We have a new addition to the family, thanks to our neighbors and my easily lost resolve.  Our neighbors cat had kittens about eight weeks ago.  Elena and the girls went over to their house several times to play with the kittens.  There was a never ending onslaught of “oh Dad, they’re so cute! Please can we have one!”.  To which my answer was always “in order to get one, you have to get rid of one of the two we already have”.

I consider cats to be a consolation I have learned to deal with in order to have the pleasure of living with my wife.  (Love ya dear!)  Elena grew up with cats and they are definitely a part of her life.  I on the other hand never had them because my mom is allergic to them.  So naturally, I should be allergic to them as well, right?  Well, at least that was my excuse during the first few months of marriage.  That is, until we got one and it had no affect on me.  Ack!  My feeble plan was foiled!  Since then, we’ve almost always had a cat in the house.  I tolerate them, but draw the line at trying to give them any encouragement that they should come to me for some kind of comfort.

So how did I get suckered into cat #3?  Elena calls me at work, the day before Maren’s birthday, and says that the neighbor is taking the cats to a parking lot to give them away to anyone that wants them.  She pulls the “it would be the perfect birthday gift for Maren to let her choose one” tact.  Suffice it to say, my two little girls often have me eating out of the palm of their hands.

So now there is a new kitten in the house.  Maren has named him “Ninja”.  The neighbors had simply referred to him as “Mr. Scratchy Biter-man”, named by their 4 year old son.  It is only now that we realize how well their name fit.  Kittens are always cute, and good for entertainment.  If only they wouldn’t grow up to be cats.

Whoa!  Haven’t posted anything for quite a while, have I?  I must work harder…

So this post will be about the only TV series that I watch consistently… Lost.  Oh how I love the Lost.  I am so wrapped up in that show that I end up debating with myself over what may or may not be happening.  The last two episodes - “The Variable” and “Follow the Leader” - were great.  I loved both of them.  The producers really have started to answer a lot of questions, but at the same time, a few new ones creep up.  I think it frustrates my wife, but to me I think its great.  The ultimate ploy to keep you watching a show.

Next week is the 2-hour season finale and I am anticipating a real cliff-hanger (hard to imagine, right?).  In the meantime, here are just some of the thoughts I’ve had recently:

• Is Faraday really dead?  You can’t ever dead when “dead really is dead” on Lost, but for some reason I think we’ll see him again.
• What is up with Richard Alpert?  Why is he the only one that is the same through all the times?  And I love the way he looked so surprised to see Locke.
• Locke’s true purpose to see Jacob?  I knew it.  I always thought there was something fishy with Jacob.
• Sawyer just can’t escape Kate.  I have a bad feeling Juliet is going to become a “tragic casualty”.
• Ben is evil, but he makes me laugh.  His conversation with Richard where he proclaims very matter-of-fact “why do you think I tried to kill him?” was very funny.
• I could watch Miles and Hurley debate with each other all day.  It’s hilarious.
• I’ve lost all confidence in Jack.  He’s headed for disaster.  Does anyone else see the relevance to Jacob being evil, Jacob manifested as Jack’s dad, and now Jack trying to blow up the whole island?

Oh… so many other questions.  I could go on forever.  If you haven’t been watching Lost, it’s too late to get into the current series, but I highly suggest you pick up the DVDs and watch them.  Then you’ll be all set for the next and final season.

… from caffeine that is.  I read this article today regarding the effects of caffeine withdrawal.  Seeing as I haven’t posted anything to the blog for a while I thought I’d at least comment.

Last August I swore off caffeine.  Admittedly, I wasn’t a coffee or tea drinker, so the only swearing off was for soda.  I drank 2 - 5  caffeinated sodas a day.  I would often get headaches or feel sluggish at times.

The first few weeks were rough.  Headaches, often tired, etc.  But I’m happy to report that today things are much better.  I’m usually more alert.  In fact, I didn’t fall asleep during conference once! 

The only downfall is that there often isn’t much choice for what to drink from restaurants.  Most restaurants don’t have sodas that are diet AND caffeine free.  So sometimes I end up exchanging the caffeine for a sugar rush.  But I’ve also begun to get water most of the time.  Saves me some cash too.

So I’m calling you out… give it a try.  Your body will thank you for it.

