{A}ndy's Random thoughts

No sleep

2009-11-12T07:48:00.000-05:00

Last night Micah didnt want to go to sleep. He just kept playing around in his room. Finally he went to sleep. Then about 2:30 eli woke up and wouldnt go back to sleep. finally we moved him to our room floor and and after a while (about 3:30 he fell back asleep) Then about 4:30 Micah came in to our room and wanted to sleep in bed with us. but guess what. You can sleep on the floor so he did. So need less to say then at 6:00 i had to get up and get ready for work. I am tired today. The silly thing was that just that morning i was saying to Julie how it was nice that the boys were sleeping all night again! :( that will teach me to say anything

No Week in review

2009-10-12T15:51:00.001-04:00

Sorry all it has been a while since I did a week in review it has been a long couple weeks. Basically our dog tried to eat a skunk and we had to move out of our house for a week. But we are moved back in now. I will try to do more week in review soon

Interview with Jeremy Irish from Groundspeak

2009-09-28T12:09:00.002-04:00

I found this on the web at
http://coastcacher.com/blog/2009/09/24/jeremy-irish-interview-metaplaces-conference/

Week in review 09/19/09 - 09/25/09

2009-09-25T20:00:00.008-04:00

This week on Monday I started my new job. It was great, it is a slow week though for some reason. I took a tour of the warehouse which is a refrigerator. I also found out that i have to work Saturday as it is inventory and everyone works. My parents also showed up on Wednesday night which was nice to see them for the evening. Also we have been working hard to get Julie's grandparents house gutted everything we want to save we are!

That really is about it. There wasn't much going on this week to blog about but ya know how life is, sometimes there is and sometimes there is not. See you all next week.

Week In Review 09/12/09-09/18/09

2009-09-18T20:00:00.001-04:00

Wow the list of things that happened this week is chocked full. On Friday night the boys wanted to go to a High School football game. We went and watched and it was so fun. Next thing is we Finally got Julie's grandma and grandpa out of their house. We moved them Saturday. It took a while but it was worth it. There was a safe under their floor boards and and they wernt going to take it with them so i grabed the saw and cut the floor out and took it. It was kinda like a real life Geocache. Thing is they arnt sure what the code is they know they have it somewhere but they arnt sure what it is or where it is. So i think i am going to take up safe cracking :). On monday i woke up and jumped in the shower and there was no hot water. Not a drop. I knew this was strange as no one else was up so i knew that there was no one taking a shower and using up all the water. Come to find out the water heater pilot was out. luckly it was an easy fix. Then drove to work and i locked my keys in the car. luckly julie and kim and the boys could come over at lunch and we had McDonnalds and unlocked the car. On Tuesday Julie and i went to the doctor and got to hear the heart beat of our new baby. wow that is cool. Anyone that dosnt think life begins at conception should hear a heart beat. Really not much more happened. We scheduled a geocaching event and that should be fun. Today is the last day of my job here at Bosch. i am starting a new job on monday

Week in review

2009-09-11T20:00:00.001-04:00

This week is actually for two weeks. I forgot to post last week Sunday we went caching and hit 8 caches. On Tuesday the 1st Eli turned 2. Wednesday i planned for 4 caches but only found 1

This week it was nice to have Monday off work and we worked in the Garden. Then on Tuesday i found out that i got a new job. I will start a week from monday at the new job. it is a smaller helpdesk non of this huge call center stuff

Elkhart County Indiana Geocache Stats

2009-09-01T12:17:00.006-04:00

There are currently 107 Active caches in Elkhart County Indiana

49 out of those 107 caches were found in the last 7 days

Top 5 placers
XpunkX & Julez placing 12
Wanderindiana placing 10
Span 24 placing 8
midnightrosefassions placing 5
FloatingSpots placing 4

I have found 66
30 I havnt found
23 I own
2 are disabled

18 or 26.8% have TB

Week In Review 08/22/09-08/28/09

2009-08-28T20:00:00.001-04:00

There really was not much happening this week. However a few notable things

We found our #400th geocache and also got a FTF on another one. Another notable thing is that we had planned to have julie's grandparents out of their house by this weekend But things change and now we dont know when they will be out. It has been rainy this week soe we have not done much outside

Week In review 08/15/09-08/21/09

2009-08-21T20:00:00.001-04:00

This week's week in review is interesting. Saturday we spent a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine with our boys. I think i liked it just as much as they did. We went to Flint Mi. Got to rid on Thomas and just spend the day doing all sorts of fun things.

