Serenity



Schneidy hasn't been doing so well, lately. He needed some friend time. God bless Cara for recognizing that and almost sending me out to hang with him (she is such a keeper. I was out late lastnight for Viking Game Day and I know she would really like to spend some time with me, but while I was working last night Schneidy called to see if I was busy tonight and Cara pretty much sent me out with him).

We were going to use a couple of free movie passes, but the movie would have to be 10 days old or older and nothing that was that old was any good. Serenity opened in theaters today. I am going to go see it tomorrow night with a bunch of people, but you know what... We went to Serenity anyways.

I think it was a good thing for him to get his mind off his drama for a while.




what a wonderful movie. Best one I've seen this year. I know and love the show its from- Firefly. Schneidy hadn't seen any Firefly, so it was neat to hear what he thought of it from that perspective.

Go see this movie.

Wednesdays = Comics and LOST

Still filling in for my manager as she's in Ireland. Today, however, wasn't too hecktic with all that. Makes for a nice change. I started to sit with Scott and learn some of the switcher.

Jay came to town for lunch today. I drove Brad, Ben, BJ and myself (I was the only person in my car whose name didn't start with a B) to Godfather's Pizza. Cara had called and wanted to know if I could go to lunch with her, so I invited her to go with us. Shortly after we got our food and sat down, she arrived. That was a real fun time. Its good seeing Jay and its always fun to have lunch with my wife. Brad had never met her before.

I snuck away from work at about 2:30 to take a co-worker, Mike, to the airport. He's got a friend in Vancouver he's going to visit. Mike is fun to hang with. He has a great sense of humor. One odd thing about him, though- He's seen every single episode of LOST and he hates the show.

I spent the gift certificate that Leesha got me at the comic book shop on a movie that I think she will like.


awesome movie. I've seen the Japanese version with fan-subtitles.

When I got home from the comic book shop there were my ladies with a couple of dudes. Nathan and Aaron. Ages 4 and 2. Cara is nephew sitting tonight so her brother and his wife could go out and celebrate his birthday.

This day was also the day Cara's friend Kristin and her husband were going out of town and we were going dogsit for them. Just after we ate, Matt dropped off Sadie. So we were fully [insert noun here]-sitting.

At about 7:30 everyone under the age of 8 went to bed. I took Sadie for a quick walk. Rushed home to watch the 2nd episode from the 2nd season of LOST.

A Good Saturday

I got to sleep in today. As the Flaming Lips once said- "sleep in when you can". More and more that thought seems prudent.

Our guests were already out on their adventures by the time I got up. And Cara was getting ready to go do some of her errands. That left me with some much cherished me time. So I got a bunch of things done.

• I bid on an ebay auction (with birthday money- this was the kind of auction where you get a great idea of what you're looking for and you happen to remember it when you have some time to surf and there happens to be an item that fits exactly what you're looking for and it ends that day! it all was meant to be)
• I got our Melaleuca order in
• updated this blog
• changed my MySpace profile color
• watched this week's eBaumsworld
• posted a couple of things for sale on ebay (one has a bid already!)
• and surfed my favorite forums

it was good

Leesha came home early. She and I played Battleship online and she kicked butt. It ended just about when it was going to her head.

Then we played Old Maid and Go Fish when everyone returned.

After Cara and Kristin got home we started thinking about going out to eat with the Koski's at an Indian restaurant. We met David and friends there and had a great dinner. Leesha was getting tired but she held it together.

Came home- Leesha to bed.

Played Settlers of Cattan

While the girls talked, us boys shared interesting internet sites:

• http://www.detoursvideo.com/Elsewhere.htm
• http://happytreefriends.com
• http://www.homestarrunner.com/
• http://parcours-diversifies.scola.ac-paris.fr/
• http://www.lionelcharlet.com/EN/en_aviation.html (this one was so cool!)

and I won my auction!

nice day.

the only thing that was rather negative was that I found out that my friend Josh's girlfriend has been cheating on him. And he's taking it pretty hard. I feel so bad for the poor guy. If you read this, Schneidy- you are in my prayers.

Friday Nights are Nice

Our weeks have become quite busy, lately. And the fact that Cara is working full time subbing, now adds to the release of Friday evening. Leesha is off to dad's on Friday nights for the last few weeks. So its developing into our lets-not-plan-anything night.

So we had a small dinner and watched the last 3 episodes of LOST season 1 (Cara hadn't seen them yet and needs to before she sees the season 2 premiere).

