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August 1, 2003  Ok, it was time for an update, I spent 10 days at Pine Lake with my family and no, the pictures are not up yet... We had a great time though and I can't wait until next year. The only sad part of the week was the fact that it was Ed and Barb's last weekend at Pine Lake since they sold their trailer. I will miss having them out there. I have no idea what I'm doing this weekend, but I might just go up to Pine Lake just for the simple fact that it's a long weekend... I guess I'll find out tonight! Anyways, have a great August Long Weekend! August 2, 2003 For a number of reasons I decided to take this August long weekend 'off' and not go to the lake, instead choosing to stay at home and catch up on various projects. I'm working on a friend's X-Box which has ceased to function, as well I fixed a toaster for Jason's girlfriend Maeve and took a look at a monitor for Steve, one of the guys I work with. Other things to do for this weekend include cleaning my room, half of which is simply doing laundry. This evening however I was feeling rather musical and decided to take a break from fixing things and composed a little tune on the computer. It took several hours but it was well worth it in my opinion. Some day I will probably write lyrics for it, but for now it's just an instrumental. You can hear it by clicking on this link here. It's also available in the Music section of my site, which has a bit of background information on it as well. Last Thursday, (July 31, 2003) I went out with Kim. We sat outside on the patio at Boston Pizza for three hours and ate very little, much to the disappointment of our waitress I'm sure, but neither of us was really hungry and our it's hard to eat when you're both talking so much. It was really fun, we have hit it off great and there just seems to be no end to the things we come up with to talk about. About 9:00 we decided to leave so we dropped the bike and helmets off at her house and then went for a walk. We stopped by a park to swing on the swings before heading down to a path by the river where we went and explored. (Really it was just two people wandering around not caring where they went, but explored sounds more adventurous.) We went through that tunnel and walked over to the Firestone tower as part of our trip before finding a big retaining wall to sit on which overlooked the river sort of by the weir, with downtown Calgary in sight behind it. It was a perfect evening, it was warm and the sun glowed a bright orange that night as it sank behind the buildings. The song I wrote is my tribute to that night, which is why it's called "Summer Sunset". Now I love listening to it and remembering that night. I think it kind of sounds like a cross between Orbital, the Smashing Pumpkins and Third Force. It's actually a MIDI file, but instead of just putting the .mid file up, I've found that different sound cards interpret MIDI files differently since they all have their own banks of instruments, making it impossible for you to hear the same song that I hear when I play it, unless you have the same sound card as I do. So to solve that problem I recorded it to an mp3, which will sound the same no matter where it's played. I also wanted to catch up on some of my work for other people and their computers, but it turns out that most everyone else I know has gone away this weekend. I suppose that's good in one way because I SHOULD be able to get my cleaning done now, but I really wanted to get all caught up too. Oh well, I need the rest, and so far I've accomplished a lot already. Also, you might want to take a look at our my new index page for the web server. I made this while out at the lake for that 10 day stint with my family. You can see it by going to www.cubeinc.net. The old one needed a face lift, and this is what it got. I think I'm just about ready to call it a night, so I will sign off here and wish you a good day, night, morning, afternoon, or evening -- whichever applies.  August 2, 2003 I decided to stay home this August long weekend and not go to the lake for various reasons, but you can read my Journal if you're really curious about that. But my main accomplishment tonight that I would love to share with you is a song I wrote. You can listen to it by clicking here. It's also available in the Music section of my site, which has a bit of background information on it as well.  