dylan's birthday party pics

I was finally able to get the photos uploaded from Dylan's birthday party.  I was hoping to have more, but my camera isn't acting right.

We have actually ordered a new camera, so we are just waiting to get it. Once we get it, the number of photo updates should go up.  I guess I just wore my old Canon camera out.  I was a really good camera, but now the image gets distorted just out of nowhere and it also leaves blue lines across the photos.  You can probably see that in some of the images in the gallery.  Anyway, check out our photo gallery and see the pics.

happy birthday dylan!

Happy birthday big guy!

That is right, Randi and I now have a 2 year old in the house again. Fun times, they are a comin'!

The birthday boy, his sis and me and mom are watching ratatouille and letting breakfast settle.  And I can't believe it, but he is actually being quite! haha...

I have a feeling it is a matter of time before the terrible twos kick in though, and then it will be on like Donkey Kong.

But in the mean time, here is wishing a great 2nd Dylan!

happy thanksgiving day from the moffats

It is nearly 1:00 in the a.m., so I thought to myself... I should just go ahead and say...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

I know I am thankful for my wife and I are thankful for both our families and the help and support they always lend.

We are thankful for our kids being healthy and happy and growing big.

So enjoy today and eat lots of food while thinking of what you have to be thankful for.

Oh.. I almost forgot.  I kicked off Jmo's Spot tonight as well with a couple posts, so be sure to add it to your RSS reader or bookmark list. It is just a place for me to talk about stuff I like, such as tech stuff, politics, and music. Give it a look-see...  http://www.jonandrandi.com/jmo.

the new 'jmo's spot' site

Man, give me a few extra minutes, a mild head cold and a laptop, and I present to you the all new Jmo's Spot site.

My all new site (http://www.jonandrandi.com/jmo) is where I will be putting all my technical mumbo jumbo. The categories that I foresee are Mac Dashboard Widgets, Mac Freeware and Software, Windows software and hardware, web design, and of course, politics.

It is just my little corner of the web for my "two cents." And since I am in the web design world, that basically includes anything in front of a computer.

So stop by and give it a try.  It doesn't have all that much right now, but I am still working out the bugs and getting all the features setup that I want.

That is it for now. Enjoy!

just another late night

Man, I wouldn't know what to do if I could actually go to bed before midnight! haha...

Just finished working on another section to my big Business Communications consumer report I am working on. I still have a few days, but it is very stressful. It wouldn't be that bad, if I had a job that I could do homework while working. But we are also approaching a launch on another site either the end of this week or the first of next week. So I have my team at work in crunch mode to get it all finished up. Too bad that I can't also get a team to bust out this paper! haha...

But last Saturday I got to get my mind off of it all for a bit.  Randi and Kaitlyn went to a craft show in Ardmore with Randi's mom, so that left the little guy and me for the day. Well, don't leave me alone with car keys and the car seat for Dylan, because you know it is eating out time! lol...



Dylan and I made our way to Applebee's for a father/son outing. It was pretty fun. I think our waitress was hitting on me, and Dylan was hitting on the little baby in the high chair in the both next to us. He kept leaning back in his high chair and would speak very dragged out... "bbbbbaaaaabbbbbbyyyyyyy, hey bbbbbaaaaabbbbbbyyyyyy". It was actually hilarious!

But tonight Kaitlyn popped up a little fever around 7:30, so we had to dose her up with some medicine and I have been checking her about every hour since, and and her fever is staying gone so far (knock on wood). However, I am going to check it one more time, and then it is off to la-la land for me. Later!

procrastanation ninja

I believe that is what I want to have placed across my tombstone.  "Here lies Jonathan Moffat, procrastanation ninja".  Has a nice ring to it.

Nearly 4.5 years after starting at my current job, I finally decided to start my 401K.  Took long enough, don't you think! haha...

I have managed to put off a umpteen-hundered page paper for my Business Comm class that is due before Thanksgiving.

Then I have all the projects at work, but that isn't necessarily my waiting mess.  It is my group that gets them late and then fights tooth and nail to get it turned in on time.

So like I told Randi tonight, I don't know which to be more stressed about....  the huge paper and finals with school, or the 3 projects that are all due in about a week.  If I don't pick just one, then I may not make it through the next 2 months!! haha...

crazy kidos

The kids were going crazy tonight! So of course I had to try to get some video of it.  Unfortunately, YouTube stretches it and it kind of get pretty rough looking.  But we are looking at maybe getting one of those new little hand-held digital video recorders that we can use to catch funny moments like this.

Kids gone wild

Kids gone wild II

monday is calling

Just doing my usual Sunday night (Monday morning) task.  Sitting here worrying about what all I have to do this next week, and how I am going to do it all.  It is funny.  I heard on the Today Show a couple weeks ago that most heart attacks happen on Mondays.  I can completely understand that! Especially after the poor showing that OSU gave at Texas Tech Saturday.  If I weren't already drinking, that would have driven me to it, and real quick!

I do hope that everyone likes the new look. I found a few templates that I like, so I thought I would run them through in rotation.

I took some photos of the kids on their way to their mamma's house Saturday for a visit.  Kaitlyn was sporting her new OSU gear.

