies; to me, there is nothing more important than that. It's just hard for me to be convinced there is some reason, some higher purpose that I don't understand that's suppose to make it all make sense in the end.

It seems like a pretty simple process to me - if the universe needs someone for 'some other purpose' you leave the happy couple with the newborn babies alone and you grab someone else. Unfortunately, if I were creating the formula it would weigh heavily against me - the single people who hadn't managed to get married and didn't have any kids should go before the couple with the babies. It just seems like a pretty simple concept to me and if we all understood the formula we could all be fruitful and multiply and live happily ever after...

In case you haven't figured it out yet I'm a pretty emotional guy. And this has been so very difficult for me probably mostly because of the surprise and shock of it all. Most other people that I've known who died it wasn't a surprise, they'd been sick or old or something was going on so you kinda knew it was coming. Or it was someone I hadn't really known well or seen for a while. It certainly wasn't someone I was expecting to see in the next few hours. Somehow those things make it easier to take, at least it has for me in the past.

Plus, I haven't even seen the baby yet. I don't know what difference it makes if I see him later or if I had already, but it sure makes me feel bad. I know he knows I love kids and he won't get to see me get excited over that. It's just a stupid thing I can't shake, but it's bothering me a lot.

This isn't the last I'll be talking about life and the universe and actually living/experincing life, I've been thinking about these things a lot lately but I was feeling some were a little morbid and strange to talk about but maybe now I will.

Obviously, this is the short version of the story, the long version requires more details (which I'm not going to post here) and of course that even gets sadder than what is (bluntly) told here. I've rewritten parts of this a dozen times, but I can't get it to feel how I want, I guess that's why I'm a tech guy and not a novelist. And some of this isn't written in the correct person/tense since I've been mulling it over and editing it the last few days.

Technorati Tags: death, grief, loss, stupid universe, unexpected loss

Mom's Birthday Photos

So I got some of the photos from Mom's Surprise party up. This first one is from in front of the house, my cousin and uncle decorated it during the night. The rest of the photos are from the party.

I posted about 18 and hope some of the others with cameras will send me some. I you missed the post, the surprise party was yesterday.

These are really old school photos of my grandparents kids, my mom is in the lower-right.

Technorati Tags: birthday, mom, Mother, party, photos, puppy, surprise, surprise party

Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday Party

So today my Mom turned sixty today. She thought I was taking her our to dinner tonight but when we got to the restaurant she was surprised that I had about thirty people there! I couldn't mention it before today, because I don't know if she reads my blog at all, I know she knows it exists so I didn't want to take the chance. I made a lot of phone calls, my aunt called a bunch and my cousin took care of the cake so it was all pretty easy to set up.

The people who were got there first put up all the balloons I had dropped off and put some streamers around the outside railing. We had the timing down perfectly, I think just about everyone was already there when we got there. And they were all waiting outside in front so she saw them as we pulled up. It took her a minute to process all the people that were there...

We had lots of family and friends show up. Some drove a ways to get here so that's always nice. Lots of cards with gift cards and lottery tickets. She'll get to do some shopping this weekend. A few showed up later and a few had to leave early and it was a great time. She really had a perfect day and she just called me up again a few minutes ago to say that and to thank me again.

My Mom is awesome, she did a pretty great job bringing me up mostly on her own. She had a lot of help from her parents the first six years and baby-sitting help from the other relatives but most of the rest of the time it was her and she did a great job making everything work out.

In case you were wondering, we went to Woody's in Royal Oak, Michigan (they've got two inside floors and a large rooftop area). Very casual place great service, everyone seemed happy with the food and drinks. Elizabeth was our beautiful (and efficient) waitress and did a great job. Personally, I was happy with the bill, I thought it was a good value before I even realized they had already tacked the tip on. I'd definitely recommend there for a gathering in the future.