We shaved George this weekend because he was very matted and very hot with all this nice summer weather we've been having. He is SOOOOO soft now and looks so cute! We always thought he was a fat cat until we shaved him last summer and found out he is really skin and bones! On another note, I have sorted the various Pine Lake pictures from my week-long stay at the lake into several categories and was getting ready to put them up when I realized -- to my horror -- That I've run out of room on my web server's hard drive! So if any of you happens to have any old SCSI hard drives lying around (or IDE for that matter) and would care to make a donation to a worthy cause... (ahem) hehehehe No, actually I'll probably go out and buy a new hard drive for the web server. Now that more and more sites are being hosted here and those that are already here are growing, it makes sense that I expand the server. August 4, 2003 Did you like my sunset colors in that last entry? Yesterday was my room cleaning day and I must say I did a pretty good job, my room is once again very full of things, but it's all organized very well and I've used the space I have very effectively. Last night after I was done the cleaning part, I did some 
more work on that song I wrote, Summer Sunset, and made it longer. I almost feel like it's become too busy, but it still flows well. Have a listen to
it and let me know what you think! I'd really appreciate some input and feedback, because while I really like it, you might not and I want to know. This morning
I'm going over to James and Gordana's for a lunch Bar-B-Q which they've invited me to, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of the day. Rob
was going to go to Pine Lake today (His is the web site here) but with the BBQ I'm not sure if I'll have time to make it out there to
see him in time. I do still have all my laundry to sort too, so maybe I should get that done tonight anyways, especially since once I start back into the work
week I'll probably have zero time for anything else around here... That's always how it goes. On another note, while I was cleaning I came across quite the
dilemma. Now many of you know I've always been a sentimental person, and as such I like to keep things that have an emotional attachment or memory to them.
Such was the case when I came across some pictures of an ex. I had the pictures poised in my fingers, ready to rip up -- but then I got thinking. Just because
things didn't work out in the past with any given person doesn't mean that whatever time was spent with them just didn't happen... That's why I've
kept all the pictures of this person on my web site until now. Sure we aren't talking anymore and there's a lot of anger between us. But like all other pictures,
it's part of my past -- and therefore in my photo album. So just out of curiosity I popped a quick note to this person just saying hi. She fired back a rather
rude retort, and suddenly something else became clear to me. Some memories of the past are not pleasant and while nothing I do or say or write or think will
change the fact that they happened, that doesn't mean I have to remind myself of them by keeping old pictures around. So I went on a spree and removed from my room
and my web site all the pictures which had her in them, and all the sections of the photo album directly pertaining to her. If you find other pictures of Telle
on here still, please let me know and I'll pull them off as well. I wasn't going to do this, but now I know it's the right thing to do. August 11, 2003 12:48 am IT'S OFFICIAL!Kim and I officially started dating at Westhills Moxies on Friday night (August 8) when we were having supper there. I have SO much to write about this and many other things but I have had absolutely NO time to do any such things. This whole weekend I've been home only between 12:30 am and 10:00 am, usually occupying this time with sleep, showers, and getting ready to go out again. I went snorkelling this weekend as well with Bo and his brothers at Ghost lake... We took some underwater pictures as well and HOPEFULLY they come out... I'll be sure to post them if they do. Next weekend is I'm going to Sylvan with the gang from Grace, this week is booked solid. I haven't been so busy in a long time, but it has been wonderful. I am also getting a new hard drive for the web server in the next couple of days so hopefully I will be able to get those latest Pine Lake pictures up, even though they are a couple of weeks old by now... Sorry guys, I know you keep checking and they aren't there but they are coming eventually. Man there is SO much to write about... Tonight we went and played football and then soccer in the field across the street from Kim / Laura / Carolyn's house and then stayed there till now talking and eating pizza... We had lasagna at church this afternoon too which was awesome. It's going to be a busy remainder of summer! But I have to get to bed. Thanks for stopping by! August 12, 2003 -12:56 am Today an interesting thing happened to me, I got not one, not two, but three computer calls regarding a strange error message that kept coming up