Welcome Liam!

Liam showed up yesterday at 12:25 if I remember correctly. Donna and I almost drove down there to see them on Saturday, but since I'm a bit under the weather we did not.

I am so happy for Will, Meghan and Liam! WOW! Yipppeeeee!

Staples

Sometimes I do my best thinking while perusing an Office Supply Catalog. In this case; Staples.

Enlightenment

I think I've tapped on Enlightenment's door twice. Very briefly both times, but I'm beginning to know darn well when I knock.

Once was on Topsail Island about three or four years ago. I had just showered from being in the ocean, and was outside in a fresh T-shirt and shorts, at dusk, walking along the beach. The wind was wonderful. I turned into it and consciously tried to meditate as I had been taught and read, and poof! for just a second, I was there. I think it took about 10 minutes to rid my mind of thought. But then I think the magnitude of what happened snapped me right back out of it. Either way it was wonderful, and I still have the shell I found and 'used' to remove thought. For that brief second, I only was.

The second time was about three minutes ago. I was sitting here worrying about Bristol and all it may or may not entail, and, as is my recent habit when Bristol comes to mind, I reminded myself that it doesn't exist yet. To be where I am. And POOF again. I wasn't trying to knock. It just happened. I like that.

Rawhide!

Gig went great. Not too many people, but we cleared $200, which means one more gig like that and we might have everyone in the band paid off for what we bought. The bar was no better or worse than Choppy's. Same good folks there. Small place. I didn't even mic my bass drum, and Donna and others said we sounded the best we ever have. Brian Jefferson even showed up and played Harmonica on some songs with us. Donna sounded great. I'd say that even if I wasn't biased. A couple of folks (Beth, Maria and her husband Scott) from Cat's Corner showed up. We'll be back there on December 18th. Probably a bit early for Liam's first live performance, but you know...

Still nothing on Bristol. It's almost the exact same distance North to South highwaywise from everybody. It's been 18 days since I interviewed, and it's driving me batty. There are quite a few things I need to start here at the Journal, but won't need to worry about if I'm leaving. Of course besides not having been offered the job yet, I've not accepted it either. No idea either way, just priming myself for some good sour grapes if they offer it to the other person... And the longer it takes to hear something, the more it feels like they are in negotiations with the other guy.

Patience, Grasshopper. Patience.

Whoa... who am I,, Will?

Long time long time. Let's see.. Not much time now, but enough to say I can't wait to see Liam.. As I'm sure the rest of the Chandlers .. (especially the one carrying him) are thinking.

I interviewed in Bristol VA/TN (the state line goes down the 'Noble Street' of the city) last week, and should hear something back soon. I'd be the IT manager of the 4th largest Media General Newspaper.. Well, 6 papers, actually, and one TV station. Of course they haven't offered it to me yet, so it's all words until then.

We have a gig at a Hell's Angel's bar this Saturday. Donna is going to sing some, but I don't think she's too thrilled about the Hells Angel thing. Could be worse.. We are learning Rawhide tonight.

The Parents (O & E) are coming for Turkey. I'm eating a bunch of pickles.

I miss you all. Come visit!

Camping and Fiddlers.

If you've read Jamie's Blog you know we had a marvelous time camping. As he's done a wonderful job of recounting it, I'll leave a little here. Really not much more than a memo to let everyone know I enjoyed it quite throughly as well. As soon as I get some time, I'll scan the map we used and post some additional photos.

This is also another plea with the certain eldest Chandler sibling to please make it to Fiddler's. Donna's not going to be able to make it due to her new job starting last week. She loves it, but there is a lot of intense training for the first couple of months that she really cannot miss. So, alas, I'll be making the trip in Thunder by myself. She will be missed.

Another bit to try to infulence all of my extended family to be there (now more extended than I ever dreamed considering recent adoptive innovations) is to be there to meet my birth mother, who is also planning to be in attendance with us in front of Founder's Hall.

I hope everyone can make it. Geoff and Stacy, I'm sorry you'll be in Japan, but I'm glad you'll be in Japan. That. Rocks.

