Wanna see my Willie Dance... The Link is below....

Hey everyone,
It has been a while and well I am not as busy as I used to be.

I gave up the night Job and I am enjoying life a little more. I have been able to take the kids Sliding and skating and well I formed a new addiction. I truely think I am a Guitar Hero and I am the Rock Star in RockBand(in my mind at least) I play a really mean Bass on hard and Even pretty good with the guitar on hard considering I have only started at Xmas. I call it an addiction because I keep buying more games as they come out. and then I play it until I beat it and then I get bored of it and wait for the next bunch of songs to come out.

The kids are doing good, school keeps them busy Except for Willie who well is just into everything all the time. I am going to link a couple of vid's of Willie dancing it out to the Wiggles, he likes them. He thinks he makes sense when he talks to us in a language all his own, we pretend we know what he is talking about but sometimes he gets very frustrated with us because we really dont have a clue.

The India project kinda fell through. They let me go but still want me on an on call basis type thing. So I gave them my new rates that I would be charging to be on call and they agreed to them but never called me again. So I have started other options yet again. I am reopening my company and I have contracts coming in already. In these "Hard times" I realized that if you overprice yourself you are more likely to get the work over the people underpricing themselves. I thought it was a dumb concept but people figure if I have the Gumption to charge that much in hard times that I must truely be the best there is and that they will see there savings due to projects taking less time...(Suckers ...LOL).

I have started reading books again... Something I havent done in a long time.. I started with a great motivator by Larry Winget " Your Broke because you want to be" Very true facts and very eye opening. Almost as if he was kinda following me around. Made a lot of common sense that is esy to lose focus on. His big thing is read read read. The more knowledge you aquire the more worthy you are. Of course I am reading Computer books for some newer technologies and to upgrade older technologies I know. The only contant is change so I am glad to have refound books instead of just elearning type courses. Plus there is less use of electricity with Books than there is with elearning. I am going to begin challenging myself to 2 books per month, and I hope I can keep with it now my schedule is a little more free.

Anyhow things are good and we are all keepin busy,I will try to post here more often now.

The Willie Dance Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBoVigBz5O0

OH NO were in for another Griswall Christmas

Hello everyone,

Tis the season alright.... Lets see. we started with my lovely daughter(Michaela) and her wonderful singing. She was being taped by cable TV last Thursday night and April was taking her. Of course like our house is April could not find the paper she had on the refridgerator as someone else(little fingers) has borrowed it.We were assured by Michaela that she only needed to be there for 6:30. So April arrives thinking she had lots of time when in fact the taping began at 5:30pm. but...they halted the whole production and then paraded April and Michaela across the front of the church (April is easily embarrassed) so that Michaela could sing the very last song being recorded. That was the first of 3 things to happen.

The Second was more amazing. Mchaela was to sing at the Legislature and I took time off of work and thought it would be a cool family event. They had Hot Chocolate and hot apple cider,
and lice candles to hold and christmas treats. While waiting for michaela to sing they had other choirs and such. We were having a really good tinme and against our better judgement we allowed Meaghan and Madison to get candles as lots of other kids much younger had them. April and I joked about oh no there goes the christmas tree now but we kept a really good eye on them and all was well until Will began to cry. April was looking for Michaela and I was tending to Will when we heard the Words "Oh my God she is on fire" Don't ask me how but we instantly knew it was Madison. Yep the fur around her hood in flames in an instant. we put the fire out quickly and the only thing hurt was feelings. You see Madison didnt realize that she was on fire she just knew that we were smacking her in the head and and took her candle away.
(did I mention April gets embarrassed easily) Well Madison was mad at us and made just a little scene. OK so now we are up to saturday and getting ready to go buy a new snowsuit for Madison. Well she was very upset when she seen her coat and waned to know who made a fire on her coat.....oh yeah that was nice.

I said 3 things and only told 2 so far. What else could possiblyhappen.

Well today is dance class and April was taking Madison to dance class. we have just a bit of snow...enough to make the roads slippery though..Ok so I guess by now everyone knows where this is going.

April and Madison are fine just shook up a bit but my Van is in a lot of Pain. I have yet to see it but it was towed away and I will be needing to work with my insurance company on this one. I felt so so bad for poor April, but at the same time I feel a bit like an ass. She was to stuborn to ask me to drive Madison and I was to stuborn to offer...Not that it would have made a difference but who knows.

So now that the three events are done it can only get better right..please tellme I am right...I dont think we can take anymore....