and causing all sorts of problems. The first two calls occured while I was at work, but since I was down in the tunnels I only had my phone on while I was above ground. It was interesting too because while most days my phone doesn't ring at all, every time I came above ground today I'd have one call after another! I had picked Kim up from work this evening and we were sitting at Tim Hortons when the third call was recieved. I realized that these things were probably related and that it would be a good thing to find out what was causing them, so Kim was kind enough to accompany me on a 'service call'. We went over to Rob and Lee's place where I worked on their computer and Brooke kept Kim entertained, showing her all her toys and stuffed animals, playing games with her and then showing her how well she can dance. It was very cute. Boy she is growing up fast! Anyways, it turns out that the problem these computers were having is due to yet another vulnerability in Windows. Micro$oft has posted a patch for each respective version of Windows on it's web site, just go to www.microsoft.com and they have all the information right on their main page. (Top right corner as of the time of this writing) Anyone using any version of Windows really should check this one out. The flaw is quite serious. As always, I have a lot more to write but I need to get to bed something fierce or I'll never be able to get up in the morning. These late nights are killing me, but it's so worth it! August 12, 2003 -11:09 pm What a long day! I finished the job at the Bonnybrook Waste Water Treatment Plant today, but then I had to load the 600 odd ballasts into the truck, a third of which had to be carried up from the tunnels which are about two stories into the ground... It was very tiring. So after I'd loaded them all into the truck and drove back to the shop, I had to sort them all and then pack them all on a pallet. They were so heavy our fork lift could hardly pick them up! Oh, but then I went to the store and bought my second and third (Because you can get 2 for $2.22) Pepsi Vanilla's which are just awesome. I like them WAY better than Vanilla Coke... Horray for Pepsi! You really ought to try one. But anyways, this afternoon I went and helped my dad drywall a roof in the basement of this house he is renovating for the guy who used to be the president of SAIT. We worked on that until about 10 and then he took me out for supper at Peter's. It was SO nice tonight too, we sat outside on a picnic table and ate our fries and the weather couldn't have been better! I love my dad. But I am tired so I am going to go to bed. Goodnight y'all. August 13, 2003 -7:05 am "Wipe that SHMILY off your face" I was at Lakeview IGA yesterday, one of my favorite places of course, but I was going to clean their walls while I was there, especially at the end of Aisle 4. It turns out that someone had already cleaned that one particular wall for me. I also had a dream last night that I went swimming with my phone in my sock. (I didn't have any pockets in my shorts yesterday while I was setting up the computer Kaylee just bought from me, so I tucked it into my sock.) Last night Kim and I went for a bike ride around the city, and it was a beautiful night for it. The northern outskirts of the city sure are cold though. We drove by the house I lived in where I learned how to ride a "two-wheeler" and saw dad's stone wall still standing solid. We stopped by good old HHAC and it's got neighbours peering over every fence just about... And a 7-Eleven across the street. It's absolutely incredible how things have expanded in that area, especially since I can remember when it was standing alone in a field! Anyhow, got to go to work! It seems that this 5 minutes before running out the door to work is the only time I've been having to get any journalling done but I'll take what I can get. August 17, 2003 What a weekend. The gang from Grace Baptist came up to Pine Lake this weekend, in fact most of them had been camping there already for several days before I arrived. Despite some less than ideal weather, we still managed to have a great time.  