Yesterday I put in some time at the Deseret Industries thrift store as part of a service assignment from church.  I admit, I am terrible at getting out to do service projects.  There is always something that is either in the way of the schedule or something.  I’m not often the first to volunteer — a fault I should try to improve on.

So I had a three hour shift, and while I would like to say it was a fantastic experience and I did a lot of good work, it just didn’t turn out that way.  Honestly it didn’t seem like they needed the extra help.  There were plenty of people there, many of them employees.  But I said I would help for three hours, so I did.  I spent the entire time “merchandising” the floor.  Which essentially means waiting for carts of items that have been sorted in the back room to come out to the floor and then sort items and put them on the shelves.  It certainly wasn’t glamorous work, but I didn’t expect it to be.  But I did expect it to be work, and it just wasn’t.  Slow paced and just trying to pass the time.

So to help pass the time I spent a lot of time observing people.  The DI is certainly a good people watching spot.  So I make note of the items I saw here, for future reference:

• I had not one, but two people approach me and try to haggle on prices.
• One little boy (probably 7 or 8 years old) went down the toy aisle and immediately found a robotic dinosaur right after I put it on the shelf.  He picked it up and spent the next 15 minutes or so following his mom around with it, every now and then pausing to make the dinosaur “roar”.  It didn’t look like he could get any happier.
• There were not one, not even three, but five singing fish on a plaque.  Ughhh… I never want to hear Bobby McFerrin or Talking Heads again.  They should both be punished for licensing their songs to a singing fish.
• The phrase “one man’s garbage is another’s treasure” is so true… absolutely true.
• A mom came up to me with her little girl (about 7 or 8 years old) and asked where the bikes were, so I pointed back to the doors and told them there were plenty.  The smile on that little girl could have lit up a room.
• I watched a little boy pull a Mouse Trap game off the shelf and set the whole thing up on one of the coffee tables.  He was still playing when I left.
• I’ve decided that there is a lot of unused Tupperware in the world.  Lots of it.  Please recycle it people.
• I met a lot of employees who thanked me for volunteering.  They all seemed to like their jobs a lot.  I think that’s the real reason for Deseret Industries.
• They have a lot of books.  However, I think some of them just need to be pulled off the shelf and recycled.  They had reference books for Windows 3.1, DOS 6.0, and Lotus 123.  Even at $0.75 those ones aren’t worth it.

My “aunt-in-law” Stacie tagged my blog with a task recently.  The task was to post a picture “from the sixth file, sixth picture”, no matter what it is and comment on it.  In all honesty, I’m not really a tagging person when it comes to blogs.  But I decided to at least see what picture it would be.  I kind of had to make it up because I have all my pictures in Adobe Photoshop Elements and don’t always know where they are.  So I had to get into the file system and do some hunting and counting.  But when I finally found the picture I decided it was worth posting.

There it is, a self-portrait taken by Josh of he and Maren.  This was in January 2003 so Maren wasn’t quite 3 years old and Josh would have just turned 11.  He was in this self-portrait phase right after we got our first digital camera.  Funny, eh?

Did you feel that?  I’ve moved andrewlawrence.us to a new webserver.  If you’re seeing this message, then congrats!  Your browser/ISP found it.  If you’re not seeing this, well, then that doesn’t make sense.

Big thanks to my friend Jeff Patton who continues to let me host my website off of his server.  Give him a visit at http://www.agileproductdesign.com.

My friend Gordon wrote an entry in his blog a few weeks ago about his first date with his wife.  It was a very nice post, boy meets girl, falls in love, yada, yada, yada.  But the best part was that their first date was the same first date that Elena and I had — only one year later.  Looking at the picture he posted I thought “whoa!, I have a picture just like that!”

Highland High School Christmas Dance, December 15, 1989, at the Utah State Capitol was the day that started the roller coaster that is Elena and I.  Holy crap, that’s nearly 20 years ago!

Gordon makes his date sound sweet and that “he knew she was the one for him”.  I think in our case, that isn’t quite true.  First of all, it’s important to point out that the Christmas dance was girl’s choice.  And second, Elena chose me out of spite.  That’s right… she actually asked me out because she knew who wanted to ask me and she had some complaint about that person so she decided the best action would be to ask me out first.  (She didn’t tell me this until much later, not sure exactly when.)

