Anyhow, I’m officially a Master of something or another. Maybe now I can chill out and have some fun. (If by fun, I mean sleep.)

Pete

To give you an idea, I’m taking 2 classes right now, one is a “blow off” course, the other is the MBA capstone course – the one that ties together everything you’ve learned throughout your BA and MBA. To say it’s a demanding course would be like saying that suicide bombers are “a little bit nuts.”

My project in the capstone, called “Competitive Strategies” is to do a consulting project with a local business. It’s exciting, because it’s truly hands-on and real world. The flip side is, there is a real business owner depending on my team of 5 wonderful people. I can’t disclose the name of the business, but here’s what our semester has been like the past 14 weeks:

Weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the client, one on Sunday evening, one midweek. Daily phone and email interaction with the client. Multiple trips to ALL Kansas City locations (we’re working with 6 locations). Team meetings amounting to several hours 2-5 times per week. Independent research and writing amounting to 15-20 hours per week.

And that’s just one course. I also have a real job, a home I’m trying to take care of, 4 pets, a fiance’, a second course, and of course football season. Oh yeah, there are also the trips to Philadelphia, my web business (on the back burner) and my photography business (http://barrettgraphics.net) which has really been heating up the past couple of months. Sadly, football season has taken a hit because I frankly just don’t have time to watch.

Anyhow, I’m not trying to make excuses… I’m just updating you as to the reality of my schedule right now.

Alright, now on with the update. As you know, over the summer we poured a lot of money into our house – painting, new heat pump, and of course buying new flooring. Well, we finally started installing the flooring last weekend.

It has turned out pretty well, but we still have lots to do. We are putting down the same maple Pergo in the dining room and stairs, then we’re doing a slate grey ceramic tile in the kitchen, bathrooms, and stairway landings. Everyone kept telling me how easy Pergo is… I don’t know if they meant something different than what I think of when I think of “easy” but Pergo was not easy. It was “simple” as in, I am smart enough to put it in myself, however it was “difficult” in the sense that I had to bash boards with a mallet for 15 hours.

Then in the middle of the night Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) our lovely heat went out. I knew what the problem was – the thermostat had been programmed wrong. We have a heat pump and a gas furnace. The heat pump runs until it goes below 30 degrees, then the gas heat kicks in. However, due to incorrect installation, at 30 degrees the heat pump went off, but the gas did not kick in, and there was no way to override and tell the heat pump to keep running. So it got quite cold on Thursday:

Yes, it was 51 degrees in the house when I took that picture. No, that was not the coldest it got. It dipped into the 40s on Thursday night. We made a fire and slept in the living room. It was so cold, my dogs shared the chair:

You know it’s cold when they do that. Usually they growl at each other and fight over who gets to sleep there. That’s the only piece of furniture in the entire house we allow them to get on.

But Friday, the HVAC guy came back out and reprogrammed the thermostat, which I felt better about not being able to do when it took him nearly 3 hours. The house warmed right up, and it was all good.

Friday we also went on our annual Black Friday shopping trip with my family. We bought some very snazzy tv trays from Bombay company, and then it was time for me to go back home and start working on school. Ick.

Jenna and I bought a very pretty Christmas tree and set it up:

As you can see, we have stockings for Chasey, Abby, and Livie already ready to go.

And finally, we have gone on what Scott Adams (author of Dilbert) refers to as an “orgy of acquisition.” Jenna and I opted to pool our resources and buy one gift that’s from both of us to both of us. After all, we spend a lot of time together in front of it:

It’s a lovely Samsung 50″ HDTV Plasma. I don’t think the Asian chick actually comes with it, but you never know. Those people at Samsung are pretty nice.

I also decided I can’t do professional photography and web design on a laptop anymore, even if it is a souped up 17″ model. So, I ordered a high-end Dell workstation with a 22″ LCD monitor:

I will pay for it with a single photography gig, so it’s not as huge of a purchase as you might think. Still, it’s the fastest computer I will have ever owned. 2.4Ghz 8mb 1066 FSB, 320 GB RAID 0, 4 GB 800mhz memory, Vista Ultimate, Office 2007, Adobe Creative Suite… and the list goes on. It’s flippin’ sweet!

