I am going to be a new daddy in less than a month.

I realized this (or should I say, this point was driven home to me) whilst listening to KLOVE on the radio the other day and John Rivers, the morning host (with his lovely bride Sherri) said that it was thirty days until Christmas.

Thirty days. Now, it’s even less. And Christmas Day is the projected due date of the bundle of joy. Are you in the pool yet? Over 800 BlogMad credits are up for grabs…

Less than thirty days. Wow.

So, how was your Thanksgiving Holiday? TMBWitW and I spent the day at the house, with the exception of the church service. We had some turkey and mashed potatoes, stuffing and peas (with baby onions). Friday I went to my toy store (big blue sign, rhymes with Bowes) and picked up some 2x4s and three sheets of 3/4″ plywood. Since the room that used to have our “extra” stuff in it is now a baby room, we have had some boxes and what not stacked in the hallway. I built some shelves in what is now the hobby room (as opposed to train room – I gave up some much-needed real estate, since I do most of my model railroading on a club layout; I need less room for a shelf-type switching layout than the miniature empire I had planned) so that the hallway can be navigated by a certain person who is much larger than she was a few months ago. Saturday was spent cleaning the house. Sunday was spent visiting TMBWitW’s cousins in Kingman, and, since it would be the last trip up there for a while, we exchanged Christmas gifts. It was quite enjoyable, and not nearly as traumatic as certain trips up there have been.

Wow. Less than thirty days.

I have one more project in the baby room – a “knob board” – basically, a board, with knobs mounted on it, to hang clothes on. Pretty, frilly, special clothes, on pretty, frilly, special miniature hangers. I’ll get a picture of that one, it should be good.

I missed doing this last Friday, so maybe this will make up for it:

Go here. Order a shirt or two, and steal this picture. Plaster it all over the web. Please. Show your support for our troops!

Thank you, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Grassroots Americans Have a Voice

For more than two years, Grassfire.org has been one organization that spearheaded a national campaign resulting in the presentation of more than 150,000 citizen petitions to the FCC, and leaders in Congress, as well as a letter-writing campaign that saw the delivery of more than 10,000 protest letters to each FCC commissioner.

Earlier this year, Grassfire rallied tens of thousands to send emails to the manufacturer of a video game that could be manipulated by the user to unlock adult sexual content.

Their action prompted the game maker to pull the game from the shelves and re-edit the material.

Grassfire was also instrumental in the passage of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 (S. 193), that will raise fines from $32,500 to $325,000 to broadcasters airing offensive material.

By adding my name to the 307,286 citizens who are standing for broadcast decency, I have a voice in this debate, and can impact the issue through Grassfire.

Please join with me on this important issue, and together let’s work to take back the airwaves and protect family viewing times.

Sign Petition Here

Thank you, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays – Support Your Troops! Check out the new polos – Sugarcat is modeling one at the top of the page, and it sure looks good. I’m ordering one for each of us, and then I’m going to send Sue our picture.

I probably won’t be able to post over the weekend – got some projects to finish up and others to get started before a certain young lady shows up.

I feel such a sense of peace since leaving the cabinet industry – my stress level has gone way, way down. That has the side effect of mellowing out my view on life, also – which means there aren’t so many obvious observations to make. However – I am sure you will be hearing from me again on certain, unuversal subjects (hint: drivers in Phoenix).

Through my brief job search period, I knew and kept telling everyone here and elsewhere that God has everything under control. I still know that, and I want you to understand that. It’s not something proven empirically, it is a step of faith in every way shape and form. Want to know more? Drop me a line.

I appreciate all you readers, every single one, even if you haven’t joined the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool. If you have, I appreciate you even more.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

So, Paul at BlogMad has the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool mentioned on the UCP (User Control Panel) for all the Mad Bloggers to see. He also mentioned it on his own blog and kicked in more credits for the prize pools.

In other news, I have embarked on a new career – I am a Senior Account Executive with a national wholesale processing service. I am selling credit card processing at wholesale prices (the same prices that banks and other third party processors get, before they mark them up and pass them on to the businesses) and also financing the terminals. I believe that at this point in my life I am past being a cabinetmaker. Having worked my way up from the bottom, and working in every position possible (except owner), I have left that industry. I don’t think I will miss it, because I can still work on projects in my home shop.

I stopped over at Wear Red On Fridays and was surprised, and humbled, to see that Sue had taken my suggestion and actually assigned it to a shirt. I had mentioned that the name needed to be in line with the other designs (Rolling Thunder, The Patriot) and thought something along the line of “Lightning Sharp” would be nice … and there you have it!

I’m headed for bed now, so ya’ll be good.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

I posted yesterday, bemoaning the fact that I didn’t have a lot of entries for the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool.

Then, I had a brief brain storm, and emailed Paul at BlogMad Control: since I was offering BlogMad credits, could he, possibly, give me a bit of a mention on the UCP announcement scroll? I didn’t want to ask him to do anything untoward, so if he couldn’t help out I understood completely, and I would keep trying to drum up interest on my own.

Well. Paul wrote back, after looking over the Great Big Wonderful Baby Pool, and agreed to mention it on the UCP. And on his blog. And kick in another 500 credits to the basic prize. Plus another five credits per entry (which will go into the consolation prize pool). AND, he congratulated me on becoming a new father! How’s that for cool?

Paul, I can’t thank you enough!

So: The first prize is now at 806 BlogMad credits and the consolation amount is at 109 BlogMad credits. Not a bad haul for guessing when our daughter will be born!

Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!