Unfortunately (at least for us) there was a wedding on Saturday afternoon so all my friends left the lake and came back to Calgary for that. I took full advantage of the opportunity and slept saturday afternoon away. They had that comedian back in the Lounge again, Bob Angeli I believe his name was. I didn't go to see him but you could hear roars of laughter overflowing from the lounge doors out over the campground every couple of seconds. I ended up sleeping again Saturday night even with my nap that afternoon and woke up bright and early to shafts of sunlight piercing through the clouds of moisture and smoke to finally cut their way through into a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Having promised many tube rides should the weather get nice, I was now obliged to follow through and so I spent my afternoon pulling the tube around with any kid who wanted to go for a ride until the lake got quite busy and I no longer felt safe towing people. After that I brought my stuff back to Calgary and jumped on my bike so I could drop a video card off at Rob & Lee's place. I'd given them an old Radeon 7000 which I had lying around, but it turns out that their Pentium II computer does not have an AGP slot. I thought all Pentium II's had an AGP slot, but theirs is proof to the contrary. I ended up chatting with them for about half an hour before riding back up North to Kim's parent's place where her sister Christine was having her birthday party. This was kind of the unofficial and informal Meet the Parents. I can tell already that it is going to be very interesting getting to know her family... August 18, 2003 You know how I am always commenting on what a small world it is, well here I have another tail to tell you of more proof to that fact. I had driven home from the lake yesterday, dropped off the Seadoo and was getting ready to go over to Kim's for Christine's birthday party / Bar-B-Q. Realizing that this was going to be my first 'official' visit with her parents, at least since I had become Kim's boyfriend, I thought I should try to look as presentable as possible. This meant getting a haircut. Now being Sunday, my regular hair dresser was closed at 5, and here I was driving around at about 5:45. So I thought I'd just drive around till I found another hairdresser. Well here if during my travels in search of a barber open past 5 on a Sunday, I didn't spot two familiar looking figures on a tandem bicycle.  Last year at Pine Lake
there was a couple who was camping there. They'd asked me if I would take them
for a tube ride and so of course I was happy to oblidge them. He had never
been on a tube before and had just a wonderful time. So far this was nothing
out of the ordinary, but what we all take for granted however, he lives
without. Shaboo is blind. I can only imagine how much faith it would require
to go tubing without being able to see anything. It was amazing to see how
they both worked together, Shaboo and his wife. Anyway, I hadn't heard from
them since that weekend and had often wondered what happened to them. So here
I was driving along Falconridge Blvd when I spotted this tandem bike with two
people who I was sure was Shaboo and his wife. I pulled into the Safeway
parking lot and ran across the street where I flagged them down and sure
enough, almost exactly a year later we had met again. We talked for a bit and
caught up briefly on our lives from the past year. They were actually trying
to get a hold of me so it was quite neat how we met up like that. We exchanged
our contact information again and I'm sure this time we'll stay in touch. But
what a small world! On another note, this weekend was my fourth weekend at Pine Lake this year. Isn't that awful? We've been having some of the nicest weather this year and so far I've been barely using any of it... I've got to go to Medicine Hat this week... I'm not at all looking forward to it. That Wal-Mart in Medicine Hat is bound to have at least 60 ballasts out... I don't know what other jobs we have but it will probably be a full week... Man did I say I am not looking forward to that? I guess the money will be nice, but that's about the only incentive I've got for going... Send me to Red Deer any time but not to the Hat. I suppose the one other consoling thought is that I might be able to go visit Clayton and Lena in Lethbridge when we stay there if we have jobs in that city. I saw Clayton last weekend when we went snrokelling at Ghost Lake but it's been a long time since I've seen Lena. This smoke we've had in the city lately and even at Pine Lake has really been bothering my throat. I've been meaning to get some programming done on several web projects lately but I've honestly had just NO time for anything. I need to take a week off and sit at home. Although I do have to say that somewhere in amongst all the busy-ness of late I did find time to clean my room... It looks pretty spiffy now. I think I've mentioned already that I met Kim's parents last night at Christine's birthday party. From the sounds of things I'm going to be busy working on their computers... It is my curse I guess... I don't know if my TO-DO list is getting shorter or longer these days. There is nothing as satisfying as checking items off though...  My mom goes to the SA camp at Pine Lake this
week for a sort of summit meeting. My brother gets back from Colorado
Springs & Denver tonight sometime. He's still got this week off though.
