It was rainy and overcast today.... I had a boring day at work... John's in a foul mood.... Prince won't let me pet him... and the first round of my ebay auctions are ending....

In the morning I need to make sure to load all the items that need to be shipped out so I can run to the UPS Store and Post Office during my lunch hour.... So far my auctions are up to over $550.00... more then I figured everything would bring. John will be happy to have the stuff gone.... I'm not too worried about not having most of the stuff.... there's three Fry's Electronics stores in the Pleasanton, CA area. I've never been to a Fry's before, so I'm looking forward to checking one out once we get settled.. I wonder what theme the Fry's store the closest to us will have.... I'm hoping for the 50's sci/fi one....

I've started to get music and podcasts ready for the trip. Right now I have 20 hours worth of show tunes downloaded for us to sing along to along with 20 hours of old Dragnet radio shows.

Tonight I finally got MobileMe configured on both of the Mac computers and my iPod Touch. This will help keep email, contacts, photos and etc updated on the three devices.... maybe... eventually... Apple has been having lots of problems with this new service, so I don't have much confidence in it....

I'm also working on getting the Windows XP that is setup in Parallels updated with Service Pack 2 about a bunch of other updates.... then I want to setup a Lotus Notes and SharePoint development environments...

Not much else going on... I'm going to pester John and see if Prince will let me pet him...

I received some good news today - we have a new nephew! Melinda gave birth to a 8 lbs 8 oz baby boy yesterday - his name is Scout Forrest Etnyre.



So a big congratulations to Father Deven, Mother Melinda and Big Brother Jet!

I had a long day at work..... I'm still working on fixing problems in various applications.... it was one of those days where the more I accomplished, the more the end users expected.... So today I didn't feel too guilty about having this consulting job end next week.... I'm sure tomorrow will be better..... It was also "Bring Your Child to Work Day" - so there was lots of kids roaming the hallways and etc. For lunch I went to Novaks and had their lunch special - Mushroom Ravioli with a spinach salad.... and of course, it was yummy! I like how they put warm sauteed mushrooms in their spinach salad.. On the way home from work I stopped at the "urban" Schnuck's grocery store on the way home. Most Schnuck's grocery stores are nice, clean and well organized... except the one close to where I work.... it is located on the intersection of the ghetto, Saint Louis University and some nice downtown neighborhoods.... for some reason this store is run down, dirty, disorganized and has narrow isles.... I managed to get something for supper, some soda for John and something for him to eat for lunch tomorrow...

John had a busy day - he went to our bank (Bank of America) and opened up a Certificate of Deposit... this is something we needed to do, but kept putting it off.... Then he went to a Verizon store and signed up for a Verizon EVDO Internet card. He went with the USB version so it will work with the new MacBook Pro. Verizon now supports the Mac OS X operating system - so John was able to get it up and working before I came home. He then called Sprint and had our Sprint EVDO card canceled at the end of this billing cycle - so we get to use it for a few more weeks.... so I plan on downloading as much as possible with it.... they are going to turn us off anyway... so might as well get caught up with Canadian Idol....

My ebay auctions are doing well... if they were to end right now, I would have over $430.00 from them.... that would get me around 573 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese...

John has "gate duty" tonight... he has to stay up late and watch the front gate at the RV park to make sure no undesirables enter the park and that the gate gets closed at 11:00pm.... He does not need to do this very often - he is just filling in for another work camper... I plan on watching Shear Genius and Project Runway tonight on Bravo - my two favorite shows on TV......

Greetings from a cooler St. Louis!

We had a nasty storm roll through last night around midnight that dropped lots of rain and lowered the temps.... It was in the mid-80's most of the day.... My work day went by easily enough.... I spent the day fixing problems and making minor changes to various applications I support. Tomorrow I need to work on some documentation in preparation to turning my applications over to various other developers.

Today John installed an Insignia - Digital to Analog Converter in the motor home today. He received an extra government coupon from Paul B. They went to several stores, but they ended up getting it at Best Buy.... We don't usually watch "local tv" - usually watch Satellite TV where we have New York City and Los Angeles as our "local" network affiliates, but it might be handy to have on our upcoming trip when it is not handy to setup the satellite dish...

