Hitting the Jackpot

We attended our church's annual fundraiser yesterday evening. It was titled, "The Red Carpet Gala." It was quite an affair, and we had a great time! There were literally dozens and dozens of items up for bid, but we weren't really interested in most of it. It was a silent auction where you could bid on things with your auction number, and then keep bidding against other anonymous people who also wanted to buy the item. Everyone was dressed to the nines, mostly. And, more importantly, it seemed that everyone was having fun. It definitely was a party, with about 350 families alltogether, perhaps more. It's the main social event in our church each year.

Another one of the prizes was winning tuition for a year at our school, and also the cash drawing. Tickets for each were $25, a bit on the pricey side, but tuition alone is worth about $1500, and the top cash prize was $3000. When purchasing tickets for the cash drawing, they asked how many we wanted to buy. I smiled back, responding, "We only need one, right?" We both laughed. Halfway through dinner, the tickets were drawn. Unbelievably, our ticket was drawn for the $3000 top cash prize! I didn't even know it until my wife said, "I think they just said our name." Sure enough, I could hear it loud and clear. They were calling my name, inviting me up onto the stage to accept the prize. Wow! I'm sure I was screaming like a school girl, I really don't remember. Of course, this was after having about 5 glasses of wine, so I was having fun. I was given given a huge check and had our picture taken on stage. Everyone was clapping. It was surreal. It was a euphoric moment. Even after sitting back down, with the remaining cash prizes and tuition being given away, we couldn't believe that we won the top prize. We've never won anything.

The night was winding down. We thought bidding on the Ireland vacation in the oral auction, but the bidding was out of our league, even after just having won $3000. We did contribute a sizeable donation to the church though, to help defray costs of installing a new heating and air conditioning system. It was the least we could do.

All in all, we still can't believe that we won the top prize. After taxes and the church contribution, we'll have about $1500 left over. Wow! Definitely not a life-changing sum of money, but a warm fuzzy nonetheless. What should we do? Should we go to Vegas and have a great weekend! We've never been to Vegas and have always thought it would a nice getaway. Should we buy new furniture? Should we save it for a rainy day? In the end, I'm not sure what we'll do with the newfound winnings, but it will definitely be a night we'll never forget!

Falling off the Face of the Earth

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been very busy, and just haven't had time to post a blog. Ugh. Oh well. Let's see, our daughter Hannah got her braces off and now wears a retainer each night. It's not really that bad, and I think she doesn't mind it at all. I had the flu about a week ago. I never did throw up, but was just achy, tired, and generally didn't feel well. Work has been quiet, but I've taken on a new programming project that has taken up most of my free time. It's a contact mapping database, using Google Maps. It's pretty slick, and likely the most complex programming project I've done to date. And, I'm now setting up a website for my wife's school, so the teachers can create web pages. I even volunteered to train the teachers on how to use the software. So, between all of that, there hasn't been much extra time. Our daughter got glasses last week too. She was having trouble seeing in class, and her grades had slipped. She doesn't mind wearing them, and was surprised at how well she could see after putting them on. Tomorrow night, we're going to a red carpet gala for our church. It's the annual fundraiser. It's a blacktie event with a lot of rich folks spending quite a bit of money? So why are we going? We're not blacktie folks, and we're certainly not rich, but it should be a fun night anyhow. My brother is coming for a visit in another week. Looking forward to seeing him. I'm definitely ready for winter to be over. Yuck. We need a good a rain to wash all the sand and salt way.

Expensive Lesson

My daughter Hannah got a Gameboy DS for Christmas. She was very excited, as it was exactly what she wanted. It is the Nintendogs version, and is pink pearl She loves it. Recently, she's been taking it to school. I've told her time and again that she shouldn't take it to school, as it would be an easy target for a wouldbe thief. She disagreed. Plus, several of her friends have them too, and sometimes, they use the Pictochat program to send messages back and forth at resess, etc.

Today, she learned an expensive lesson. She usually keeps the Gameboy zipped up in her coat pocket. Well, I guess her jacket fell off the hook and someone stepped on her coat. CRACK! Yes, you guessed it. The top screen on her dual-screen Gameboy is now cracked and not useable. She was devastated, but then realized that the bottom screen was still OK. She at least saw the bright side, but understood she made a big mistake by taking it to school. She said time and again that she wished she could go back in time to make a better decision.

So, I called Nintendo to see if it could be repaired. The good news, yes, it can be repaired, for $50. That's not too bad, and we're going to get it fixed. But, it was made very clear to Hannah that she'll be paying for it. Unfortuanately, she just spent her entire allowance for a new game for the Gameboy, so she doesn't have any money. She agreed to surrender her allowance for the next 10 weeks (yikes, that's a long time for a kid) to pay for the repair.

To me, $50 is really nothing at all. But, i think we still need to teach Hannah a lesson, that she's responsible for her things, and if they break, she'll have to pay to fix them. I feel bad for her, but at the same time, know that she needs to understand that Dad won't always be there to bail her out. Hopefully, she'll also become more responsible with her expensive toys. And, she's not taking it to school ever again!

Moving to a New Server

I had to move my website to a new server. I'm still with the same company, but just a different server. Wow, what a pain, but everything is finally back in place. About two weeks ago, we lost the ability to send email from the website. My wife sends her classroom newsletter via the website, and thus, it was a high priority. For some reason, the sendmail app on the server stopped responding. Ugh. I was one of the early customers for this company, and was on server 27. So, the server was old, but it served us well in the past. Tech support could not figure out the problem, so we had to move everything to a new server. I'm now on server 449. Wow, the company has really grown. So much so, that tech support in the past has been really lacking. So, after two weeks of emailing back and forth, and transferring all of our files over (200 mb), everything is running smoothly again.

Braces Finally Off

Today was the big day for our daughter. After 20 months, Hannah got her braces off today. She's been looking forward to this day for a long time. I have to admit, I was kind of excited myself. I never had braces when I was a kid, but I can only imagine how she must feel, knowing that she can now eat all of the things she hasn't been able to over the previous year and half. It was a fairly simple process. In and out in less than an hour. And her smile is beautiful. I'm really pleased with how things turned out. I think Hannah is happy too. The orthodontist did pull three loose molars, and Hannah wasn't happy about that, but they were mostly hanging by threads, so he pulled them anyhow. Hannah gets a retainer next week. I'm not sure if she'll like that, but it can't be any worse than the braces.