‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 8)

Tuesday.  Just one more day until I get a day off and then the chaos will ensue for the musical.  I got up this morning and I was still exhausted.  Is it horrible that I can’t wait to get through the rest of this week?  I got the kids up this morning and somehow they had a ton of energy.  I don’t know how, and I told them it would haunt them later on in the week.  We got ourselves together and I managed to drag myself off to work while the kids skipped down the street on their way to school.

I got to school and got things together for the day and I have to say that I wasn’t as chipper today as I was yesterday.  But, I think I’m just tired from not getting back to my house until seven o’clock last night.  That may be part of it.  But, I managed to have some good classes with my students and we had a good discussion today about the projects we’re going to be doing this quarter and then we also reviewed how to read and write music.  Well, we started to, anyway.  I have to say that my nineth period class seemed to get better today, but I think it’s one of those classes that I’m going to have to work with on a day by day basis.  I got done with my day and I had set things up again like I had last night and I was hoping it would make musical rehearsal go smoother and it did.

We got done with school and my tech crew showed up to my room and we set everything up in what I would like to think is record time.  The rehearsal tonight was much better tonight.  I might even  say that the rehearsal tonight was flawless in the fact that we had little to no mistakes and I think the tech crew did an amazing job!  The cast did such a good job and their timing within the musical was so well done that we did an entire run-through and still had time left over at the end of rehearsal to sit down and talk about some things.  Our director had decided not to have rehearsal tomorrow night to give everyone a night off and we sat down and talked about what to expect on opening night.  I also sat down with the tech crew and had the same discussion with them.  We also talked about the pizza party we will have before the performance on Thursday night as a reward for all the hard work that they have done over the course of the last few weeks.  In reality, I have asked this tech crew to do quite a bit and they’ve responded positively to what they need to have done.  We’ve had some issues such as the camera not working or the camera simply stop recording or missed cues every now and again, but overall, I’ve been very pleased with this year’s crew and I know they will do a good job on Thursday and Friday night.

We got done with rehearsal and I went home where Heather had dinner waiting for me.  We ate dinner together as a family and then the kids cleaned up and Heather and I went downstairs and watched T.V. together.  The kids finished with dishes, took showers, and then went to bed.  We watched T.V. till ten o’clock and then decided to go to bed early.  Tomorrow was going to be a long day, but the good news was the fact that we wouldn’t have play rehearsal after school.  I kind of feel like I don’t know what I’ll do with my extra time.  Well, I lie, but I kind of feel that way.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 7)

Monday.  I knew it was going to be an interest week as soon as I got into school.  Today was the first day of he new quarter and of course that is always chaotic to any teacher who just had a change over of students.  But, not only did I have a changeover of students, but I had the musical to deal with and the mass chaos of finishing the grades from the last quarter.  Yeah, needless to say, my prep periods and free time are pretty much full right now.  I got up this morning and didn’t want to get up, but I did manage to push myself out of bed.  My children, however, couldn’t wait to get back to school.  I guess that’s a good sign and it’s better than them hating school altogether.  So, they got me up in a way instead of me getting them up.  We worked together as a team and they got off to school on time and I got off to work on time.

It was an interesting work day.  My classes are mixed and so far they are very quiet.  I know that this will change over time and I’m optimistic that it will be for the better.  Of course, optimism has never been my strong suit.  I made it through my classes and the only class that seemed to give me any grief was my nineth period class.  Interesting to me as this is the exact same period of students who gave me some problems last quarter at the beginning of the quarter.  I got done with my introductions to music today and then it was time to run musical rehearsal.  I decided to make my life a little easier this year and I put the sound table up front for the musical and I have to say that I think it worked out better.  I also went in today and set up the mics during eighth period and made sure the auditorium was locked.  This was one less thing my crew had to try and worry about at the end of the day.