My ebay auctions are doing well - if everything was to sell right now, I would make around $300.00.... I'm not looking forward to them ending because then I have the fun task of calculating shipping - getting everything packed and shipped. Shipping supplies are expensive - so I will probably take some of the stuff to a local UPS store and have them pack/ship it... The smaller stuff I will put in a USPS Priority Mail box and send it that way..... either way, my lunch break will be busy on Thursday and Friday..... I should earn enough from the auctions to get a decent GPS for the Subaru.... or buy rice, dried beans, mac n cheese and hot dogs for when we go broke living in California.....

It was sad to hear the Estelle Getty passed away today.... I always like how her character, Sofia, had great combacks, like:

Rose: Dorothy, you're the smart one, and Blanche, you're the sexy one, and Sophia, you're the old one, and I'm the nice one. Everybody always likes me.
Sophia: The old one isn't so crazy about you.

or

Rose: What's gonna happen when there is only one of us left?
Sophia: Don't worry. I can take care of myself

Anyway, in tribute I took the "Which Golden Girl Are You?" quiz - I'm a Rose.... go figure....

As a tribute - here's beginning of the Golden Girls from You Tube:

It's really warm in St. Louis this weekend - in the upper 90's with a hot breeze. The RV's air conditioner is not really keeping up during the day - the interior temp is in the lower 80's... it will cool off once the sun goes down. Inside it does not feel that uncomfortable because the AC keeps the air circulating well.. Prince does not seem to mind the heat - he lays on the dashboard in the sunlight and sleeps...

I spent a good portion of the weekend putting stuff for sale on ebay. I managed to get everything posted today.... so now I just wait, answer questions from bidders and wait for the fun to happen when the auctions end. Having lots of auctions end in a short period of time is a bit hectic because everyone wants their items shipped out asap... and I want to make sure they pay me the proper amount of money for shipping and etc. What does not sell will be donated to GoodWill or end up in the dumpster. John's mandated that we must "lighten our load".... Larry the Cable Guys says "Get'er Done!", and now "John the RV Guy" says "Lighten your Load!!" - which is a good motto for full time RV'ers..... Besides the stuff that's on ebay, we tossed old magazines, junk mail and worthless crap that has not seen the light of day in over a year... Now I will have room for new stuff... I've heard the garage sales in Silicon Valley are most choice Actually John says that I can use the proceeds from the ebay auctions to purchase a GPS system for the Subaru. It will be handy to have once we are in California....

Yesterday, John meet Perry at Crusoe's for breakfast (I slept in) and then headed out to Rich A's home and helped him replace and repack the wheel bearings on his Crossroads 5th wheel. It was nice having John out of the RV while starting to get the ebay stuff going.... I was able to create a system... take an item from the pile on the couch, photograph it on the bed, transfer pics to computer, put add on ebay and then place item in pile B. Doing ebay is actually a bit of work... lots of little picky details.... now I hope that I make enough money to cover the listing fees... which seem keep going up....

Today we meet Perry and Rich A. at Crusoe's for breakfast. I had my usual - chicken and red pepper omlette with hash browns and biscuit. Then we meet Perry for supper at Joanie's for their Meat Lovers Pizza. I like the crust on their pizza... not too soft, not too crispy... just right... kinda hand tossed.....

I'm still working on getting the new MacBook Pro configured for use as our main computer system. The main hold back right now is the Sprint Internet card. Once we get a new USB Internet Card it will be all set. We will probably drop Sprint for Internet and go with Verizon since our phones are with Verizon. Verizon has redone the pricing plan for their Internet cards. Once you go over a certain amount of usage, they just charge you more per meg.... plus Verizon has a nice website that tell you how much bandwith you've used so far each month... Perhaps we will be able to get DSL once we get settled in California...

We are all setup to have the Subaru shipped to California. We went with a company that is doing the job for under $800.00. I think it is money well spent. The car is being picked up sometime within 5 days after we leave St. Louis and will be delivered sometime within two weeks later. I don't like not knowing exactly when it is being picked up and delivered, but I'm sure it will work out... It will be very nice to be able to ride along with John and Prince... I've already started to plan on which music, books on tape, podcasts to play over the radio while we drive... I think John would like to listen to the last two years of Brini Maxwell's podcast in a single sitting.... Actually I like to listen to old time radio shows... so I might download a bunch to the iPod... my favorite is the old radio version of Dragnet. Perhaps John will run the generator while we go down the road so I can listen to my favorite 8-Tracks while driving through Oklahoma....

