Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Mar 20

Like always, visit my website at: http://www.thomnichols.com/
Let’s start off with the best new. Yes, you guessed it. Payton Manning is officially a Bronco. That means that we have already won the division and made the playoffs this coming up season. We still have to find out what Tebow’s fate is. Personally, I would like to see him stay with the team. He’s only in his third season and he isn’t making that much money NFLwise that is. He could learn to be a much better quarterback under Payton and then when Manning retires, he could step right in. I know he probably doesn’t want to sit on a bench and be a backup quarterback for that long, but he took us to the playoffs and we need a strong second stringer just in case.

I’m listening to the Rockies right now. We were spanking the Padres until the fifth inning. They made five runs and now in the sixth we’re losing by two, 8-6. But, there is still plenty of baseball left to play tonight. I still haven’t been able to see an entire game this preseason. But, now that they are closing in on the end of the month, they’ll televise more and more of them. We got tickets for the April 14th game from my nephew’s school. We’re taking everyone that wanted to go from both sides of the family. But, right after we paid for the tickets, one of my buddies called saying that he had a chance of getting four first level tickets for that same game. If they weren’t family, I would have ditched everyone for the good tickets, but we had to invite family. Oh well, it will be a good game. The boys are playing the Diamondbacks. I have been trying to keep up with the new guys. A lot of them look really good. I can’t wait until opening day.
My daughter got us tickets to the movies over the weekend. It’s nice to have someone working at a theater. We saw Safe House with Denzel Washington. It was action packed and pretty good, but the ending was very predictable. Watching the previews, I found that there are quite a few good movies coming up. One in particular was worth mentioning. It was the fourth installment of the Bourne Identity. I love those movies and I’ve wanted to read the books for some time, but I just haven’t been able to squeeze them in on my reading list yet. But, the thing worth mentioning in this movie was the fact that Jason Bourne, the character the movies are named after, isn’t even in the movie. I’m sure he was in the books, but they had some other guy who was supposed to have gone through the same program Bourne went through as the main character. I don’t think it’s going to be as good as the first three, but we’ll see. It still looked good.
The kids all went to the Children’s Museum today only to discover that it was closed. So, they went to Chuck E. Cheese instead. The wife and I weren’t invited, so we didn’t go. Now, the girls are going to the movies tonight and even though I’m at work and couldn’t go, they didn’t invite my wife. I think something must be going on. They’re fazing us out or something.
It looks like the boss is looking to fire someone. He’s been grumpy and abrasive to everyone over the last few days. That’s a sure sign that he’s looking to make a change. I haven’t been on the receiving end of the abuse, but the graveyard shift has been mentioned a few times. There are a couple of the guys that have taken the brunt of it and if I were them, I would keep my head down. I don’t think the boss really cares who he’s going to get rid of as long as he gets to fire someone. That means that there is going to be more overtime coming up.
I’m taking the day off today. I just don’t feel like doing anything today. Maybe I’ll put together an online puzzle or something. But, tomorrow, it will be back to work. I’m re-reading Nymph Planet because I lost my list of important stuff for that book. I remember cutting that book down to try getting it under 100,000 words. But, now that I’m rereading it, I really don’t like it. I might go back through it and put it back to the way it is supposed to be. But, I’ll do that after Gremlin Planet. So, I’ll see you again next week. I’m not putting anything into the playlist tonight or at least right now, because the game is still on. So, until next week,
-Thom

Monday, March 12, 2012

March 12

As always, visit my website at: http://www.thomnichols.com/
It was a long week. We had one person quit and another get fired, so I had to work all weekend. But, I can use the overtime so I’m not complaining too much.