Sunday we had a work day with the church to help move julie's grandparents. We did lots of work and got lots of dirty.

Twitter was unblocked this week at work. well come to find out EVERYTHING was unblocked at work. For some reason the firewall blocker was down. However that didnt last too long as someone was made aware of it and today it was back online. :(

So after the big to do that was made about me taking Firefox off my work computer guess what a few days later it is now approved. i have to request it and the computer automatticly installs it but it still gets installed so guess what i have FireFox again!

Anyway that is my week in review. It was a good week and see you all next week

Week in Review 8/8/09-08/14-09

2009-08-14T20:00:00.001-04:00

Ok so here we go for the second week in review. Wow this week was interesting to say the least.
It started with more moving.

We were packing on Sunday Julie's grandma they are moving soon and we are helping them pack. They have a lot of stuff so it takes a long time to pack.

This week also brought lots of changes at wor. We found out that one of the people who was laid off a while ago is comming back. Which brought up the question who is leaving. We dont have that much work that we need another person. Come to find out another one of our people here is leaving. There own choice but they are leaving. More changes here at work. I was told i had to remove Firefox and only use IE6. IE 6 that is like going back to horse and buggy from cars. Come on now. Also twitter.com was blocked at work i mean i can find an alternitave site that pulls that information but still i dont want to.

The main thing this week that happend was yesterday Julie called me at work and said. "I need you to call me as soon as you can" So i did the natural thing and picked up the phone and called her and i heard her say "There are cats in our van" Now at this point i knew i left the windows up and the doors were shut so i was wondering how they got in there. So went on to say "They were in our engine and i turned the engine on. Come to find out there were three cats. First one that fell out only had a broken leg. Next one was dead and the final one was just fine. Julie felt so bad. So i went home after work and dug a hole for the dead one. Then we went to red lobster for dinner and and when we came back there were more cats on our drive way. Go away cats!

Week In Review 08/01/09

2009-08-07T20:00:00.005-04:00

I have decided to start blogging a little bit. I am going to do a week in review post. These will be posted Friday nights at 8:00 PM so here we go witht he first post:

The following are things that happened this week (Saturday-Friday) On Saturday i gave blood this is the first time that i have given blood on the left arm and the first time i have done it in a while. Julie and i got busy and just havnt given in a while. And the first time in a while that Julie was not with me. She cant give for about 9 months or so now.

The next thing that happened this week was to do with twitter.com. Besides that fact that twitter was down all day on Thursday due to a DOS attack. Twitter was blocked here at work. I felt like i was cut off from the outside world. Dont worry i found some ways around it but still. it was just the idea of being cut off. (am i addicted?)

Next thing i realized this week is that some people just like to pick on people because they can. They go looking for things to hold against you just becasue they can.

I will try to keep the Week In Review posts fairly short. Thanks for reading

2 away from 400

2009-08-03T14:35:00.002-04:00

We are only two away from getting 400 caches. we need to find a good one to hit around the Northern Indiana area to have as our 400. Anyone have any good ideas. please leave a comments on good caches

Augmented card

2009-08-01T06:36:00.001-04:00

This is cool i can see how i could use this!!

Augmented Business Card from jonas on Vimeo.

