It's nearly time to go out for my annual trip over to Drinks for their Halloween party! I always have a great time there this time of year. I'm taking the computer along since I need to upload this entry, along with changes to their website as well as mine.

This past week, I ordered a new 20" iMac computer with wireless keyboard and mouse (it should show up early next week). This is the first new computer I've bought for myself since 1999 (when I bought my old Blue & White G3 system). In addition, I broke down and ordered AT&T SBC Yahoo! DSL service to be connected to my apartment. It's been about 9 months since I had my own Internet access; other than through work, or over at Drinks. With some upcoming stuff, I really decided I needed to have access from home once again. With the service I ordered, it's costing me about 1/2 of what my previous cable internet service cost, and I get faster up/down speeds as well.

The DSL modem and filters and self-install kit arrived yesterday at nearly the same time as I arrived home from work. It should only take a few minutes to connect up and get running if everything works correctly. The DSL service should be up and running sometime Tuesday, Oct. 31 (Halloween!!!)

With the new computer up and running, I'm going to be getting started on a program I'm developing for my brother. He's got a great idea for a commercial software package, the likes of which I've not heard of before. I figure its going to take a while to get it all designed and coded, and the quicker I get started, the quicker I can get it done, and we can start making some money from his idea.

Anyway, time to get a move on here and get going to the club. This should be lots of fun tonight. I can hardly wait to see what some of my friends dress up as tonight. I'm not a big costume-wearer myself, so I'm not actually dressing up, although, I have in the past.

I arrived back in DFW from vacation last Sunday night and am now back at work. Vacation was loads of relaxation punctuated with a lot of hard work both at my new house on the lake, and at my parent's house. My dad & I hung new overhead doors on his garage, laid a tile floor in the kitchen at my new house, finished countertops, installed sinks, attached light fixtures, and generally kept really busy. It was great.

We traveled on Sept. 22 over to Seattle and stayed overnight with my brother Jim. The next day, we were guests at Fort Lewis for the SGT John Ordway statue dedication ceremony. My brother John, with the US Army Corps of Engineers, was the landscape architect who designed the Fort Lewis Memorial Park. There are pictures from the event here.

I installed lots of lighting and placed a tile floor in the kitchen down at my new house. I also have pictures of that on the construction photos page. Check out these links ( here, here, and here ) to see what progress was made while I was on vacation!

Now that I'm back, I'm back playing 9-Ball on Monday nights. While I was gone, my 9-Ball team completed the summer session playoffs and pulled off another victory in winning the division playoffs yet again. This makes 4 sessions out of the past 5 that my team has won the playoffs for this division. We are now qualified again for the city tournament to be held after the Spring 2007 session. Third year in a row! I just really love my 9-Ball team!

And now, time to sign off. I've really got to update this log a bit more often I guess...