See you all soon, I hope!

David

No!

Almost lost everything on the Track server today. That would not have been fun. It wasn't fun anyway.. I'll leave out the details. The emphatic No! as the title refers to the fact that it appears Will will not be able to go on our camping trip. That is a shame, because, I feel, that out of us three, he needs the break the most. We will miss you, friend. Please make it to Fiddler's.

Yes!

Jamie is on his way! ... or will be soon. Either way he'll be here this weekend! Will, you better get someone to do your paper route for you. For that matter, who thought I'd ever be saying that... Yipppeeee!

Congratulations

...to Candy Crane for winning my spelling quiz. Tenacity in the header is now spelled correctly.

Pictures from Columbus

Here is a link with the pictures from Columbus. They are actually from Tupelo, but...
Follow the link below for the movie(s).

I think Jamie agreed that the longer one is better if you know me and can hear me ramble. Of course if your connection time matters, I'm sure the short one will suffice.

http://www.tunnelunder.com/photos/

And then click on 'Columbus.' This is so all their pictures don't show up in Google. May or may not work. We'll see.

And furthermore...

Holy Cow.

Still have no idea how to relate this miraculous experience. And once again, until I can put it into words, here is a video. Kind of big, but there are two versions. The longer just has me driving more and missing the turn.

I love and miss you all.


Here is the page.

Look for the new video links. And remember I'm not sharing up a T1 from my house or anything, so it's not your connection... it's mine..

Update

Still trying to digest the amazing trip. Until then, you can view a Quicktime movie of me meeting Greg and Sonya. Donna filmed it as we were getting off the plane. Go here and click the movie link.

Really amazing. Can't find words for it, but as soon as I do..

This Thursday Donna and I fly to Birmingham, and Friday we go to meet Debbie. Oh. Wow.

Seatbelt.

Nervous. Not Sure Why.

I'm nervous. I'm not sure why. I'm not worried about what to say. I'm not worried about anything that I can put my finger on. Which makes me wonder if I can usually point out why I am nervous when I am. About to leave work here in a little bit. Go to Bonbrook and get my travel suitcase, then take Thunder to Flow MINI to get the right side door lock fixed, and a state inspection. I'll probably ask them about some wierd idle thing, but that might just be a ido-MINI-synchrosy.. Look.. I am nervous. I'm rambling..

Seatbelt!

--and by the way.. I really didn't mean anything in my comment in Jamie's blog about folks passing out.. Remember, my dad's the preacher.. Just in case there were a bunch of mad Chandlers out there.

Tomorrow Initiates.

Tommorrow Initiates what will probably be a very brilliant month. Tomorrow Donna and I fly to Gulfport, MS at 5:55PM.

My birth father and his wife will be picking us up at the airport. I didn't get nervous until I started writing this.

More Hits...

My parents (Oliver and Elaine since there is now the potential for ambiguity. And for that matter, from now on, Parents will continue to mean O & E, and B-Parents will mean Deb and Greg.. B for Birthparents.. not to denote some sub-A quality...ANYWAY)

O & E will be here tomorrow! They will be here until Monday. They have become world travellers. Donna and I cleaned and cultivated Bonbrook this past weekend.. It was very good to be outside. For the 4th we went to High Rock Lake to visit Rob and Anne's (Bassist from my band) place on the lake. We floated out in their boat to watch the fireworks and then went fishing at midnight. It was very cool, and we had a great time.

Here's the newest little bit of WOW in me getting in touch with my B-parents...

My birth-father's father's best friend and cousin when he was growing up had the name of... wait for it.... David Clark.



You can close your mouth now.

I miss you all. Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Gene Link

Here's a link to photos of my birth mother and father.

This is a link. Use it well, my friend.

The first one is my birth mother, (name still not on here because of searching, etc.) and her husband David.. and her brother Lynn and his wife Penny. Next is B-Mom with b-Grandad, and then B-Mom with her practice's employees.

Bottom two are B-Dad, one with his wife Sonya.