LOL

Even though it seems like 3 bad events I like to see how lucky we were with all 3. Michaela did get to be recorded even if it was only one song. Madison's jacket is injured but she could have been burnt badly and feel pain and scar'd for life but we were lucky. And for the accident the Van landed between both poles of a highway sign. I dont even have to say how lucky we were on that one.

In case I dont get to blog again between now and then I would lke to wish everyone a very merry chistmas..

Enjoy the holidays .

Henry

The Little man.

Hello Everyone,

I got a day off from 2 out of 3 jobs because it is my B-day. How lucky was that. It really is like having a day off. I even have time to blog.

Things are changing and fast. As of Jan 15th 09 I will no longer be working at the Full time Night Job. I will be done. Yippee. I will be increasing some hours for my PT job however I have the Union Job and the New BaseMetrics Job things doing some overlap. My boss Garfield sent me an email from Mumbai today and says that alot of the hype on TV isnt really as apparent when you get there. So I will still be going to India in the near future. The reason I am going is we are building state of the Art Business Analytic applications for hospitals in the regioin. I am also working on the project with facilities in Canada. Being the Project Lead on some of this stuff is nerve racking but the excitement is unreal. I have already harnessed the technology that is bringing us beyond touch screens and into a gesture based HoloDeck type environment. Touch screens dont work well in hospital where the environment should be sterile and minimal touch is idea. The first project is in Pune India and is a 1000 bed learning Hospital that is attached to one of the largest Universities. I havent ever been away from the kids for more than one week at a time so it will be odd and a little hard but also like an adventure. I will be visiting some of the poorest areas of the country and have been prepared in advance. things like eating with hands and food being serverd on banana leaves instead of plates. I am ready for it though. I will also be visiting some of the richer areas like the Techno parks where the owner had his buildings built in the image of the Pyramids. We may actually be opening an office in that very building.

I must sau it is all coming fast and is all very exciting and before I know I will be back down to only one job and I truely like the sound of that.

The kids are big and bad as ever. I dont have pictures ready of everyone but I took a few of The Captain in his suit. He is a hansome young man.

Later,

Henry

2 months have passed already.

WOW, Keeping up to date is hard when your always on the run.

I do have some Halloween pictures. that I am putting up. We have been busy, I am planning for my trip to India in February. Things may change between now and then but who knows. Till such a time I will just keep working. I am slowly giving up some jobs. The first to go is the night job. I plan on having them phased out by Xmas. Of course as they go my hours at the PT job will change into a FT job, but the possibilites are greater there.

Anyhow here are some pics and I will try to blog a little more often.

Henry

Head Count for the weekend!!

So it is the Week of the Corn Boil and we are almost ready with everything to Party hardy this Saturday.

I am curious as to when we will begin to see people and if we can get a guesstamate of who will be coming so we can try to plan for the Huge PJ Party/Sleep over :-).

I have been scoping out gardens all over town and think I found a few where I can get some corn from. Didnt think I was gonna buy that much corn did ya? LOL

Not much new over here. We did some painting and so did Willie, except he painted himself. I will post the pictures later. Girls are back to School and Madison starts school tomorrow. It is so sad to see summer finished already.

I took on another Job, and this one is the best one yet. So besides my two full time jobs @40 hours a week I took on another 15 hours per week working for a new company as a IT Arch. and Project Manager. I will be building a team of programmers to build the companies vision. We already have major contracts that will see me spending some time in India, by next summer. It is an exciting position with new challenges and cutting edge of technology. So cutting edge that we are the ones building what no one else has and getting contracts based on the idea of it. By december I should be phasing out one of my full time jobs to dedicate more time to the new company and by next summer I will look at phasing out the other.
So as long as all keeps up and works properly things will be nice and a lot more relaxing by next year.


April is busy as ever - 4 kids and basically a single mom as I literally dont have the time to help with anything. In fact she even packs my lunches now too. She wont know what to do with herself should we do a small term in India. I was told I could get a package deal of a Cook, Maid, Driver and Nanny for under 1200/month. Now that is an investment worth having. :-)

Anyhow I gotta run and work again... So if I can have a head count of sorts that would be awesome.


Later

Henry

CORN BOIL and OH NO Where is summer going in such a Rush.

I cannot believe that Summer is going so quickly. I really dislike having to work for a living, as I get older time seems to have speed up and well I just dont like it. I need it to slow down just a bit.