Not much else going on... I'm going to play some Railroad Tycoon 3, read a book for a while and then go to bed a bit early....

Greetings from a muggy St. Louis.

John is starting to feel better, but is still not 100% - the medicine is taking longer then I expected to clear up his sinus congestion. He felt well enough to meet Perry for breakfast and do stuff around the RV park. When I arrived home from work, he had sorted through the cabinets in the motor home and made piles of items that I need to get rid of via ebay, PaperBackSwap or the dumpster... I will be busy tomorrow. He also unpacked and connected a new printer I purchased with the MacBook Pro this week. BestBuy had a promotion where you get a discount on a printer when you purchase a computer. I went with a HP Photomart C4384 All-in-One Printer, Scanner and Copier. It takes up about the same amount of space as our old printer, but it is not as tall. It has built-in wi-fi so we don't need to tie up a USB port for the printer. John said it was very easy to configure on the Mac.

I had a long day at work... I'm trying to get as many loose ends finished up as possible in the next few weeks, before I leave. I managed to get several changes completed for Human Resources - which is always a good thing. I managed to leave work at 4:00pm and John looked surprised to see me... He was on the phone with a car transport company - asking questions about having the Subaru shipped to California. He found a company that will do the job for under $800.00 - which seems reasonable. So it looks like I will get to ride along with John and Prince in the RV.... I will be able to cater to his needs as he drives down the road - I will draw the line if he asks me to hold an empty soda bottle for him... One of the drawbacks of having the Subaru shipped is that it is picked up sometime in a 5 day window, and will be delivered sometime in the next two weeks - so we will probably be without it for a bit in California... John will have to drive me to work - unless Pleasanton has a public transportation system that I can use..

This evening we meet Perry at Arcelia's Mexican restaurant. This is the first time I've seen Perry since we returned from Wisconsin last weekend... The food and service was good. We will probably meet Perry again for supper tomorrow night....

Tomorrow John is going to help Rich A. repack the wheel bearings on his Crossroads 5th wheel. They have been planning to do this for a few months... I hope the weather cooperates for them - the forcast is calling for hot and humid weather....

That's it for tonight... I'm going to try and get a head start on putting stuff on ebay....

Greetings from a hot and steamy St. Louis!

We have some big news to announce! I've accepted a new consulting job in Pleasanton, CA. I will be working for a "major health care organization". So, our last day in St. Louis will be July 31st and my first day of work in Pleasanton, CA will be August, 4th. So the clock is ticking and our "big move" is not too far off... John is working on finding us a RV park close to where I will be working along with lots of other details of the trip. I'm working out a plan to kidnap Perry and Zeke and take them with us... It is going to be sad for me to leave friends and co-workers in St. Louis.... but I have a feeling that we will return again someday.... St. Louis really does feel like "home" to me.... but we are also very excited about spending time "Out West". I'm not sure what to expect... I feel like the Beverly Hillbilly's on their way to California....



I really have no idea what it will be like to live and work in Pleasanton, CA. I'm a bit concerned that it will be more expensive for us, earthquakes, fires and crazy traffic. The plus side is that we will be able to go to San Francisco and do the tourist stuff there... I'm looking forward to showing John some of the things I did while I was there for a Java conference four years ago.... Another plus is that we will have a warm winter. I figure that if we made it work in New York City and South Carolina, we can make a go of it pretty much anywhere.... time will tell....

John has mandated that we need to "lighten our load" before we leave - so on Saturday I will be putting lots of stuff up for sale on ebay... I also want to go through drawers and cabinets to organize and get rid of unused items.

We are also considering having the Subaru shipped to California so I can ride along in the motor home, instead of driving behind him... It will cost us around $1000 .. so a bit expensive, but the plus side is that there would be no chance of the Subaru breaking down on the way, save putting 2200 miles on it and we would not have to stop as often for me to buy fuel and go to the rest room... decisions, decisions..... we're cheap so I will probably just drive it to CA.

