Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Okay, it's been a few days since the last report. Here is what's going on in a nutshell.

Monday: Steven had goalkeeper practice and I was supposed to run a optional practice for the rest of the team. I really didn't want to and was lucky when only 2 kids showed. I sent them packing.....

Tuesday: I got a box of chocolates from the temp company I'm employed by, for Administrative Professionals Day.

The family took a walk/ride in Spring Lake park. It was Sara's first time out riding w/o training wheels on her bike. A few skinned knees and tears later we went home.

I posted my latest podcast, a few days after recording it

Wednesday: Got Jean's wireless laptop connecting to her new router. Sounds like she is good to go now! (Don't forget the antivirus!)


Till next time,

Weekend wrapup

What a great weekend. No, I really mean that! I had a very productive few days. While most people wish their weekends were longer just so they don't have to go to work, I wish this weekend had been longer just so I could have done a few more things! :-)

Let's start with Friday afternoon/evening. I finally put all the pieces together and created and posted my first real podcast. If you don't know what a podcast is, WAKE UP! There have been articles on the New York Times, USA Today and dozens of other major periodicals along with reports on CNN and the BBC. Okay, so you still don't know what it is? It's basically a homegrown 'radio' show in the form of an mp3 file. I know what you are saying, this is just 'internet radio'. No, this is nothing like that. Most 'internet radio' is streamed, whereas this is a file you can download to any mp3 player, hardware or software based. The real neat thing about this is you don't have to manually go and download them. There is a piece of software that automatically does it for you every time there is a new episode of one of your preselected shows. This makes it all work like an audio version of TiVo! There are currently more than 5000 shows you can choose from, on topics ranging from religion to wine, sports to music, technology to sexual practices. With new podcasts starting everyday, if there isn't already something you will enjoy chances are there will be soon! Anyway, my podcast is called the "Ordinary Average Guy Podcast". You can listen to it by clicking on a link from my other blog at http://oagpodcast.blogspot.com if you like it and would prefer to 'subscribe' to it, let me know and I'll help you set it up.

Meanwhile, back to my weekend. Saturday was a little more quiet. I got all the laundry done, did a few sinks full of dishes, got the kids to clean their rooms and even got the Roomba working and sucking up dirt all over.

Sunday was the big day. Soccer! Steven's team was playing their archrivals (with whom they tied for first place in the fall), the Franklin Warriors and we had to do it without our headcoach. That left me in charge. Yikes!

We arrived at the field at about 2:15 for a 3:00 start. We had brought Shane, our goalkeeper with us since his brother was having a first communion party. Soon other players starting showing up, a few of them in the wrong uniform! As I started sorting that out, our leading scorer arrived with no cleats! He was dejected because he knew without them he couldn't play. We made a few quick phone calls and got hold of the mother who was already on her way back to get the right jersey for her son and had her pick up cleats for Ryan. Neverless, we had to start the game without him and one of the other boys who didn't have the right jersey. It was a close game. The other team had lots of opportunities but our defense rose to the occasion and the few shots they did let through Shane smothered. With about 5 minutes to go in the first half the cleats and jersey arrived (thanks again much again Tracey) and I got both boys in finally. They used those last 5 minutes to 'warm up' and the half ended in a scoreless draw. The second half was a lot more evenly matched, both sides had chances and finally one of ours went thru/over/under I don't remember the opposing goalkeeper and Ryan tapped it in for the goal. The boys were ecstatic and Ryan kept yelling "I love you Mrs. Lundy" to the mother who got his cleats. We held on for the win 1-0 and everyone went home happy. We decided to have a celebratory dinner at the "Outback Steakhouse". I then came home to a nice glass of wine and a relaxing evening.

Now it's Monday morning and I feel like I still have (and could do) a million more things.

I guess I better get started with them!

Till next time,

Where does he get such wonderful toys!!!!

Okay, I've already done a lot of leg work in my quest to become a podcaster (not sure what that is? Click here). I've tried different combinations of sound cards, headsets, microphones and machines. But I think I have finally found the best setup for what I want to do. Last weekend while beginning to clean out my grandmothers place, I came across a RadioShack microphone and stand. I brought that home with me and tried using it with the sound cards on both my desktop and laptop with varying degrees of success. When I finally discovered that the line in on my PC was the best connection I had (the mic input suffered from horrible electrical noise), I decided to purchase a mixer. Of course being the impatient little boy that I am, I couldn't wait to order one online (like this one) , so instead I ran out to RadioShack and found this little beauty on sale. I hooked it all up with my iPod as an input and using the microphone from Illinois and it works WONDERFULLY! Now all I need to do is find the time to make my first cast.....

