The grand ol' 4th!

Well July 4th weekend is knocking at the door begging to come in. You ever have that feeling of running over to the door to fling it open, only to stop with your hand on the knob thinking of all the crap you have to get accomplished so you can enjoy the weekend? Well that is where I am at today. One foot out the window with work tugging me back into the building. Jumping would be so worth it this time.
The fam and friends are headed to Glacier National Park this weekend. We leave tonight will camp somewhere along the way, and then onto Hungry Horse for the remaining 2 nights of fun. Anyone have comments on where we should go, or what we should see? I am all ears.
I was able to look at some vacation pics of a Facebook friend of mine on her trip through Glacier. Great pics. I went to school with Amy so it is not like I am THAT creepy. Here are some pics I can rustle up from Google.

T-ball!

Yes it is that time. Time for my little sports fan to go live. He loves all sports, but has a special place in his heart for baseball and hockey. P is a great kid with all the heart to do well. He gets frustrated at times, but never hangs em up so to speak. I hope he continues to have this conviction in life. He will go far if he does. Here are few pics from his current t-ball endeavor.

The final pics.

I had to atleast get up my finals of the fireplace. I know it is extremely late, but I have been busy. Life.....who would have thought that it takes time.

Let me know what y'all think of it. Also, if you want one, that can done.

Here is a post about my newest of home projects. Almost done in its entirety, and the final pics will be posted. The following is up to present day. The before pics are always needed.

Before:


The installation pics:


There is always that guy that has to double check the work:


This has been a fun project which could not have been without the help of my brother-in-law Justin. Also Smitty's fireplace shop here in Helena helped out a lot. They definitely worked hard with us to correct all the little changes that had to be made. I will post the final pictures the end of this week.

The world of computer service......

It is definitely a "come at you from all angles" world of repair and service. Everything from my keyboard doesn't work to I downloaded Antivirus2009 and now my computer is hosed. They all have the same thing in common. 2-10 yrs of not backed up family photos, wedding photos, or critical company data. I love and loathe how people start freaking out when they do not understand what just went, why it went on, and the fact that loaning the critical work laptop to the teenage son/daughter is not a good idea. Just needed to vent for a second. I apologize. I really do enjoy my job from the angle that it is changing everyday. Different people.....different problems.......different fixes. Keeps me on my toes.

After some time away.......

I have neglected what was becoming one place for me to express my opinions. A place where I can say what I want, when I want, and not have to worry about getting in trouble. A lot has happened to me in the last few months and I will get to all that in later posts. The real reason for me coming here today was to say I am still alive and that I will again start blogging. I think I like doing this. I am more "green" minded than I used to be, and want to look at some green gadgetry. There is never a reason one should not do it as green as possible. No matter what it is your doing. I may have have been steered this direction by my those adorable smiles my son and daughter flash at me daily, or the fact that we are all gonna meet our "maker" one day. We are mortal, and we should be concerned with what we leave for our children, our neighbor's children, and all the other children we may not know. It is not their fault how they are raised, but it is our fault on how we act as adults.

A green machine.....

The principle of "greening" your home computer does not cross the mind of some, and the people it does cross do not quite know where to start. Well a company called Verdiem is making this easier, a whole lot easier. They have launched a power management software that is free. Yep, I said F..R..E..E.. Free! So now there is really no good reason we can not help keep our power bills lower and help the environment at the same time. I have included an excerpt from an article relating to this program. See below.

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Verdiem this week uneveiled Edison, a free version of its Surveyor energy management software, designed to "bring PC energy management to the masses."

As part of the launch, Verdiem and Microsoft are touting the software as a way for individual computers to play a role in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which aims to reduce the overall emissions from global IT by 54 million tons in the next two years.

";PCs are the hidden energy hogs of the home and most users have no idea that they are needlessly throwing away 80 percent of their PC's energy," said Kevin Klustner, Verdiem's President and CEO. "If just 1 percent of all PCs used Edison we could potentially reduce environmental impacts by 7 billion pounds of CO2, which is equal to taking more than a half million cars off the road."

Verdiem is hoping to reach that 1 percent of the global PC population -- an estimated 10 million machines -- in the next year, by offering Edison software for free. The program is a slimmed-down version of Surveyor, Verdiem's corporate-level energy-management software, but gives Windows users control over when the software kicks in, and how much energy they want their computers to save.

The software is available for free from http://verdiem.com/edison.

I have been using this freeware for approximately 3 months and absolutely love it. I work at a computer store servicing all sorts of machines and networks which take me away from my desk numerous times during the day. After 5 min. of absenteeism my computer powers down and waits patiently for me to return. Try it out. I think you will enjoy it.