On a completely unrelated note, while I was at the party someone bid last minute on eBay for the bike rack that I was trying to get; it was almost identical to the one that was damaged last week (and barely used). I had just upped the maximum today in case anyone else had bid on it (no one had yet). They must have used some software to bid on it (or they were sitting right there) since it was bid at the last minute :(

Technorati Tags: 60th birthday, birthday, Mother, my Mom, sixtieth birthday, surprise, surprise party

DaveCago2 - Chicago Blogger Meet

So the bloggers met in Chicago again for DaveCago2, about half of us met early June 2006 and we had a bunch of new people too (but we were down a few too). Here's the "blog roll call" that I'm pleasec to be a part of - Dave, Kevin, Jenny, RW and Mrs. RW, Ariana, Ajooja, Birdcolor, Diane, Kilax (who hand codes her blog!!!) and me. Several brought spouses (or spouses-to-be), it easier to not mention who than to remember who blogs (or doesn't blog) their private life. I hope I didn't leave anyone out, it was so hard to keep track of everyone...

Dave made us lanyards and had buttons and shirts and it made me feel like it was Christmas, I'm just happy with meeting new people. We ate at Pizano's Pizza on The Loop (near Millennium Park) and we got a bunch of different pizza and lots of (different) drinks. Then we wandered around and found another place for more drinks (Congress Plaza Hotel, the Gazebo Ba I thinkr), that too a while since most places didn't have space for all of us. It was great to put a face and voice to some of the bloggers and just chat and get more info on stories we've heard and stuff like that.

Neither restaurant or bar had drinks like Mike's Hard Lemonade or Smirnoff Ice and I was way above my daily caffine limit, so I hard to drink Long Island Iced Tea, it was my only option (really).

I do have photos, but I'll have to get them up later. I've been running around all day and I'm too tired to take a chance at accidentally deleting photos.

Technorati Tags: blogger meet, blogger meetup, Chicago, Chicago Pizza, Congress Plaza, Congress Plaza Hotel, DaveCago, DaveCago2, Pizano's Pizza, Pizano's Pizza on The Loop, pizza

Sleep Machine

So I've certainly been catching up on sleep the last few days, I think I've had about 23 hours since Friday evening. This is excellent since I really haven't been sleeping all that well these days. I haven't gotten much accomplished this weekend but that's okay...

What I did get accomplished was that I went out to the cemetery where my grandparents and great-grandparents (Mom's side) are buried today. I usually get out there a few times a year (sprint/fall) just to clean up and edge where the grass is growing over the stones, but it's been so crazy lately (life and the weather) I'm getting out much later than usual. It's been raining/drizzling all day but it pretty much stopped when I got out there so that worked out nice.

I need to take Mom with me some time because I always come up with questions about dates, middle initials or something else about family history that I don't know the answer to...

Free Skype On Mother's Day

On Mother's Day (May 13) you can make unlimited free Calls (from US/Canada Skype) to anywhere in the world!!! Check out the Skype page for more details. Actually, it's not really unlimited it's only 200 minutes free, but that's still a pretty good deal.

Post edited to not incorrectly refer to "today" as Mother's Day...

Offer valid from May 13th 2007, 5:00 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00) to May 14th 2007 4:59 am (Eastern Time GMT-5.00)

Technorati Tags: Mother's Day, space

My Mom is On-Line

So miraculously my mother is now on-line. I had it on my list of things to do but I had finally given up, she just didn't seem that interested the last few times I talked to her about. About a week ago she decided she wanted to and I jumped on it; she came over we got a new laptop for her: HP 15.4 inch Dual Core, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, Dual-Layer DVD burner w/LightScribe, SD chip reader (maybe reads more than that, with the media center “stuff” and a remote for that (which slides nicely into the laptop). BTW, that was $699 after rebate at Circuit City this week. A bit more machine than she needs right now but she won't need anything else more than that for a while and it's small enough she can bring it over when she has questions/problems instead of me having to always go over there.

We went over to get a book for her and ended up with Easy Microsoft Windows Vista. Lots of pictures and very clear to read. We looked at some other ones even the seniors ones, and while they were very well written, the images were black & while and not every high resolution, very difficult to see. Mom's pretty young, not 60 yet, but very low tech considering I'm her kid and I turned my step-dad into a geek before he passed away a few years ago.

