Another Christmas has come and gone.  This year, felt like one of those where people just didn’t seem to get into the Christmas Spirit.  The part where I enjoyed most about Christmas was, just being able to spend time with the Family.  Krissie and I got some good gifts, but that is neither here nor there.  I just love spending time with the family. 

Krissie game me an early Christmas Present in November, I got a new Digital Camera.  It was one that I had been looking at for awhile.  The reason I got it early was because I wanted to be able to take it with us when I went to the Miller Christmas on the Second Weekend in December.  The Camera that she got me was a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.  I love to take pictures, so this was a great gift.  I gave Krissie a Nintendo DS with the new Zelda game called Spirit Tracks.

As I have stated many other times, I am a big Boise State Football fan.  I have been a Boise State Fan, even back when we sucked.  This year, I am a little bit upset.  I don’t know whether to be mad, or whether I should be happy. 
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Well, for those that haven’t noticed, it has been quite some time since I last posted.

I am very thankful for many different things.  One that I have been thinking about lately is, how grateful I am to have a job in this crappy economy. I work as a Bookkeeper, Front Desk Clerk, Night Auditor, Computer IT Stuff, and whatever else you could put in there.  It is probably the funnest job that I have ever had. I actually was just offered to live on-site at the Hotel.  Originally, I thought that it would suck.  On the contrary, I have found that it is actually pretty good, and I am able to save some money and stuff (And it is about twice as big as the apartment that I just left). I guess that could also be one thing that I am thankful for.

Another thing that I am grateful for, is to be married to such a wonderful woman.  She means everything to me.  I love her more than anything, and would do anything for her. She is always so understanding.  Sometimes, with school and work, it feels like I forget her, but I don’t.  She has made sure that I know that she feels that my school and work are big priorities.

I hope that any of what I just said made any kind of sense.

So I had a previous post where I mentioned that I have had a gun pulled on me.  In that post, Denise asked me to explain more.  So here it goes:

My Dad used to own a furniture store.  The power went out, and when it came back on it caused the alarm to trip out and go off.  When the alarm goes off, my Dad was always the first one to be called.  He asked me to go with him, so I did.  We didn’t leave the house right away, so by the time we got to the store, we thought the Police had already come and gone.  Next, we went into the store and checked it out.  Dad did some things on the computer there at the store.  After that, we locked up the store and got into the truck.  I need to mention that the whole building was glass, so you could see through to opposite side of the building. And it was pretty dark out side at the time. 

Now comes the fun part…

As we were backing out we saw through the building what appeared to be a light of some sort.  More specifically, it looked like a spot light from a police car.  There were not any overhead police lights going, so we could not tell for sure.  My Dad was pretty certain that it was a police car.  He told me to run over there and tell them that everything was okay. That is exactly what I did.  However, when I got to the other side of the building, I remember a police officer pulling his gun from the holster.  The next thing I heard was “Freeze, Don’t Move.  Put your hands in the air!”  In was a matter of seconds, but what seemed like eternity, my Dad drove to my side of the building.  When he got over there, the police were grilling him, and he had to prove that he was the owner of the store. 

Moral of the story: Do not run towards a police officer in the dark, even if nothing is wrong.

Neal tagged me, so here it goes. 

All about me — Alphabetically!
A. ATTACHED OR SINGLE? Attached
B. BEST FRIEND? Krissie
C. CAKE OR PIE? Devil’s Food Cake
D. DAY OF CHOICE? Saturday
E. ESSENTIAL ITEMS? Clothes, LOL
F. FAVORITE COLORS? Red and Blue (in that order)
G. GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? Sour Worms
H. HOMETOWN? Boise, Idaho
I. INDULGENCE? Not really sure
J. JANUARY OR JULY? January
K. KIDS? Not yet
L. LIFE ISN’T COMPLETE WITHOUT? Dr. Pepper & Fat Bowl of Mongolian BBQ
M. MARRIAGE DATE? July 29, 2006
N. NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? 2 sisters, 1 brother, 3 sis-in-laws, 2 bro’s in law, 1 step bro and 1 step sister.
O. ORANGES OR APPLES. Oranges
P. PHOBIAS OR FEARS? Fear of loosing my wife
Q. QUOTE: “Hey I tell you what.  You can take a good look at a T-Bone by sticking your head up a butcher’s ass, No wait, it’s gotta be your bull” (Tommy Boy)
R. REASON TO SMILE: My Wife
S. SUPERMAN OR WONDER WOMAN? Wonder Woman
T. TAG 5 PEOPLE: Well since Mike is the only one who reads my blog on a regular basis, then I will tag Mike.
U. UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I had a gun pulled on me by an Ada County Police Officer.
V. VEGETABLES? Salad with Catalina Dressing
W. WORST HABIT? My worst habit would have to be not taking anything seriously. I like to tell jokes.
X. X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? Don’t Know.
Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Depends on my mood. Right now, it is Mongolian BBQ
Z. ZODIAC SIGN? Aquarius

I spent the last couple of days, and all night tonight trying to figure this out, and finally figured it out.  So, I figured that this deserves a blog posting about it.

