The Party --

I have been informed I must put up pictures from the party.Ok, so until I get permission, you'll mostly see my friends. Some

people brought their young ones and well, I prefer not to

put little kids pictures on the web. Ok, so Andrea said it was ok. But my mom got the

good pictures of Jilly, so you'll just have to wait.

Lets see, the first one is my brother, trying to turn into grisly adams. Then Jason, we had fun in the corner talking for a while. A decent picture of my mom, and picture of Greg eating, but of course.

And a picture of Andrea, Gilly and Carmen. I hope everyone had a great time.

I was a bit busy. I have a job for

the summer, and well with house cleaning going on, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I have plenty more to do, so don't fret. Plus I have to get started on Lesson plans for the fall.

I haven't heard if my situation is changing yet, but one can only hope.

I don't

even know if we are getting the equipment we desperately need for the students to move forward in their work.

I leave tomorrow for Springfield MO. Yeah, its way out there in the middle of the country. I get to see St. Louis. So chalk up two more cities that I have visited. I should get to work on my pushpin collection....

Why, you ask?

Television Teacher classes at Drury University and a local high school. A weeklong workshop thing. I am looking forward to it. We'll see how much I remember and how hard they push me. Looking forward to it.

Fireworks

So,  The 4th of July has come and gone again.

We managed to make it to the Wixom Fireworks and had a lovely evening.  I wanted to go to a few more shows, but Tom basically nixed those ideas.  

We went to Cirque Du Soliel on the 4th itself, out in Chicago.  There are lots of tickets between now and August 10th.  Make the trip, it is totally worth it.

Hope to see many of you at our party on July 12th.

Ok, here is the mess

Alright.
Well, I had been hoping not to fall prey to my old habits and I was really hoping that I could adapt without going crazy, but it seems that it will not be so.

I just spent 2 1/2 hours trying to get that little piece of video on this blog. Of course I started out using the mac laptop. I'm upstairs enjoying life where there are windows and even out on the deck.
But for some reason, blogger and the mac could not get the video to connect correctly and upload.
So, I figured. Ok - I'll quickly convert it to mpeg 4 or avi or whatever else the program would like. I fired up Imovie to see if it was possible. Well, Imovie will not even recognize the little movie that came off the sony camera. The computer could use Quick time to play it, but imovie asked me what???
So, I said - ok I spent money on the final cut edition and lets see what we get there. Fired that puppy up and said - alright import the video. Got that, then took 1/2 hour to read and figure out how to put some titles on the darn thing. They don't have any edge or drop shadow on them. How can you read that on video? - you can't.
I get done and guess what - NO AUDIO. For some reason final cut is losing the audio during the import. Even though the quick time on the computer can see the whole thing. Then I go looking for the audio file - as I guess it is seperate (which it is on the memory stick).
Nothing and a bunch of whinny bull.

Ok, I get fed up. I boot up Tom's computer and load the video and ask blogger to load it in. I then came downstairs thinking it would hang up again and have to do it on my machine.
While it was loading up stairs - TIME THIS PLEASE - in 10 minutes I -
1. booted the machine
2. opened the studio program - praying it would be ok with the crap video card in the machine - I haven't used it since the problems a month ago.
3. asked studio to import the video off the memory stick.
4. put a fade on the beginning and end of the bit.
5. made the words to go over the video and had it render it all.
6. rendered it as MPEG 4 to easiely be used on the internet.
7. ran upstairs to see how Tom's computer was doing and low and behold it had loaded it up.
8. ran back downstairs and it was already done making it a movie I could use anywhere.

OK, so that took like 10 minutes. It has now taken me another 10 to type all this out.
so, here is the video I redid in less than a 10th of the time it took me to do all that crap with the apple.

What am I getting at you ask??? Well, I may just have to load a version of windows (cause I have one) onto my mac and add my crappy little video editor onto that machine.
Mac people will hate me, I'm not impressed myself.
But WHY do I HAVE TO TAKE 3 x's the time to do something and not get the same results.

If you are going to tell me it is a more stable platform. Ok you may have me there, but that is because you can't DO 1/2 the stuff you can do with a PC.
I love mac, but you know what- it may have to pretend to be a pc to make me happy.

Oh yeah, this video is also 6 megabites. The one on the other post is 30 megabites. I would hazard a guess this might look a little more pixelated. Please let me know.

Ok, so I took him out and talked to the neighbor for a couple minutes. Check out the time difference on these. Ok, I check the time difference and guess what. The other piece has the first time I tried to upload the video on the mac. So, it has taken me what 2 hours of messing between the mac and the pc to get this simple little video on the internet.

