I went out and bought a new router at best buy after work yesterday. I got the D-Link DI-514 with built in wireless. I attempted to hook it up but soon realized that I was having the same results. My site images would not load, neither would my style sheets, and everything was really slow. I’m really baffled at this point and I think I’m gonna have a party with Phil one night this weekend to try and figure this crap out. I’m also looking for ideas from people on the OAR message board, but so far nothing has worked. I had my servers up and running years ago behind a router when I was living with my parents. Something has severely changed in the past year though.

Not sure what we are gonna do tonight. Steve is on vacation today, so it’s been a real slow work day. I think I’m gonna try and sneak out early and get a head start at the gym. From there I wouldn’t mind a dinner out with some of the gift cards we have followed up with a movie or something. We are still working out our plans for tomorrow, either way I’m sure it will be a blast!

Sorry about the lack of pictures from the trip home. The camera that I just bought decided to fall off of my desk shortly before leaving, and after that it wouldn’t take any clear pictures. Not to worry though, I took it back and got a new one yesterday. I’ll try and post a few random pictures from the weekend that my mom took with her new digital, or you could just go and look at them all here. This link will work for all of her digital pictures from now on…

I’m giving up on the router that Phil gave to me. I just cannot get my web server to work properly when behind it. I’m going to take some best buy gift cards and a DVD exchange in today to buy a new router. I may go ahead and get a wireless one just to be prepared. The price different is typically only $10 more for wireless. I figure a laptop should come our way before too long…

Well I made the drive without too many problems. It normally should take 9 hours but this time it took me 12. This is after making great time all the way to Indianapolis. From there to Cincinnati it was like driving on a 100 mile long driveway. I don’t think I went above 35 or 40 mph the whole way. Most of the time I was going about 20 or 25. I was stuck in non moving traffic for an hour and a half at one point, but I made it. I immediately met up with a few of my high school buddies and enjoyed a night out with them. My buddy Bill was back in town from California, so it was a blast hanging out with him again, as well as Ken and Jon.

The next morning I woke up early to get out to my parents place. I picked Kim up and we were on our way. My dad wanted to be sure to give a new digital camera to my mom so she could use it at the Christmas party later in the night. We decided to just open all of our presents at that time though. I showed everyone the brand new tires on the car, and still got a few more things to open up! :) We all stopped at the Hais house for a little while and then it was off to my aunt and uncle’s place (the other Paffs). We had a gift exchange there, and I got a shot glass checkers set. It will make checkers more exciting when Kim beats me the next time. We also had a stop over at Kim’s grandparents house for yet another party. After that it was back to the Hais’ where we opened even more gifts. I eventually fell asleep in the middle of all of this and was left on the couch for the night. What a long day!

The next day we did a little sledding with Kim’s brothers. Later on it was time for my grandparents Christmas party. Yet another gift exchange. This time I got Chipotle gift cards that my brother brought, and Kim took the Cheesecake Factory cards that I brought. We love food! The night ended with a game of Texas Hold’em that involved 14 of my cousins, uncles, etc. I made it to the final table but was one of the first out from there. I can’t compete with the pros…

Sunday I met up with my buddies once again to pregame for the Bengals game. Can you believe it, a week ago I had never been to an NFL game and now I was going to my second one. Ken had a free ticket for me to use, so I couldn’t pass it up. We all had a great time down at the game, besides the fact that most of our toes froze. The Bengals pulled out a victory too! I’ve been to two great games! Afterward I was picked up and we were off to Kim’s aunts house for the last of our Christmas parties. Yet another gift exchange, and this time around I ended with some Panera gift cards. Kim got a bottle of Baileys and some lottery scratch offs (we won $22)!

Yesterday we drove back home under much better driving conditions, and here I am back at work. It’s only a 3 day week though!

Steve is letting me leave an hour earlier today so that I can get an even bigger head start on the drive home. I’m hoping that they have most of the roads cleared now, especially since the snow has mostly stopped and I won’t be in the snowy areas for at least 6 hours from now. With any luck I’ll be in Cincinnati early enough to meet up with some friends or something…

Happy Holidays to you all!

Sorry about all of the downtime lately. I have been trying to install a router so that I can hook up the ReplayTV box. This has given me nothing but troubles, and so therefore I have removed it until after the holidays. I still believe there is something funky going on with my web server, but I’m keeping a close eye on it.