Let me mention a couple things first to kinda set up the rest of the story.  My Internet service is through Clearwire, which is wireless Internet.  It works off of towers similar to cellphone towers.  Sometime ago, I rearranged my apartment, and moved my router and modem to the other side of the house by the window, because they added a tower to this area.  With clearwire, you are supposed to get the best signal by a window; however, this did not used to be the case.  Before they added the tower, I got the best signal across the room.

To make a long story short, I had moved my metal filing cabinets over to the window.  I have used them as a stand for some parts to my network.  I am using a Netgear Router, a Belkin Network USB Hub, and a Western Digital My Book World Edition (w/ a network interface).  All the sudden, my wireless router kept dropping signal.  Well, I figured out that if you have the router near large metal surfaces, that it can degrade the wireless signal.  To solve this problem, I switched my little bookcase with the filing cabinets, and I have had no problems since.

Since I currently do not have a job, I was able to go with my Mom and Step-Dad to the Cache Valley Rendezvous.  We left on Thursday the 22nd of May, and got back today the 26th of May.  It was a blast even though it did rain some of the time.  While you are at your own campsite, you don’t really do anything special, but when you go into the “town”, you dress up like a “Mountain Man”. 

The first day that we went into town, I did not have anything, so I had to borrow a shirt that looked like a mountain man shirt from my Step-Dad, and I also borrowed a hat.  I have some stuff ready now so that I will be somewhat ready for the next rendezvous, because when we went into the town, I bought a felt hat, a leather strand and some beads. 

Kim, my Step-Dad, gave me his old belt.  Then after we got back to camp, he had some rawhide that he used to make me a bag to hold my Fire Starter kit. I of course do not have everything for a full mountain man outfit, but I will buy something new each time I go.  There are a couple rendezvous that my parents go to; one of them is in Cache Valley, Utah, and the other is in Bridger, Wyoming. 

I had tons of fun, and can’t wait for the next one.  Cache Valley is usually on Memorial Day weekend, and I think we will skip that one next year so that we can save up for the one in Bridger.  It doesn’t really cost very much to camp there, the expensive part is the gas to get there.

I will post some pictures, once I get them uploaded off my camera.

We got some rather good news today.  We had already submitted a claim to our insurance, and they had already paid the claim.  Krissie called the Boise Police to see if the officer had an update on the accident. The officer called her back and said that they found the responsible person involved in the wreck. Then she said that it was a DUI, and that they had insurance.  However, she was not actually “responsible”, otherwise she would not have left the scene of the accident.

I was way excited about this new. Next, I called my insurance company and was told that I might have to pay the deductible up front; then, after American Family takes the claim, I will be reimbursed by my insurance company. The only problem, is that the American Family claims rep is out of town until the 23rd.

Yesterday started out to be a very good day. I was getting ready for bed since it was 11 at night and Krissie was almost done with work.  Krissie called me at about 11:45 pm yesterday and told me that she was on her way home.

At about midnight, she called me to tell me that she was in an accident.  At the moment, the only thing that I could think of was “Oh my word, I hope she is okay.” I went down the block, which is normally a drive of less that 5 minutes, but felt like eternity.  She was alright, but the truck was a little bit torn up.  I was a little bit mad, because even thought it was not her fault it ended up being a hit and run, so I have to submit a claim against my own insurance.

I took my lunch break at work today around 2:30pm. I went downstairs to the cafeteria, but called my wife while I headed that direction. Krissie, her Mother, and Grandmother were on the way home from Billings, Montana. While I was talking to her, she seemed very happy and the trip seemed to be going very well.

At the same time, I just had this feeling that something was not right.  I felt like something was happening, and I just could not put my finger on it.  I had no clue what was happening.  I had not sat down for 5 minutes when I got a text message from Krissie, saying that her Grandma’s house was on fire.  I then threw my food in the trash, because at this point I was no longer hungry; then i went to Nampa to check things out.  We were lucky, because the fire did not go past the garage.