Cara's friend from school, David, and his wife, Kristin, were coming to town tonight and they arrived haflway through the last episode. They came in and we talked till about half past midnight. When they went to bed, Cara and I finished the episode.

Having just seen the season 2 premiere, it was interesting seeing the last episodes again.

I love this show. I love how they ended the season with the scene of everyone boarding the plane. These creators have a real good sense of what I think is good tv.

LOST... power ) :<

Wednesday, Robert came over to watch the season 2 premiere of LOST. We had a nice dinner and as Cara put Leesha to bed, Rob and I watched the season 1 recap episode. As it started, the sky got real dark and KSTP started cutting in with weather updates. With the weather picking up and Leesha getting freaked out all was getting frustrating. We put Leesha to bed downstairs, grabbed a couple of flashlights... and BLACK.

Power went out at 15 minutes to 8:00 pm.

Rob and I checked out the upstairs to make sure there wasn't too much damage while Cara read to Leesha by flashlight. We just talked for about 45 minutes in the dark. Rob finally went home and Cara and I went to bed.







about 10 minutes to 1 AM the power came back on. I started a download of the premiere episode and watched it the next day.

We got a new car!

this is not our actual car, but its the same model, year, and color as ours.



manual trans and under 59,000 miles.

Eric and Keesha's Couple Shower

Showers are strange. I guess they're just an excuse to get more gifts. We hosted Eric's and Keesha's at our house. Fondu. After we ate we planned on playing games, but we ended up sitting around and talking instead.

I Got Specs

Last Hot Day of the Year? I Think So!

Odd thing this morning.

Leesha was a pill last night because she was so tired. So we ended up putting her to bed without her devotional. She popped in this morning and woke us up. Why not do her devotional from last night now? So she read it, we read it again and we talked about it. That was fine, but then she wouldn't leave us alone, so we continued to talk about God and these questions came up:
What is the Holy Ghost? and
What is the Trinity?

Since Leesha was sick yesterday, she'd sit with us in Church (instead of expose other kids to whatever microbes that may still be on her- rather, just infect the nearest adults). Greg Boyd's message happened to be about the Holy Spirit and the Trinity! He actually asked the very same questions we discussed this morning. It was really weird. And amazing.

We went to Olive Garden for lunch with Keesha and Eric, Robert and Laura, Cara Leesha and me. Good time. Right after that we were going to Craig and Tracy's with a quick stop at a comic book shop (see, Leesha was very well behaved in church and I wanted to treat her with a new comic), but the shop was closed.

Even though it was possibly the last 90 degree day of the year, we took a walk to a park. uuuhhhh. I don't like humidity and heat. We all returned home and had a nice dinner.

As soon as we got home I popped a sleeping pill because I'd have to be at work at 4AM tomorrow. Boom, I was out pretty hard.

Do-Nothing-Day

It was almost too perfect.
Almost
Leesha had a strange accident. Apparently, she wasn't feeling good. Wasn't feeling good in a You're-Sliding-Into-First-And-You're-Feeling-Something-Burst way.
Cara went to the grocery store so Leesha and I were playing games on the internet when she says she needs to go to the potty and runs off. She took more time than I'd expect but didn't think much of it. Cara came home and I heard voices. I hear Leesha's voice is upset and I go up to see what kind of trouble she may be in and if I'd need to back Cara up. I mis-read the trauma. Asked Leesha what was wrong and she exclaims between sobs "I pooped in my pants!". Hold it together, Jeffry! Keep a strait face. She was embarrassed and scared (water-poop is not normal, man!) and clogged the toilet, so she was very upset. But crisis passed and everything got cleaned up and calmed down.

Crazy Day

Start the day running, I'd say. Last night, during the 5pm, my manager comes up to me and tells me to write a work order for this morning as soon as we find out what time they want it. That was last night!

On my way into the building, the same manager catches me and says I need to get to the Fair grounds building, first thing!, and pick up some banners.

Here we are, and no one knows what time still, they're asking me! So I write it for 'sometime AM' and hand out the work orders. See, we have a rule- no work order, no do it. all because of a select few (Hammer, Rusty, I'm looking in your direction).

After that I spent all day getting Studio B ready for a special broadcast on 5 that airs live tonight. They had to cover my camera during Midday so I could light. I did do stills for At Issue, but then left it for them while I returned to lighting.

I returned to stills for the 5pm and did do prompter for 5pm and at that point I think lighting was good. But after the 5, Sarah had me on a special Billboard.

