This week was one of ups and downs. Some things came up and Kim and I have some major decisions to make after next week after the pre-retirement seminar. Retirement from the Corps is possibly just around the corner, but the final decision has not been made and will wait until after the seminar next week and I get more information.

Gannon will be making the honor roll again and of course we are very proud of him. High school soccer conditioning started for him this week as well. So he doubles up for high school conditioning and practice with the Brazilian Soccer Club.

Gavin received his progress report from pre-school and he is making improvements, especially in his social skills. He is also getting much better at not repeating things. His birthday party is coming up this weekend and it should be a really good time for all the kids and adults.

Been in contact with a ton of people this last week that I have not seen or heard from in years and it is all due to social media, specifically Facebook. Been in touch with folks from school, cousins and friends from the Corps.

Still running the 100% commission donation for the Brothers in Arms Foundation. All monies earned from Brochin.net will be donated to them until the end of February. So check the site out today, test drive the cost comparison search engines, join the free newsletter and get access to the free Advantage members’ area.

As I posted last week, all commissions earned from Brochin.net, until 24 February will be donated to The Brothers in Arms Foundation. So if you are looking for anything IT or Telecommunications related, what better feeling than to know when you purchase that the sales commission goes to some very deserving people.

Kim is going back to school. I am so proud of her. She is really stressing about the math work, but I told her not to worry, if she has to take some prep classes, then no big deal. Early Childhood Development, Elementary education or Child Psychology is what she is looking at. Right now though, I told her just to worry about the general education requirements that they all have in common.

Gannon had finals this week, has been shooting them down. He has A’s and B’s on all his finals and in all his classes. Very proud of the kid. The Kubasaki Winter Formal was Friday night and he had a good time. Of course he was embarrassed because his mom had to take pictures of him and his date and then bring her to the car to meet me and little brother.

Gavin, our little daredevil, decided that sticking a yellow bead up his nose was a brilliant thing to do while in preschool Friday afternoon. Kim of course had to take him to the ER for it to be removed. That said, he is getting into that stage of seeing how many buttons he can push of mom and dads. He will tell us “no”, touch things he is not supposed to touch and wait for a reaction, etc.. Hope this stage ends soon because mommy is about to lose her mind I think.

As for me, there is not much to say except Facebook is awesome. Facebook has allowed me to get in touch with friends and relatives I lost track of long ago. Work is getting better as we have hired a couple of new civilians and will be hiring more, thus the workload has decreased. I have been able to get a lot more time to focus on the training and personnel issues within the section. It has also allowed me a lot more time to read and educate my self professionally.

Last night we had Captain D’s and rented the movie Hurt Locker. First, I love the deluxe meal from Capt D’s. Second, the Hurt Locker is a stupid movie and a waste of time. The first 20 minutes was ok, but after that it spiraled so quickly and rapidly into Hollywood la-la land that it was unbearable. Don’t waste your time with this movie.

Been studying for the CompTIA A+ and currently studying about motherboards. I am really enjoying studying this because I had forgotten a great deal of things I had learned before and I am learning some new jewels as well. Gannon will more than likely get his A+ before I do though.

Gavin is a birthday party maniac. He has been to a couple in the last week and Kim is getting ready for his at the little bowling alley on Kadena AFB.

Enough for now, I am currently fighting with both boys to clean up their rooms, Sadly I don’t know which one looks worse right now. The 14 year old’s or the 4 year old’s room. Yes I do, the 4 year old’s looks worse, but smells better.

Before you get all impressed with the fact that we have nothing better to do with our time than to watch an entire season in a week, if you look at past posts, you will see Gannon and I watched Season 7 in a weekend. Season 8 starts next week, and we are looking forward to it and hoping to knock out Season 2 before then.

Started studying for the CompTIA A+ exam yesterday. Not really impressive I know, but I figure I might as well since I already have Net+ and Sec+. Having A+ should round everything out and then maybe I can work on my Server+ or start working vendor specific certifications.

Gannon started playing the guitar again. He has an electric acoustic one. He is already playing some chords, like the beginning to Metallica’s “One” and “Enter Sandman”. I introduced him to ZZ Top last week and he thinks they are cool. WOW! My son thinks something from my generation is cool, besides Metallica.

As far as Gavin, well lets just say an incident this weekend is an example of his relationship with his older brother. Little brother, is swatting at big brother with his shirt, big brother takes little brothers shirt away, tells the dog to take it. The dog takes the shirt, dragging little brother with it through the house.

Was talking with Gannon last night. After we finish 24 Season 7, we are thinking about doing one 24 episode every day starting with season one. After each episode, I was thinking about writing a review of each episode on this blog. So we should finish Season 7 today and start the “24 Everday” with Season 1 tomorrow, Monday our time. I will create a new category labeled “24 Everyday”, then add sub categories for each season.