Michael Jackson's Dead?

***Text in this color authored by Shena***

Work & Play
You gotta love April Fool's Day. Every year there are millions of people who forget what day it is and get sucked into something. A couple of years ago, the classic rock station here in Greensboro got ME. They were saying that the state of NC was trying to gauge public interest in a statewide lottery. They had supposedly tapped into all the ATM's across the state and the way you let the state know you were in support of the lottery was to put your driver's license into the nearest ATM and it would read your information and you also had a chance to win cash prizes from the ATM. I, of course, was against the lottery, so luckily I didn't take the time to stop and stick in my driver's license, but there were a lot of people who did. I finally figured it out when I got to work and looked at the calendar. The funny part was there were people who were playing along and calling in and saying stuff like "Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that I stopped at the Wachovia on Elm street on my way to work and I won $100!" Pretty funny. Since then I've been very careful about not getting caught again, and I look forward to hearing what the morning radio shows would come up with.

One of the girls in the office got suckered pretty good. One of the stations here reported that they had just received word that Michael Jackson had been shot and killed. The girl jumped up as soon as she heard it and started telling the people on her side of the office and was kind of tripping out. There was a bit of a scramble for a minute or two while they all tried to get more news about it on the internet. Of course they couldn't find anything because it didn't happen. It was pretty funny. A few minutes later I talked to Shena on the phone and said "Did you hear Michael Jackson got shot?" Her response? "Good." I was like..."what?" She said "Good, I'm tired of hearing about him." I laughed thinking at first that she was on to me and she was just playing along, but I wasn't sure so I said "you are saying 'good' when a guy gets shot and killed?" She said, "Oh, he's dead? [pause] I guess that is ok. I really was getting tired of hearing about him." !! Very funny. I broke the news that he wasn't really dead and she just laughed, but it didn't sound like she really thought it was funny.

At lunch the electrician showed up. He said he had a package that was supposed to be delivered before 12:00 tomorrow and so he wouldn't be at our house the whole day as he was expecting to be, so he wanted to get a head start. He also said that he might work Sunday if he didn't get done tomorrow. Well, I learned my lesson after last Sunday and so I told him that I would rather that he didn't. He was real cool about it and said "Oh, ok. No big deal. I won't work if you don't want me to." Pretty nice if you ask me, he could have gotten ticked, but he didn't. I wish I would have thought of that on Sunday when Vachon was out there knocking down trees.

After dinner I made a quick run to Lowe's to look at their chippers. I'm debating buying one to chip up the stuff I have out back, then selling it when I'm done. It would cost me $155 a day to rent one, and I think it would take me at least 2 days to chip all the stuff, maybe more, and then I don't know that I would have EVERYTHING that I want chipped ready at the same time. It would be kind of nice to have three or four different chipping sessions and get all that I want to and not have to worry about returning something. Another reason I was thinking of buying is the rental chippers are HUGE and have to be towed and I think I would have a hard time getting it to the back of the lot where the branches are, and there are so many that I don't know that I would want to drag them all back up to the front only to have to haul the chips back to the back again. The one that I am considering is much smaller and can be moved around by hand. I've been looking in the classifieds and such for a used one, so we'll see what happens. I'll keep you up to date.

I also wanted to look at rope and chain at Lowe's to consider buying some rope and/or chain to try to cut down the trees myself instead of having that tree guy do it, but I think it would be more trouble that it is worth. Not to mention I would rather that HIS insurance pay for damages if something goes wrong, not mine. Plus I think he could do it in about 1/4 the time (or faster) than I could. If I'm not careful, this tree thing could turn into an all summer type thing and I don't want that at all. I'd just as soon have seed down when the rest of the addition is complete and have a little grass to mow by the end of the summer.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
After I got back from Lowe's, Cade Kelson and I shot a little hoops. It's been a while since I played basketball with them. It's always good to get them all riled up just before they are supposed to go to bed. Kelson has had a VERY hard time staying in bed tonight (and he still isn't asleep yet).

Shena was feeling better today. She got the house all cleaned before I got home from work. I love it when she does that. That way I don't have to feel guilty tomorrow for working outside while she is inside cleaning the house. She even spent part of the day trying to clean our living room carpet. Light carpet sure isn't good with kids. Especially kids who won't keep their drinks in the kitchen and spill some on the carpet, which then picks up dirt and gradually gets worse and worse. Anyway, she scrubbed on her hands on knees until the carpet looks barely used.

Arellano Update
Went to dinner with mom and dad at Mexico #6. I'm not sure if we even ate there in March. I'll have to look back in my blog and see. We probably did, I just don't remember it.

Christensen Update
Today is Cherie's birthday. I've never talked to her about how she feels about having her birthday on April Fool's Day. Shena said Cherie's brother Ron would bug her quite a bit about it. She said that one time he put salt into her sugar dispenser and she put salt all over her cereal. Doesn't sound like a good comination to me. Cherie, I want to apologize for not calling you. Shena reminded me at lunch, and I got back into work and completely forgot about it. I did think about you though! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:00 - 6:30 - I'm going to start getting up as close to 6:30 as possible now. As you may recall, I started getting up at ^7:00ish each morning a couple of weeks back with the intent of eventually moving that time up to 6:00. This is the next step. In a month or so, when I've adjusted to 6:30, I will switch it to 6:00.

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted mini-wheats

Lunch: Egg and cheese tacos on corn tortillas, orange juice. I had two chocolate cookies and a small glass of milk, also.

Dinner: Mexico - Shena and I split a dinner chicken fajita with flour tortillas, sprite. Had several chips and cheese dip, too.