Matthew

Here’s a new picture of Matthew. If you’ve only been looking at pictures on the website, you probably won’t even recognize him.

Matt on the couch

He’s 20 months old now. I’m going to try to post at least one new picture a month here from now on.

Treasure Hunters

Former Paris High School student Charles Taylor has made it all the way to the finals on the NBC reality show Treasure Hunters. Charles graduated in 2002.

We’re having a watch party this evening at the high school. There will be refreshments in the cafeteria starting at 7:00pm and the show starts at 8:00pm on the big screen in the auditorium.

Come by and watch if you’re in the area.

Crappy Day

I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. I was actually a little short with a teacher in front of her students. I’ve never done that before.

I guess the stress of the last few weeks has finally caught up with me. I’m glad this week is almost over and I’m ready to take some time off and have some fun this weekend.

If you’re also having a rough day, you might want to check out these 14 Amazing Facts About Chuck Norris. They made me smile…

Refocusing

Life has been very wild lately. They say time flies when you’re having fun, I say time really flies when you’re working your butt off. Actually, that’s not exactly what I say, but this is a family website.

Work is just crazy this time of year. The problem with being the boss is I can’t just point the finger at someone else any more. If something is broken, it’s up to me to get it done. Hopefully I haven’t screwed up too much.

Now that the students are back in school, things should calm down at work. We’re not there yet, but I’m hoping we’ll get caught up sometime next week.

The school district bought me a new laptop a few weeks ago. Yes, it’s a MacBook Pro. It’s amazing what a faster computer does for my productivity. I can’t say enough good things about it.

I should have a little more spare time since I’m not teaching a class this year. At the end of school last year I had 9 students signed up. I didn’t like teaching in the afternoon, so I asked to have my class moved to before lunch.

Out of the 9 signed up last year, only 4 could be in the class 3rd period and 1 of those took it last year. I just couldn’t justify giving up over an hour a day for 3 students. Hopefully I won’t regret this later.

I’m going to try to start updating my other blogs regularly. Everything has basically taken a two month break. If you’re into paying off your debt or programming games, check them out.

I’ll also upload some more recent pictures of Matthew soon. I don’t carry pictures in my wallet, instead I just point people to this site. Unfortunately all of the pictures here are months old now.

My New Favorite Word

I have a new favorite word — speach.

I actually typed it that way a few minutes ago and I had to read it several times before I noticed anything was wrong. Of course it looks ridiculous now, but at the time it looked correct.

So if I’ve ever typed a message to you and used the word speach, just assume that I meant giving a speech while eating a peach.

Another New Blog

You may have noticed another new link on the right side of the page — Death By Plastic.

Death By Plastic is my new weblog about getting out of debt, specifically credit card debt. It will also cover other personal finance topics like reducing expenses, finding alternate sources of income, and saving for the future.

There’s not much content there yet, but it’s growing steadily. I just finished up a three-part series on eliminating debt with my 1, 2, 3 plan. I think it’s pretty good. Hopefully other people will like it, too.

I’ve got more than 10 other posts in various states of completion — everything from book reviews to investment tips. I’m going to try to update the site at least three times a week.

I feel like I’m finally starting to make money for myself instead of just working to pay the bills. It’s a really good feeling, and I want to share that feeling with everyone I can.

Technology Director

Here’s one reason why I haven’t been posting very much on this site lately:

Back in March my boss announced his retirement. A month or so later, his job was posted on our employment opportunities page.

I turned in my resume for the job around the first of May along with a few other people from outside the district. I interviewed for the position last Monday.

This morning, the school board held a special meeting to discuss several personnel items. During the meeting I was officially employed as Technology Director.

Leia’s Prom Pictures

I finally got around to uploading the pictures I took of Leia in her prom dress over a week ago.

Leia's Prom Pictures

Click the picture above to see all five pictures. I would’ve taken more, but she was running late and didn’t really want to stand still.

Check back tomorrow to find out why it took me so long to get these uploaded…

MacBook

Apple announced their new laptop yesterday – the MacBook. Now it comes in black or white. So you can make sure your laptop matches your iPod.

The Intel Core Duo processor means it’s around 4 times faster than the computer I’m using right now. It has a glossy widescreen and a new low-profile keyboard that looks really nice to me.

I’ll have to get my hands on one at the Apple store to see if I really like it. In the mean time if anybody knows a way for me to a quick (legal) $1000, I’m all ears.

New Kitchen

We spent all day yesterday working in the kitchen. We pulled off all the cabinet doors, sanded them down, primed everything, painted everything (twice), and finally put all of the doors back on with new hardware.

We didn’t take any before pictures, but here are some after pictures.

New Kitchen Matthew on counter

Matthew seems to like it.