Normally he's the one who goes to Medicine Hat. SO MUCH FOR NOT DRINKING PEPSI... I have a new addiction. I was doing SO well too, I'd almost entirely given up consuming carbonated beverages altogether, but then Pepsi came out with their Vanilla Pepsi and I was hooked. Still, I haven't put on any weight in the past couple of months, and am still working to bring that figure down even more. August 19, 2003 - 12:42 am Kim and I went out for a ride tonight throughout the city since it was absolutely GORGEOUS... Neither of us could believe how warm it was. Since I am going to Medicine Hat this week, tonight will be the only time I'll get to see her until the weekend. She made me a present but I'm not allowed to open it until I get to Medicine Hat. It's like Christmas in August! I was dreading the trip out there because of the Wal-Mart which will undoubtedly have at least 60 ballasts out by now... But now I am actually looking forward to getting there, at least so that I can open my present from Kim. Anyways, I need to get to sleep or I'll never be able to wake up tomorrow morning! It's always hard to fall asleep on Christmas Eve... August 20, 2003 Well I had an interesting experience yesterday at Future Shop... As you may or may not know, my web server hard drive is just about full, so I bought a 120 gig (IDE) hard drive to put into the web server to give it some extra space. I
brought the hard drive home and took the server apart, was all set to install it when I discovered that the web server
does not have an IDE controller in it! All the other hard drives and burner are SCSI! So here I had this massive hard
drive that I could not use in that computer. Undaunted, I decided to buy an IDE controller for that computer and simply
go that way. I contacted my computer guy and asked if he could get such a thing; he told me just to go to Future Shop where
he'd bought one before and it cost about $60. So here I am in Medicine Hat, and I decided to go to the Future Shop here
and see if I couldn't buy a controller card. Steve and I went in to the Future Shop and found a tech in the computer
department. "I'd like one ATA-133 PCI IDE controller card, please." The guy gave me a blank look for a moment or two and
told me he'd never heard of such a device. "Well I know for a fact that Future Shop sells them, maybe this particular
store doesn't but I know that Future Shop does... A friend of mine bought one and it cost about $60." The guy decided to
try looking it up on the internet, so we went to a computer and searched for this mythical IDE controller. Sure enough,
it came up at about $50, so we checked the availability for Medicine Hat. What would you know, but the computer said that
they had them in STOCK in Medicine Hat! The guy was even more dumbfounded and exclaimied that he had no idea where it
would be but said he'd try to find out. After conferring with some of his colleagues, he discovered that it was hiding
in a large cardboard box on the top shelf of one of the computer racks. Low and behold, this item that he didn't even
think existed was located and I bought it. Of course, I can't even plug it in until I get back to Calgary, and the
excitement is killing me, but one can not learn patience by having everything one wants right now... On another note, I finally got to open that present Kim made me, all wrapped up in a home-made envelope... She knew I'd miss her while I was here, so she wrote me a little booklet containing a verse for each day and then her own reflections on it and thoughts for that day. Is she not the greatest? I couldn't stop smiling because I could see her writing these things and smiling as she was doing it as well... So I've been good and I've only read the ones for yesterday and today. I'm keeping it under my pillow though so that first thing in the morning I can wake up and read the page for that day. That was a really good idea, Kim. Thanks! For some reason, on a totally different topic, I was reminded today of something that I'd heard a long time ago. Someone gave me a theory on something, and it seemed to hold true when I heard it but I've been pondering it further as of late and been applying it to situations I've been witness to both in other peoples' lives and even in my own. Simply stated, the theory is this: "When a girl decides to break up with a guy, she goes through the process of getting over him while they are still together, so that when she does in fact dump him, there is no mourning period." This idea intrigued me because of what Jason went through with one of his ex's and also now what I went through with my ex, and I'd say that it probably holds true in a lot of cases. Of course, while she's busy getting over him, he has no idea anything's