Some other big news is that I purchased a new 17" MacBook Pro computer from BestBuy on Wednesday. I spent last evening getting it all setup. I have the basics in place like Adium, Firefox, Microsoft Office, Parrallels with Windows XP and Mail configured. I still need to transfer over my iTunes library, documents, calendars and install some more software. So far the new computer is living up to my expectations and it will be really nice to be able to run Windows XP at very near full speed from inside of OS X - will be handy for some development software that is Windows only. One bad thing is that our Sprint Internet Card will not work with the new MacBook because it has the newer, smaller PCMCIA ExpressCard slot, instead of the older Type III PCMCIA card slot... we are planning on obtaining a USB Internet Card to use with it...

Last night was the season premiere of Project Runway Season 5. I love, love, love this show, but I was soo busy last night that I did watch it... it is recorded on the DVR so will watch it tonight...

Greetings from a voluptuous St. Louis.

John is still very ill today. After work I took him to a TakeCare Health Clinic located inside a local Walgreens and they said he has a sinus infection. The TakeCare Health Clinics have been good to us. They cost around $56.00 for an office visit and we have gotten in after a short wait the both times we went. John said the RN who checked him out was personable and even suggested places that were cheaper then Walgreens for his prescriptions.

We went to the crappy Walmart on Hanley road to fill John's prescription. It took over 30 minutes for them to fill the prescription and the store smelled bad - like stale B.O.... but we managed to get his drugs, some sandwiches at Subway and make it back home. I hope the med's take effect and starts to get better....

I've been having a very busy week at work. I'm catching up on support issues that were submitted last week when I was out and getting some tasks completed before I start a new project that begins tomorrow. My manager is also out this week, so I've been asked to do some tasks that I normally don't....

Last night I updated my iPod Touch with Apple's updates that correspond to the new iPhone G3 being released. I'm now able to download and install applicaitons directly from the iTunes store as easily as buying music. So far I've download 1 game called "de Blob" and AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name on the iPod Touch is detnyre414 - so if you use AIM, go ahead and add me....

I've also noticed a few functional difference with my iPod Touch - when you type in passwords you can briefly see the last letter you typed in before it fades away to the usual ***'s Another nice change is that when I have a music video included in a music play list, the video plays. Before the video would only play when you selected Video from the main screen. Now it also plays when you select Music from the main screen.

I also think it is cool that many applications on the iTunes store are free... Tonight I'm installing AOL Radio so I can listen to radio shows streamed over WiFi on my iPod...

Here's the backstory on Mette's shout-it-out "Derek, what is it with you and green colors...?? Do i need to remind you of the Kermit database.". When I moved to the new corporate headquarters I went from a building with lots of beige walls to a building with colorful walls. The wall by my desk is "Kermit the Frog" green. I like the color, so I designed a few too many Notes databases with a matching green color scheme. I like having databases with a consistent color scheme, but Mette thinks I went a bit far..... everyone's a critic....

Not much else going on tonight...

We're back!! We arrived back to the St. Louis Park today around 12:30pm. Traffic was not much fun around Springfield, IL and when we got close to St. Louis. We had a little red shit-box pull out right in front of us at an on ramp - John had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting them. Needless to say, the air horns on the motor home work properly. We stopped at a Flying-J in Alorton, IL (East St. Louis) and topped off the diesel and propane tanks. Diesel was $4.859 a gallon, and we needed around 62 gallons... yuck... but we did save .62 cents with our Flying-J discount card...

We then took highway 15 through East St. Louis (yes we locked the doors) to the Eads Bridge that takes us right down town St. Louis. We made it to the park and got all setup in our regular spot. I picked up our mail at the front office and Lynn was glad to see us back and said that our site was in use the entire time we were gone. I assume the 50 amp hookup was in demand - most sites in the second row are only 30 amps.

John is not feeling good - and is sleeping as I type this. His head is all stuffed up, running a fever and feeling cruddy... I think the late nights out this week took their toll. I plan to nurse him back to health.

Prince was a good pussy the entire trip. This morning he even walked into his travel carrier on his own when he saw us getting ready to leave and the slide-out was brought in. Usually we have to find him in one of his hiding places and place him in his carrier. I guess after a week of being on the road, he has picked up on the routine. Right now he is sleeping on the front dash in the sunlight.