Till next time,

Back to life...Back to reality

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a few days. The flight back on Monday went well, even if I did have to spend 3 or 4 hours in wonderful O'Hare Airport. I was shocked to find that you couldn't beg borrow or steal a wireless connection inside O'Hare, especially considering the huge amount of business travelers that go thru there.

Trying to get back in the swing of things and spend as much time at work as possible, since I can only work 4 hours each on Thursday and Friday due to parent teacher conferences. Both kids got their report cards this week. Sara got all "P's" while Steven just missed making High Honor Roll for the third straight marking period due to an 87 in art class. All in all good reports all around.

My work with the soccer club has picked up again, as more coaches try to reschedule games lost to rain etc. Also, Al told me he would not be there for this Sunday's game against our fiercest rivals, with whom we tied for first place last season. Oh and by the way, I won't have my leading scorer for at least the first half and my goalkeeper may not show either, along with one other substitute! OMG! Welcome back!!!


Till next time,

..That we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain....

Beth and I awoke yesterday and started the long drive down to Rosamond. Michael decided to stay awake for this trip which had Beth hopping back and forth from the front seat to the back. But for the most part he remained a happy content baby. The roads were fairly empty with it being open highway and interstate for nearly 2/3 of the trip down there. The last 50 miles or so were much more rural, but beautiful. It was a warm sunny day, the kind of weather you don't mind driving hundreds of miles in.

The whole way Beth was concerned that the directions Bob had given us would confuse Kim and that she would have problems finding her way. Of course this didn't seem like much of a problem to Beth the day before when I suggested we meet Kim and have her follow me, but that's another story.. ;-) . Needless to say, after we wound our way through Pana, drove past another cemetery (That MUST be it, Bob's directions are just wrong) and found our way up the hill to the cemetery, Kim and family were there waiting for us.

Shortly thereafter John, a distant relative who lives in the area and had actually dug my grandmothers grave arrived. We talked about the cemetery, the family history and enjoyed the wonderful sunshine. Michael enjoyed laying on a blanket in the warm air under a shady tree, the same tree that Grandma and someday Hank would be buried under. It looked over a farmer's field and the vast Illinois plain below. From here all the world seemed at peace.

Bob and his wife Shirley arrived next, trailed by Karen and her husband Rudy who I discovered is from Central New Jersey originally (Cranford and Freehold). I helped Bob bring over the box containing Grandma's remains and the marble box that they would be buried in. Soon everyone gathered around for a few more words, another tune from Beth on the violin and our final goodbyes. I don't think there was one person there who didn't shed a tear.

We then slowly drifted away from the side of the grave and milled around a bit more. Karen told us she had a picture of "Grandpa Winters" (I'm not sure if this was Grandma's father or grandfather) and wondered if anyone wanted to see it. Beth went right over to it while Kim and I talked some more. Then Beth hurriedly called me over to the back of Karen's car to see the portrait. As I turned the corner at the back bumper I was confronted with what seemed to be me, albeit with a long Smith Brothers style beard. The family resemblance was striking and humbling all at once.

We then decided to drive to Decatur to have lunch at the Crackerbarrel restaurant there. Rudy unexpectedly picked up the check and then we all departed for our long drive 'home".

Till next time,

It feels like raindrops falling from my eyes...

Yesterday was another very long emotional day. The morning passed by very slowly, I woke up around 5:30 to the sounds of a baby crying. It was my nephew Michael in the next room. He was the first of many people to be crying yesterday, yet his was for a much different reason than the rest of us. He was just hungry.

After having breakfast, I came back to my room for a chance to catch up on emails and take a short nap. Then it was time to prepare for the funeral. We got everything together and met some of the family at Uncle Hank's place. My cousin Kim was there, with her mom Mavis (Hank's favorite first ex-wife) and Kim's three daughters (Erica, Jordin and Tawni). Also there were Hank's cousin Lola (Aunt May's daughter) and cousin Bob(Uncle Bob's eldest son) who was going to lead the service. We then proceeded to the funeral home.