Me?  I was nervous.  I didn’t really know who she was.  It was a group of six of us who went, and yes, we had a great time.  Was it love at first sight?  Elena says it was for her.  For me, I don’t know that it was.  I mean really, the picture says it all.  The geeky looking teenage boy in that picture looks frightened and confused to be holding that girl’s hand!  But obviously it was enough to keep me interested.

It’s amazing to look back at how long ago that was and how both of us have changed.  (And it’s also hilarious!)  Elena… you are the love of my life.  Maybe I didn’t recognize it then, but there is no denying it now.

If I’m feeling brave I’ll scan in some of our other dance pictures… all are hilarious.

It has now been almost a year since Rock Band arrived in the Lawrence household.  While the original Rock Band is gone, Rock Band 2 is here.  We are currently at around 200 songs available for rockin’.

That’s my guitarist at the right (click to embiggen).  His name, is of course “Guitar Dad” and he is currently touring with my band, Crystal Log.  And yes… I have over $42k in the bank to spend on some really cool clothes and instruments.  (Although I think the guitar I currently own is freakin’ awesome!)

Over the last 6 weeks or so I have been working on playing songs on the guitar in “Hard” mode.  Ooooo… The orange fret key… bring it on!  It is difficult, and there are only three or four songs that I can get five stars on, but I’m getting there.  And now when I go back to play in medium it seems really slow.

The equipment has been beaten up pretty good over a year.  I’ve fixed two drum pedals.  We even fixed the springs in the guitar when they broke.  Went to Home Depot for the springs.  An employee asked if he could help me find something and I said I was looking for little springs.  He walked me over to where they were and asked what I needed them for.  I told him I needed to fix a Rock Band guitar.  “Really?”, he said.  “Good luck with that.”

It’s keeping me entertained, but admittedly the novelty has worn off for other family members.  But no matter, Crystal Log will rock on!

The news is filled with reports of layoffs at all sorts of companies.  2000 here, 7000 there, etc.  It’s one thing to read about it, but it’s another thing to watch it happen in front of your eyes.  Yesterday my place of employment (Tomax) initiated a layoff.  I’m fine as far as still having a job, but because of my position in the company I was involved in the planning and the actual implementation.

It’s been a rough few days.  I haven’t slept at all.  I’ve been through it once before, seeing it happen, but I’ve never had to actually be involved in the execution — and I would prefer to never do it again.  It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do in recent memory.  Being involved in the planning and the decision of who goes and who stays was not something I want to repeat.  I had to meet with managers under me 90 minutes before the layoffs start to inform them of what is about to happen, completely ruining their day.  I had to go get people from their desks individually and bring them into a meeting with upper management.  I had to sit in the room while the message is delivered.  I had to walk them back to their desks to collect their things and escort them out the doors.  I had to watch as everyone else around wonders what is going on, and then as realization sets in the paranoia begins.  I felt terrible.  It was the longest day of work in my life.

There have been many lessons I have learned from the whole ordeal.  Nothing that I’m going to mention here.  And if any of those people that I walked out of building are reading this, I apologize again.  You are all excellent workers.  Place me on any referral list that you need.

Elena and I were made for each other.  We tell each other all the time that we are “soul mates”.  I think part of that is because in some respects we are complete opposites.  One of those opposite points can best be summed up by the fabulous 80’s hair band, Foreigner.

“Cold as ice - you know that you are
Cold as ice - as cold as ice to me” — Foreigner, Cold as Ice

The other night I go into the bedroom after finishing work on the computer and Elena is already sound asleep in bed.  She has all of the following covering her: a sheet, the electric blanket set to level 6 out of 10, a down comforter, and not one, but two of her quilts.  And she’s curled up in a ball like she is still cold under all of that stuff.

“Well, I’m hot blooded, check it and see
I got a fever of a hundred and three” — Foreigner, Hot Blooded

As for me… I set the electric blanket to level 2 out of 10 and get into bed under it with the down comforter.  After 10 minutes of laying there I can’t take it anymore and I have to turn the electric blanket off.

What does it mean?  Who knows… I just think it is funny.  And truth be told, Elena’s been working really hard for a long time to lose weight and she looks great.  So she blames her constant coldness on a lack of “previously present insulation”. :-)  But if she’s cold for that reason, then does it mean I’m hot for the opposite reason?  Uh, oh…