The Clarke Family News

-- 30 October 2006 [Monday] Yikes! A whole week has gone by since my last post. It was a busy week at work for sure, thus the lack of updates. I think I won't even bother to go back and enter something for the days last week as I can't really think of anything dramatic that happened. I will though enter some things for this past weekend. Today it was a beautiful warm 74F !! Carson had his 'fall festival of fun' at school and had to wear his Halloween costume to school. He looked absolutely addorable this morning. He wanted to be a kitty cat, so that's what he was. A black kitty cat, with ears, a tail, wiskers, etc. Amanda volunteered at the school function so she could see the kids and bring Ian with as well. She said they had a good time. The pony's didn't show up for the pony ride until 11am though, so there wasn't much time to do that. But overall they had a great time. -- 29 October 2006 [Sunday] We bummed around a bit today. Was a very nice warm and...

-- 23 October 2006 [Monday] Another normal day at work. Not busy at all, but boring. Cold out today - high of 58F. Nice in a way for a change but hard on the kids to play outside and get all that energy out. -- 22 October 2006 [Sunday] Rainy and overcast all day. We did some errands during the morning/early afternoon and then at 3pm I took Keegan to another birthday party, this time for Sydney. He wanted me to go again, but this time it was at the YMCA just a couple blocks away from the house, so we were able to walk there which was really nice! The rain had stopped and it was very quiet and peacful outside. I really enjoyed the walk there and back with him. He had a great time at the party overall and ran around and particapted well once he got warmed up. He had a bit of a 'verbal' altercation with Timothy (his best friend he claims) and Aaron (I think). Something about Keegan was going to 'X' Aaron and not invite him to any parties. Ugh. It was very uncomfortable for ...

-- 20 October 2006 [Friday] Got into work early today (7:30am) and leaving to be home around 4pm. We are heading to the NC State Fair when Keegan gets home from school. I just hope he has enough energy. He's usually very tired when he gets home and drags a little. Tomorrow and Sunday Keegan has a birthday party to go to and since Sunday is the last day of the fair we figured we should go tonight. We'll eat dinner there, go on some kiddie rides and walk around. We always seem to have a good time, assuming the kids are cooperating. Got home early enough to meet Keegan at the bus stop. He was suprised to see that and was happy I could tell! Wish I could do that every day. We went to the state fair as planned. Got a great up front parking spot as usual. We all had a great time. Stayed until 10pm and saw the fireworks while we were parked in the lot. Super easy to get out too traffic wise. Just a great time. Carson wanted to go on every ride he saw. He did so well! He w...

-- 19 October 2006 [Thursday] Nothing unusual today, except that it was a nice slow day at work for a change. Having these days now and then is really nice, especially when they come after very busy periods as last week was. -- 18 October 2006 [Wednesday] Worked from home today as I usually do. Dr. Dunsmoor called us and asked Amanda to fill in for their hygienist who needed to leave so that worked out nice, and Amanda was able to get a 1/2 day of work in. Every little extra bit of money helps when we usually only have one income. In the morning before Amanda went to work (she started at 1pm) she brought the Saturn in for it's annual inspection. It failed because of the broken emergency brake button that I have rigged to work now. Ugh. So a little $2 piece is failing it. The emergency brake works just fine, but you need to hands to set it instead of the usual one. So we are going to try to glue it just so it passes inspection and if that doesn't work, I'm going...

-- 16 October 2006 [Monday] Crazy. This whole past week has been crazy. Please forgive me for not updating the entries since the 9th or so. Just another busy work day. Almost done with this 'work package 224' as we call it here. It's the AutoRecruiter Command Line Tool which has consumed my days this whole past week. I hope to be done tomorrow and then RMS 4.6 starts. -- 15 October 2006 [Sunday] I tried to go on a ride on the Ural this morning to get the oil nice and warm and come home and drain it. Got all dressed, tire pressures checked, rolled the bike out, sat on it, and nothing. Wouldn't even clicked. So started looking at wiring, etc. Though, well hopefully it's the battery, so got it all back in the garage and on the charger. Turns out it was the battery! Doh. But in the process I learned some more about the Ural. Took the headlight out and found all the wires and the ancient fuse box. What a mess of wires in there. More than usual because of the previous own...

-- 9 October 2006 [Monday] Normal day at work. Was suppose to be 75F today but I hardly made it outside - all of 30 seconds to test that temperate. Seemed a bit chilly with the wind, so I ate lunch at my desk. Lunch from Sam & Wallys downstairs as is usually the case when I don't bring my lunch. -- 8 October 2006 [Sunday] Yikes, it's actually Oct 16th as I try to go back and fill in the blanks. But I'm drawing a total blank on this one....I'll have to ask Amanda tonight if she remembers what we did this weekend and I'll come back and fill in the details, otherwise I guess all I have is what I just wrote. Work has just been so busy and my brain so drained I haven't been able to keep up with this for about nine days now. Brought the kids to McDonald's aka "The Tree House" as they call it for lunch. We had a nice lunch all of us boys sitting at the table together eating and talking. It helped that they were hungry too. :) We then went in the ...

-- 06 October 2006 [Friday] At work today as usual. Cold and rainy. What a wild and crazy last few days. Carson didn't have school today due to the chemical fire in Apex that we heard about last night. His school is technically in Apex, but just barely. I think it's more to the fact that some of his teachers might not be able to make it in as they may have been evacuated to hotels last night. All speculation on my part as to why his school was cancelled. Keegan had school and I dropped him off this morning. Was raining when I woke up. Good for our new bushes planted. It has really cooled off today. Dropped almost 25F since yesterday so far. Really feels like fall now! I like it. :) Amanda is still feeling kind of sick. She was to pick up a presciption for anti-biotics today to hopefully fight whatever she has. When I get home I'll feed the kids and then have them help me put the table and bench together for our kitchen nook since I finished putting the b...

-- 2 October 2006 [Monday] At work again today as usual. Rode the Guzzi in. About 60 this morning, but very nice and sunny. Suppose to be 80 or so when I leave. Work was work. Day went faster than normal, but at the end of the day I was told a feature was added that I'm responsible for in 4.6 so I wasn't too happy about that. -- 1 October 2006 [Sunday] Nice day out. We went to Bond Park around Noon today to go fishing! I was excited. We caught three fish (we'll I did) and I let each of the kids real one in. They loved it. Even Ian got into it and wanted no help in holding the pole or anything. He got really frustrated when you tried to help. After fishing we tried to feed the ducks but they weren't interested. They were so full they didn't even come over to see what we had. So we all got in the truck and went to Wendy's for lunch which was pretty good. Keegan and Carson were misbehaving a bit as usual - they really wind each other up. On the...