Less Than A Month!

Yes, less than a month before the little girl arrives. Are you in the Baby Pool? Well, get there! Over 800 BlogMad credits...

Tomorrow is Friday; I'll try to get a reminder up for you to Wear Red and Support our Troops. I'll be stylin' in my new "Lighting Sharp" red polo.

Let me jump in here with a traffic tip: If the BIG FLASHING ARROWS are indicating a closed lane ahead, slow down and change lanes to the lane that continues. Avoid the urge to run right up to the BIG FLASHING ARROWS to force your way in at the last possible second. If you do it again, I will beat you to a pulp while asking why you are so much more important than the rest of us waiting patiently to get through the construction...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Reality Check

I am going to be a new daddy in less than a month.

I realized this (or should I say, this point was driven home to me) whilst listening to KLOVE on the radio the other day and John Rivers, the morning host (with his lovely bride Sherri) said that it was thirty days until Christmas.

Thirty days. Now, it's even less. And Christmas Day is the projected due date of the bundle of joy. Are you in the pool yet? Over 800 BlogMad credits are up for grabs...

Less than thirty days. Wow.

So, how was your Thanksgiving Holiday? TMBWitW and I spent the day at the house, with the exception of the church service. We had some turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing and peas (with baby onions). Friday I went to my toy store (big blue sign, rhymes with Bowes) and picked up some 2x4s and three sheets of 3/4" plywood. Since the room that used to have our "extra" stuff in it is now a baby room, we have had some boxes and what not stacked in the hallway. I built some shelves in what is now the hobby room (as opposed to train room - I gave up some much-needed real estate, since I do most of my model railroading on a club layout; I need less room for a shelf-type switching layout than the miniature empire I had planned) so that the hallway can be navigated by a certain person who is much larger than she was a few months ago. Saturday was spent cleaning the house. Sunday was spent visiting TMBWitW's cousins in Kingman, and, since it would be the last trip up there for a while, we exchanged Christmas gifts. It was quite enjoyable, and not nearly as traumatic as certain trips up there have been.

Wow. Less than thirty days.

I have one more project in the baby room - a "knob board" - basically, a board, with knobs mounted on it, to hang clothes on. Pretty, frilly, special clothes, on pretty, frilly, special miniature hangers. I'll get a picture of that one, it should be good.

I missed doing this last Friday, so maybe this will make up for it:



Go here. Order a shirt or two, and steal this picture. Plaster it all over the web. Please. Show your support for our troops!

Thank you, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Broadcast Decency Under Attack

Grassroots Americans Have a Voice

For more than two years, Grassfire.org has been one organization that spearheaded a national campaign resulting in the presentation of more than 150,000 citizen petitions to the FCC, and leaders in Congress, as well as a letter-writing campaign that saw the delivery of more than 10,000 protest letters to each FCC commissioner.

Earlier this year, Grassfire rallied tens of thousands to send emails to the manufacturer of a video game that could be manipulated by the user to unlock adult sexual content.

Their action prompted the game maker to pull the game from the shelves and re-edit the material.

Grassfire was also instrumental in the passage of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 (S. 193), that will raise fines from $32,500 to $325,000 to broadcasters airing offensive material.

By adding my name to the 307,286 citizens who are standing for broadcast decency, I have a voice in this debate, and can impact the issue through Grassfire.

Please join with me on this important issue, and together let's work to take back the airwaves and protect family viewing times.

Sign Petition Here

Thank you, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Thursday/Friday

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops! Check out the new polos - Sugarcat is modeling one at the top of the page, and it sure looks good. I'm ordering one for each of us, and then I'm going to send Sue our picture.

I probably won't be able to post over the weekend - got some projects to finish up and others to get started before a certain young lady shows up.

I feel such a sense of peace since leaving the cabinet industry - my stress level has gone way, way down. That has the side effect of mellowing out my view on life, also - which means there aren't so many obvious observations to make. However - I am sure you will be hearing from me again on certain, unuversal subjects (hint: drivers in Phoenix).