[caption id="attachment_780" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Hold it now, very still, no smiling!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_781" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="They just couldn't hold the pose. But their smiles sure are adorable!"][/caption]

spring 09 schedule

Well, did my early enrolling for next spring. It will be a most fun semester, that is for sure!

I will be taking a 2 hour course named Choices in Wellness, that is my official "blow-off" course for the semester.

But accompanying that course is the one I have dreaded even more than statistics.  I am enrolled in a lovely 4 hour course called General Biology!  YEA!!  So it is a good deal I am taking that with a blow off course.  That is going to be tough semester for me!

happy birthday big brother!!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Phillip,

Happy birthday to you!

Hope you have a great birthday man!  Best wishes from the nuthouse man!

poor man's geocoding

Have you ever tried to pinpoint a location on a Google map, only to find out that it won't find it?  Well, when you have no choice but to try to find a way to MAKE Google find it, you get to use the poor man's geocoding method.

Step 1: Find the latitude and longitude of a point closest to what you are trying to pinpoint.

Step 2: Get a yellow sticky note and pen to write them down (trust me, way too many number!)

Step 3: Plug the latitude and longitude into Google maps search field.

Step 4: start adjusting each the latitude and longitude by just a few numbers at a time.

Step 5: Go take some Aleve, because your head will be pounding!!

That is it.  So to give you an example, see my pinpoint method used to find a Chickasaw Nation Wellness Center in Kingston, OK.

what a night

Well, it all started out good.  McCain stepping out first and taking a small lead.  But unfortunatly, it didn't last all that long.  I would have to say that of all my personal "watch parties" since I started voting, this one was the saddest.  I really feel for the country, and the giant mistake that was made today.  True, it made history, but my question is, at what cost?

It really depresses me, and makes me embarrased, that a past soldier for this great country, a man that has laid his life on the line, more than most, was told by the citizens of this country that it didn't matter.  That his great service for our country and the blood he spilt was good enough for then, but that he wasn't fit to  run this country now.

I just have this terrible gut feeling that we are in for four of the worst years we have ever seen.  Anyway, got a 7 & 7 staring at me, so I gotta go.

God bless America and God bless John McCain!  The hero that should be leading us into the next eight years!

vote!!

Well, me and the Mrs. did our part as Americans this morning.  We got out and made our vote count.  So if you haven't yet, get out there and do it!

I will save my soap box on my political opinions for another post. haha...

for the project manager in all of us

For those of us out there that have to manage some type of tasks.  Whether it be as an actual project manager (kind of like what I do, on top of everything else) or if it is just in managing your day, sometimes a task management software can really help.

Well, I think I have found it.  The best, open source (FREE) project management software there is. And being basically a java program, is cross-platform compatible, so it will run on Linxu, MacOS or Windows (which is what I concider to be the coolest thing after oreos and milk!)

The software I am speaking about is called GanttProject (http://ganttproject.biz).  It is what I would call a laiman's Microsoft Project, but without the rediculously high price!  And as I have alread said, you can have it installed on numerous operating systems, and with a simple save or export, can move your project and task listing from one system to another.

The program is really rather easy to figure out, which is also a very big plus in my book. I don't have time to sit around and read a user manual just to be able to track a few tasks for an upcoming project. I needed something that I could sit down at, and in about 30 minutes to an hour, have my 20+ concurrent projects organized in a logical order with start and end dates.  And it did just that.

It does provide some nice additional features.  As the name implies, it does provide you a GANTT chart which gives you a nice view of your deadlines and how they stack up. It also provides a few nice export options for PDF, HTML or XML.  So you can get the data you need to do what you need with it.

It also gives you a simple way to manage your resources (employees) and gives you information such as how over or under assigned they are.  Which in my case, that is always over.. haha...

Anyway, enough of that, but if you ever get to looking for a task management software, I would strongly suggest giving this one a try!

Here is a little shot of a temp deal I fixed up.  As you can see, you can rollup several tasks under one, creating a "rollup" for that project.  Then you can "rollup" multiple projects even, under one.  So on mine, I have a rollup for in production, upcoming, waiting, and completed. And then under each rollup, I have a rollup task for each project, that has the actual tasks in it.  It all makes more sense when you can get on it and play.

[caption id="attachment_748" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="App screenshot"][/caption]

trick-or-treating 2008

Well, we didn't hit a huge number of houses, but the kids, I mean superheros, did have a fun time.  We visited a couple of Randi's friends from her office.  We tried to visit a friend of mine, but they didn't have their light on, so we kept on driving.  Then we hit a few of the houses down around our house (mainly to introduce ourselves to the neighbors. haha..)

But it didn't matter.  The superheros (kids) were getting tired after just a few houses.  Not to mention a little on the hungry side. So we grabbed up some superhero pizza and headed to the house.

And without further ado, here is yellow Power Ranger Jungle Fury girl and Super Man!

[caption id="attachment_738" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Yellow Power Ranger girl and Super Man"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_739" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Ready for action!"][/caption]

big 4 year old

Well, Kaitlyn Brooke had a blast celebrating her 4th birthday.  She hoped to see some folks that weren't able to make it, but we are all too familiar with having other things come up.  I have that happen way too much.

But she had a good party, and had fun opening her presents and playing with the other kiddos.

[caption id="attachment_742" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="The party setup."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_743" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Birthday girl getting ready for some candles."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_744" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Mommas, hide your little boys!"][/caption]