The Clarke Family News

-- 30 August 2006 [Wednesday] Today is my work from home day. Going well. We had some rain move in, radar showed it to be a lot worse than what it turned out to be. It cooled down some so Amanda opened the house windows, but it's humid now and not very comfortable. Just no breeze inside the house. We had another kitchen remodeling company stop by this morning. Two ladies. Very nice and hopefully they will come up with some ideas for us to work with. I'd really like to get someone going on this. -- 29 August 2006 [Tuesday] Nothing much to write about today. Typical day. Work, play with the kids when I got home, bedtime. Was very hot again today. Keegan and Carson got their hair cut and a bath right before bed. Getting them ready for our trip to the mountains on Saturday morning.

-- 28 August 2006 [Monday] Today marks my four year anniversary working at Peopleclick. That's the longest I have ever been at any job since I started working. I don't see myself leaving anytime soon either. But at the same time there are many other things I would much rather be doing than working, but it pays the bills for us, and allows us to treat the kids to some nice times which is important to us. Hope to work on the motorcycles a bit tonight after the kids go to bed. I need to get all the fluids changed in both of them. This amounts to six fluid drain/fills. Two each for the engine, gearbox and final drives. Luckily they use the same oils between them. I've read a couple of motorcycle adventure stories today during work, and it makes me just want to pack up and leave were it not for family. I fantasize about selling most everything I own and getting a dual sport bike to explore the country. Well I obviously won't be doing that, but sometime down the road I wil...

-- 25 August 2006 [Friday] It's over and I'm heading home just after this entry. Last night after I got home we planned on going to Goodberry's for custard to benefit Keegans new school. We'll we drove by around 7:30pm and just kept on driving. The line was out into the parking lot. We have never seen it so long in the almost eight years we have lived here. So we made a big circle and stopped at McDonalds for some ice cream. This turned out perfect and the kids loved it as did we. It was so nice out we ate a bit inside and then finished outside. The kids played around the big brick clock tower at the corner of Cary Parkway and Highhouse Road where the McDonalds is located. Got home at dark and decided to still go for a walk even though it was past their bedtime. Just too nice outside to be inside. The kids enjoyed going in the dark for a walk. Usually we go while it's still light. I like it better when it's dark outside as well I think. Today (...

-- 24 August 2006 [Thursday] Just a day at work where I don't want to be here. I'd much rather be at home. Amanda and I had an 'argument' this morning about a dress she wants to sell at a consignment store - which I already had thought she sold. But she hadn't. So leaving for work and being isolated here doesn't help my feelings. I've been reading this good book called 'Nickel and Dimed' that I got from the library. Sometimes while reading it, those menial jobs sound so appealing to me. Just go through the motions and not have to think and put up with stuff that is just out of your control most of the time. Aghh. But of course they won't pay the bills - at least not our bills, which really aren't bad. Amanda took the kids to a play date this morning at the park. They all had a good time she told me. Tonight we are to go to Goodberry's for custard. Keegans school is having a fundraiser there, and we haven't been in ages. ...

-- 21 August 2006 [Monday] This was Carson's first day back at Language Tots preschool for this year. He's going to go three days a week for a half day (MWF). This morning he sure did not want to go. He got in the truck without shoes or a shirt on, and not happy. I think it's worse because Keegan is tracked out now, so Carson knows Keegan will be home playing. Amanda told me later that he just cried and didn't want to go once she got there to drop him off, but when she later picked him up at 12:15pm, he was doing just fine as we knew he would. He just doesn't take to school like Keegan did, but it's good for him to play with others besides Keegan. Work went fine. I called on a house that Amanda and I drove by yesterday at 111 Judges Bench Court in Morrisville. Looks nice from the outside, but the neighborhood is kind of bland. I still went ahead and scheduled a walk thru for tomorrow afternoon at 4pm. It's a five bedroom newer house in our price range so we ...

-- 17 August 2006 [Thursday] Got a back/neck massage at work today. I had a FREE card given to me by my previous boss and wanted to use it. It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as I have gotten from others. She just didn't push hard enough. I think I like what they call 'deep tissue' massages better. Where they really push hard and get down into the muscle. This lady did give me a good idea though to get one of those band that are filled with some type of gell, and you heat it in the microwave and put it around your neck to relax those muscles. At only $8 I'm going to give that a try for at home. It's been distracting at work today and the lady who occupies the cube across the aisle from me is Indian and has been on the phone all morning crying. She is having marital problems, mainly because it's a pre-arranged marriage. I feel bad for their one year old son the most. He just doesn't even know what's going on right now. Hopefully they will pull thr...

So far nothing special today. Again rode the Moto Guzzi into work. I'm trying to do this as much as I can to save on gas and get the mileage up on the Guzzi. It's a 1998 I bought used and has a pathetic 20,600 miles on it half way through 2006. Ugh. Had to buy lunch again today, which is unusual for me as I always try to save money by bringing lunch. Amanda has been to the food store in awhile, so we are out of lunch meat, which is 95% of the time what I bring. It's nice for a change, but I always feel guilty when buying it. Went for a nice long walk on lunch first. It's cooler than they said it would be today so I'm enjoying it. Perhaps we are on the downward trend for this year temperature wise. If so, I'll take it! Can't wait for fall. My favorite time of the year for sure.