There was some good news today. My nephew came home from school with a flier for $2.00 tickets for a Rockies game on Sat the 14th of April. His school always has them available at the beginning of the season and I have a lot of nieces and nephews that go to that school. So, we usually take advantage of it and get as many tickets as we can. The seats are up in the nosebleed section, but they’re not that bad.
Speaking of the Rockies, they’re going to start televising the games starting on this Saturday. So, they better get some people in to fill the open shifts for the guys that aren’t here anymore. I’ve been waiting for months for baseball to start and I want to see them in action. We played San Diego today and spanked them 11-2. We have a bunch of new players and I can’t wait to see what they can do. It’s going to be a good year.
Not a whole lot happened this week. My eldest daughter is still looking for a job. She’s seriously considering going active duty. I would prefer her to stay a reservist and go to school, but she can always go to college while she is in or later. I just don’t want her to lose the opportunity. But, she is getting pictures and messages from her friends that are active and they are in Hawaii and Germany and places like that. Having her see the world would be just as good as going to school.
My youngest daughter flubbed up her work schedule over the weekend. She thought she was supposed to go in at 6, but was supposed to be there at 11. She didn’t tell me if she got in trouble or not. So, if she did, it couldn’t have been too bad. She still loves her job and even got some of her friends hired. Now, she likes it even better. And, best of all, she might be able to get me one of those Avenger’s posters when the movie comes out. That will be cool.
My son and daughter in-law bought some new furniture. They picked out a nice dresser for their room and a small dresser and mirror for the baby’s room. I think they used their income tax return, but I’m not sure. I would use mine for something, but I’m not getting anything. We’re planning on playing around with it, maybe trying married and filing separately or something like that. But, I don’t have any high hopes. We only owe 24 dollars, so I should be glad it’s not more and just pay it. Maybe this weekend, we’ll see.
My granddaughter went to the zoo over the weekend. She went with one of her friends and the little girl’s father. My wife was all weepy dropping her off. The father isn’t a stranger, we’ve seen him before and we might have talked to him. But, it’s still a little disconcerting dropping her off with someone that isn’t family. But, she ran to her little friend and they went inside holding hands and playing. So, she had fun.
My wife and the girls went to see that Navy Seals movie. They said it was good. I hope so, because I’m going to drag her back to see it, because I want to see it. That is, as long as I get a day off fairly soon. There are a bunch of movies I want to go see. I might have to talk my wife into sneaking into another one after we see the Navy Seals one. I used to be able to talk her into it when the kids were younger. She always got nervous, but do you know how expensive it is to take a family of five (Sometimes plus one) to the movies. If the entrance doesn’t break you, the concessions will.
My brother took me to his used book store today. It wasn’t too bad. He has a credit there of nearly two hundred dollars. He can use it against half of the purchase and since the books are only three or four dollars, I got four books and it only cost me eight bucks. Not too shabby. They were in really good condition too. I found a new series by a favorite author that I didn’t even know about and the first in a series of three where the third one isn’t even written yet. I go through about a book a week, so I might have to give that book store another look pretty soon.
River of Magic is finally printed and turned in to my editor. Hopefully there won’t be too many corrections and I’ll be able to get it out to agents next week. I’m going to make a much greater effort this time. Hopefully it will work out. Until then, I’ve started on Gremlin Planet and that one is turning out to be pretty fun. I’ll work a little bit on it tonight. But, it’s Monday and Mondays aren’t very good days for doing anything. We’ll see how it goes. I’m putting Aerosmith, Cinderella, and Slaughter in the playlist for background music and I better get started. See you next week.
-Thom

Monday, March 5, 2012

Mar 05

Like always, visit my site at: http://www.thomnichols.com/
Good news and bad news. The good news is that I completely finished the River of Magic last week. (That was why there wasn’t a blog entry last week. I wanted to get it finished and didn’t do anything else.) The bad news is that I couldn’t get it printed. We got a new printer and it’s really nice. It’s an HP Officejet 4500 G510g-m. The old printer was a dog. It would have taken me all day to print it, so when I started I was glad we had the new one. I printed the first page, a cover page, to test it and watched to make sure everything was going correctly. So, I stared at it and stared at it, but nothing came out. I checked everything. It was connected correctly, and since it is a work printer and I’ve seen things printed from it before, I began to grow concerned. I tried printing a test page from a different document and my first page printed out. Wearily, I tried to print another page. It worked and it came out a little faster. So, concerned about getting it all printed because this one looked like a dog too, I started pumping out the pages. I didn’t them one at a time because I was printing on both sides. I managed to get 18 pages printed before I ran out of ink. I put in a new cartridge and it actually picked up speed. I printed all the way to page 104 before I ran out of ink again. Putting in another cartridge, I began to grow concerned again. This was the last cartridge and I still had 150+ pages to go. I knew that there wasn’t going to be enough ink. So, I printed out up to page 168 before I stopped. I couldn’t run work out of ink or someone might start wondering what I was doing. So, now I’m stuck. I don’t have anywhere to print out the rest of the pages. I tried logging into the maintenance computer downstairs. I set it up and put a slow, but sturdy printer on it. When I got down there, I tried my old password, but someone had changed it. I found the new one written down, but I must have typed it in wrong because I ended up locking up the sign on. So, I decided to wait until after the weekend and try again today. Either they changed it from what they have written down, or I’m just an idiot because I locked it up again. My brother offered to print it for me, and I might have to use him as a last resort. But, I’m going to try a few more things here before then.