Through my brief job search period, I knew and kept telling everyone here and elsewhere that God has everything under control. I still know that, and I want you to understand that. It's not something proven empirically, it is a step of faith in every way shape and form. Want to know more? Drop me a line.

I appreciate all you readers, every single one, even if you haven't joined the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool. If you have, I appreciate you even more.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Catch Up Tuesday

So, Paul at BlogMad has the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool mentioned on the UCP (User Control Panel) for all the Mad Bloggers to see. He also mentioned it on his own blog and kicked in more credits for the prize pools.

In other news, I have embarked on a new career - I am a Senior Account Executive with a national wholesale processing service. I am selling credit card processing at wholesale prices (the same prices that banks and other third party processors get, before they mark them up and pass them on to the businesses) and also financing the terminals. I believe that at this point in my life I am past being a cabinetmaker. Having worked my way up from the bottom, and working in every position possible (except owner), I have left that industry. I don't think I will miss it, because I can still work on projects in my home shop.

I stopped over at Wear Red On Fridays and was surprised, and humbled, to see that Sue had taken my suggestion and actually assigned it to a shirt. I had mentioned that the name needed to be in line with the other designs (Rolling Thunder, The Patriot) and thought something along the line of "Lightning Sharp" would be nice ... and there you have it!

I'm headed for bed now, so ya'll be good.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Why Didn't I Think Of That Sooner?

I posted yesterday, bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a lot of entries for the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool.

Then, I had a brief brain storm, and emailed Paul at BlogMad Control: since I was offering BlogMad credits, could he, possibly, give me a bit of a mention on the UCP announcement scroll? I didn't want to ask him to do anything untoward, so if he couldn't help out I understood completely, and I would keep trying to drum up interest on my own.

Well. Paul wrote back, after looking over the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool, and agreed to mention it on the UCP. And on his blog. And kick in another 500 credits to the basic prize. Plus another five credits per entry (which will go into the consolation prize pool). AND, he congratulated me on becoming a new father! How's that for cool?

Paul, I can't thank you enough!

So: The first prize is now at 806 BlogMad credits and the consolation amount is at 109 BlogMad credits. Not a bad haul for guessing when our daughter will be born!

Why didn't I think of that sooner?

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Baby Pool Update pt 2

Well, there seems to be a lack of interest in the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool - which means that, considering the current entries, that Jarhead John is most likely going to win.

I think there are people out there who don't know enough wbout the pool - so click on the link at the top of the left column and follow the instructions - let's not just hand this win to John!

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Happy 231st Birthday

Ooh-Rah. Semper Fi. Happy Birthday to all my Devil Dogs out there in Blogland.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Friday!

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops!

Day two of unemplyment passed quietly, with many perusals of want-ads, final tweaking of the resume, and many, many postings of said resume on certain job boards.

I know that God will have a position for me, and it will be right on time.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

8:32 of Joy

Check this out.

Truly, the joy of a man and his dog.

Unemployed, But Looking, Day One

First things first - thank you, my dear and gentle and faithful readers, for being joined with me in holding this up in prayer. I know that God has something better planned for me, and now it's just a matter of listening to what He has to say.

I got up a little bit later than normal today - TMBWitW was working from home, so she didn't have to rush right out first thing, and I certainly didn't have anywhere to go...

An offshoot of this episode is that I figured out why I wasn't sleeping very well. I now think that the stress and uncertainty of not knowing if I had made the right decision (going back to this job after a previous offer didn't pan out) was keeping me up.

Anyway, the house is a little cleaner, my job prospects got shaken out a bit, the resume got massaged, and the dogs got played with. Turns out that was the most enjoyable part.

I'm even asking the Lord for guidance on whether to stay in this industry (cabinetry), or use my knowledge to tangent into another industry with similar skills (layout and design), or even to walk away from this and start on a new career.

