Been a few weeks again

Time flies when your not having any fun. Since labor day I really haven't had the time to do anything. My two college classes are eating up about twelve to sixteen hours a week, in homework and online conferences. Emma has two soccer practices Tuesday and Friday nights, with games on Sunday afternoon; which means no Ravens or Redskins football. Molly has gymnastics on Friday nights. On top of all this, now I'm officially a IT Manager at work, so I will be getting call all day till my last coworker leaves for the day. Also, we haven't had a free weekend since labor day either, there is always something the wife has planned.

I really wonder how other people do it, with work, school, and all the little tidbits of family life.
This really sucks!!!

Boy new software

Mozilla last night released Eudora Beta, based on Thunderbird, with Qualcomm adding the Eudora like features. I'll try it out once the software has a few betas underneth it. http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope_Releases

While all this is happening Microsoft releases an Windows Live all in one download to setup all Windows Live sections on your computer, it's very similar to Google Pack. Sad thing is I would install it, but I only use MSN MPublish Postessenger, Hotmail, and SkyDrive, and Google for everything.
Windows Live Pack http://get.live.com/wl/all

Take a look.

Messing around with new Blogger options

I have been tweaking the site a little bit, with some new layout options that Google as so graciously decided to add. the new layout is Denim Stretched. This layout actually makes the photo box I added nicer to see, my three daughters. I'll be working more with the options later, with a flicker widget and maybe a stick cam widget. The My Extralife blog might get less work if this pans out better.

New Addition and other News

This is a little late in posting, but I had an addition to my family. My wife Robyn and I gave birth to a new baby girl, Lucy Matilda, on July 2nd, around 4:00 pm. she was 8 lbs, 4 oz, and 19 inches long. As of writing this she is 2 months old already, boy the time does fly.

As of last week work is going to start killing me as my co workers and I have been working on the computer inventory for work. The inventory is all messed up on I get the equipment, and then I drop the said computer equipment off to our main site. There at the main site they give out the equipment to our groups/initiatives. Well some people at the main site didn't enter the equipment location, and/or who they gave the equipment too. We are missing about 20 Dell computers and laptops that are about a year or two old. I'm not saying I'm perfect, with my inventory, but the missing computers all state that they are at my site, and our Associate Director, did an audit, and knows the equipment is not there. I'll be doing this from now to till the end of January when we have a major audit happening, that looks at all of the groups, finances, and inventory. This is going to be hell in a few months. Along with school, the baby, being assistant coach of Emma's soccer team, and many other things.

School Starts Again

Boy time flies when your having fun, or lack there of. Summer session at University of Maryland, University College is over, and I passed my Intro to VB.Net 2005 class with an A. I'm glad that I did, since this is the first college course that I have taken in over eleven years. For the fall semester I'm taking 2 classes, Database Concepts, and System Analyst and Design. Both of the classes are level 400, which you normally take during your senior year of college. The Database Management Certificate program that I"m taking, I have to take them now. It stinks but when I want to further myself at my work or if I leave I'm more marketable.

Been a short while

It has been a short while since I posted here, give me a day or two for stuff to slow down and I'll get back to the blog.

Watching Day Care kids!

I hate it when my wife makes me take off and watch her daycare kids, while she runs out for a fieldtrip for Emma, my eldest child. I have been trying to get some homework done for my Intro to Visual Basic.NET class, and I still need to login on my VPN to get some work done. This just sucks.

Back to School, starting today

Well, classes for University of Maryland, University College full summer session started today. For my intro to Visual Basic.Net class, I'm almost done my homework for the week, all review questions are almost finished, 2 left to do. Now I will have to start working on the programming assignment, but I'm going to be working on all the programming review questions, not just the one to be turned in. I just don't like programming that much, but this class will help me at work with programming access databases.