New Rules For The Fair

2009-07-23T11:23:00.002-04:00

Yesterday my wife and kids went to the county fair with my sister-in-law Mindy. See the fair is kinda a big thing around here. Infact so big is is the 2nd or 3rd largest county fairs in the USA. I like just watching people interact with other people however I realized while i was at the fair enjoying my Fair food and kiddy rides some new rules that need to be in place. If you go to the Elkhart county 4-H fair please follow the following rules

Remember you are not the only one walking. Dont just stop there are people walking behind you.
The walkways are not places for your friend reunion. If you must stop and talk to your friend you have not seen since last fair please find a nice spot in the picnic area to sit down. It makes catching up a whole lot more fun for all
If it is raining remember you have a 3 foot extension on the side of your head called an umbrella. Lets not poke peoples eyes out with it
Walk with the same rules that you drive with. Stay on the right side. If not i WILL run into you.
If you must stop to talk moove to the side of the road quickly and also turn around first to make sure there is no one right behind you.
If it is raining out dont stop just inside the barn and try and dry the rest of the way off while the rest of us and our kids are standing outside getting sick in the rain.

That pretty much summs up the rules. If you can think of more rules please feel free to add them as comments to this post.

Go enjoy the Fair! and be safe and responsible citizans!

On Road -->Shortest Distance || Fastest || NEW Only threw good neighborhoods

2009-07-07T16:09:00.002-04:00

So the other day when out searching for geocaches. When I am driving i tell the GPSr to direct me to the cache via the roads. Then I get the oportunity to direct my GPSr how i want it to route, I choose either Shortest distance or Fastest route. This past trip out geocaching I decided that i would like to see another option. This one i would call Only threw Good Neighborhoods. I was going the quickest route to the cache but i also decided that it would only be the quickest if i would stay alive. I was going threw some shady neighborhoods. Garmin if your listening. I would love that option :)

Banksy's Back

2009-06-12T20:16:00.003-04:00

Cache Run 2009

2009-05-22T15:15:00.000-04:00

We decided to do another cache run this year. We are doing our run tomorrow. It has been two summers since we did a run. we decided that it was far past time. So we decided to raid the same area again. Last time we went to Ft. Wayne Indiana an hit 52 caches. This time we are aiming for 75.

We have mad some change to help us accomplish our goal. This year we are pre-planning our route. From cache to cache to cache we know what is next. This took the most time last year. we have 88 caches in our route hopefully we can hit at least 75

We are starting our run at 7:30 and running late. we dont have an end time

Mean Cachers

2009-05-14T19:50:00.002-04:00

Geocachers are normally nice people. That said we have seen a few bad apples in the bunch. Last night I got home and checked my email and saw that someone logged our Lets Go For a Walk Grandma as a DNF. There have been DNF's on it over the last couple of months. Infact i was going to go out and check on it this week. When i looked at the log the person was very mean. "Its obivious it is gone. why hasnt this been disable to save peoples time from hunting something that isnt there" I shot an email back to them. This is becasue just becasue several people cant find it dosnt mean it isnt there and i was actually going to check on it this week. Then i also saw another log he posted on a cache of mine. He logged a micro that i have that is near a water way and kind of in the woods and it is a micro. He commented that there is no reason to put a micro in the woods especially when there is so much trash. You know what. The cache is a freaking fishing bobber so that was the perfect place for it. I dont like micro's in the woods either but if they are warented then yes. I guess i am just venting. Please cachers be nice in your logs and the way you talk to other cachers. We are people too!

Tracphone and Email to SMS gateway

2009-04-30T09:19:00.003-04:00

I have a Tracphone and last night i wondered if they had an email to SMS gateway. So lets say i sent and email to xxxxxxxxxx@tracphone.com i would get an sms on my phone. So i jumped on google and did a little search. what i found out was this. Tracfone outsources it network to other national providers. If you can figure out what provider yours is you can use their SMS gateway. However there is not a way to go to your phone and figure out what provider you use. However there is a way. What you will need to do is send an email to the following email addresses with your number before the @ sign

1234567890@vmobl.com
1234567890@mmode.com
1234567890@tmomail.net
1234567890@myboostmobile.com
1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com
1234567890@messaging.nextel.com
1234567890@mymetropcs.com
1234567890@cingularme.com
1234567890@message.alltel.com
1234567890@questmp.com
1234567890@vtext.com

***Note there may be some providers missing here***

Next wait for the message to come threw on youur tracphone. You will recieve a lot of bounce back mail in your mail box for the networks that your phone is not on. Once you get that text message click reply and send a message back you will then have a message in your email that is from your phone and it will be from the sms gateway email address. Enjoy.