What an amazing month or so....

The Other Half

My birth father (yep) sent me email. And pictures. I'll post them soon. Holy cow.. And the hits just keep on coming.. Get this.. he graduated from Mississippi State witha degree in Computer Engineering.. Hah! And he now works for NASA at Stennis Space Flight Center.. How cool/odd/bizarre is that? Oh.. And he has a Harley.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow..

I look more like my birth-mom, I belive.. But Donna says I have his arms.

Just Occured to me...

It just occured to me a moment ago that women completely miss out on the tiny joy that is a urnial cake.

....And later.. after thinking about it... (thinking about it? C'mon, David)

Look here!

Beach... and a ticket stub.

I found my ticket stub to Vanilla Ice. And I've been rediculed for keeping things as such. Pssssshaw.

Will and Meghan have big news. I won't say what it is, but, since they are already married, there's only one more big news thing there could be, soooooo. Holy Cow! If anybody didn't know, and this shouldn't be here, well too bad.

Went to the beach with Donna and family and neighbors. Played in the ocean and didn't get hurt. This is a first for me. Still haven't gotten those pics up.. Maybe tonight.. Got a few great ones of Nora Shearer from Jeremy's camera last night. She is an adorable little thing.

Melissa and Jeremy had Nora. I cried.
Found my birth mother. I cried. Many times.
Doug Millington turned 30. I cried. And missed. Everybody there.
Dad retired. I spoke. I cried. Did I mention that?
I've cried more spontaneously since I've hit 30 than in my 'pre-triple-decade' life. Is this right?

On to Alabama

Donna and I leave for Alabama tomorrow to surprise my Dad for his retirement party, and to visit Doug M. for his big THREE-OH! All us folks turnin' thirty.. How weird. Was hoping to get to meet Deb, but I fear there will not be enough time for that this trip. Selling my iBook to Katie and her husband Judson, and hopefully get to see Candy and Christian..

Not very exciting.. More later.. I've got an X-Serve Dual G-5 at home.. Yummmm..

More No Smoking Stats

With finding my birth mom recently (see post below).. I wanted to quote Airplane, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking!".. But I have prevailed.. Total I've had since I quit... 7

Your Quit Date is: 4/25/2004 3:00:00 AM

Time Smoke-Free: 17 days, 11 hours, 58 minutes and 54 seconds

Cigarettes NOT smoked: 525

Lifetime Saved: 4 days

Money Saved: $89.25

New Feeling Continuted

I talked to my birth mother for an hour and a half today. What a surreal day. I absolutely have no words for it. Hopefully some will come to me soon. She married a David. Now she has two!

Completely New Feeling.

Oh. Wow. What an afternoon.

I ordered a copy of my birth certificate the other day from the State of Alabama website. I have no idea where mine is, but it's probably with my passport, which is also incognito from my stint in England. And I need a birth certificate to get another passport -- you get the issue..Anyway So at the bottom of the State of Alabama site it has, "Adoptees, click here."

So there I clicks.

A $20 check mailed with a form last last Thursday later, I find my original birth certificate in my mailbox. That was today.

Are you ready?


Justin Galen Krueger


In addition to my original name, it has my birth mother's name on this photocopy as well. I'll leave that off because of how searchable the internet is. Anyway, I search for my Birthmother's name.. Not much, until I use her middle name.

One entry.
On an adoption database website.
From her.
From about a year ago.
From where she has been looking for me.

This is when I lost it.

So Around 8:30 PM I email this wonderful lady who runs this website from Tucson, AZ. Her name is JoAnne. I give her the reference number from her site's database, and my name(s!) and her name. I write that I'm very nervous, but here are my phone numbers and umm what do I do now and....

About 10:55 EDT JoAnne calls me from Tucson.

"This is David"

"David, this is JoAnne from the Adoption Database."

"Wow." David sits down.

"I talked to your birth mother a moment ago" JoAnne continues.

"Wow." David sits down more.