-- 14 August 2006 [Monday] Another work day, nothing special so far. Rode the Moto Guzzi into work again today. 89F. Nice. Suppose to get hotter the next two days and then cool back down, but just a bit. It's been a real treat the last two days or so to have the air off and the windows open. Got downright cool at night, requiring a blanket or two. I love it! Amanda picked up the cabinet hardware at Lowes today for our bathroom makeover. I let her choose whatever she wished as I want her to like it. Anything will look good to me as that dark bathroom cabinet is gone now with the Navajo White we painted it. Speaking of Navajo White (the color we choose for the cabinets), the wierdest coincidence happened this weekend. At night after the kids went to bed Amanda was watching one of her CSI recorded shows and part of the crime scene clue was the color "Navajo White" - man, what are the odds of that?! We had never even heard of the color until we picked it up on Saturday at ACE...

-- 11 August 2006 - [Friday] That's all I can say... "I'm glad it's over". This week work wise has been pretty bad. Didn't make a lot of progress and felt like most of the time nothing was working for me. Really drives home the point why I hate this industry in general. It pays terrific of course, but the work is not satisfying. Maybe someday I'll be able to switch to something else, or even better yet stay home so I can enjoy the boys before they get too old. This weekend we are going to play of course, and hopefully outside as the weather is suppose to finally cool down into the low 80's. Today has been in the high 70's and overcast with periods of rain. A welcome relief from the high 90's and humidity. We are also going to attempt the primer and first coat of color paint on the master bathoom vanity project. We just don't like the dark wood color off all our cabinets and decided to start with the master bath and see how repainting them g...

The title of this post explains my day at work so far. Part of our testing environment has been down since yesterday and the part I'm helping test needs it, so not much I can do but surf the web. And believe me, for all you people who think that sounds great - the web gets boring after a few hours of reading. It's still hot outside today - 92F. We had a couple strong downpours yesterday but that just raised the humidity it seems. Amanda's still been on the house hunt. I'm leaving her be. She found a house she really seemed to like and finally called the selling realtor today to find out it had already been sold. So that made that decision easy. I think she will continue to look, but in the meantime I'm going to move forward with the couple of projects I want to do to our house. In the event she finds another home she really seems to like, I'll stop what I'm doing, but I don't want to sit around and waste time and we just end up staying where we...

-- 07 August 2006 [Monday] Just a normal day of working, we had our quarterly company meeting which was bland as usual, but the food afterward was the best they have had to date. I did try to help my co-worker Nalini diganose why her car in the parking garage would not start. We tried to jump start it without success so she ended up having to call AAA. It appears to be an electrical problem of some sort would be my guess. Amanda says were are grilling chicken for dinner, so I imagine a night of dinner, play time, reading time for the kids and then lights out. -- 06 August 2006 [Sunday] Sunday was a fun day, no errands really, just fun. We again didn't go to the beach - I asked the kids about it, and I forget who now but one of them said "I want to go fishing"... fishing?! Cool! But before we went fishing we tried the rocket again. This time it fired. I tried a small engine first and it went perfect, floating right back down into my hands without me having to move a step. ...

-- 04 August 2006 Nothing exciting. It's another day. Still very hot out, although this is suppose to be our last near 100 F day. Went on a short walk to grab a hot dog ($2) at one the many vendors outside my workplace. Actually good hotdogs that have grown on me, but in no way do they compare to the Vienna Beef dogs from Chicago that I am so used to. We may try to go to Wrightsville Beach tomorrow, weather depending. Don't know what's instore for tonight. Dinner, and then perhaps a walk would be nice. -- 03 August 2006 Nothing special to report this day. Kids got a bath at night. Keegan and Carson actually wanted a shower so they did that - they like to use the adult shampoo and especially the conditioner since it makes their hair so soft and smooth. Ian had the bathtub to himself for the first time in a looong time I believe and he seemed to enjoy it. I had to do what they call a migration at work. Moving one of our clients from our old 4.2x software to our latest 4.4x ve...

--- WEDNESDAY 02 August 2006 Nothing special so far. Just working here at Peopleclick. Quite boring if I must say. Ate lunch at my desk as usual. Hot outside. 100 F - heat index they say near 110 F. Felt like a furnace when I stepped outside for a break. Had my first walk down Fayetteville street mall with traffic on it. Felt very odd compared to the four years I have seen nothing. Amanda went to the kids consignment sale today after she picked Keegan up from school. Today was the day that it's 50% off I think it is, so she was going to see what's left. She always loves a bargain as do I. --- TUESDAY 01 August 2006 Today was a work day, but what made it nice was that it was a 'work from home' day for me. I had to watch the boys as Amanda was scheduled to fill in at Dr. Dunsmoor's office from 7:30am until about 6pm. It's always a long day there for her because the office never stays on schedule, but the people are nice and she knows the routine. Work went good fo...