New Vehicle Shopping, Part 2

New vehicle shopping is done, and what a hassle it turned out to be. I first went to Carmax Toyota of Laurel, MD, and tried to have them match the price of Darcars Toyota of Silver Springs, MD. Carmax wouldn't budge on the price even though a competitor had a lower price on average., but Carmax was going to give me $10,000 on my trade-in a 2005 Chevy Malibu Maxx, which I paid 23,000 for, what a rip off, by GM. I made my way to Darcars, and was talking to a sales person, and the deal was struck. I paid 24,081 a little over Edmunds.com True Market Value, rolled up some negitive equity on my trade in not much though, and got a Toyota Sienna LE, 8 Passenger, with Package Option #2, which gave me a power driver seat, but the all important Power Passenger sliding door, to drop the children off to school. Not bad, considering this is the last new vehicle I'm buying for the next 10 years. Now, I just have to get the crappy Dodge Grand Caravan fixed, needs A/C repair, a tune up, oil change, and a coolant flush. but luckily this minivan is paid off, and now it's just normal upkeep.

New Vehicle Shopping

As most people know shopping for a new vehicle is a pain, but with the third child on the way time to get rid of my midsize sedan. Going to the dealerships and haggling over price and trade-in. I'm trying to be a smart shopper by using the internet to get the price on a New Toyota Sienna Minivan. I started at Carmax Toyota of Laurel, MD. got a great price on a Sienna LE 8 passenger, with package Option 2, for $25,408 before a $1,250 rebate.While doing some further research online I found a cheaper price at Darcars Toyota of Silver Spring, $25,338 on the same van but with the next option package 3, which gives some great features. Finally after rebate the Sienna would be $24,048, now I'm waiting to hear back from Carmax, to see if they will match the price.

College Textbook Prices

I'm decided to rant about money and college textbooks, a wonderful thing if we are a returning student after being out of college for over 14 years. Where do these college bookstores get so money hungry to charge over $100 for a book you can order from Amazon/Borders online for under $75, and can order it from a brick and morter store (like Border, Barnes & Noble, and etc..) for $85. Here starts my story on buying one book for one class.

I decided to got back to college to upgrade my knowledge on a few things. I'm never going to get my batcholer degree, since I have been a college flunkie, but I found something a few weeks ago on the University of Maryland, University College site, that made me become a college student again. Certificate classes. Need only 14 to 21 credits to get a piece of paper stating I completed the required course work for the certificate. Great this is right up my alley, take the core classes and none of the other crap. So I'm going to start working towards my certificate in Information Management. The first class I decided to take was CMST 306, Intro to Visual Basic Programming .NET, I worked in access a few time, and I could use this class to start working in SQL. Now come the book for the class, and the college book store that wants to rape students.

The college bookstore in question is Maryland Bookstore (MBS). The MBS services all University of Maryland campuses, and they were going to charge me $110 for a Intro to Visual Basic .Net 2005, with CD, and 180 day trail. I thought that to be outragous for a book I can get at any book store. Well it turns out that normal bookstores only carry it special order now, since the book has been out over a year. So, I called the local Borders Store to special order it, and it would take 5 to 7 days to get it, so forget that, class starts in about a week. Then, I went to Amazon/Borders online, and found the book for $74.09 direct from them, and then I saw the prices from the used book stores for the same book, on Amazon, for about $100 on average used. Talk about a great deal, and sticking it to the place the place that makes up bend over for a book.

Welcome

Greeting and welcome to my blog. This blog will be about school and family (maybe a little about work to vent, not sure on that yet), and anything else that comes to mind.

As of May 29th, 2007, I'll be a college student again at the rip age of 32. I'm not going to be working for my undergrad, instead since I'm so far behind, I'm working towards certificates. University of Maryland, University College offers Certificate programs in Undergraduate and Graduate level classes. The certificate only require 14 to 21 credits to earn a piece of paper stating that you completed the required course to earn it. For me this is a great find, take the classes that matter, and don't have to worry about elective credits. The biggest thing that is bugging me about this class is that, the birth of my third child will be happening during this time, that might be a hindrance, but we'll see on that.