It has been decided that the Corn Boil was to be held in Fredericton this year and that it would be held on Saturday the 6th of September. I have already been talking to Matt and Megan so that Matt could put in for the time off. It is sure to be a good party. Especially since I will be making my famous "Hurricane in a water cooler". Hey Uncle Bee I can sense the excitement as you read that. For those who would like to know what my hurricane is:

1 40 oz Rum
1 40 oz Vodka
Crystal light Cranberry breeze
Lime juice
+18 Liter Jug
and into the water cooler to keep it ice cold all night.

Mmmmm sounds good doesn't it.

In other news...
I am on the look for new work. Doesnt mean I will take it but I am planning to go from working 2 FT jobs down to one better paying job. I am thinking we may have to move to the US for a while to accomplish the goals I have set out. Everthing is still up in the air at this time but Atlantic canada just isnt putting out the money it should for experience and skills. I wish they would catchup to the rest of the world in that aspect because I love living in the Maritimes. So I guess I am more or less playing the field. To do what I do for the Union is paying 115K/year in some of the northern states but it is also a game of job security and how much that is worth. I still have a TN1 issue to get solved before I seriously consider any positions down south but South and Westerly may be what we do. Microsoft has an opening I have been eying up for a long time and well job security is there with room to move up and the pay is very nice indeed with unbeatable benefits, it would mean moving to Seattle but that is only like an hour+ from Vancouver, so who knows.

Willie is 7 months old today and just about ready to crawl, He gets up on all four and shakes his booty but hasnt yet figured out the arm leg movement. I give it a week or two.

With 4 kids and all being home for summer while dad is out to work has caused april to have sudden hair loss...Yano the type that comes out by the handfull :-D. Just kidding of course. The kids have the pool up and have been enjoying it. I will be starting my summer vacation time soon, August 2nd -17th so I am excited about that, I am officially on vacation from both jobs as of right now, but I have a feeling that may change just before I go. I hope not though.

There is not much else new and exciting happening.

Later

Henry

I'm still here & 80's night for Maggie

Hey Folks,

It's been a busy time the past few months. But today is slowdown day, so I have a chance to blog a few photos.

In the past while I have been to Orlando for a Geek Week and lots of sleep ;~).it was fun, I had the offer to bring the whole family for 2 weeks but We thought Meaghans marks would not be so good as she missed alot of time this year due to IWK visits. Well it was a lesson learned - Next time I will bring the whole family. Meaghan is going to grade 7 she just happened to have only one B and the rest were A and A+. So we only grounded her for a month for the B. Kayla is on to Grade 4 SHe had one C and the rest were A, A+ and I think one B. but I think she was treated unfairly as the teacher wrote her explaination for the C. Even though Michaela was in the top 5 for her class in writting she wasnt performing as good as the teacher knew she could.

Wille is big,bad and loves food. We had a mini half a year celebration yesterday. OK Ok we all got IceCream and he got peaches, but it was still fun. I will add all the pictures below.

Meaghan is growing up to be a little lady, and yesterday she went to a sleep over that had an 80's theme. We did the best we could with her pictures are below.

Michaela is doing really well - if we could only get her to clean her room-April will not allow me to post those pictures.

Madison is well Madison. She is always a character that is full of energy and a vocabulary that shocks mom and dad daily. (for example - "Mom these rocks in the garden are really starting to piss me off") Yeah April gave me the language speech again. She is so full of life and funny as heck, what can ya do but laugh.

April is doing good to she has been tending to the garden much better than I this year. She is doing a great job of it and I cant wait to reap the rewards.

We have a get heathly goal in place for this summer. I let myself go to far and it just isnt working for me anymore... So we cut back the Tv and we are packing up the Video games (Except for Wii Fit) that is a good one and the kids do it before I am outta bed. WE are sticking to more natural foods and planning to walk each and every day rain or shine.

When I was in Florida I walked 5 KM every day(Not an easy task for a 400 pound man). But when you are in an area where everyone is wearing bikini's all day and walking the streets you cannot very well sit in a hotel room. LOL April already called me a perv.

There was so much to see and do and I only had a week to do it so I did the best I could by walking 2.5km in one direction and 2.5 K back.

I did do the Universal studios as Microsoft Booked it for a private Party. All the rides, beer, wine ,booze and food was free. Man can they throw a PArty. So I had a date with Turkey Legs, hot dogs, Beer, and the Blues brothers. A show /evening I will never forget. Anyhow time for pictures.

Enjoy

Henry