"It was hard to get through because I think her husband is a doctor now. Her last name is now ----. I told her who I was and said, 'I have wonderful news!' and she said, 'Should I sit down?' and I told her 'yes.' I read her your e-mail to me and she started crying. She was going to call but said it was too late there where you are. But she has your numbers and is going to call tomorrow. I told her she should go ahead and call because I knew neither of you would be sleeping tonight.

This is where I lost it again.

So Donna and my parents know.. And there is no way I can type the rest of this tonight. Suffice to say I'm not getting much done on homework or Blue Cross Blue Shield

Smoke Free Stats

OH.. The smoke free thing.. Well. I quit at roughly 3AM on the Sunday morning of/after the party.. Let's check quitnet.net to see.. Can't link to it, so I'll relay the stats.. A of 5:06 PM EDT on 5/7/2004.


Your Quit Date is: 4/25/2004 3:00:00 AM

Time Smoke-Free: 12 days, 14 hours, 6 minutes and 5 seconds

Cigarettes NOT smoked: 378

Lifetime Saved: 2 days, 21 hours

Money Saved: $63.00

This is almost true. I've had five since I quit. These are 'slips' understand, not (what do they call them, uhh) Relapses.. Most of them were after Donna and I went to Villiage Tavern and I had two Red Oaks and the Meatloaf.. Yummm.. It was all over after that. Anyway, that was the Thursday after I quit. And it's been much easier to know that I 'can' have one, but choose not to. I will smoke one of the Cuban cigars I have with Jeremy to celebrate Nora's birth whenever we can get together for that purpose.

Concerning that 2 days 21 hours thing.. like Dennis Leary said, this is the last two days and 21 hours, though.. when I'll be in a diaper (again), so...

DaVinci's Notebook... Not the Band

OH how cool. Leonardo da Vinci's notebook. ONline.. with audio commentary. what wil those Brits think of next?
Here.

Great Party

What a great party. It's taken me forever to post something about it, and I don't really have much to say except a very heartfelt thank you to Jamie and Ali for making the trip down, and to Doug and Kriste for making the trip up. We had a blast, and even though Will and Meghan couldn't make it, it was a great time.

Jamei and Ali gave me Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins, his latest book. I can't wait to be done with this irritating Windows 2000 class so that I can start reading it.

Doug and Kriste gave me a really cool card that Kriste made of a tiny dart board with three darts, and 512MB of RAM from a Compaq Doug had. How appropriate I get RAM.. What goes around comes around! I wonder if Doug got the video game he went to auction for... I'll have to find out.

Donna and I are going to try to make it to their place for Doug's 30th. And then maybe over to Anniston for my Dad's retirement party. Holy cow. He's going to be retired!

We played okay the night of the party. Just okay. We have definately played better. Couldn't really get it together. I think part of it was us, and the other part was that everybody else was just sitting and watching.. not reallly excited or mingling or anything. Anyone in theatre or who has played live knows how important audience reaction can be to feed from. Since I was playing, I regrettably don't have many picures. We finally move the equipment back to my basement tonight. And another rehersal tomorrow night.

Donna and I were going to try to make it to Jamie and Ali's this weekend, but both of our trips got changed. Maybe at the end of the month. I do want to visit, though.. especially now to see the bear!

HGTV will have to be in the Fall as they can't find their Home Inspector in Greensboro! Hah!

More later. I miss you all.

Shindig on the Way!

Saturday is fast approaching. I can't wait!

And Friday HGTV might be here to put ol 3305 Bonbrook Circle on House Detectives!

Also, My Azailieasiseiias are in bloom! Check them out here. I'll post more pictures as the light improves and the blooms keep on comin'.

Hopefully later tonight I'll have a web page up for everyone to see how to get here, etc.

I can't wait to see everyone.

Nora Elizabeth Shearer

Oh. My. What an experience. And I wasn't even in the actual room.

At 4:04 AM on April 15th, 2004, Nora Elizabeth Shearer was born.

I'd say she is soooo tiny, but I'm sure Melissa would disagree.

Seven pounds, eleven ounces. 20 Inches. Ten Fingers. Ten toes.

