Doctor said we were stressing the baby out so they took Rachel off the pitosin until morning. So, won't be anytime soon. They will start it again in the morning...

Contraction are coming! So far about 2 minutes apart...

Hey everyone! Something to blog about! Ben is coming! Rachel was having some minor indications of problems so they decided to go ahead and induce. They just introduced the pitosin like 15 min ago. I will keep the computer online throughout the night to keep you posted!

Jake

UNBELIEVABLE! It worked!!! I got the thermal paste in the mail today, and so right when Lucas went to bed I went to work tearing the xbox apart. I spent about 30 min cleaning of the CPU and GPU and then carefully applied the new stuff. Started it up and BAM! Works great, no overheating! Dancing with the Stars is on now- so after that is over the true test begins! I hope this thing stays strong!

I didn't even have trouble putting the face circuit board on! My friend Brian gave me all the confidence to do it alone... (HA- too bad he is not here to enjoy it!).

Blog... I forgot I had one of these. Let's see if I still have anyone that reads it- likely you have all given up hope now. Part of my absence is due to neglect, another part due to my xbox online subscription... After reaping the heaps of cash from Christmas I have hoarded it all to pay for an online subscription for my xbox. This allows me to play others online. Normally, I am not into that- but my brother got an xbox for christmas and so playing games with him brings me back to the days of old. I bought a headset and a couple games and now we talk about our lives in the middle of the night while we save the universe from evil creatures. The remaining pool of money was being drained down monthly by my subscription to Gamefly- a video game Netflix. I get the game, beat it, and then turn it in for another one. Brilliant. Instead of dropping $60 on a game I play for a couple months and then never again, I pay $15 a month and get four months of gaming for the same price on a large number of games. I was just about ready to get my brother signed up with it when the unthinkable happened- my xbox died! Yeah, I went to turn on a DVD for Rachel and I to watch and RED lights came up instead of green. As Lucas would say- uh oh! I played with it, and somehow it worked again and we got through a movie. After that, it worked a couple more times but then NOTHING. The red lights of death is what they call it- spinning off of the infamous blue screen of death known from another Microsoft product. So I look online and discover that this is a HUGE problem with xboxs and a common one. I call up xbox and demand they replace it or repair it- the best I get is a reduction in the repair cost to $100. I ain't got that money AND I don't want to give it to them for building such a crappy game system! (Seriously- I have owned Nintento, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Playstation 2- and ALL still work to this day!) So I do my online searching and find two apparent do it yourself solutions- replacing the thermal paste (which was low quality) or literally torching the motherboard (to re-solder the connections). So, I start with the less extreme method, but think I might have bought the wrong stuff- and regardless it has no effect. So two days ago, I went out and rented a heat gun for $10. Mind you, this heat gun reaches a temperature of 1000 degrees F! Looks like a hair dryer- suprised I have not seen this mixup occur in a horror movie yet... Anyway- so I pull the whole thing apart and torch the memory and graphic chips- let it cool for 30 min and put it back together. I start it up and... BAM! IT WORKS! My game loaded up perfectly! And then... it died about 30 seconds later. This time with an "overheat" error, instead of the "general hardware failure" error I was getting. My hope is that if I use the better thermal paste it will be fixed. I ordered it off Amazon so we'll see. Of course, the idea that it gives an overheat error after I torched with 1000 degree heat might also be related... I'll keep you posted! Although my blog followers might be rooting against its ressurrection since it takes away my blogging initiative...