Yeah, at my age.

Talk about a leap of faith.

Thanks for listening, and stopping by. I've gotta go talk to the Counselor about my career path. I'll keep you posted.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Well, Hey There!

Why are you posting, Cary? Did something happen at work?

Yes, yes it did.

IT happened.

I left. This time, I don't think they'll be asking me back. I left in a bit of a temper, after being told, basically, that following procedures and processes, including questioning unclear portions of an order, was not good enough. Apparently, one needs to go above and beyond filling the order placed by the salesman and actually read the mind of a customer one doesn't interact with.

In a way, I am going to miss that place - I have - uhm, had a very high level of respect and synergy with the people I work with - excuse me, worked with - including the manager I walked out on.

So - if anyone knows of a position where cabinet software, some CAD ability and a work ethic that normally leaves Type A personalities in the dust would be required, left me know. E-mail me at carycartter AT gmail DOT com. And no, I don't want to sell pharma-anything over the internet. Nor do I wish to be involved in Multi-Level Marketing, no matter what name is behind it.

Actually, right now, a position that requires me to test my golf clubs at various locations around the Valley of the Sun would be really good. Maybe Secret Shopper has a position like that...

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Tear of Pride

I experienced a new manifestation of a feeling I have had for a while.

I was in a large warehouse store the other day (red letters, rhymes with "bostco") and I was waiting to check out. A gentleman walked by, a little older than I am, a little shorter than I am, dark complexion, with a splash of gray at his temples. He was walking with a purpose (he was a vet, I'll tell you that right now. most vets walk with a purpose, unless they are on the golf course, but that's another story...) and it wasn't his coloring or his facial features that I noticed first - it was his ballcap. It was black, and along the side of the bill was stitched, in very small letters, "RANGER."

"Ah," I thought to myself. "A Ranger. Tough birds, those Rangers."

Then I saw the tatto on his right upper arm.

2nd Btn Viet Nam 1966 1969

A rare bird, indeed.

Under his tatoo, the parachute insignia. Airborne Ranger.

Very, very rare bird.

I caught myself tearing up. I actually had a Tear of Pride in my eye - from seeing this complete stranger walk by with the earmarks of a distinguished and challenging service record.

TMBWitW looked at me, glanced where I was looking, and asked "Ranger? Isn't that one of the elite?"

"Yup."

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying. I've got a Tear of Pride in my eye. Marines can have a single Tear of Pride; it's in the code."

"I think I need to see a written version of this code."

"They don't write it on paper, they write it on your heart. That way you can't lose it."

Just then Ranger walked back by, behind us, and commented on my red shirt. I thanked him for his service, and said "Welcome Home."

He nodded back, and as he turned away I could see he had his Tear of Pride in his eye.

Friday - Right Around the Corner!

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops!

Unlike certain Senators from Massachusets, I don't think the "American Fighting Man" is uneducated. Think about what it takes to become an officer - and if you think they are uneducated, then you've got the wrong picture. The typical member of the fighting forces today have more than a high school education; fewer and fewer are dropouts - even the ones that did not complete high school usually earn their GED before the end of their first enlistment. The average officer not only has a Bachelor's Degree in their field of expertise, they have also gone to their branch's version of Officer Candidate School (OCS) - which means at least twelve and possibly more months of intense instruction without the beloved breaks that college gives you. Plus, each and every member of the enlisted ranks are exhorted to enroll in and complete as many additional courses as possible. Not becasue they are a requirement, but because the more subjects you are exposed to, the better your ability to adapt to situations. The more knowledge you have, the more ideas you can bring to bear on a situation.

Unless you are stuck in Massachuesets, and being forced to serve the people as a Senator - then you can only see things one way - and that usually includes the thought stagnation behind "Bush is Wrong" and "Cut and Run" - certainly not the type of leadership anyone I associate with would want representing them.

I tell you, the folk back east are strange. Must be in the air.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!