Yeah, this post means nothing to most readers, but it does illustrate that it was a very busy day.

So I went and bought it.

I love this show. I think Cara is getting hooked even though she tries to deny it.

Fair Feedback

So here's what our director out at the Fair had to say:
----------------------------
Hey Gang... Once again we survived the Pronto Pups and Cheese Curds and had another great Fair. With the added excitement of the Key Wall I think it was our best Fair yet.
Thanks for all the hard work and hustle...we got a little soggy on the last day, but that didn't damped your spirit or talent.
The crowds were as good as ever...special thanks to Jeffry for getting them fired up and with the addition of the Water Bottles fun was had by all.
So...I'll see you same place...same time next year. Thanks again.

Tom Smith
Director
TV Operations
---------

thanks Tom

VGD show #1

As this day started, Vikings Game Day looked kind of grim. It seemed like a huge, not well thought out, project.

We were supposed to have new chairs for the new set, but they weren't around- someone dropped the ball on that one and everyone at the Mall turned to me to fix it. The At Issue chairs that we used at the Fair were brought down to the Mall for substitutes, but we needed 4 and only had 3. Good times.

We also were missing 8 strips that attach banners to banner frames. Again, everyone turned to me for answer. So I opted to return to the station to get the last chair and the adhesive strips. Robyn went with me. We made it fun, listening to the Cure (cause it was overcast). At the station, we found that someone else had also dropped the ball on the adhesive strip thing. All these issues that I suddenly had to resolve- created by others. Good times.

They sent Robyn and me to the store that supplies us with those things. We spent too much time there trying to explain what we want only to find that they hadn't any. I placed an order for them without any authorization to do so, but figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal since each item we were after cost $.12 each. Good times.

When we got back we found a metal wall with a outside-cafe-looking print on it. Guess what, we need to use this for a segment of our show. A wall. There were no supports or stands for this wall. But we used it. A couple of Vikings employees actually stood behind it holding it up while we shot the segment! Good times.

However, as every piece came together and was decided upon, the show really took a solid form. We have a lot of new elements in the show this year: new host- Rod Simons, new co-host- Rich Gannon, and new producers. The only on-air thing that is familiar is Lea B Olson.
Once the show took off we rocked. Everything started to fall into it's right and familiar place.

Daniel Chapter 6

We had small group tonight. Daniel chapter 6 is the story about Daniel and the Lion's Den. I guess I never knew that the King, King Darius was kind of on Daniel's side in that story.

Robert gave me a Best Buy gift card as well as a computer game he downloaded. Its a Traveller-like game, he says. We'll see if I find time to play it. I'm very tempted to buy the LOST season 1 DVD set with this card.

today was Leesha's first day in 2nd Grade

day off more than expected

We went to Target to get me some glasses, they won't be in for 10 days.
After we get back home, Stew comes in and shortley there after, Dan Kidney arrives. Then Eric.

We cooked food on the grill and ate outside.
We watched Triggerhappy.
We played Settlers - Cara won!

Everyone left, I drove Eric to Keesha's with his new/old transmission

Cara was apologetic because there was a lot going on today. It was a good day.

last day at the fair

after 5 full 12 hour days in a row, it was golden to sleep in for a while. Took my time getting ready, and played Battleship online with Leesha before her dad picked her up.

Cara and I went to Uptwon Bar to meet Greg and Mandy, Jutton, David and Eric. Cara gave me From Russia with Love and Goldfinger DVDs. Greg and Mandy gave me Justice League cartoon DVDs. Jutton gave me a gift certificate for Dream Haven bookstore. My family and friends love me.

happy birthday to me

when I got upstairs this morning, there were a pile of cards for me to open.

Last full day at the MN State Fair. During lunch, I helped with At Issue at the station. Took the 3 o'clock shuttle with the At Issue set chairs immediately after they were finished.

Cara, Leesha and Eric and Keesha came out to the Fair around 3 :30 or 4 and wondered around. They came back to our booth to watch the 6pm. The 6pm was THE WORST SHOW of the entire '05 MN Fair broadcasts. In the A block Todd Baer's sat feed wasn't ready and in the B block, Joe missed about 3 pages and jumped ahead of everyone. It was horrible. They did turn camera 3 on me and acknowledge my birthday on air. Too bad it was in that show.

After the 6 and everything was torn down and put away, I joined my clan to wonder the fair. We went to the cow barn, the milk barn up to Heritage Square and rode the skyride to find fried green tomatoes. It was fun, but very very tiring having worked 12 hours already.