Smile Meeko

Here is the first picture ever taken of our new puppy, Meeko! He is a good dog!! We assume he was born in December 2007 or maybe January 2008. He is a Beagle. Yes he has that Beagle bark too. I still find it a miracle and amazing he was not run over by a car on the side of the highway. It feels great to save a life!

Jobs, Ears and Dogs Oh My

Instead of making a thousand posts, I will make one big one with all the news and events in it.

The first thing, is my wonderful wife surprised me today with something I will never forget. Lets just say there is a new addition to the family! I was pleasantly surprised! I have mentioned I wanted one for a long time, even before Olivia was born, and today I got it. Yep, at about 5 today she got home, and took me to one of her coworkers homes near here with our daughter. I got out of the car and walked around back to see a little 8 week old Beagle puppy. Kelly said "he is going home with us!" I was shocked, still am actually. His name is Meeko (after the Raccoon in Pocahontas - Beagles are coon dogs, lol). He is a sweet dog, and he loves his home. The quick and dirty story was someone threw him out on the side of a major highway here, complete with a house, dog food, toys, blanket, towel and other items. They literally threw this dog away, which was sad! I am thrilled that we were able to save a life today. Olivia loves him, but we need to teach him about babies, in a very safe environment - I have always had a fear of my child getting bit in the face by a dog, so we will be extra careful!!

I got a new job the other day as well. You can call this a career if you want to. I was hired on as a team lead (supervisor). They want me to get my 2 year degree and within 2 years, run the store. The store manager salary is amazing. So there ya go. Got a great job for once in my life.

The last thing, is I have a ruptured eardrum in my right ear. Nothing like waking up in the morning looking like you got murdered! Blood everywhere. Kelly confirmed it, and after cleaning myself up, looks like I have a few weeks to wait until I can really hear again out of that ear.

So there ya go. My news.

Severe Weather

Wow, I was working on the computer on the night of the 13th (last night), and Kelly came in and told me the roof of the Georgia Dome had just blown off! I was like, whaaaaatt! So I went in to watch the coverage on television. It was shocking, and I am sure there were a lot of freaked out people at the SEC Basketball championship too. One guy said he thought it was a terrorist attack.

We all later found out, that a F2 tornado did hit downtown Atlanta, and tore a 6 mile, 300 yard wide path. The scary thing, obviously, this was at night, so nobody could see it. I am surprised nobody died. Atlanta is huge, and has millions of people right where it hit. Amazing.

That wasn't all!

Today I woke up to a helluva storm. It was raining so hard outside you could not see out the window! I was thinking to myself, not me!

The day went well, until about 9AM when all hell broke loose in Georgia. Storms were racing out of Alabama at 60 MPH right for Atlanta. They were training, which means one red blob after another on the radar. One hit Atlanta, no tornado. One hit polk county, and it caused loss of life. Another one hit Atlanta and it too caused a loss of life. These storms were racing toward us. There was rotation everywhere, funnel clouds, baseball size hail, etc. I thought it was the end of the world. Then, one of those pesky things, flew right to the house. It was so dark outside I thought it was night. All of a sudden it rained as if you were in a hurricane. My wife, daughter and I ran to the basement, while the storm kicked ass outside. It lasted 10 minutes, and it was blue sky again.

After it was all said and done they estimated 300 million dollars in damages just to Atlanta. I have seen the footage, its sad!!

Thank God we are okay!

In Passing

Wow, all I have to say is I know the immense pain of passing a kidney stone, err, boulder. After about a year or so, I finally passed the big 8mm stone this afternoon. I have to say once it passed, it was like nirvana, no more pain, from the inside anyway! It hurt for a few minutes after, but now I feel pretty good. Knock on wood, hopefully there are no more fragments or anything. We are sending the stone off to be analyzed. I am going to have to alter my diet, and possibly take a pill for the rest of my life, but anything is better than getting one of these ever again. Thanks for all the well wishes while I went through this agony. I can smile again finally. Hopefully the picture at the left doesnt hurt you too much, but I feel I had to post it, just to show you what can happen if you drink too many sodas and not enough water!!