Today’s musical rehearsal was one in full dress.  Needless to say, it was an interesting rehearsal.  We found out that some individuals did not have props and some others didn’t have costumes altogether.  It was not a great rehearsal and it was not a bad rehearsal.  It was a typical rehearsal where things go wrong just before the first performance.  It went, quite honestly, as I expected it to.  My wife was a little upset as she felt as though she wasn’t doing much during this rehearsal.  I told her I knew how she felt and we had a discussion about it over dinner.  On our way home, we decided to stop at Wendy’s and get some dinner on the fly.  We got home, the kids ate and went right to bed.  Heather and I ate dinner and then watched our usual gambit of shows including “Big Bang Theory”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Rules of Engagement”, and of course “C.S.I.:  Miami”.  Then we went to bed.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 7 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 6)

Sunday.  For most people this is a day of rest, for the Crissman family, this was a day of constant work.  We worked hard on our house all day long today.  It doesn’t seem like we got much done, but I would like to think that we got a lot of quality work done around the house.  We got up around nine o’clock this morning and Heather and I went downstairs right away and started to work on getting the stairs done and out of the basement.  The kids did a lot of work as well.  They started to take the lumber from the basement to a section of our yard behind the garage.  We figured we better put it there as it was going to take us a while to get things out to the curb and our neighbor acrossed the street, who used the be the mayor for the town, wouldn’t want to look at the lumber all the time.  So, we hid it behind our garage.  We got everything torn out and then realized we had other issues on our hand.  We had electrical wires hanging all over the place.  So, I pulled out of my shop some wire nuts and at least capped them so that live wires weren’t just hanging down.  Then I helped Heather move the piano and the computer desk back to where they needed to be upstairs and we worked on trying to clean things up around the house.  We skipped right over lunch, which the kids didn’t even realize and then complained about later on.  Although it was a long day and we did a lot of work, there really isn’t much to talk about.  We basically did everything we could to at least get our house back in functioning order for the school week ahead.

And what a week it’s going to be!  It’s officially play week this week, which means that mass chaos will ensue and I will be home late most of the nights this week.  So much for my social life.  Like I had one anyway!  We got done with all of our work around seven o’clock and the kids went off to bed and we went downstairs and relaxed and watched some T.V.  One last bit of relaxation before our week begins!

Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 5)

Saturday.  Our vacation has now officially been ended, but in my mind, I’m still on vacation.  Heather and I got up later than normal this morning.  Why?  Well, we were both simply exhausted and just wanted to sleep in.  The kids were nice enough to actually get some breakfast quietly and then they watched some T.V. on the Disney channel while mom and dad slept in until ten o’clock in the morning.  It seems like forever and a day since I’ve slept in so late!  It was actually kind of nice to be able to do.  We got up this morning and Heather went right to work on her sewing and I went downstairs and started to work on the signs for the Binghamton Zoo event.

Now, you would think that printing out signs for the zoo event would be an easy process.  Well, somehow the computers in my house found a way to make it mass chaos and even more interestingly, they found a way to take a project that should have lasted an hour at most and turn it into about a three hour job.  First I sent upstairs to my printer (via the wireless network) the job for the poster that will tell people how much it will cost.  The first one took longer than I thought it should, but I thought it may have just have been a fluke, so I sent up a second.  Well, that one took almost a half an hour before the printer even began to print.  By the time I got done with this, it was time for lunch, so Heather and the kids ate, but I kept going.  I then tried to print up the banners, but they weren’t printing at all.   Then I tried again and they went through very slowly.  I finally got the banners finished by one-thirty and I thought now was the time to start my business cards.  I thought it was time to update the cards since they hadn’t been updated in at least a year.  I decided I would start with the business cards for my Podcast, “The Jedi Council Speaks” and while I was at Wal Mart last night I picked up some double side printable business cards to use to print on.  Well, this didn’t go so well.  I printed up the first batch and they printed off center, so they didn’t make the card.  I printed the second batch and they made the card.  Then I tried four other sheets and none of them printed right.  Crap!  So, I thought, maybe it’s the program I’m using.  So I switched to another program.  But with the same results.  Double crap!  I was furious by this point (some of you know how I get).  So, I decided to try and print off business cards for the Binghamton FanForce and the Mandalorian Mercs on the flip side.  They didn’t print right either.  I was really cheesed off now.  So, I decided to stop a minute to eat something of some sorts.  After all, it was now officially three in the afternoon.  I ate some left over chicken wings and then headed out to Staples to see if they could help me.