Brando in the pool, summer fun.

Ok, Mom asked and so here it is.
This is my first attempt at putting a video straight into my blog.
I used my old little sony digital camera, so as to make sure the video was small enough to slap on here without me having to figure out how to edit it down and all that fun crap.
I so need a pocket video camera.
Enjoy the silly dog playing in his pool.








Ok, you have no idea what I just went through to do this.
You'll see a new post shortly, then you'll understand.

Brando and the pool

Tom decided that Brando needed to cool off a little after Tom had cut the lawn.  Not that Brando did any work.

I just got the camera, it wasn't my fault.

Anyway, here are some pictures.  They are pretty cute.
Hope you are having a nice after noon.

How is Michael????

Everyone asks everyday.
And you know what - I can handle that.

Right now this is what I know. He is doing ok.
Yesterday - June 10th, they did open heart surgery.
They scraped out all the infection that they could find and managed to save his own heart valve and did not have to replace it.

Everyone who was at the hospital got a peek at him after the surgery, then mom saw him last night around 8:30.
He still had the ventilator in and could not talk. It was making him a bit cranky.
Mom said they would let her in today around 10am.

Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed and shared thoughts for Mike.
Mom, I and he really appreciate it.

School is OUT - ok after today

Well, it has been an interesting year.
Or 1/3 of a year - as it may be.


Yesterday we taped the last activity for the year. I have packed up most of my stuff and well, now I just have to clean up and get out of here.
My grades are done, but need to be posted.
My kids are gone, Its already 1st hour and no one has shown up today.

Really, I just have to spend the time to edit stuff.

Last night we had our last meeting for the year. Well, I got an award. It seems that I managed to impress a few people.

Actually, I impressed myself a little. I told them during my interview that my biggest priority was to make sure that I could tape graduation and make it look good.
Hmm, Yeah, I totally pulled that off and well - I managed 9 more things besides that.

I certainly hope you are having a good end of the school year time. Even if you are not a teacher. There are lots of people looking for grad gifts and fathers days gifts. So to all my retail friends - heres to everyone shopping.. :~)

What's new for you?

ME -   Well, I guess it would be this new MacBook  -  ie.  Laptop.

It all started when Paul's Computer sort of took a crap and then his hard drive took out my power supply.

I was trying to save him a lot of trouble, and caused myself a little.  It wound up be a little more than just his Hard Drive.  We went shopping around to see what to do for him.  

If you haven't talked to me in a while - or watched TV with me, you don't know that I make Tom stop the Tivo when the Mac/PC commercials come on.  I always feel so bad for PC.  

Well,  I have also been talking about a laptop.  Not that I really like Laptops, but I could certianly use one.  I go enough and have found myself in a few situations that I could really use one.  

So, now I have the ulitimate toy.  A MacBook Laptop.  This is the one right before you spend the big bucks on a Mac PRO.  Could not afford that one.  

Tom was like - there goes the money from the government.

I also ordered Final Cut Express 3.5.   Yes, that is a video editing program.  It has been a while since I have used a mac video editor, but I'm sure I can 

plow through learning how to do it.

Hope you have a great holiday weekend.

I'm off to visit people.

Lenny and Sammie - oh the fun...

Everyone had to get a bath before the meetings could begin.

Tom was bathing, I was cleaning cages and getting the basement ready.

Sammie was not much of one for swimming.

Lenny and Sammie were finally introduced to eachother.

It was a fun afternoon.

Lenny is MUCH more talkative now and not nearly so fat....

Trip to Mejier Gardens in Grand Rapids with Paul

Here is a frog that Paul noticed and told me to get a good picture of him. I like frogs. He was very cute.

So many butterflies and then tiny birds.
I swear the momma bird (I think they are quail) was only as big as my hand - not even. Then the babies were even smaller.
The people who worked there, said the mom usualy keeps the babies hidden most of the day as they could easily be stepped on or grabbed by little kids.
We went mostly to see the butterflies.
The area was really big and had a waterfall and lots of trees and it was amazing.

Tom didn't go, I guess he figured it was like the one on Mackinaw - small.
I was amazed.
We had missed the extra special - more expesive butterflies. Although we saw a couple really awsome moths and the blue backed ones. Paul knows the names - not me.

Enjoy

Finally some pictures

OK,

First we have the new dog.

Brando

Then I got the new to ME car - Blue Honda Civic -2003

It got 40 miles to the gallon on the first tank of gas.