Not much has gone on this week. Kim left yesterday and headed back to Ohio. They are getting killed with snow right now, and I really hope the roads are ok for my drive tomorrow afternoon. I have burnt about 20 copies of NOW 2004 so far, and I’ll probably be making copies until I leave tomorrow morning. Hopefully some of you have been able to download it and are enjoying it.

Tonight I’m heading over to Doni & Phil’s for a little party. A group from the Brooksider go caroling every year, and their house is on the list of places to stop. I can’t stay real long though since I have hockey tonight at 9. In the meantime I’m burning CDs and packing my bags for tomorrow!

I finished up NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2004 and I will be spending the next couple days making a bunch of copies. You can download all of the tracks from the site yourself, or ask for a copy and I can likely get one to you. I think they turned out pretty nice and the quality of music on there is great!

After work on Friday we headed up to the Brooksider for their little Christmas party. They had discounted drinks and free food! After a couple hours there we decided to head home and do our gift exchange. If you didn’t know I got Kim a ReplayTV box. It’s similar to TiVo but has even more advanced features. I haven’t got it completely setup yet, but I think I’ll do that tonight. I had to get a few extra wires and a router for the network. Thanks to Phil for bringing over an extra router! After we get it setup though we can have it record all of our TV shows automatically, which is great because we always forget somehow. Kim got me a brand new guitar! I tried to serenade her but I could barely remember the few things I learned a few years back. I’m excited to give it another chance though and see if I can figure out how to play this thing. :)

Saturday we had a nice run outside, it was a great day! We had lunch at D’Bronx which might be my new favorite KC pizza place. Afterward we took care of a few errands, like haircuts. Later on in the night we went over to another Christmas party at the Martins house (friend of Doni & Phil). It’s much easier going to a party than throwing one, so it was nice!

Sunday we had to wake up early to get ready for the Chiefs. We put layers and layers on and then met up with Amanda and Joel. The drive to the game was easy especially since we took the back roads. The tailgating probably wasn’t as big as normal (because of the weather) but there were still a bunch of people out cooking and drinking. We decided to head to the VIP tent for a bit before the game. They had big screen TVs, foosball tables and the best part, heat. Joel had 2 sets of tickets. They went to the close ones in the lower section and we went to the others in the second row of the upper section. What we found out later was that tickets we got were in the sun, while the ones they kept were in the shade. This forced them back to the tent even before half time. Before that though, the game was great. Dante Hall scored a touchdown within the first 15 seconds of the game! Not a bad start to my first ever Chiefs game. We met up with the others at halftime and stayed in the tent for most of the second half. Kim and I did try and sit in the lower level seats for a couple of minutes, but once we finished our nachos it was decided that it was in fact too cold. Despite the weather we all had a great time, and I would definitely do it again.
Afterward we went back to our apartment and had the normal Sunday crew over for fajitas and margaritas. It was a great end to a very busy weekend!

I guess I should have said that I put some pictures up from the past few days. Now that I have a camera again, there should be regular updates to the photos section!

So I’m going to the Chiefs game this Sunday against the Broncos. My first NFL game ever. Our friends Amanda and Joel have tickets, parking pass and VIP passes! Best part, it’s FREE! So Kim and I will both be there, freezing our butts off, and enjoying a football game. Woohoo!!!

Today marks the last live performance for The Shantee. What a sad day. I wish I could be there…

The Christmas party was excellent! I got home from work and immediately Kim showed me the kitchen and said get to work. :) Most everyone showed up right at 6, and we had lots of food ready and plenty of drinks to go around. Kim and I took a few pictures of the night with the new camera, hopefully I’ll get those up soon. Doni forwarded some pictures that she took and I’ll see if I can get them online now. After an hour and a half we all headed to the play. Our seats were great, right up front and all together. The play was good as well. We saw it last year, so I remembered a bunch of the parts but I also forgot a few things as well. Good times! Thanks to Steve and everyone else at Kim’s work for coming over and having this party.

We have a few plans for the weekend, but nothing too big. We may go to the brooksider tonight for their Christmas party. At some point tonight Kim and I are going to have our Christmas, I’m really excited for that! Then tomorrow we are going with Doni & Phil up to the Martin’s for their Christmas party. We also have 3 DVD’s to watch sometime this weekend. These are all from a free trial of blockbuster online. I convinced Kim to sign up for the free ipods, so in a week or so I should have all of my referrals needed to get this thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…