Once inside Kim was overcome with grief. At first she didn't even want to go into the room where Grandma's ashes were. I talked to her, comforted her, hugged her. Considering I hardly knew her and hadn't seen her in 27 years I seemed to do okay. Shortly thereafter she joined the rest of us in the room. We looked over snapshots of grandma's life. Smelled the beautiful flowers that people had sent and just tried to figure out everything that was going on. Soon, other family and friends started coming in. Quite a few of Hank's cousins attended and even some of their grown children. It was nice meeting or in some cases remeeting some of them and sharing with them how our lives had progressed. Others to come included some folks from town, who either knew Hank or Grandma and several nurses and home health aides who had helped Grandma through those rough last few years.

After a while, Beth started playing violin and before we knew it the service was beginning. Bob planned a lovely service that talked about what a wonderful life Grandma had and how she had shared it with all those that came into her life. We sang several of her favorite hymns including 'In The Garden', which was particularly appropriate since she loved her garden so much. A few cousins got up and talked about 'Aunt Liz' and how much positive impact she had on their lives. One of them read an eulogy written by Fred (my natural father), that told stories of growing up and how much love she had for her family. Finally Beth and the organist played Happy Trails (although maybe not as jauntily as Grandma would have wanted it) and the service was over. We all shed a tear or two and a laugh or two during the service, but now it was time to move on to the next thing.

Grandma wanted everyone who attended to have a dinner at her favorite local Italian restaurant, Verucchi's in Spring Valley. I think there were about 25 of us there, for an afternoon buffet. The food wasn't the best, but we were all starving so we ate like pigs! I had a glass of wine with dinner which I enjoyed thoroughly. When we were done we said our goodbyes to most of the relatives and headed back to our hotel, to get a little rest.

When I got to my room I laid down on the bed and before I knew it, it was nearly 6pm. That was the time that Beth and I had agreed to meet Hank and his family again to go through Grandma's and start cleaning it out. I stumbled out the door and met Beth and Michael downstairs for the quick ride to Granville.

We went through lots of pictures and other mementos, cleaned the food out of the kitchen and barely made a dent in things. We each took a few things that had some meaning for us and barely got out of there before 8:30pm.

While we were there, Beth and I found out more about why there was such animosity between Hank and Kim. I won't get into it here, but suffice it to say the tears shed today weren't just for grandma.

Beth and I stopped on the way back to the hotel for a quick bite to eat (McDonalds AGAIN) and settled in for the night. We both knew that as long as this day was, the next would be even longer...


Until then,

Life and Death in the Midwest

Well, yesterday was a busy day. I woke up early to get on a plane to Chicago. The flight was rather non eventful, we even arrived about 30 minutes early. My sisters flight was right on time. We got all of our bags, laptops, musical instruments, baby stuff etc and took the bus to the Avis rental center. We got a Chevy Impala (why the hell do they put the ignition there?!?!?) and got on our way to Peru. Once we got off of I-55 and onto I-80 we found a Wendy's for lunch (it was after 3:00 EDT) and used the drive thru, since Michael was STILL sleeping and Beth didn't want to wake him. Around 3:00pm CDT we found the hotel and checked in. Beth wanted to give Michael a chance to stretch out, since he had been in his car seat all day, before we called Uncle Hank and his clan. I tool the time to get my laptop working and Skype home.

After about an hour, Beth called Hank, Kim and Mavis and it was decided that we would all meet for dinner around 5:15, just 3 hours after we ate lunch. To make things worse, they wanted to eat McDonalds. So, we got our stuff together and worked our way over to Spring Valley. Hank looks the same, just a little grayer. Mavis and Kim both look much older, but then again I haven't seen them in 27 years. Kim has three beautiful daughters aged 13, 15 and 21 I believe. We had a nice chat all about our lives and of course our big trip with Grandma in the van. We all remembered a few things that some of us had forgotten and had a great time. I'm sure the employees were wondering if we were ever going to leave!

Before we got back into our cars we found out how much bitterness still existed between Kim and Hank, due mostly to the fact that Kim's daughters are bi-racial. It' sad to see such hurt in people's eyes at a time like this, but this is nothing new for them. It has been this way for as long as I can remember.