The guy at Staples was even baffled and said that maybe the printer was out of alignment.  So, he showed me how to do an alignment test and then I decided to buy another pack of business cards as I was running out already.  I got home, downloaded a program, did the alignment check and the printer was aligned fine.  I printed another set, same result, but on the old cards.  So, I broke open the new pack and had some success and some failure.  So, I decided that some of the problem was the fact that it was coming through the wireless delaying the printer somehow.  Basically, I learned that I need to be right next to the printer while it’s printing.  By the time I figured this out, it was officially time for dinner.  Man, where had my day gone?  We finished with dinner and I was finally able to print some business cards.  And my day was officially lost.  After I got done, I decided now was a time to relax, so I went downstairs and watched a Netflixed movie.  My wife, in amongst all of this had decided that now was a good time to take down the stairs in the basement.  I hate to admit it, it was probably a good idea as this was space we had lost in the basement and we needed it all back.  It was a long day, and a long night and Heather had some vast plans for tomorrow and we agreed that we would not go to church tomorrow in efforts to finish taking out the stairs and in hopes of getting the house back in order before the chaos of school and the musical began next week.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 4)

Friday.  End of he week and not just end of the week, but end of my vacation.  Damnit!  It just seems like my vacation didn’t seem like much of one at all.  But, I was half expecting that.  But somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better today as I tried to contemplate how to fix some of the things around my house.  I got up around nine this morning and went downstairs and watched Dr. Phil for one last time before I had to go back to school.  I then decided to reorganize my minis (yes, again, heah, I made trades last night!) and then I watched another movie from Netflix.

I got done and was so lazy, I decided to take a nap.  Hey, it’s been a long last few days and I needed to take some time and take a nap for the day today.  I can’t help it!  Anyway, after a short nap, I called the kids inside and we all ate lunch together.  We then played around for a little while and I went back downstairs and actually started to play a PS2 Game that I hadn’t touched since I got it for Christmas, “The Matrix:  The Path of Neo”.  It’s actually not a bad game!  I got hooked and just when I wanted to keep playing, Heather showed up home and asked if I would like to go out to dinner with her and then go to Wal Mart and some other places she needed to be.  I agreed and regretfully turned off the PS2.  Man, I thought I would have more time to play games while I was home, but evidently that just wasn’t going to go the way I wanted it to.  Heather went and took a shower while I got the kids ready to go and we headed out the door.

On our way to dinner, we got a phone call from Jeff and he told me that he had the paperwork done for the checking account for our Star Wars group.  So, we took a quick detour over to Wegmans to get some papers signed for the checking account.  I have to say that it’s nice to have people in a group this size to delegate things to and to have them actually get done without me having to get on their case about it.  That’s what makes my Star Wars costuming group so much fun.  We all work together as a team and we very rarely bicker about how to run things.  So, we finished with this and Heather and I went on about our evening.

We then went on to “Moe’s” and ate some dinner and then headed over to Wal Mart and then onto other stores to get some things for the house.  We got done and on our way home, we had a discussion about what I wanted to do for tomorrow.  I have several things I want to get done, including making the signs for the Binghamton Zoo Event which is coming up and to get some business cards done for my podcast and my role in the Mandalorian Mercs.  We got home and I’ll openly admit that Heather and I crashed downstairs while the kids watched a movie upstairs.  It was a long day even though it was a vacation day.  Tomorrow I still have several things that I want to get done.

Okay, let’s discuss Part 4 of Chatper 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 3)

Thursday.  There’s no way it’s Thursday!  I refuse to believe that it is Thursday!  CRAP!  My vacation is almost over and I haven’t had a moment to relax by myself yet all vacation long!  Man, it just didn’t work out the way I wanted this vacation to work out.  I got up at nine again this morning and got myself going for the day.  Heather had already taken off for work and I was just being lazy this morning, so I watched “Dr. Phil” and then I watched a movie we had Netflixed over the course of the week.  While I watched the movie, I organized my Star Wars minis and worked on organizing my shop since I couldn’t start to build my pack yet, I figured I had better do something to take up some time.  I got done watching the movie and doing all of this and then it was time for lunch.

I went upstairs and joined the kids and we all ate lunch together.  I got done with lunch and Heather showed up home and I had to leave almost immediately because I had a meeting to get to at the Zoo for our upcoming Star Wars at the Zoo event.  After that I was going over to Danielle and Allen’s house and we were going to play minis for the rest of the evening.  So, I went and picked up Dan from his house and we headed over to the Zoo to meet Karen and discuss the event with the Zoo’s event coordinator.