And lastly -

We picked up Lenny Pig's new girlfriend today.

She is very soft, very sweet and VERY Calm.

Sammie Pig.

Happy first 60 degree day of the year!!!!!!

OH MY -
Can it get any busier around here??????

OK, so we start with my job. Meetings after school wear me out. The most recent is how are we going to get the kids to follow the rules as we get to the end of the year??? JOY

Two, - We now own a Dog. Yep, English Bull Dog. He has been here for a over a week now. I'm sure Brando (it was Rambo - give the poor thing a break) is very happy to be in one place for more than 3 days. His old owners left him locked up for up to 10 hours at a time and wondered why the poor guy kept peeing on the floor.
(I can't hold it that long can you???)

Tom was rather happy up until yesterday. Brando has been rather good until we went to work yesterday. Tom came home to find smarty dog had chewed up a wood chair. Not the whole thing, and you can't tell unless you look at the other chairs and go - Oh something is missing. But man was Tom an unhappy fellow. (I have theories on why - but doesn't really matter.)

Next, I finally gave up the grand marquis. Yes the giant boat car has sailed away. Between the gas and getting it fixed - I think we were in a losing battle.
I kept saying I wanted a Honda (Hybrid) well, I got 1/2 way there. I got a Low emmission (maybe came here from Cali) Honda Civic lx. Not a bad car, but an '03 and well - as long as I get more than 30 miles to the gallon for a couple years, It should be worth it.

Yes, I know - post pictures. I have to go out today and wash the car and then I can take pictures.
My happiness comes from - I can now use my new floor mats that match the steering wheel cover and I can finally get my seat covers out again. I have seat covers that I bought my first trip to Hawaii and they only go on Bucket seats, PARTY.

Well, off to get Lenny's stitches out. (Poor boy lost a few parts.... lol) I have heard that a little girl pig is coming to a shelter near me. I hope to hear something this weekend. I don't want to go buy a pig. I want to rescue one.

Happy first 60 degree day of the year - ok if they didn't lie....

I have my weekends back

Look at all the silly stuff I can get into now that I have my weekends back.

We are doing a "Flat Stanely" type thing with the guinea pig people I talk to. Someone found a beanie baby guinea pig and we are shipping it around the country, with Canada and the UK too.

Everyone is taking pictures and posting them and what did I do? I took a bunch of pictures and Tom and I basically did a quick stop action thing.

Its a couple different little things, and it looks cute.
You will probably not be impressed in any way shape or form, but it was fun and I can use it as an example for the kids.

Waldo Adventures

First Day at School

So how much of the new kid on campus did I feel today?????

It was pretty bad. I was all pyched out that I was going to have to go into the classroom and PERFORM like RIGHT NOW.
That is what it is like to teach, you are Performing!!!!!!!

Anyway, I got really lucky. The principal wanted me to have a couple days to get a feel for the place. I spent today on the Editor.
Ok, it does lots of stuff, but really any machine I have used does what it does.
I did the whole tutorial that shows you how to edit. But the two things it lacked in the tutorial is HOW DO YOU GET THE VIDEO INTO THE MACHINE, and HOW DO YOU GET IT OUT??????
I have a bit of an idea, and My friend is coming tomorrow to help me figure it out. We are going to focus on the studio and see what we can get out of there. I think everything works, but we'll have to try it all, to be able to do anything in there soon.

I get the students on Monday. We'll see how that goes.
Everyone keeps telling me to come in crazy mean, and then you can chill out later.
Wish me luck.

MSU Orchid show 08

Dad, Paul, and I went to the MSU Orchid show. Pictures by Tom Frederick

Hey sorry, Valentine pictures......

Wonder of Wonders

It seems that there will be a new job in my future.

THE VERY NEAR FUTURE......

Ok, basically they offered it to me - I just have to pass muster with the board of education.
Did you catch that? I knew you would.

Yes, I have been offered a teaching job in Ecorse, MI. It is basically off 75 and a little north of Southfield road. ALL the way over by the water. They have the steel plant down on West Jefferson there.

I should start next week. At least I would guess that is the story.
I saw the TV studio - oh yeah - did I mention - I'll be teaching Television production.......

They have some MAJOR equipment in there. I am amazed at what they spent to make this studio. Well, you can't say the kids won't be prepared if they really learn to use it.
They could almost skip Specs Howard with the equipment we have.

The people I have met are REALLY nice.

I should have lots more to tell you next week.
Tammy