going on and that's why girls seem to get right back on the horse, so to speak, after a breakup whereas guys tend to take a lot longer to recover. Jason and I have been talking about this lately and we've had some very insightful conversations on the subject. I'd be curious to see what you, the reader, think of the theory. Are you a girl? Have you ever done this? Are you a guy who's had a girlfriend get over you while you were still dating, dump you maybe without any notice and then very quickly start dating another guy? I'd love to hear some other peoples' stories, thoughts and insights on this matter. E-Mail Me. So there are some of my thoughts for the day, I've got to get back to work. We have about a weeks' worth of work in this one Safeway store alone, and yet are supposed to be done by this afternoon which is not going to happen... Every fixture in the main ceiling was wired wrong but it worked for a period of time so the origional installers got away with it. Now ballasts are burning up left, right, and center and we've got to not only change them but re-wire the fixtures as well to prevent this problem from destroying the new ballasts we're putting in. Never a dull moment, I tell ya... August 23, 2003 - 8:46 am Well, I did something last night that I'll never do again... Unfortunately, it's a lesson with a high price tag. I had installed that 120 gig hard drive in the web server, transferred all of the files over, had everything done. It was seriously finished, all I had to do was mount the new drive in the case (while upgrading, I had just let it sit on top of the computer case for testing.) I shut it down one last time and fastened each hard drive to it's slot in the case. I tucked the ribbons all nicely inside, made the whole thing very neat and tidy... Put the case back on and connected everything back up. Power on. waited. waited. It would not boot. Now I won't bore you with the details of how I had to go about troubleshooting, but the long and the short of it is that when I had mounted one of the hard drives, the one that contained all the system information, the operating system, and unfortunately all the mySQL databases from the various web sites, one screw was about an eighth of an inch too long and it nicked the circuit board on the hard drive's controller, causing a short. Now the drive won't even spin up, it just sits there with it's light on. I could fix the problem if I could ever find another hard drive that was the same model as it, but the chances of that are pretty slim. Anyway, I've been working since 10:00 last night rebuilding this thing, re-arranging the hard drives and partitions to set up a newer version of Linux on it... So it's not entirely bad that the drive got toasted, although it was an 8 gig SCSI hard drive, which I'm sure even nowadays aren't cheap. Plus, I didn't even care that I lost the operating system files, but today as I was running through it in my mind I realized that the mySQL files were also on there. (Sorry Rob... I know you had a lot of databases going...) That means the forum will have to be re-initialized, my Sylvania database will have to be copied from my laptop, the Pine Lake forum will have to be re-initialized, and I'm sure several others as well. So needless to say as I'm rebuilding this thing, I'm setting it up a little differently and making some extra precautions so that should this sort of thing happen again, nothing will be lost in the future. Live and learn, I guess. So that's pretty much going to be my Saturday, although Kim and I are going to go and watch the fireworks finale tonight... (Hopefully at Ed's) Apparantly it's pretty incredible. Someone was saying that they make happy faces and stuff, so that would be really cool to see. Now that I've got tonnes more room on the web site, I might actually get those Pine Lake pictures up! Again I'm sorry that's taking so long guys,
you've all been very patient. August 23, 2003 (Later that day) Busy day! I worked 3 hours last night till 1:30, then woke up at 6:00 this morning and worked another 12 hours on the web server, getting it back up to par and setting everything up again with newer versions of all the software that used to be on it before I toasted the system drive... Oops... But it's all good. This afternoon Kim and I went out for supper at Pizza Hut and I took her on a tour of my old 'hood, pointing out places of significance like the spot where the guy swung the axe at my head and the house that Kraemer used to live in. Good times After supper though the air became very chilly (I could see exhaust coming out of vehicles!) so we stopped by my house and got some sweaters and leather jackets. We then headed over to Grace where, with Tony, Laura, Dean and Mike, we sat on the roof of the church and watched the fireworks.  