I was excited to talk to the new coordinator and he seemed to really like the idea of the Binghamton FanForce helping the zoo out in this way.  He said he’s heard of events like this before, but never seen them put together and seemed excited about the idea.  He was even more excited at the prospect of the “jail and bail” that we plan to do to help raise money for them.  He said that he has an old lion cage that we could use as the jail and that we could use that as our way to save space for people who bring the jail with them.  We discussed other matters, such as potentially using the go-carts to transport some people around and the possibility of using other parts of the park for other various events, such as the R2-D2 builders club should they decide to come.  All in all, I’m looking forward to this event!  There were some things that did go off in the meeting, but it wasn’t the zoo’s fault and it has to do with some of the politics going on within our group that I’m going to have to address with the group later.

We got done and Dan and I called Danielle and Allen and they weren’t home yet.  So, we decided to go to dinner at Taco Bell in Vestal.  We had a good time just talking about things including our lives and friends that we’re worried about and what we even planned on doing for the mini’s event tonight.  We had a lot of fun talking and then went to Endicott to Allen and Danielle’s.  We played minis far into the evening.  We played until after midnight and we did two games.  On the first game, I got slaughtered as always.  But on the second game, I did okay and was the second to last guy out.  It was fun and it was nice to be able to get some stress relief out while playing the game.  I think everyone there enjoyed the evening and it was fun.  I dropped Dan off on my way home and then went home and crashed.  It was a long, but fun day.  Can’t believe that tomorrow is the official end to my vacation.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Wodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 2)

Wednesday.  Really?  There is NO way that my vacation is half-way over!  Yet, somehow, it is!  Okay, so today I had one goal, I had to go over to the school and make sure that everything was set up there for the musical that will be happening next week.  So, I got up around nine o’clock and watched Dr. Phil downstairs.  I got things together and left the house around eleven o’clock this morning to go over to the school.  Heather had the day off, so it made it easier for me to leave the house.

I got to East by ten-thirty this morning to start working on the sets and what-not in the building.  I helped the director out with some of the projects that needed to get taken car of, such as putting sliders on props, finishing up some of the garland and putting together one of the flats.  I also made sure the one side of the prop was stable by screwing in some other pieces of wood to it.  Then I fixed some parts on the podium we use at the beginning and attached some PVC pipes to it for the flags to dress it up.  I stayed there until noon when Heather gave me a call and said she wanted to go to Wal Mart to go get some things she needed for around the house.  I told her to wait till I got home and then we would go together.  I didn’t want to tell her that I had a motive to want to join her.

So, I got home and we ate some lunch and then headed out to Vestal.  We got to Wal Mart and picked up some things.  I was hoping to run into some new Star Wars toys, but unfortunately, the Star Wars toys at my local Wal Mart have seemed to have slowed up.  All well.  I guess I should just get used to it.  Heather also wanted to go to Lowes and get some things there (like you ever have to ask me twice to go into Lowes).  We got done with all of this and we headed home.

Once we got home, we all made and ate dinner together and then the kids cleaned up dinner and we went downstairs and relaxed for a little while.  During the course of the night tonight I managed to find a backpack frame on Ebay tonight that I can use for the frame of my Mando pack which made me really excited.  Before the end of the evening, I managed to win mine.  Cool!  Now I have a backpack, now I just gotta wait for it to show up.  Damn!  Anyway, Heather and I worked on the room downstairs while we watched some T.V.  We’re trying to get our house back at least into one piece.  It was a long night, but by the time the night was over we were both really exhausted.  I can’t wait till tomorrow as I have a whole bunch of things already planned into my day.  Woohoo!

Okay, let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6: Civilians (Part 1)

Tuesday.  The second day of my vacation and I had a workshop I had to go to this morning.  Heather had managed to work things out so that she could come home early from work so the kids were only alone for about fifteen minutes between the time I left and the time she got home.  I got up and had to be at the workshop by eight o’clock this morning, which meant it was another day that I was not sleeping in.