After getting back to the hotel, Beth and Michael went to bed around 8:00pm CDT and I decided to see if I could find somewhere to go. On the way into the hotel, we saw two Mexican restaurants. One was across the parking lot from the hotel and the other was called "Mi Margarita". I figured one of them had to have a bar, so I walked over the closer one first and peered into the windows. No bar there. Then I went back to the front desk and asked them what bars were in the area. They said "Well, there's Appleby's or the SuperBowl" which was a bowling alley across the street. I decided to hop in my car and drive the short distance to Appleby's. It was very busy, but of course, not much going on at the bar. So, I remarked to the barmaid how bizarre it was that there weren't any other bars around here. She told me about a local place (Lou's LaGrotta) that she used to work at that was more down in the town. Now THAT was the place to be! Mugs of Sam Adams for $2!!! I had 2 or 3 beers, listened to the locals talk about their lives etc and then headed back to the motel room. After a quick stop at the Steak and Shake (yup, time for one more burger!) I settled into my room for the night around 10:15pm CDT.

Today, will be another busy day and I'll try to write about that tonight....


Till next time,

Everybody must get.......sick

Yes, I know I haven't been keeping up to date with this, but it's been just another wonderful week around the Bichler homestead. As I mentioned in the "weekend catchup", Steven and Sara were both sick, which meant only one thing, Suzie and I got sick during the week. I started with horrible stomach cramps Monday night into Tuesday morning. Spent all day Tuesday either napping or on the couch with my laptop and TV. Suzie got sick yesterday and is just recovering from it now. Now we are scrambling around trying to get things taken care of before I leave tomorrow for Illinois. I electronically filed our federal income tax return last night, but due to the 2 k-1 forms from Suzie's family, we had to print out our state return. Got that signed this morning and now Suzie is preparing it for the post office later today. Of course at the same time I am trying to get all the laundry done so I have clean clothes for my trip. Also tried to get together some of the other things I'll need for my trip (hotel confirmation, flight info for my sisters flight, rental car info etc) ready ahead of time.

A few other things going on around here. The grandfather of one of the more talented players on Steven's soccer team was found dead in the lake of a local park.

News account in local paper

Obituary

A very sad story...

In the meantime Suzie is scheduled to work this weekend while I'm away. None of her nieces and nephews are able to help out (no surprise there, they never seem to be able to help out), with the exception of Shawn for a short period of time on Saturday afternoon. She has talked to the high school student next door who also can only watch them for periods of time, since he has previous engagements for sports. I'm not sure what she is going to do the rest of the time. We have talked about several different possibilities, but she hasn't followed up on any of them. I'm afraid that she is going to wait until Friday night and then be unable to find someone to help her. Sigh.

Oh well, back to work. I'll try to make a better effort to keep this up. I'm told there is high speed internet access in the hotel we're staying in, so that shouldn't be an excuse.

Till next time,

Weekend Catchup

I was really kept busy yesterday. Lots of things going on. More emptying of crap from the basement. We kept bringing stuff out as people would come and take stuff. It's always amazing how many people drive around looking for things the week of bulk pickup.

Of course soccer had to find it's way into my day. Even though Steven's team was off, I was needed down at the field more than once. Once the referee thought the goals weren't sturdy enough, so I needed to get sandbags from our main complex. The other time the referee thought the lines weren't clear enough, so we had to repaint the lines.

The last major accomplishment was our income taxes. Finally got through 99% of them. Still waiting for a few numbers to trickle in, but it looks good as of now. I'm just glad I will be able to send them out before I leave for Illinois on Friday.

Finally we had a nice big roast beef dinner, with roast potatos and fresh string beans..mmmmmm

Well that's how the weekend ended. More later about today's happenings...

P.S. I forgot to mention how Saturday night ended...with my daughter getting sick several times in the hallway on her way to the bathroom. Lots of late night fun in the Bichler house! wooohooo!

Bowling

Tonight was the night for our monthly bowling league. I wasn't there last month, since I was in Florida for spring training, so I was really looking forward to this. Our two partners weren't there tonight, they were in New Orleans, so it was just me and Suzie. I bowled at 135 in the first game (my average was 128 coming into tonight) and we lost by 12 pins. The second game I bowled a 170 (5 pins off my all time high) and we lost by four pins. The last game I bowled horrible (a 119) and we lost by a bunch. So all in all we lost all 7 points for the night. A real bummer.

Busy day/weekend ahead...

Lots of things to do this weekend...And it appears the weather has taken a turn for the better! According to most forecasts there is no rain in the foreseeable future. This will help us a lot today as we start putting out some things for bulk pickup this week. Time to get rid of more junk! Wooohooo! Maybe sometime our basement will be clear of clutter....Oh who am I kidding!