I have finally put together a new banner for the blog and changed the look and feel to be a green color like the motor home. It is still a work in progress... I had the motor home flipped around to it was facing to the left, but John had me change it back because it looked like we had a drivers side door. Driver side doors are typically found in gas powered motor homes - and this did not sit well with John... so flipped it back... I plan on adding some menu items to the brown bar at the bottom of the blog... just not sure what I want to link to yet -- probably just the cookbook and photo gallery for now - freeing up some space in the side bars....

Now I need to get organized and mentally ready to head to work in the morning. I have a feeling that I'm not going to want to get up in the morning... it has been heavenly being able to sleep in this past week.....

Greeting from the lush Kamp Komfort in Carlock, IL outside of Bloomington, IL. We left Calumet County park around 9:00am, made a quick stop at John's dad's house and then hit the road. The traffic on i-39 was busy, but nothing John couldn't handle. Kamp Komfort has expanded since the last time we checked it out - it now has a back section with 50-am pull through sites with full hookups. Having a full hookup again is a bit of a luxury. I'm so looking forward to taking a nice long hot shower, instead of the short on-and-off rinse off in the mornings. We even have the satellite dish dialed in - we have TV for the first time since leaving Des Moines, IA on Sunday. To make things even better, we have fast EVDO internet... slowly getting back to civilization.

On Thursday evening we meet two of John's favorite high school friends, Jen and Shannon at The Outpost in Sherwood, WI. John has not seen for over 10 years and Shannon in over 4 years... They had fun catching up, checking out pictures of Jen's family, drinking lots of beer and having supper at the bar. We made it home around 11:30pm.

Yesterday morning we helped getting things set for the ceremony. I assisted with decorating the top of the boathouse, putting taffeta ribbons up and down the poles of the tent, setting up chairs and etc. Here is a few picture of everyone pitching in and getting things done:











The wedding ceremony was very nice. The weather cooperated and it was a short, poignant service. Having the service on the boathouse made for a beautiful backdrop to the service. Here's a few pictures I took of the ceremony:









The reception was held at the High Cliff Supper Club about 10 miles away from the house. There were around 400 guests. Supper was served family style and was yummy! Then the tables were cleared and the dance floor setup. John and I spent the evening talking to family and friends that he does not get to see very often. I had to keep John off the dance floor - he kept requesting YMCA and made a fool of him self not being able to spell it correctly due to his advanced state of inebriation - yeah right I drank some beer and had some wedding cake and had a fun time. It was kinda funny that few family and friends guessed correctly as to where we are living at now. Most guessed Tampa, FL or Columbia, SC, or New York City... the more people guessed incorrectly, the more I giggled.... After midnight we helped get all of the wedding gifts, flower arrangements and etc all packed up. We finally made it home and to bed by 1:30am. I survived my first Wisconsin wedding!

Greetings from up North!

We are both in the thick of things with getting ready for the wedding. Yesterday John and I went to Appleton, WI to pick up wedding gifts that we went together with John's sister with. Two of the gifts were unassembled wooden Adirondack chairs. We assembled them in John's dad's workshop and then put a coat of primer on them. They are a pain to paint - lots of little areas on them... but we managed to get them both primed yesterday. John also spent time power washing the boathouse deck and stairs. He spent several hours working at it. Then we went out to the Gobblers Knob Supper Club for drinks and supper with family and friends. We all had family style fried chicken and fried fish. The chicken was pretty good and the fish was OK. I didn't have much to eat all day, so it tasted good. After supper we went back to the house and I went fishing for 30 minutes. I stopped at 10:30pm because nothing was biting and the bugs were really bad. Some sort of little moths that were swarming all over the deck. I had enough.....







We are starting to get more "neighbors" in the camp ground. Mostly families in travel trailers and 5th wheels. They like to stare at us when we are outside.... I'm starting to hear banjo music in the background and smell cheese curds......