The workshop wasn’t totally horrible.  As a matter of fact, it was kind of a nice workshop on Teaching For Understanding.  Most of this information I learned about while doing my online course for New England University.  It was review for me, but it was a nice and welcome review.  My only complaint about the workshop is the fact that it should have happened over the course of two or three days instead of one.  The entire workshop took six hours and we weren’t breaking for lunch.  I would rather have had a break for lunch, but that’s just who I am and I look forward to having three square meals a day.  But, I suppose I could afford to skip a meal every now and again!  LOL.  I got done with my workshop around two o’clock in the afternoon and I gave Heather a call and let her know I was on my way home.  When I got in the house, I found out that my wife had decided to start taking down the stairs in the basement.

So, going downstairs you could see a complete mess.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about this.  My feeling was that we should fix up the things that we have worked on instead of creating more messes.  But I’m also very anal retentive and I know my wife thinks I’m nuts when I say this stuff.  Besides she was right when she said it had to get taken care of at some point in time.  So, a mess now exists in my basement.  I helped Heather clean up a little bit and then it was time for dinner.  We went upstairs and made dinner and ate together as a family.  It was nice to have a semi-relaxing moment on the day.  We got done with dinner and the kids cleaned up and Heather and I went downstairs and relaxed for a little while.  I told Heather about my dilemma with my Mandalorian backpack.  I had plans for my pack, but they’ve been thwarted in a couple of different ways.  First, I was supposed to have my half inch sintra by Monday, but it was on back order and I won’t have it till Friday, and I’m not sure I’ll have time to work on the pack then.  Then, I have now begun to realize that I can’t build a typical pack.  Instead I’m going to have to find a frame for the pack, which means I’ll have to try and find a frame pack and rip it off, which will be overly expensive, or I’ll have to try and find a backpack from on the Internet and I’m not having good luck with that on the Internet right now.  I’m basically stuck at a stalemate.  I wish I could have worked on it over this week, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening.

We watched our usual T.V. shows tonight and then retired to bed.  Tomorrow was going to be another long day as I had a lot to do in very little time.  Man, it seems like things are happening exactly as I said they would.  Basically, I need a vacation from my vacation!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 5: Blood Fever (Part 11)

Sunday.  Heather was out of town this morning and I had company and I stayed up late last night to talk.  So, Austin and I did not go to church this morning.  There were other reasons we didn’t go, but I can’t put my head on it.  I just think that my wife and I are unfulfilled by our church.  I don’t like the idea of church hopping, but for some reason, I have the feeling that God is trying to tell me to go seek out another church.  I can’t imagine why or how and I have been a Presbyterian my entire life, but I may need to rethink what religion I am and what church I’m attending.  Now, I’m not talking about making a drastic change like going to Muslim (come on, you all know me better than that!), but I’m thinking that I may have to look into churches closer to our home like the United Methodist church or the Church of the Nazarene.  Part of what is driving this concept is the price of gas as well.  Heather and I aren’t sure we can keep driving to the other side of the city with gas prices the way they are either.  Okay, I’m done ranting.

So, we didn’t go to church this morning and Charles and Mary, and myself, we all slept in.  Austin got up as early as he always does, but was nice and sat in his room and read for a little while.  We all got up and I took a shower and then so did Charles and Mary and then we headed to Barnes and Nobles together to have our FanForce meeting.

At the meeting we discussed all the events that have been going on.  We voted on a new leader for the group to help until our one friend can get his personal life back into a state where he thinks he can lead us again.  We also voted on a second in command and a treasurer.  We had a decent meeting and talked about a whole bunch of things that needed to discussed.  Everything from setting up a checking account for the group to what events we could potentially do in the area in the future.  I hate to put it this way, but we all really do get along well together and I feel that I have found the first set of friends that I can be myself around.  It’s nice.  Our meeting went so well, that many people asked if they could come over to my house after the meeting and I called Heather and made sure she was okay with it, she was, so we took the meeting to my house.