Sunday I was scheduled to play bass at my church, so at 7:30 AM, I loaded up my gear and headed there. I set up my rig, plugged it in, flipped the power switch, and BOOM! My amp head burned up for no apparent reason. It was a Genz-Benz 500H – plenty of power and had been flawless for nearly 7 years. However, it’s old enough it’s not worth fixing, so I ordered new head rig to drive my Ampeg 8×10 cab.

It’s a Peavey Pro 500. I’ll have the same amount of power I had before, but this one has a parametric EQ, which is WAY nicer than the old GB had. I’m racking it up with a DBX compressor/limiter:

Now I just need to convince our band leader that he needs to schedule a song with some slap bass.

I know what you audiophiles are thinking… “What a dummy. I can’t believe he bought a Peavey head to drive an Ampeg cab… GAY!” To that I say, Ampeg heads are massively overpriced for the features you get (a comparable unit from Ampeg runs about $1,800 bucks and doesn’t have a parametric EQ), AND, Peavey – despite making really crappy instruments, have really got amplifiers figured out. If you don’t believe me, go down to your local store and try one out.

And don’t think “hey, Pete’s got a lot of nice stuff, I should go rob his house.” On Friday, ADT came and upgraded my home security system with a digital cellular transmitter so even if you cut my phone lines, you can’t defeat my security. And if you break in when I’m home, remember I practice at the gun range every week.

That’s all for today!

Pete

Did you know that Jenna and I just got one?

Her name is Traci, and she’s still a baby, but in about a year, they tell us she just won’t shut up ever!

Here she is:

And here is the cat waiting patiently for Traci to fall off her perch (and Traci’s multi-million dollar penthouse cage).

But let me back up and start at the beginning.

As many of you know, Rachel (who I will not be linking due to the fact she’s had problems with Internet stalkers) got engaged a few months ago, and the wedding was the 10th.

As is my custom, I reserved non-stop flights on US Airways for Jenna and I, since they are the only airline to fly direct from KC to Philly. Jenna flew in a few days early to do bridesmaid stuff, which I assume includes getting lap dances from male strippers and drinking a lot, although that has neither been confirmed nor denied.

I was set to fly in on Friday. Well, as is US Airways’ custom, they promptly (haha) delayed my flight due to a “mechanical problem.” They assured me it was nothing major, but that the plane that was on it’s way to KC had to be diverted to Pittsburg and have an emergency landing. That’s not exactly what I would call “minor” but perhaps in airline terms it’s not that bad. They said the plane was on the ground in Pittsburg but should be back in the air soon. So it looked as the the delay would be about 2-3 hours.

Three hours later, they announced that not only was the plane not in KC yet, but that the plan was still grounded in Pittsburg and they were looking for a replacement plane because they couldn’t fix the first one. Nice. So an hour or 2 later, they finally find another plane and it leaves Pittsburg to come to KC… another 2 hours.

We finally leave KC more than 6 hours late, which is remarkable because normally they’d just cancel a flight that late. I arrived in Philly, picked up my car, and drove to Conshohocken (I’m not making that up). Fortunately, the Marriott has room service and pay-per-view.

Saturday morning I woke up to Jenna calling me and informing me that Kelly drive (the one that runs by boathouse row) was shut down because they were having a regatta. I’m not making that up, either. Apparently it’s normal to have rowing events in November. So I spent a couple of hours talking to people to find out how I was actually going to get to the event and park.

I finally left my hotel and drove into town, circled for about 30 minutes looking for a parking spot, and then found a street spot about 5 feet from the door to the boathouse. I know… it was the first time on the trip something had gone as it should.

Then we settled in for the wedding and reception. Here are some lovely pictures taken with my uber-cool camcorder that also sports a 1 megapixel still camera. Sorry the pics look like surveillance photos taken from 2 miles away. I swear I was actually at the wedding.

The Jenna and Rachel striking a pose.

Jenna crying during the ceremony.

Pete and Jenna on the balcony overlooking the Schuykill and downtown Philly.

Yes, the groom and groomsmen did wear kilts.

Anyhow, Sunday we went to visit Jenna’s family and I took the opportunity to watch football on the very large plasma screen. Jenna’s evil plan to get her family to move to Kansas City seems to be moving along quite well.

Monday we drove all over town and finally got to the airport and flew home, this time only delayed about 40 minutes. Useless Airways.

I’ve never liked cars. I’m a truck guy. I love riding up high, I love being able to go to the Home Depot and just pick up the stuff I need instead of renting their truck or paying for delivery. I love the feel of a big engine torqued down real low.

