National Pastime vs. National Pastime – Enjoying the wonderful springtime weather we have been having has been our neighbors, at least some of them. Behind our townhouse is a stretch of grass where a lot of the kids play.  Well recently we have had a mirror image National Pastime game going on.  On one side is the kids playing baseball with a tennis ball.  The flip side was a group of Indians playing cricket; real, live, cricket.  It’s been wild watching.  I will be the first to admit I am a pretty big sports nut but I have never paid much attention to cricket.  It’s been fun seeing both catchers back to back as they play.  I don’t know if the guys are playing legit rules or not but it does look interesting.

Our Other Neighbors – They are real jackasses.  No serious, they are, see…

It seems everywhere we go we have animal life following us.  Many of you that have been following us around know about good ole friendly Groundhog.

He took up residence underneath our shed at the old house.  We only saw him the first year and then we saw him no more.  But in any case, in front of our townhouse across the cul de sac is a small farm that houses the three donkeys shown above as well as a goat or two and a flock of Canadian geese.  The other day after church, Matthew and I walked over because we saw that they were all out close to the fence.  Matthew proceeded to feed them dying grass and pet them without fear at all.  I was a little concerned just because of their look

Pregnancy Update – I guess if I am going to post something I should update the pregnancy eh   Michelle is doing fine.  We have past the “Matthew Mark” where Matthew was born at 33 weeks and 6 days, which I think has relieved some stress on Michelle.  This pregnancy has been polar opposite of Matthew’s.  Michelle really has had no issues at all, knock on wood.  Michelle is now starting to see the doctor once a week and is undergoing non-stress tests twice a week to ensure all is continuing as it should.  One of the last ultrasounds we actually got a half decent shot so I will try and scan some of them and post for all.  Going back in time some just because I never remembered to post it.  It was funny when all this started we went to Hospital at the University of Penn for the first time, Michelle had been having nausea problems, much unlike Matthew’s pregnancy.  The funny thing is the link between smells.  When we got to the hospital, Matthew had to potty so I took him while Michelle was waiting and I was washing my hands afterwards and the smell of the soap brought back so many memories of being in the NICU after Matthew was born.  I washed my hands so many times going in and out, I don’t think I will ever forget that smell.  At the time and even now I thought it was funny that Michelle was having so many problems with smells and this smell brought me back to one of the happiest moments of my life.

Netflix - Since the loss of DirecTV to try and save some money as well as fighting with the Installer about what he could and couldn’t do to the townhouse, we added Netflix to compensate for my loss of movies   I am not prepared to say that it is in the same category as Sirius Satellite Radio or Tivo but I am digging it.  It is nice to just request a movie and it be here in a day.  I have really enjoyed putting lists together which falls in line with one of my all time favorites “High Fidelity”.  I have added our Queue on the main page, probably right next to this if you are reading it   Enjoy what we are about to enjoy   In this same line, my top ten favorite movies…

1. “Ocean’s Eleven” – An unbelievable movie with a great cast.  Awesome one liners and an incredible witty dialog.
2. “The Matrix” – Simply amazing visual movie and a techie’s dream
3. “Se7en” – Fascinating movie.  Very dark and disturbing.  I have always had a fascination for serial killers and the such.
4. “Serendipity” – With main characters being in my top 5 it’s hard to find something wrong, other than Molly Shannon of course.  This movie will always remind me of finding my wife
5. “High Fidelity” – Cusack strikes again   Incredibly funny and “this one’s creeping up the charts.”
6. “Notting Hill” – Sucker for Romantic Comedies.  Great soundtrack.
7. “August Rush” – I love music and music and movies are an escape for me.  This is a great movie!
8. “Constantine” – Keanu is in my top 5, yeah I know, but I can’t help it.  Reminds me of This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti.
9. “Alien” – How can you not love this movie.  One of the first movies where you think something is gonna happen the music makes you think something is gonna happen, but nothing does, and then someone turns the other way and there is an alien ready to implant you!  Gotta love it.
10. “Equilibrium” – Wow, along the lines of “The Matrix”.  Christian Bale is creeping into my top guys, don’t believe me check out “The Machinist” yikes.

So if you’re on Netflix, add me as a friend.