We all headed back to my place and ordered some pizza and wings.  We had a good time just hanging out and I had a chance to play a commercial for everyone that I created for the next Mando’ade podcast of the Mandalorian Mercs.  We had a good old time watching T.V. and talking and then Charles and myself got working on my satellite dish idea for my backpack.  I showed Charles all my bits and I have to say that he is a brilliant mind when it comes to working with this stuff.  He really knows his electrical engineering (so much so, I think he may actually give my dad a run for his money).  He found a motor off of my wife’s old hair dryer and was able to use that as the motor in order to rotate the satellite dish that Ian had given to me earlier (which is just a colander).  Then, we tried to attach the sattelite dish but ran out of time.  We didn’t get to Lowe’s in time.  Amongst all of this, we watched some Jeff Dunham, the ladies all hung out upstairs and had a good time talking.  Also, Dan showed me a new camera he got and told me he has a nice five megapixel camera to donate to me as well.  So, I got a new digital camera today and Dan had another extra MP3 player he donated to me.  It was just a great day all around and it was fun to just hang out with my buds!  After a while, everyone kind of fizzled out and Charles, Mary, my wife, and me all sat down and watched some T.V.  We watched Family Guy and they made a reference to an online video tonight that I found and I wish I had never seen.  I won’t tell you what it was, but I will say that it is completely gross!  Anyway, we talked for a while and then Heather and I went to bed.  It was a long, but very fun day!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 11 of Chapter 5 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 5: Blood Fever (Part 10)

Sunday.  Heather was out of town this morning and I had company and I stayed up late last night to talk.  So, Austin and I did not go to church this morning.  There were other reasons we didn’t go, but I can’t put my head on it.  I just think that my wife and I are unfulfilled by our church.  I don’t like the idea of church hopping, but for some reason, I have the feeling that God is trying to tell me to go seek out another church.  I can’t imagine why or how and I have been a Presbyterian my entire life, but I may need to rethink what religion I am and what church I’m attending.  Now, I’m not talking about making a drastic change like going to Muslim (come on, you all know me better than that!), but I’m thinking that I may have to look into churches closer to our home like the United Methodist church or the Church of the Nazarene.  Part of what is driving this concept is the price of gas as well.  Heather and I aren’t sure we can keep driving to the other side of the city with gas prices the way they are either.  Okay, I’m done ranting.

So, we didn’t go to church this morning and Charles and Mary, and myself, we all slept in.  Austin got up as early as he always does, but was nice and sat in his room and read for a little while.  We all got up and I took a shower and then so did Charles and Mary and then we headed to Barnes and Nobles together to have our FanForce meeting.

At the meeting we discussed all the events that have been going on.  We voted on a new leader for the group to help until our one friend can get his personal life back into a state where he thinks he can lead us again.  We also voted on a second in command and a treasurer.  We had a decent meeting and talked about a whole bunch of things that needed to discussed.  Everything from setting up a checking account for the group to what events we could potentially do in the area in the future.  I hate to put it this way, but we all really do get along well together and I feel that I have found the first set of friends that I can be myself around.  It’s nice.  Our meeting went so well, that many people asked if they could come over to my house after the meeting and I called Heather and made sure she was okay with it, she was, so we took the meeting to my house.

We all headed back to my place and ordered some pizza and wings.  We had a good time just hanging out and I had a chance to play a commercial for everyone that I created for the next Mando’ade podcast of the Mandalorian Mercs.  We had a good old time watching T.V. and talking and then Charles and myself got working on my satellite dish idea for my backpack.  I showed Charles all my bits and I have to say that he is a brilliant mind when it comes to working with this stuff.  He really knows his electrical engineering (so much so, I think he may actually give my dad a run for his money).  He found a motor off of my wife’s old hair dryer and was able to use that as the motor in order to rotate the satellite dish that Ian had given to me earlier (which is just a colander).  Then, we tried to attach the sattelite dish but ran out of time.  We didn’t get to Lowe’s in time.  Amongst all of this, we watched some Jeff Dunham, the ladies all hung out upstairs and had a good time talking.  Also, Dan showed me a new camera he got and told me he has a nice five megapixel camera to donate to me as well.  So, I got a new digital camera today and Dan had another extra MP3 player he donated to me.  It was just a great day all around and it was fun to just hang out with my buds!  After a while, everyone kind of fizzled out and Charles, Mary, my wife, and me all sat down and watched some T.V.  We watched Family Guy and they made a reference to an online video tonight that I found and I wish I had never seen.  I won’t tell you what it was, but I will say that it is completely gross!  Anyway, we talked for a while and then Heather and I went to bed.  It was a long, but very fun day!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 10 of Chapter 5 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..