So Tuesday the perfect storm came along. My dad is a businessman. He’s been in business for himself since 1983, and before that he worked for some of the biggest companies around, so he’s seen his fair share of negotiation. He has sold businesses for people and negotiated mult-million dollar contracts. So whenever I want a good deal on something, I invite him.

Over the weekend he told me he was going to be buying a Dodge truck for one of his businesses. He saw a deal in the paper that looked pretty decent, and the shop definitely needed a new truck. So that got me thinking… Hmmm, I’ll bet if he negotiates two trucks at the same time, we can get a REALLY sweet deal.

So Monday I told him my evil plan, and told him I’d leave it completely to him to do the negotiating. He really enjoys beating up on car salesmen. And who can blame him.. they all have the same BS story – “If I give you one penny more, my kids will starve. I’m already losing money on the deal.” Which of course we all know is retarded because no one would ever sell something at a loss.

Anyhow, Tuesday we roll into the dealership and inform mr. salesman that we want TWO new trucks, one for the business, and one for me. I set the stage right then that if my dad wasn’t happy with the deal, I was prepared to walk away.

I won’t bore you with the details of the work truck, but I will tell you about mine.

I got a 2007 Dodge Ram 1500 4×4 long bed with the SXT package (which adds a lot of power options and tons of chrome) and the trailer/tow group. The sticker on it was $30,755. I was also upside down on my Intrepid loan, so the trade was gonna have to work out in my favor, keeping in mind it was a piece of crap. Did I mention it also had about 30k more miles than a car it’s age should?

Well, long story short, my dad got them down to $16,000 and I signed on the dotted line. Yup, almost half off the sticker price. I’ll post actual pictures of mine, but here’s roughly what mine looks like:

And I feel like a grown up when I drive it.

Before I start, I should explain. I haven’t grown weary of ranting and raving. I haven’t gotten bored with blogging. I have, however, been going through a very busy time. Home improvements, major work projects, and then being the best man in my brother’s wedding… frankly, I’ve been swamped. I’m sure my mother won’t mind if I post a picture of me and my brother with her… I guess I’ll find out soon enough. (hi mom!)

Yes, she does look young enough to be my sister… I know. And yes, my brother is really tall. He didn’t drink as much Mountain Dew as I did growing up. I got sized for my tux about 6 months ago when I was still not 100% healthy, and since then I put on about 15 pounds, so every time I sat down all day my vest became a potentially lethal button projectile launcher. I tried to remember to suck it in and managed not to put anyone’s eye out. It’s astonishing how many inches 15 pounds translates to.

In the process of getting ready for the wedding, I forgot to call my friend Jennyanydots to wish her a happy birthday. Sorry!!! I suck!

The wedding itself went off without a hitch. Not surprisingly, my brother beat me to the alter by almost 7 years… and counting. I learned an important lesson for my own wedding… don’t lock your knees. I’d heard that many times before, and always thought it was dumb. I figured the reason so many groomsmen and grooms passed out was due to being hung over. I was wrong… it turns out weddings are incredibly stressful on all parties involved. I nearly blacked out during the first two minutes of the ceremony before I remember to keep my knees bent. I had to sway back and forth to get the blood back to my head, so I imagine the video of the ceremony will look like it took place on the Bering Sea.

It’s also possible I was just suffering from exhaustion from having already been at the church for nearly 5 hours before the ceremony started. I’m not entirely sure why it started so early, but thankfully the “boys room” had a Nintendo Wii and a buffet.

I was reminded of why I always had the bride and groom make a list of all of the different groups they wanted photographed together MONTHS before the actual ceremony. If the photographer isn’t sure what needs to happen, it’s going to be a mess. The bride and groom have *ahem* other things on their minds. All told, the photography took almost 5 hours, split into two sessions. Yeah. I know… not the bride and groom’s fault.

I danced at the reception. Ok, I use the term “danced” very loosely. I was on the dance floor with Jenna moving around in random and sporatic ways trying not to stomp on her feet.

Alright, alright. Enough about the wedding. Let’s talk about something REALLY interesting… like how John McCain’s campaign has spectacularly flamed out like a NASA project. I TOLD you people months ago that McCain was unelectable because of his pansy-assed stances on illegal immigration and on treatment of prisoners of war.