So I set her all up, it's Vista so I'm not very familiar with it but I figured it out. Then I set up an easy to use home page for her to use with with Internet Explorer. I set her up a page at http://GaryLaPointe.com/mom/ and I can modify it whenever I want for her. But I stuck a bunch of stuff on it like local news, weather, on-line shopping and stuff. This includes some of my photos and links to trips she's never seen and her musician granddaughter's page. At some point she'll have to learn favorites/bookmarkss, but for now it's perfect for her. Take a peek and if you have any suggestions (either for the page or just some good introductory web sites.

She just called and the cable guy left and she's on-line!!! I had her get the $42 a month service which is 384 up + 5,000 down, the next service down was only $6 less but it was only 500 down, I wanted her to have a more pleasurable experience. In a few months she can try the lower speeds...

I'll go over next week and hook up the wireless for her and she can set up in the corner of the dining room where she wants it. Right now she in my old attic bedroom.

I think she's going over to sign up for a 4 week (2 hours a night) computer class that starts next week at the community education center.

Gifts for Mom

So Mom seems pretty happy with the gifts that I got her for Christmas. In particular she likes the book Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons by Kermit T. Frog. It's very cute but seems like it really might have some interesting thoughts on it. I just spotted it at Borders, I hadn't heard anything about it but it looked like something Mom might like.

The other item was one she specifically asked for: a new vacuum. Her last vacuum was 34 years old, so it was about time. I settled on the Eureka Altima Bagless Vacuum and it was a good choice, she's been playing around with it today. It's got a great extendable duster thing that is self cleaning (I don't even know how to describe it). It was a breeze to put together, three (3) screws and we were done (they could print the manual a little larger though!). It's nice and light too. I had spotted it at Target and the line was horribly long so I figured I'd check out some other models and maybe come back. Later, Kelly mentioned it was the same one she just bought to replace hers and then it was on sale the next day so I took those two things as a sign and picked it up.

She seems very happy with that and all the other items that Santa and I brought her!!!

Very Excited for the Holidays!!!

So I'm very excited about the holidays!!! Tomorrow my house will be packed with people. I've never had this many people in my condo so it's going to be a tight fit. Twenty-eight people, I think about 10 will be kids and while I've generally got stuff for kids to do things, I don't have much space for them to do it in, that'll be the trick!

Saturday (the 23rd) will also be the closest to Christmas that my extended family (on my Mom's side) has celebrated Christmas since 1997, I think every year before that we got that group together on Christmas Eve. That's why I'm having it this year, I wanted it closer to Christmas and this way, I get my way :)

Well, I'm off. I've got a bunch of little things that need to be done, but enough of everything is done so I don't have to worry about it. I think I'm done with all the kids except one (and I think that will require a call to his parents since I'm clueless).

Good Things Happen Too.

So my last post wasn't to make you believe that life isn't good, it was just pointing out the blah things and not being in the mood for blogging (or even much blog reading). Life has been good and even today in general has been great.

Melissa Has Been Blogging Away (go say hello!)

So a few weeks ago I mentioned we were trying to get a domain name for Melissa. Well we finally settled on YourMelissa.com as the address. Once we got her set up on-line she then immediately titled the site “A Musing Melissa”! Where the hell was that idea when we were picking out a name?!?

So she's been talking about life, her kids, being single and figuring out who she is as her kids become adults and she gets used to handling life on her own. She's been posting and I keep forgetting to send some traffic her way. So go on over to A Musing Melissa and say hello. I'm sure she'd love to get some comments and find some other blogs to read.

I think I've got her all set up to handle gravatars so if you've got one she'll think that's especially cool to see your icons, which then might motivate her to post comments on other sites (I think she's just been lurking so far) she still thinks of this as a “parallel universe”.