It was a pretty good show but we were a fair distance away so a lot of the lower explosions were hidden from sight by the trees in yonder neighbourhoods... Still we had a good time and after that the gang mosey'd on down to Kim/Laura/Carolyn's place and watched Ace Ventura - Pet Detective. All in all a busy evening but time well spent. Of course, now at 2:00 am I'm wondering how I'll ever wake up tomorrow... A new day will dawn for those who stand long and the forests will echo with laughter It makes me wonder... oooh it really makes me wonder... August 25, 2003 The things you dwell on become your strongholds, good or bad. This evening I was talking with Luke about several things that have been on my mind of late, and this was the one thing he said that really struck me. Not that other things he said did not have their affect as well, but as soon as he said it I thought to myself, "I need to go write that down." It is true, because if you spend your time thinking about a particular thing, person, or idea -- dwelling on it -- in time that thing, person or thought can become a big rock in your life, something you can either climb up onto and be safe from the dangers around you, or it can be a weight that pulls you down and drowns you. The past couple of months have been an ongoing process of self-examination and evaluation, and while some of the findings have been good, there are a lot of things I need to work on, develop, nurture, and some others I need to get rid of. It's like when you go to the dentist, he's not going to compliment you for half an hour on all the teeth you have which don't require any work, instead he's going to drill out the problems and fix those few teeth that are in need of repair. Because it doesn't matter how many clean, healthy teeth you have in your mouth... When you go to bite into something solid, that one rotten tooth is going to be the only one you notice. (Would you believe it? I wrote a journal entry without one mention of the weather!  )August 27, 2003 It is a very, VERY small world. Anyone who knows me knows this fact very well, because I run into people that I know and have known ALL over the place, including an apparantly popular television show these days displaying undiscovered, upcoming talent... It never ceases to amaze me how small this world is and how everyone is connected to everyone else in some way or another. I was talking to Marshall tonight and he and his girlfriend wants to get together with Kim and I sometime soon, which I'm looking forward to. I haven't seen Marshall in over a year although we used to be great friends in school ever since grade 4. We actually met at Boys Brigade before we ever went to school together, and have managed to stay in touch over the years. He's got his web page on my server as well if you haven't already seen it, check it out here. Between the two of us we could probably fill a few evenings with stories of Family Camp with Rockyview Alliance Church or adventures in backyard dirtbiking... Marshall's always been the guy who went over and beyond with his crazy stunts... I remember back in grade
nine he had a diving board mounted to his trampoline in his back yard... One day we decided to build a tower in my back yard with scaffolding and run a zip line
down to the ground... The idea was probably a half-success... We built the tower two stories high and set up the zip line, but I remember Phil took a ride down it,
smashed through the wall of the shed and got stuck inside... Man that was funny. And then there was the water bed bladder half-inflated which we used as a launch
pad for people who'd sit on one end while another person leaped off a dumpster or a couple of saw horses, launching them many feet into the air... Hey Marsh,
remember Daryl Groves out at Family Camp on that thing? We set up a chair on TOP of the garbage dumpster (You know those big blue bins?) And you'd jump off the
chair, landing on your stomach and hopefully if you aimed right the water bed matress would be underneath you when you did or you'd knock the wind out of
yourself... Well there was this kid, named Daryl Groves who went on it and we must have launched him ten feet in the air at least. Then we rode the waterbed
matress down the river and it got ripped on some rocks, but it was still a blast. Hahaha, remember the raft we made? That sure didn't work very well... So many
good times though. I can't wait to get together with him again, it's been too long. Same with Rob, the other guy whose site in on my server (Check it out
here.) -- I haven't seen him in YEARS! Rob we gotta get together one of these days. It's not like we even live that far away from each other!