It was bad enough he was PRO the war in Iraq. Still, we were there, so we really ought to do our level best to at least win, right?! Well, in McCain’s little alternate reality, prisoners of war should have the same rights as American citizens. Hmmm. Well that makes a lot of sense! I always thought the Bill of Rights applied to Americans and the Geneva convention applied to prisoners of war. Did I miss something in junior high school?

Prisoners of war have a right to 3 meals a day and a cot. That’s it. They do not have the right to an attorney, they don’t have a right to privacy (in fact, Americans aren’t even guaranteed privacy except against illegal search and seizure), they don’t have the right to cable TV and internet. Illegal immigrants ALSO aren’t entitled to any of our American rights. If they want to have access to those, there are legal channels for immigration. Boo-frickity-hoo we don’t allow enough immigrants into the country each year. It’s our prerogative, you morons. YOUR stupid country would never allow even ONE SINGLE American to illegally immigrate to Mexico! The ONLY difference between our countries is that ours rocks and yours sucks. That’s not our problem.

McCain sounds like a sissy, bed-wetting liberal when you get him started on granting all rights to non-Americans. The conservative base is trying hard to move slightly towards the middle, but we’ll NEVER elect a candidate who wants to water down the rights of hard working American citizens for the sake of random terrorists and illegal immigrants.

And yes, I put terrorists and illegal immigrants together on purpose. Both groups have one purpose – to destroy the American way of life and turn our society to their ways. They are not interested in integrating into society, they seek only to change us.

We can’t let this happen.

Fred Thompson, 2008!

Here’s where we started:

Nice eh? Well, that was in 2004 when the paint job still looked decent (even though the color was ugly.) However, 3 years of weather and critters poking holes in it, it was ready for a redo. Here’s some more recent shots of the house with the weather pretty evident:

See what I mean? And look at the dinky, old, disgusting air conditioner in that last picture. It was original to the house – 1985. And, it had never been serviced or cleaned. So yeah, it was ready for a makeover, too.

And look at this ugly deck! Old stain, and a hideous overhang made of 2,000 pounds of soggy lumber and fiberglass.

It was time to ditch that, too.

After we tore it down, we bought and assembled a beautiful gazebo!

Check out the beautiful new heat pump! I’m saving 7 bucks a day on electricity with that new AC! Woot!

And for the ladies, here are the guys painting the house…

And finally, here it is all done!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. Next weekend, it’s time to rip out our carpet and put in Pergo!

I was forced to use THIS* piece of crap all those years:

When what I wanted was this:

Well, thanks to many years of depreciation and a little friend I like to call Ebay, I was finally able to afford the Nikon F5 of my dreams. For the price of a single NEW lens from Nikon, I was able to purchase the Nikon F5 body, 50mm 1.8, 28-200mm 3.5G ED-IF, and Speedlight SB-16b. New in 1996, this package would have cost just under $5,000.00. I got it for $380.00.

And here’s the kicker… the lenses and flash are in MINT condition (don’t appear to have ever been used), and the body is in 9+ condition… just a few minor scuffs on the bottom of it. I had my buddy at the camera shop put it on the scope, and it functioned perfectly. Not bad for a camera manufactured 11 years ago. It’s supposed to have a shutter life that’s longer than the average human life, and it’s also self-diagnosing… so if the shutter gets wacked, it refuses to let you take pictures.

I plan to keep the Minolta as my backup until I can afford a second F5 body. I learned a long time ago that to do “professional” photography without a backup camera is like driving around late at night without a spare tire. There’s nothing more life-threatening than having your camera break while you’re taking pictures of a bride. Brides are MEAN.

The first thing I noticed about the F5 was the weight and feel. It feels like it was made for the long haul, like you could beat someone to death with it and still be able to use it to take crime scene photos.

The second thing, the thing I think ALL F5 owners notice right away, is the speed of the autofocus and motor drive. This baby will focus and shoot 8 frames per second, even if the subject is moving at high speed. Try that with your disposable (Canon) camera!

Digital has its place, but there’s nothing on Earth that rivals film, in my humble opinion. The kind of skills needed to use a professional film camera seem to be quickly disappearing, and it’s really sad.

Anybody need portraits done?

Pete

*Not “actual” piece of crap camera – Minolta afficianados will know that this photo has been slightly faked.