I also need to start working on the taxes this weekend, now that we have some preliminary numbers in from Suzie's family. I'm sure this won't be easy. Maybe I can even do it on the laptop...

Of course soccer is still on the menu, even though Steven's team won't be playing. I need to go down to our main field just after lunch and learn how to replace a sprinkler head and possibly line the fields. Also, tomorrow I need to make myself available at our alternate fields to help erect some temporary goals etc.

The one bit of fun will be tonight when Suzie and I go bowling. Of course that will be somewhat tempered by our partners not being there along with some of our other friends.

Sorry I didn't make any entries yesterday, but I was home with a sick child (Steven, stomach) and took the chance to take a nap or two and catch up on a few things around here.

Have a great weekend!

Into every life a little rain must fall...

It's been a rough stretch here lately. Between Suzie's aunt, her old next door neighbor and now my grandmother passing away within the last few weeks, things have been rather somber around here. The news only seems to get worse and worse.

My grandmother in Florida has Alzheimer's disease which is rapidly progressing. This has necessitated moving her and my grandfather into a the assisted living portion of the place they live at. This has been very rough on everyone, as it is the second time they will be moving in less than a year. My Aunt Jean has borne most of the brunt of this and has done it willingly. My mother and father have tried to help out as much as they can, but until now they have had lots of things occupying their time.

Now we have gotten news that Sue's sister in law Sally has been in the intensive care unit since Monday due to some breathing problems. No one in her family seems to know what is going on, they are all more interested in their 'numbers' for the tax man. Maybe all of this will finally convince them to get a third party to handle all that nonsense, but I doubt it.

In other depressing news, we are supposed to get another inch or more of rain starting tonight and into tomorrow. There has been a lot of flooding in all the normal areas of the state already (Wayne etc) and now they will have to deal with more. Thank goodness I have a dry basement!


Well, that's enough for now. Time to get back to work...


Till next time,

Kids say the darndest things...

The kids and I were out to dinner tonight when Sara turns to me and says, "Dad, we have a bad last name". I asked her what she meant. She said "Well, when people say our name wrong they say BITCHler". I tried to explain to her that there was nothing wrong with our name, just that sometimes people mispronounced it. She didn't want to hear that, she just wanted to keep saying BITCHler!

All this for a salad !?!?!?!

I thought I would try the local Saladbowl for lunch today, thinking they may have wifi access for my laptop. I cruised the parking lot with my laptop on and Network Stumbler running looking for a open connection and a parking spot. The connection looked promising, finding a parking space was another thing. I finally gave up trying to find a close spot and took the first open one I could find, a short walk away. When I got to the store, the line was nearly out the door. I figured this would be a good time to try and log onto the access point. I had a strong signal but couldn't connect. After waiting and not moving for what seemed like 10 minutes (but was probably closer to 2 or 3), I gave up and went back to the car. A short time later I stopped at the local SubWay and lo and behold they had an open access point (or someone near them did) and I was able to enjoy lunch and my laptop at the same time!

Another sleepy morning...

Just waking up from another sleepless night. I tried to go to bed earlier than normal last night, but it just seemed to make things worse. First Suzie was watching the news in bed which for some reason was distracting me. Then I woke up several times and tossed and turned in between due to the snoring. Now I'm finally up, but feel like I never went to sleep. Oh well, just another day. I'm letting Steven sleep a little longer since he doesn't have to compete with Sara this morning for bathroom time etc, but I need to get him up soon. I just wanted a chance to make another post here, so I can try to keep up with this.


Till next time,

Here we go again....

Well folks, I've kinda tried this before in a sort of test bed and never seemed to have enough time to do anything with it. That was before two things happened.

The first is finding how ridiculously simple this web site is. Even I can make something that looks like I spend lots of time on without actually doing that. As a geek I don't usually have a problem with technical things, but when it comes to style.... Well lets just say I'm a little challenged. Blogger makes it easy for anyone to make things look just the way you like but still make it simple for those who are less capable of making things look good.

The second is my wonderful new laptop that I purchased with monies gifted to me by my parents. I've always wanted one and now with my wireless connection, comfy sectional couch/recliner and HDTV I can really make use of it. Thank you again to Mom & Dad for making that happen.

I don't know how much I will really update this. I'd like to keep it updated as much as possible, but sometimes life just gets in the way.


Until the next time,