I've cried spontaneously for Jeremy and Melissa like 48 times. And I don't even have ovaries.

After all the crap Melissa had to put up with during her term, her delivery was relatively easy.

Morning sickness the whole time. And gestational diabetes.

She was only in hard labor for around two hours.

I didn't even have a chance to read the magazines I had with me.

Wow. Say it backwards. Wow!

And she is beautiful.

Ice, Ice, Baybe!

I just admitted on Stacy's website that I've seen Vanilla Ice in concert.

Course, we were at Six Flags, and he was there, so you can't not go see Vanilla Ice, can you?

Just plugged in some huge server I got from a friend who shows up occasionally when we play. I'm booting NetWare 3.1.2 on a Pentium Pro with a 6-HD (4-GB) RAID 5. Now I'm watching NLM's go by? Does that take you back or what?

Back at Work on a Sunday

Back at work on a Sunday. Replaced the GUSS RAID drive cage and am now waiting to make sure it stays online.

So there seems to be some confusion over this quitting smoking thing. And thanks, to Jamie, I'm aware of it due to being able to have comments now. Of course, the confusion seems to stem from him as well, but just in case others were wondering.

I'd always said, or at least told myself that I would quit smoking when I was 30. And yes, that little goal is scarier than the whole turning 30 thing itself - to me, anyway.

This process was convienintly started when I got the MINI, and didn't (and haven't) smoked in it. That has reduced my Camel consumption dramatically.

Now as far as the actual date I quit smoking, when I decided to attempt a huge shindig to celebrate the arrival of the three decade mark, the party was to be the weekend after the 7th. So I decided to move my quit date to the day of/after the party. Well, the party got moved back three or so weekends, so so did my quit date. My logic is this: I'm going to want to smoke at the party, and it would be unwise to try to remain quit at a party, especially when I just quit.

So now the plan is to smoke it up that night while we're all playing, and then wake up the next morning (lungs hurting) and start from then. That way I won't have a smoking situation too soon after I quit, and that morning, due to lungs chastising me for the previous evening, will be easier to not have one.

And for that matter, I've been smoking for 17 years. What's three more weeks?

It's my party and I'll smoke if I want to.

Time to check GUSS.

And for those who care or might otherwise be curious, GUSS stands for Graphic Universal Sub System, and it's our print server. No GUSS, no paper.

O'Possums Rock

Left the Journal at 7:00 this Mornign. Went to Donna's and slept on her couch until she came there for lunch (Bacon and Cheddar burger in hand from Cat's Corner). Went back to snooze until about 3:00 when I came back to the Journal to record my voice for a training video. It ought to be pretty funny.

The GUSS server is still kicking.

I'm waiting for Donna to fill out some insertion orders before we can leave, and I've got a pound of Barbeque from Charlie Carter at the plant.

Poker at Travis and Trina's tonight. They finished their basement room and have a dart board up, too. Everything is glassy and cough-syrup covered. Perfect Poker Playing Positioned Possum.

O'Possums rock.


Don't let your meat loaf!

Try Jesus.. With Cheese!

Oh! And while I'm waiting for the state edition of our paper to get out I must mention that I spent two weekends ago in Hershey, PA.. (Pause for appropriate Hershey Highway jokes.. Yes.. I drove on one.. but not that one. And incidentally, it feels rather powerful to tell the newsroom that they are only going to be able to do one edition tonight. Almost as cool as the one time I 'accidentally' stopped the presses in Anniston.

I'll have pictures from Hershey up soon enough, but I must mention that the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center is huge. And everything there has chocolate in it. The town smells like it. People told me it would, but I didn't really believe them. I think you gain weight there by breathing. And back to the Anniston thing - while walking out of a eatery in the Hershey L&CC I ran right into my old boss Roger Sawyer. That was cute. He was there for America East, the second biggest Newspaper Technology Convention - that was to occur the three days following the SCS user's group thing I was there for. I should have stayed an extra day or so to see it. They had people unloading Imagesetters and small presses there for the show. Boy I'd hate to have to ship that crap around. I'd be happy with just carrying three or four laptops.