While I’m waiting on getting River of Magic printed, I’m going to start working on Gremlin Planet again. A new book has been rattling around in my head. It’s going to be called Sliders. But, I’m not really ready for it yet. But, from what I’ve been thinking, it sounds pretty good.
More good news, it is baseball season finally. So far, I haven’t been able to see any games. If they’ve televised any, I’ve missed them. But, I did have to work some overtime this weekend, so I have an excuse. I tried pulling up a spring training schedule for the Rockies tonight just to see what they’ve been doing and catch up on their news. But, I had a lot of trouble finding it. The only thing so far that I was able to get score wise was their win today. I know they tied their first spring training game, but I couldn’t find it written down anywhere. When I’m done with this blog, I think I’ll continue looking. That way I can find any games that are going to be televised before I go crazy.
My brothers and I went down to my mom’s house today. It was the first time we’ve all been together in a long while. We were supposed to have a get together on Super Bowl Sunday, but my youngest brother couldn’t make it. So, we spent all morning talking. Like all families, they had their ups and downs. But, overall, I think everyone is ok. Then, I took my mom out for lunch to this new for me little Mexican fast food restaurant. My mom had been there before and it was pretty good. I might have to go back. I would put the name in here, but I don’t remember what it was. It was something like Fresh Something or Something Fresh. Like all restaurants, however, the pictures they put up on their menu board was much better than the actual meal. But, it was good.
Last week my son and daughter in-law bought their first car. It was a 2007. Everyone kept asking what kind and stuff like that. All I know was that it was red and it looked nice. The best part of the car buying experience was that they provided complementary cookies, granola bars, popcorn, and water. My granddaughter and I went out of there with stuffed pockets. (Oh wait, that might have just been me) But, they also had a really nice massage chair. We played around in that for quite a while. We probably would still be there but some other people came in that were buying a car and wanted to use it. So, we spilled popcorn all over the place and went out to eat our cookies. The kids did pick a really nice car though. It was big and roomy, but small enough to hopefully get good gas mileage. They said that it had some get-up-and-go and my wife said that she could do the tune ups because she found the spark plugs easily. I was lost on the technical side of the conversation, but I did notice that I could easily fit someone in the trunk. It was huge.
My eldest daughter had a good interview with a little Italian restaurant downtown here at the 16th street mall. She’s going for a delivery person. (They make a butt-load of money in tips because they deliver to all the huge office buildings downtown) But, they might find a place for her in a different capacity. She went over the interview with us and it sounded like she did really well. She’ll know by Wednesday. I hope she gets it, and not just because of their spaghetti. (Which was wonderful)
I fulfilled my main goal last Monday. I’ve been trying to convince myself to get more exercise. So, I made a resolution to bring the glider upstairs and actually use it for something besides a coat rack. My goal was to have it upstairs by the weekend, but I didn’t actually get it upstairs until Monday. But, I did take it for a spin. I planned on using it for an hour every day as soon as I wake up. That has always been the best time for me to exercise. I missed Tuesday and Wednesday, but I did get a good half hour in on Thursday. I’m not sure what happened on Friday. But, this week, starting on Tuesday, I’m going to use it religiously. If I can continue with it for a month, I’ll be alright. I just can’t let myself talk myself out of doing it. (That’s the hard part)
Well, I guess I better get going and do some work. I’m putting Guns and Roses, Rush, and Tesla in the playlist tonight for background music. I should add the Scorpions in there as well. The Scorps and Tesla is coming to Red Rocks soon. I heard it on the radio. That would be a good concert.
Well, until next Monday night, See ya.
-Thom