2009-04-25T09:36:00.001-04:00

Today we are helping with a walk for cancer. we are handing out water. it is a nice day

Fun food ideas

2009-04-22T15:27:00.003-04:00

I saw this on the internet today. The idea is to shove dried spaghetti into hot dogs, then boil. And you come up with the picture here. Kids are sure to love it

(Original Post http://bit.ly/16kq0s)

Purdue Bug Bowl Picts

2009-04-21T10:32:00.009-04:00

Below are just some of the pictures from Bug Bowl this year at purdue

Julie and Eli at Prophets Rock

Wind Mills

Micah and Julie kissing

Eli eating a cricket

Micah eating a cricket

Oh Deer!!

Who's big eye is that?

Kids digging for bugs

Eli making a face

Google Voice Transcription

2009-04-15T13:46:00.003-04:00

Google voice is awesome. I love what it can do for me they even transcript voicemails for me. however they sometimes dont do it correctly. below is one the transcribed not great, but it made for a good laugh. (NOTE: click picture for a bigger version)

What was said was "Hi Bud. Dad said bowling would be great so give us a call and we will plan a time and place love you"

Disapointment

2009-04-08T13:22:00.002-04:00

Wow i just realized that it has been a while since i have blogged. There really hasnt been much that i have felt the need to blog about. Untill now!

A couple months back i put a job application in to a local company to be their network admin. Didnt think much would come of it. Infact some time passed and i even forgot that i sent the app in. Then I got an email from the owner of the company that i should call him about a job interview. I did right away.

He didnt answer my call so i left a message. Finally he called back and wanted to do an interview. So i took some time off of work went in and interviewed. I had a good feeling about it. Sort of like when i interviewd at Newmar.

A week or two went by and then they called me back. Wow i didnt think i would get a first call let alone a second call. I was excited. I started to really want to get out of my current job. I went to the second interview. I got to see their servers and all the cool stuff. The interview went well. I interviewed with the VP and one of the I.T. guys. When i left the VP said "just to let you know a job interview is about two things, skill and personality. I think your a great fit and are better than the other people. We still have interviews on thursday and friday.

So i go home get realy excited about it. I know the pay is better and it is close to home. I couldnt help but think about how great that would be. The job would be a lot of learning but it would be worth it and i could do it. I left feeling that the other two interviews were more of a formality and they would be contacting me soon to offer me the job.

Thursday and Friday go by so i know they have done the other interviews. A week goes by i havnt heard anything. On thursday i send the VP an email asking "just wondering the status of the job." I hear nothing thursday or friday. I am starting to doubt but i know how long this process has taken and how sometimes they are not on the ball with things.

Monday rolls around and about 4:00PM i get an email that says call me on my cell phone after 5. My heart skips a beat or 3 and i email Julie and tell her. We are excited. I figure out how much i would need to have them offer me to be worth it. I get out of work and right away call him. Ring....Ring...Ring...VOICEMAIL. So i leave a message. I try a few other times on my way home. Same thing. I get home and i call him. Ring...Ring...Ring...VOICEMAIL. So i just wait. About 6:00 my phone rings. I jump up and run to the back room of our house so it is quiet and i say "Hello" and i hear "well we have good news and bad news" my heart sank. "We filled the position on Friday however in the process we realized that we need to add another person to our I.T. Staff. We dont expect you to wait on us. It will be sometime this summer when we create the position. And you will most likely be hearing from us this summer."

I know i could have done that job. I know there is something out there better. But what? Why am i at the Job that i am at still. Dont get me wrong i am glad to have a job. Especially when a lot of people around here dont. God i know you know. El Roi

Good Tea video

2009-03-14T13:38:00.003-04:00

This is a good tea video i found from @lainiep