How the hell do you get a web press unit through airport security? They won't let you take fingernail clippers. Do they know how dangerous a press can be?

Never argue with someone who buys their ink by the barrel.


Rehearsal tonight was okay. I did great. Probably audiosmosis from listening to Carter Beauford for six hours last night while I was doing the database for Blue Cross Blue Shield. We didn't do well together, but that's the way it happens sometimes.

At the shindig we're going to play two sets and then just let all of the musical people who happen to (hopefully) show up just jam the rest of the night. I hope to record the whole thing to DAT and make a CD (or three) of it.

Almost 30! Will, here I come!

Jamie gifted me with comments and track back.. Not quite sure what that Track Back thing is yet,. but we'll see. I'm back at work where 2 drives of an 8 drive RAID 5 device have died and been reborn upwards of 40- million times today. You never really appreciate Gigabit Ethernet until you have to copy 60 GB of production data across a network. Twice.

24 days till the big Shindig! Jamie also gifted me with the info that he and Ali are going to try to attend! Hope Will and Meghan can make it. And Geoffry and Stacy and Liz and Josh and Nick and (oh oh.. umm.. and Joe and oh oh again.. .. And the Whole Chandler clan! Oh and Doug and Kriste Millington, too!


What fun it should be.

Incidentially if you happen to be there, you'll get to see me smoke my last cigarette.

Ahhh the zoo. Donna and I went on our annual March outing. See many many photos here.

Will's coming! Yippeee! On his way to get a Subaru... How great! Too bad he can't be here Thursday to play with the band like Jamie got too... But can't look a gift-Will in the mouth. Homework, Homework, gimmie a break! Last night of SQL for Business.. Week Off, Will, Hershey, PA, back, Party on the 24th! Doug Millington is coming up for it!

Bon-Fire! Things are shaping up!

Aaack.. Okay.. it's the 24th.. Rob, our bassist and owner of the land to be used for the bondfire and camping, has a Disaster Recovery weekend (you can plan those?) on the 17th.. I hope this is the final change, as I have to invite folks! Where's that post button? Damn internet explorer. I knew I should have used Safari!

So now I have to get this comment thing on my blogsite.. Whenever.. Okay...

Went to Bama for the Thurs-Sun. with Donna for Christmas.. Late, I know.. but my parents even left the tree up! They played Manneheim Steamroller and everything. Went through every bit of snow on the way down there.. I can't ever go south in the time it should take.. Ask Jamie.. The Mini did great, though. My parent's new house is beautiful. Still weird that I bought one before they did! I can't believe my dad will be 67 on March 5th. I miss them both.

Saw Will on the way back to drop off the OS X install discs... Good luck, Will! He met me and Donna at the Wendy's off of exit 19B. He saw I cut my hair.. Shortest it's been in about 10 years, I guess. Thought I'd make a decent impression when I went to Florida a couple of weeks ago.

Installed Garage Band (by Apple, thank you) on my iMac last night. You can plug a guitar into the Mac (1/8" to USB cable) and imitate any effects or amp or anything you want.. If you don't happen to have one of those, you can even use your voice and sound like Peter Frampton.

I think it would work great for Will and Jamie's recording back and forth.. I could even add some of the drum tracks HINT.

Anyway, the birthday bash is semi-planned for the 17th of April. I hope everyone can make it (once I send out invites) There will be a bond fire, a keg or two, camping at my bassist Rob's land, and my band will play! It should truly be a blast..

What a weekend. I loved it. Liz is calling it the Chandler Family Compound. Of course nobody reads mine... I don't guess..

Will turned 30. Jamie came down Wednesday night/morning, played with my band Thursday night (All Along the Watchtower ROCKED.)..I love that family. For those who do read this, the few pictures I took are here ***click here***. I miss and love you all. Wish we all could have stayed longer. It was a true vacation. Where does real life need to be when you are with a Bevy of Chandlers?