NFL 2008 – So the season is upon us, yeah I know it’s still 5 months till opening night, but the draft is less than two weeks away.  That’s the start of the season for me   Michelle knows draft weekend, I disappear in front of the TV to watch all 20 hours or so   The scheudle was released today and I can help but show my optimism.  Overall the Eagles have a balanced schedule with a max run of 2 road games and those are Cincy and Baltimore.  5 prime time games is very good.  2 Monday night games with one at home.  Icing on the cake, Thanksgiving night game at home against the Cards.  My first projections of the year…

W, L, W, W, W, W, Bye, W, W, L, W, W, W, L, W, W, W = 13-3

That’s right, 13-3, and should be first seed in the NFC   Not your typical Philly Fan, what can I say.

So that’s it for now.  I’m tired of typing, dinner is being fixed, and the Flyers are about to come on.  Stole home ice advantage and first home game is tonight.  The Wachovia Center should be hopping!  See ya!

Scott

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One issue we had was DirecTV.  The installer came out, on the early side for once, but it quickly went bad from there.  The guy was rude to begin with and immediately I knew he didn’t want to work at all.  Excuse after excuse, and after a phone call to his supervisor, I started telling him how the install was going to work   Well he went straight out to his van, minivan that is, not work van, and call a few more people.  Finally he came in and said well I don’t have a pole to go in the ground so I am going to go back and get one and bring someone else back to help with the job. Well it wasn’t too much longer we got a call back from his dispatch saying they were going to reschedule.  Aaarrgghh, so now no TV till Sunday morning supposedly, but we’ll see.  All I have to say is it better not be the same guy.  Comcast arrived late for the internet install and couldn’t get my modem/router to work, but their modem worked of course so I am stuck with a Comcast modem for now and no wireless internet in the house.  That I will work on once a few other things are done.

So that’s where we are at.  The neighborhood is really quiet. Even the other townhouses we didn’t hear anyone at all last night, which is great.  Seems to be plenty of kids around because when 3:30 hit or so a mad rush of them came down the street   I’m really liking it here so far, now just to get my office and my living room put together so I can take a break and enjoy myself   Cya.

Scott

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In any case, if you want our new address or numbers, just drop Michelle or me a line and we’ll pass it on.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we keep moving closer to Philly.  We will update everyone once we get settled this weekend.

Scott, Michelle, Matthew, and MBS!

scott (at) themillersplace.com

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Scott

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The last 3 months have been horribly hectic with work, home, and the holidays so I apologize in advance to some of you that I have been neglecting in the communications front   It all started a few weeks back when the company wanted to try and eliminate some of my expenses, which I can’t blame them as they have been in upwards of $2,300/month.  At first we started looking at leasing a car instead of renting one.  I asked Michelle to start looking into that, but a funny thing happened

My daily devotional one morning talked about simplicity and worry.  Psalms 55:22 states “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you”.  I have prayed for the house to sell for quite some time and obviously to no avail   Well instead of worrying about the house selling I instead asked for the Lord to take away my worries and to show me where he wanted me.  If the house wasn’t to sell then show me something else.  That day Michelle and Matthew came with me to work to visit Tom and Theresa’s new baby.  Michelle talked with Theresa about the house situation and Theresa made the comment “I’m surprised they haven’t gotten you an apartment by now.”  Man I felt dumb.  Why didn’t I think of that   Michelle and I talked about it on the long ride home and she was up for it, so I brought it up to the company and put the numbers together that it would cut expenses by about half if we moved to an apartment while the house sells.

This is something Michelle and I wanted to do after the house sold anyway so we didn’t have to rush trying to find a new place when this house sold.  This was perfect.  Well last week Michelle and I visited close to 25 apartments and townhouses in Delaware and came up with a good 5 or 6 we would be OK with, but 1 we definitely liked above all.  A townhouse in Newark, literally the last place we visited, was amazing.  More square footage then our home now, but only two bedrooms, a huge kitchen and living room, and a garage even.

All this to say we got the OK from the Townhouse this afternoon and passed this on to the company.  The price is a little higher than we wanted but it really can’t be beat.  No official word yet but it looks like we will get the green light, just need to work out the semantics.  So it looks like as early as next weekend we may have a new address.  We’ll let you know once we get the final word, but it may be a little busy over the next two weeks so don’t hold your breath!

Scott

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