My Frakkin Blog!

Well - for some reason - since the last time I posted - today.com screwed up my blog.  You’ll also notice that my header is gone as well.  I don’t have any control over anything on this blog other than what I can post, my header, and my sidebars.  I have no idea when they actually disappeared or what today.com did to my profile - but - everything I worked so hard in building up on my sidebars is now gone.

I have sent them two messages now hoping they are smart enough to keep a back up on their servers - considering - whatever they did - they totally messed up my blog.  If I have to start all over trying to build up all those links and try to find all the award images, and everything else I had - it’s going to kill me.  It’s going to take forever!  I don’t know what the future of this blog will be if they can’t recover what they screwed up.  I might have to give it up.  One of the other problems with not having control is that I can’t save images.  I can only upload or link to them.  They don’t save in to a directory that I can access.

If it looks to be a daunting task to rebuild my sidebars - I might have to say adios to this blog and move to somewhere else.

To all the EC people who came through from other blogs I advertised on - sorry for not having the widget up.  I didn’t learn about this until I received a message from EC saying they could not detect my widget.  That’s when I learned everything was gone.  For those of you who paid credits to advertise - sorry - I don’t know what to say.

Did anyone else have this same problem with their today.com blog?

I know, I’ve said it before - I am SO SUCH a SLACKER!  Actually, this is not the case today.  I didn’t get an opportunity to put up the lights today as I had planned.  You know what they say about plans..right?

Well - things started off right - Mary would do her thing and I would do my thing and then I would get to the lights after I was done doing my thing!  Well, my thing consisted of doing homework, updating and balancing the checkbook, writing and paying the bills, putting the Angel on the top of the tree (Mary can’t reach it even on a step-ladder), super-glue some broken ornaments, and put up a wall decoration.  Once I got all that done - then I would get to the lights.

Well - I should probably update the checkbook more than once a month - that took me a heckuva lot longer to do than I anticipated.  Anyway, I got everything done on my list - but - by that time it was already dark outside.  I don’t like to put lights up in the dark cuz - well - while I consider myself to be somewhat nimble and coordinated - you never know what’s out there in the dark that might cause some unanticipated injuries.  20 years ago I never would have cared about that!

Anyway - I’ll get the lights finished tomorrow and I promise the pictures will be up!

First - had to make sure I put something up today - guess that picture from Wednesday was just a little too creepy!  LOL.

So, as some of you may remember from this post I mentioned that we had a solar water heater installed.  I also mentioned in that post that once we had a full month under solar I would report back on it’s efficiency - etc.

Well - proof is in the pictures right?  Here is a chart that I downloaded from my energy company’s website regarding my usage from the past year:

You will notice the decrease in my Kwh beginning October. Doesn’t look so different from this past March. However, that was with only 1/2 month with the new solar panels. Now - Check out November’s numbers! You’ll see that our usage was cut almost in half compared to last year at this time - and throughout most of this year.  Also, you’ll notice that usage goes up and down with the average temperature.  That’s because the air conditioning is on more during the summer months.  When the temps are down, we don’t need the A/C - and it only gets cold enough to turn on the heat for about 2 - 3 weeks out of the entire year.

Just what does that mean? We used 1,000 less Kwh this year than last. Last year’s bill for November was $290. This month’s bill - $180. That’s the lowest it’s been since the energy company raised the rates per Kwh because of the increased price of oil.

Hopefully, the energy company will lower those per Kwh rates given the cost of oil has significantly decreased. If that happens, I could potentially see my monthly electric bill down to under $100/month. Not bad considering before I installed these panels, my electric bill was consistently above $300/month.

So, if anyone is interested - I highly recommend you get a solar powered hot water heater. It literally pays for itself!

I feel like such a bum not getting out here to blog - but - this is mid-term week and last week was Disney prep week!

I reported last week that we were taking the kids to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party last Friday.  It went over very well!  I did get some good pictures of the kids in there costumes and of the castle lit up.  They’re pretty good.  I’ll have those posted up.

Additionally, an old member of the family has returned - Jake.  I’ll go in to that story on Friday along with some pictures.  A long story short - Jake is our golden retriever that we had for 7 years.  He went to live with my step-son and his dad 2 years ago.  We picked up Jake and brought him home on Saturday on our way back from Disney.  Those pictures and the story on Friday!

I promise - really I do!

I know I’ve been remiss about my EntreCard dropping as well.  For those of you who continue to drop - thanks!  It’s really appreciated.  I promise I will get back to some powerdropping this weekend and will be returning the favor.  I always start my drops from my inbox then move to my entredropper list.

I try as best as possible to not let my political views encroach on this blog - but - after having seen Bush’s speech tonight regarding the economy and the bailout - I have to post something.

I didn’t cause this mess!  You didn’t cause this mess.  Government caused this mess.  This started back in 1977 when Carter implemented the Community Reinvestment Act telling lenders they had to meet a certain quota taking on high risk loans in order for the “disadvantaged” to buy homes.

