So my last entry was May '07. I just got a Nigerian lottery scam email to my 360 address, which prompted me to come here and delete it.

I'm now 40, in the same job I was in last year when I wrote. Holding steady at 228 lbs, hitting the gym 3 days a week. The Workout Club opened 4 buildings down from work, so I joined. They have a pool and jacuzzi, nice in the winter, not really useful right now, as I have my own at home. After spending all that time cleaning it and money on chemicals, I'm gonna use it as much as possible.


We now have 2 dogs, Rex and his nephew Lucky, who was born last June. Both great dogs, but frustrating, as they love to escape and run. Our neighbors are terrified of dogs, so constantly call to complain. We spent three weekends in June building a fence around the back woods, and yet Rex always manages to find a weakness and escape.

Jillian is almost 10 and will be starting Middle School in the Fall (5th grade!), the twins turned 8 in April, and are starting 3rd grade. They all did really well in school this year, solid grades, good attitudes, well liked, lots of friends. Right now they're in the town Rec program, doing activities and going on field trips everyday. Last week of July we'll be going down the Shore again, and they've been obsessing over it since the week after Christmas!
They start summer soccer camp soon (just the twins) and are looking forward to Fall soccer. Fiona is still very athletic and proud of being a tomboy. Gwen does the sports to be with Fiona, but isn't into it as much. All three started piano lessons last Fall and have gotten very good for their age. They did a recital in June and gave a performance to make any Dad proud!

Kate is still heavily involved in the church, and is still in Mothers club, although trying to wean herself from the responsibility positions. She stopped working for the summer to be home with the kids, but will probably go back in the Fall, part-time. She's spending the summer planning out activities and trips for the girls and our various vacations.

Nothing much has changed with me. Haven't won the lottery, so still slogging it out building servers and dealing with user problems. Looking forward to Boozapalooza 11 in August. Still playing WoW, have 2 lvl 70 characters, still not playing my guitar, but really wanting to. Still missing Miami, warm weather, sunshine, and freedom, and wishing I could travel back in time to 21, when life was simpler and more fun, with less stress.

So, someone just requested to add me on 360, I accepted and it brought me to my page. At which point I realized I haven't updated it in, like, a year!

Been on Myspace (ugh) (http://myspace.com/jpthomas68), updating my own personal pics page (http://bubba.hopto.org), and just basically busy, so, kind of forgot about Yahoo.

So, what's happened in the last year? We are now down to 2 hens, that were hatched as part of the twins kindergarten project. The twins are now almost finished first grade. Jillian is almost done with 3rd grade. All three doing acro dance, and Jillie is in ballet. All doing well in school. They are dying for summer, and the trip to the shore. We will probably open the pool this weekend, if the weather's nice.

Rex is one and a half, but still a puppy, very playful and energetic, and still a terriffic dog. Jillian has a pet rat named Dellestar, after her night elf hunter in Warcraft. Oh and Warcraft ... got into it last year, dropped it in December, came back to it this week. Forgotten how much I enjoy it, even though it's really stupid and a huge waste of time.

Weightloss ... Totally fell off the wagon last fall, with holiday eating ballooned up to 300 lbs. Now, back down to 237. Lost the majority in January doing the Master Cleanse diet for 2 weeks, then Atkins the rest of the time. Won the office weight-loss pool with a total of 57 lbs lost (I think) over 3 months, won over $500. Took the family out to a Japanes Tepanyaki grill, so the girls could see the flipping knives and flying shrimp.

Work is still just work. Come in, fix things, build things, configure things, go home. Yawwwwn. Pays the bills. Nothing at all exciting to write about. This isn't Synarc where they send me to Vegas for a conference, or fly me to China to setup routers. But on occassion, I do get to travel to scenic Londonderry to build a server! :)

Fell out of playing my guitar, really need to get back into that. I miss it, and I loved it, but I'm afraid I've forgotten everything and I'll be starting from scratch, and I'll suck. So it gathers dust in my den, staring at me disapprovingly as I log into WoW.

That's the nutshell. A whole year condensed into a few paragraphs. Now, I'm 39, bored, in debt, in New Hampshire. Let's see how exciting my next catch-up blog will be in May of 2008 :)

So, I'm coming home from a very strenuous workout at the gym, sweaty, can barely lift my arms, let alone steer the car, just looking forward to a nice hot shower before heading off to work.

As I pull in to the driveway, there is Megan, on the other side of our next door neighbors house. The ones with the big angry dog that they've warned us to keep our children away from.  I stop the car, walk across their driveway, and very slowly scoop her up in my arms. As I get back to the Jeep, I put her in the passenger seat. She is VERY nervous.

I put the Jeep in drive, and very slowly continue towards the house. She wobbles a bit, but gains her balance, and starts looking out the window at the scenery going by. She starts making the funniest tentative cooing noises. When I get to the garage, I park, turn off the car, and put her out. She starts walking around the Jeep clucking at it. Then as I start walking in to the house, I hear her behind me, following me saying "Buuuuuck? Buuuuck?" Like she's asking for another ride. Now I have a chicken who wants to be chauffered.

Postscript:

My father was cleaning out the back seat of his Camaro, and left the doors open, while he walked into the garage to throw away trash.  He walked back to the car, and the chicken was in there, sitting in the back seat, just looking at him and clucking softly. I'm going to have to get a seat cover and take her for a ride in the country.

So, this past Saturday was the annual Hampstead Civic Club Fishing Derby.  I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I remember fishing in it when *I* was a kid! Basically, a week in advance, they stock a pond the size of a thimble with 1000 farm-raised trout, and on the Saturday in question, around 5 a.m. people start arriving to get good spots around the pond. They actually have the Boy Scouts camp at the pond the night before to watch for poachers.

For the next few hours, the dads mill around saying hi to the guys they haven't seen since last years derby, muttering that the Civic Club hasn't shown up with the coffee yet, and the children chase each other around the pond, in between complaining that it's too cold out. 

At 8 a.m., they fire a canon, and everyone casts (only open to children 15 and under). Then their dads spend the next half hour untangling their lines from the tree, the kid next to them, the father with the hook in his ear, etc.

It's really a lot of fun, and every year every dad within 15 miles of Hampstead drags his kid/s out there to show them how much fun fishing is. Every kid gets a prize, but the largest, first, etc. all win some pretty neat, donated prizes. This year there were home theater systems and XBoxes and PS2s. Gwennie won a sleeping bag last year for being the first girl in her age group (1-5) to catch a fish. Hard to believe the twins are now in the 6-10 age group. A lot more competition.  Year before, Jillian won a new fishing rod/reel for most fish, girl, age-group. Which was helpful since she broke her reel hauling in a massive catfish, which helped her win the prize.  This year, we didn't do as well. But as the pic above shows, we at least brought home dinner.

Best line of the day: As we are setting up to start, 5 year old girl walking behind us says to dad, "Why are we doing this?". Just about sums it up :)