The snow is gone, and so is the satellite dish... Oh yes, you all loved the dish story- so I will add more... Apparently, gale force winds are the norm here- and so are crappy satellite installations. So the wind blows and the pole that the dish is on moves- back and forth, back and forth. Well recently it got to the point where the pole was in the ground, but you could pivot it. Hmm, not so good for reception. Soo... I decide that I am going to do something about it! I stop by the hardware store and pick up a shovel and cement. Oh yes, I am going to put this pole in right! I position the pole correctly to watch my Laker game Friday night- and luck was on my side because I didn't lose reception until about 20 min after the game ended. So early Sat morning I walk outside to begin the mission. (Let me remind my CA friends that it is about 30 degrees here). So I take the shovel and begin to dig. Oh wait! It turns out that the ground is FROZEN SOLID! Digging a 3 foot hole is one thing, digging it into solid ice- ummm time for plan B. Particularly because at this temp, it might take the cement 3 weeks to cure. So, I look at the yard and see that my Directv dish is still up. So I pull it off, and swap the Dish network one on there. Clear view of the sky, not right in front of the house, on a sturdy cemented pole (old fence post). Money. I hit up radio shack, bought 50 more feet of cable and routed it across the edge of the lawn. Took me awhile to get the dish positioned perfectly- at one point I had a speaker pointed out the window. It was playing a tone indicating the signal strength. Well, to entertain Lucas- I put on a DVD- but with no sound (since I needed it). Anyway, just as I was zeroing in on the perfect position, I start to hear Mozart from his Baby Einstein video. I walk into the house and Lucas had the remote in his hand and was saying, "Did it!" He had somehow figured out how to switch the audio feed on the picture in a picture to his show. This was particularly amazing to me because I still don't know how to do that... (I cannot begin to tell you how many cool features he has found on my cell phone). Anyway, the dish saga has ended momentarily. Hopefully this setup will survive the next bout of 60 mph winds...

Snow Photos!!! This is where we live...

So I had a nice Thanksgiving break. Good to get away from work and hang out with the family. Even better to escape the cold and live it up in So Cal sunny weather. Little did I know that I would return to a winter wonderland! Our place is covered in like 5 inches of snow. Driving down to Pullman from the airport we watched the thermometer drop to -4, yes that is a negative sign! Crazy. My friend Jason who picked us up has a big old truck (but not snow tires) and it got stuck in front of my house. So I helped him fish it out of the snow when suddenly my hands just started hurting like mad. I forgot that I probably should cover up my hands while in below zero weather. I think I was like 10 min away from frostbite. Warming them by the fire just plain hurt. I really cannot comprehend that it really is that cold outside. Like my brain cannot compute that absence of heat. I am so looking forward to tomorrow. Here's the weather report- morning wake up temp - 0, a warm 12 during lunch time. Currently its -2 outside. And still- I had to have a bowl of ice cream... We'll take some photos tomorrow and post them.

Well, it snowed the other day. I actually live in a place where it snows... Of course the day it snowed was a nightmare for me. Lucas had not pooped in like 5 days and I thought was going to die. Perhaps I'll back up. Any that know my one year old son, know that he grunts it out a couple times a week, but he gets the job done. Well he suddenly just stopped all together. So we went to the doctor and they suggested milk of magnesia. On the bottle it says that if this doesn't work consult a doctor because you might have a serious medical problem. So I was like great... Of course it did nothing, and so I went down the whole my kid has a disease route. So, I was at the store picking up an enema- lovely I know- and I get a phone call from the car. Lucas is throwing up. So perhaps I watch to many dramatic medical shows, but whenever there is vomit involved it is always a deadly result. So I demand that Rachel go to the doctors immediately. Luckily she is calm and tells me that she will go at her appointment time since the doctor is not even there yet. So I disheartingly agree, wondering if this decision is going to result in my child's death and I will never forgive myself. Well the hours go by, and the doctor gives him the enema. Well let me tell you, that did the trick. Oh god did it do the trick. Rachel described the immediate explosion at the doctors office, and the repeat performance a few hours later at home. I didn't really get to appreciate it until later that night when a third clearing event occurred. I'll spare you the details. Good news is that now he is fine. Just everytime he goes now (which is a couple times a day) we have to give him a bath. Yeah, Hershey squirt meets 1 gallon bucket of water spilling out- sorry... Just be glad I don't post photos. The oddest part is that I somehow developed sympathy shits. I was willing him to crap so much that I literally went like 5 times that day. Oh crap, I hear him now. God only knows what awaits....

Happy news! I have made the "short list" at University of Louisville. What that means is that I am likely one of the ten or so they have selected to phone interview out of the 200ish applications. This is a big time research school, so I am quite hyped about the opportunity! Louisville looks like a nice place to live as well. Apparently, it consistently lands in one of the top ten most desirable places to live in the US. Hopefully this is the first of many...