The confluence of domain names

So we're trying to set up a domain name for Melissa so she can start blogging. I went looking for a domain name for her to buy and of course Melissa.com was taken (but I had to check) and they offered suggestions for us. Suggestions like BestMelissa.com and SuperMelissa.com (my first choice) and then I noticed an odd one, so I'm “Hey, Melissa, They've got RayLovesMelissa.com, it's the only one I see with ”love“ in it, how weird is that?!?” Harry was Melissa's husband that died last year and Ray was what everyone his family called him. So that was pretty bizarre (but wait!), “Oh Melissa, I was wrong here's another one DannyLovesMelissa.com so it's not so strange”. But it turns out that was the name of her first husband! We looked harder and that was the only one with “love” in it, how strange is that?

I always like the idea of having your own domain name. Then you can switch hosts and take your name with you. We're hosting her at BlogSpot and just frame the page in it (or maybe we'll redirect). I can't believe that they're not set up to use your own name and charge you for it (or make you buy it from them).

So we didn't pick SuperMelissa so it's still available if you want it. I'll tell you her address once she gets settled in.

So my buddy was in a train crash yesterday...

So yesterday I knew Mark was on a train home from Battle Creek and gave him a ring just to see if he was home yet. He was still in Jackson. Turns out they hit a dump truck crossing the tracks on a private drive (the driver was likely killed instantly). He said a few of them got thrown to the ground as they stopped (which took about a 1/2 mile). They were in the car directly behind the engine (remember that if you watch the videos) and he said the windows turned black with smoke. Fifteen people had minor injuries and went to the hospital. They were then emergency bussed to the train station (city and school busses) and waited for hours to get another bus back home (I think he was supposed to get back around 2 and got back around 6:30...

He's fine (mostly fine, today he's complaining about his back) so that's a good thing. This WLNS news report has 3 different videos (all with a little more info) if you're interested. I don't know how long they'll keep the story/videos (which I never did get to play on my Mac, does yours play it).

I could be wrong but I don't think they gave any of these people a free train trip or anywhere to call if they had problems after or anything. He did say the Red Croos showed up at the train station to hand out water and check on people.

Happy Mother's Day!

So my Mom doesn't read my blog since she doesn't compute at all so she won't care that I used this 4 year old picture of her. Although it's probably better than what I used last year...

I'm off to take her to dinner somewhere, probably somewhere with a short line since it is Mother's Day and we're still not connecting for a few more hours (we're not organized nor fussy enough to make reservations in advance). She just got back from vacation last night so I had already dropped some loot off at her house in case I didn't see her today (as of yesterday noon, we still didn't know).

She did the single Mom thing in raising me, which had to be rough, and she did a great job!! Thanks Mom!

It's a scooter? It's a motorcycle? It's a Diamo Velux!

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but my buddy who smashed his car decided not to replace it at this time and the other day we were talking about a scooter-type thing. Moments after having one of these discussions someone drove by in a Velux Diamo so we chased him down to get some info. So we went to look at one yesterday, and hours later walked out with one! It's an electric start convertible 150cc motorcycle with CD/MP3 player (the things that look like armrests are speakers) a “trunk” and it gets 75-80 MPG and goes 65 MPH. There's an optional LCD GPS/DVD you can get too! More photos here. I'll get some photos of him on it later!

Funerals

So I came home and took a nap after all my errands (I feel great now). Since then I've watched a bit of TV and now I'm thinking of funerals. This wasn't weird dreams, it was what was on the TV show (didn't you hear, someone was going to die on Smallville).

I still remember being freaked out at my first funeral. Here's why:

It wasn't why you think, of course I was sad and upset at the idea that Grandma had passed away and all the normal funeral things to get upset about. We did the normal stuff: did the funeral home for one or two days, did mass at the church, drove way the heck out to the cemetery, did a little service in chapel at the cemetery and then we left. That last part was what freaked me out, that we left. I've seen this a million times on TV and at the movies the next part is that you go to the grave site and put lower the casket into the ground and throw some dirt and/or flowers on the casket. Come on, everyone knows this stuff that's just what you do. Needless to say, they thought I was nuts when I asked about it.