Then, in 1996 Clinton revised the CRA and then took away the requirements for income verification and employment verification and told mortgage lenders they had to take on more high risk loans and give more of the “disadvantaged” homes or risk have their businesses being shut down and being labeled racist institutions.

Then, in 2003 Bush revised the CRA and took away the requirement for a downpayment.  In the meantime Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were guaranteeing more and more of these bad loans while Obama’s economic advisors were getting rich - and cooking the books (BTW - Both Jim Johnson and Frank Raines have been convicted in civil court and have been ordered to pay millions in fines - with economic advisors like that - what kind of decisions will Obama make?)

Chris Dodds, Barack Obama, and Barney Franks received millions in campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie.  Jamie Gorelick made millions from Fannie and Freddie.  Dodds, Obama, and Franks should recuse themselves from making any decisions or having any input on how to fix this mess - they helped cause it along with The Fed keeping interest rates artificially low.  This whole mess came to a screeching halt when they started raising the rates again after all those years of cuts.  Bernanke knew exactly what would happen - but - he did it anyway.

No side is clean here.  Both sides are to blame.  Our government caused this mess by passing laws that affected private businesses from conducting business in a sound manner.  As a result - there are $billions in bad loans floating around that caused this disaster.  The entire global financial system is screwed up right now because of U.S. Government interference in private business.  What makes anybody think that government can fix the problem they caused?  I am so fed up with our government right now I can barely see straight.  This is not the Bush administration’s fault.  The Bush administration bares part of the responsibility because they just continued bad policies from previous administrations.  The Republicans were in complete charge for 6 years.  They had an opportunity to fix the economy and the energy sector - but - they squandered it.

Regardless of who you are voting for as the President come November - I’m putting out a call to everyone to vote out all of the incumbents from the House and the Senate.  It’s the career politicians that made this mess.  We have the power to hire and fire our representatives.  Lets send a message and fire them all.  Let’s reset our government as well as our financial sector.

I promise - I will not be posting any more political discussions on this blog.  This one is just too close to me for me not to comment on it.

Have you ever had one of those nights/days/mornings when you get to your blog - then you just can’t think of anything to write about?  I know I can usually rely on some meme out there somewhere to just follow along with - or I could load up some pictures and write about my kids - or something else my wife has broken - but - didn’t see a Tuesday meme out there, my last few posts have been about my kids - so - I don’t want to overload on that - and - Mary’s been pretty good lately about not bumping in to, or tripping over things.

While I’m working towards my dissertation - our writing instructors have all said the same thing - if you get a block - just start writing.  It doesn’t matter what you write about - you can always delete it once you get the words flowing.

Well - I do have one thing to fall back on tonight!  For My Wife, Mary:

Don’t even think about asking me how old young she is! She’d shoot me.  I took the kids out to buy her cards and presents today.  I got her a sapphire and diamond necklace, Kylie (daddy) got her a pair of sapphire ear rings, and Ryan got her Gator Golf!  He says he got it for HER so they could play together.  I couldn’t resist his logic.

You may remember this previous post Comfortable Summer Gear where I told you about a great website to get some comfortable clothing. Well, it’s still summer - and here in Florida - we certainly know that all too well! It’s not too late to head on over to that website and get your 5.11 gear. In addition to the comfortable summer clothing attire they have, you can find sunglasses, watches, and all kinds of other accessories. Right now, if you buy at least two 5.11 gear clothing items you get free shipping and a free hat. If you buy at least $125 worth of 5.11 gear you get the previously mentioned items and a free travel mug.

So, check them out and tell them I sent ya! :^)

Just in case anyone who regularly drops in here is wondering why I haven’t been posting anything - it’s because I’m in the process up updating/upgrading/redesigning my blog. It’s taking me longer than I thought.

I’m not really happy with the way this one looks, so, I’ve been scouring the web to find a decent template. However, none of the templates are really anything that I am looking for..so..I’m working on my own based on other designs that I’ve found. I know how to program in HTML, but this CSS XML PHP stuff is new to me. While I do recognize a lot of the HTML in the code, there are certain syntax that I’m working through and figuring out.

So - please bear with me as I bear through this code! I promise I will be back very soon - in the meantime - I will try to at least hit the meme days - Musical Mondays, Wordless Wednesday, and the like since those are real easy posts!!

We have just about finished the kitchen now. The only thing left is to re-install the microwave - which will get done this week. I finished the painting and trim this evening. Hopefully, I can post up the pictures by the weekend!

See ya and thanks for having patience with me!

What a whirlwind week it has been. I apologize for not posting anything up sooner. After having taken off a couple days from work last week, things were pretty hectic when I got back. So, between the wedding, work, renovating the kitchen, chasing toddlers and doing my school work, I’ve been swamped this past week.

But, I promise to you all, I will post up some of the wedding pictures - and - I still owe you all the pictures of Crystal in her cute little pink-paw cast.

Thanks to you all for bearing with me and continuing your drops and visits in the absence of my posts! I will be reciprocating here very soon