I'll bring the chocolate milk. On another note, bringing down the mood a bit, there is something I want and need to say to Shauntelle. I have no idea if you'll ever even read this, but I have to get this off my chest because it's been really bothering me. I need to ask your forgiveness Telle, because I have been feeling very bitter towards you lately. The last thing I want to become is a bitter person; it's ugly and unbecomming and utterly self-destructive. You saw the way I acted after all that stuff went down, and ultimately you've stopped talking to me since then because of it, and I wanted to appologize. I do not want to be bitter anymore, so I am confessing this to you, hoping you'll accept my appology and forgive me. My bitterness has been eating away at me, and like I said a couple of entries ago, I have to get rid of it. I've confessed it to God and I know that He has forgiven me, but I felt I had to go to you as well and ask your forgiveness too. August 29, 2003 7:05 am Where did the summer go!?!? We're already staring down the long, chilly nose of September, kids are getting ready to go back to school, stores are starting to stock Haloween supplies... Only 118 more days until Christmas! But I have good news in spite of the rapidly passing season of warmth, I have finally got all the Pine Lake pictures up from my week-long stay out there.  I know that some of you probably had hoped there were more pictures of Sandy Cove from that week, but I believe most of them are under the chapter from the last nights at Ed's trailer. I really didn't take a lot of pictures from SC that week. But there are tonnes of pictures from the Salvation Army camp where my family stayed... So for all of you who visited those chapters in the last couple of days and found them empty, they've all been filled now. Again guys, I'm sorry it took so long to get that done... But if you knew what was involved on this end and the struggle I went through getting a 7 year old computer to recognize a 120 gig hard drive... Let's all just be thankful it's done now. And now I am off to work! Have a great day and long weekend everyone! I might even see some of you at the lake! August 30, 2003 12:36 pm  I FINALLY got a 7-Eleven Chicken Kabob! After visiting stores that are supposed to carry them on THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS, each of which did not have any ready, I FINALLY got to a store that had kabobs in plenty. Yesterday, Friday I worked at the 7-Eleven in Claresholm, which is one of the 5 stores in Southern Alberta that carries their own signature brand of chicken products. And honestly, they are incredible! I know you're probably thinking, "Chicken from 7-Eleven?!?!" but seriously, you HAVE to try it. The guys at work and I make a special trip, no matter why we're in a particular town, to go to the 7-Eleven and buy chicken there whenever we can. I did not go camping this weekend, as if that were not apparant already... Right now I'm on my way over to my parent's house to help them redo their roof before fall really strikes... I think this weekend will end up being a catch-up weekend on a lot of things... I showed Kim the web site I've been working on for the past year or so and it's nearing the point where it can begin to be tested on the internet... I'm not going to say a lot more than that right now though, because as close as it is to being ready for testing, there is still a LOT of work that needs to be done on it... It's been a huge undertaking. But it's really nice having my laptop with Apache (the web server I use) and mySQL (the database server) set up where I can write and test the site on the laptop, anytime, anywhere. Did I mention I love Linux? Anyhow, that's all the time I can afford for writing right now... Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! August 31, 2003 - 12:47 am  Hoping is out of style so look happy, it's the end of the world
The strange thing is that now of all times I have more hope than ever. Everything is looking up in my life... Tomorrow I'm going rafting with Kim and her dad's highschool buddies... It's a tradition they have to all get together once a year. Needless to say it should be interesting. Today I went to my parent's house and helped them re-shingle the roof of their house. We got about half of it done and will finish the other half on Monday. I'm not really sure why I put that quote from the song up there... I was just listening to it and was really getting into it so I decided to link it in the journal. I did that once before, back in June you can click on the guitars to listen to that song as well, by the Foo Fighters. That song was really applicable to my life at that time and still is... I'm learning to live again. I am kind of surprised at how long it has taken though; looking back now I really had no idea what was ahead of me... But Kim has been an awesome companion. Hahaha, the other night we were starting to plan our Christmas this year. It seems like a long way off but it's only 116 days... If you bought five advent calendars you'd have it covered... Most of them only count 24 days or you could buy 4. I took a bunch of pictures while I was at my parent's place, which are all under My Life / Re-Roofing My Parent's House. I actually started writing this entry (last night) but fell asleep before I got it finished. So this part was actually written the next day, the 31st. hehehe Oops, eh? But I better go, I've got to meet Kim at her parent's place to begin this rafting trip... I am so sore it's not even funny. BACK to Journal Index |