This morning John's dad knocked on the RV door at 7:15 am ready to go for breakfast. John was not amused and I was still sleeping. I passed on going for breakfast and John got ready while his dad waited... Then I did not see John again until around 12 noon. I spent the morning doing stuff around the motor home and reading a book. After breakfast he was asked to mow the lawn and help with stuff around the house. At noon he went back to the motor home to get me. I drove John's Dad's truck back to the house (following John in his truck). Then John and his dad took off to run errands. They were gone all afternoon. They stopped at lots of stores in the Appleton area to get stuff like soda, beer and gifts. They made it back to the house by 4:45pm for the wedding rehearsal at 5:00. I spent some time fishing on the back dock. I think it was a "Sheeps Head" which are junk fish - but I put it in the live tank just in case it was something worth keeping. I then worked on putting a coat of paint on the two Adirondack chairs and had the first one done before John came home and helped me finish up the second one.

Tonight John is meeting up with two of his high school classmates that he has not seen for years. I assume we will go out somewhere and have some drinks and supper..

Tomorrow is the big day - so I'm sure we will be busy with last minute preparations and etc before the wedding starts at 5:30pm.

I will attempt to upload a few pictures - not sure if I can with the ssslllllooooowwwwww internet connection here.....

Hello all, John here.

Quick post, since the internet card is at best slow here.

We are at Calumet County Park, near my Dad's house, arrived mid-day Tuesday. It's a nice park if your a weekender or small camper, no 50 amp, and no Water/Sewer at sites. We are in a section that has no water at all. Derek is being ultra conservative, but I doubt we will make 4 days without moving the coach for dump/water.

We will post more when we leave here, The internet card is in and out, and very slow here.

John

Greetings again from the Rustic Barn RV Park in moist Kieler, WI. It is pouring down rain as I do the blog posting. I don't mind the rain because it might help reduce some of the humidity. At 9:00am the park owner stopped by with the "Honey Wagon" to pump our the grey and black tanks. They do not have sewer connections at the sites, but they do have free pump out service - which is nice....

As planned, we went to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in downtown Dubuque, IA. It was a neat place - it had two main parts to it - the aquatic and wildlife sections and the riverboat part. It had several large aquariums with fish that are common to the Mississippi River - like catfish, guar, perch and bass. My favorite was an aquarium with ducks in it - they were very cute and it was fun watching several of them dive down a few feet in the water to eat weeds that were growing in the bottom.





Another interesting exhibit was called "Venom!" and was all about venomous animals. One part had a exhibit with live rattlesnakes that you could pop your head into the middle of via plastic domes. No chance of coming in contact with a snake but was still very creepy.





We had lunch at a restored train depot that is also part of the museum complex. In the dining room there were models of several local train depots done in HO scale that were very well done.

The riverboat portion had both inside and outside exhibits. We got to walk through several different types of riverboats and a decommissioned steam powered dredging boat. It was neat to see how the steam was generated and then used to power the ship and the dredging operation. The crew quarters were actually nicer then I figured they would be with a large galley and dinning room.















After spending 4 hours at the museum, we decided to get some shopping done. Over the weekend, the High Priestess of the Immaculate Winnebago designed a "50 amp cheater plug" where you could use power from two 30 amp service boxes to provide 50 amps worth of power to your RV . John decided that he also wanted one - just in case some day... so we went to Lowe's first for parts and then to Walmart. He has around $45.00 invested in it. I got my hair cut at the Walmart Cost Cutters - I missed my normal appointment last week due to being sick..... oh well.. my Walmart hair-do will have to work....

When we got back to the RV park, John spent an hour getting his "50 amp cheater plug" put together - it seemed like he enjoyed working on it.



While he was doing that, I started to work on creating a new banner for this blog - Ron and Terry shamed me into working on it - they said that I at least need a picture of our motor home on the blog.... but became annoyed when the graphics editing software (Macromedia Fireworks MX) kept crashing on me. The MX version of the software does not like the new Leopard operating system on my mac. I'm now in the process of downloading an updated Beta version to see if it will be usable... the internet connection is a bit slow, but it should finish downloading in a few hours....

I also got laundry caught up in the laundry room. I only needed to do two loads, which worked out well because they only have two washers and two dryers.
Tomorrow we are heading to the county rv park that is close to John's Dad's house. It will take us around 4 to 5 hours to make the trip. I hope it stops raining tonight so we don't have to get the truck all hooked up in it....