Snow. Ice. Leaves. We've had a serious bout of weather lately here, which began last Monday after Beth and I raked leaves. We had all evening to enjoy our leaf-free lawn, because during the night we got a wind / rain storm which buried the lawn in leaves again even worse than it had been before, then Tuesday night it snowed 3-4 inches. Hardly anyone showed up to work on Wednesday, and Thursday was pretty sparse too. The snow is still here except it's turned into frozen slush now because it's warmed up (at least above freezing) and then last night it got COLD. I and several other guys helped a family from our church move yesterday, and I'm glad I didn't have to drive the Ryder truck because the getting cold part happened right in the middle of the moving. We got some black ice around here. And it's still cold.

Beth will have surgery January 8. The prognosis is good. If all goes well we can start trying for a baby again in the spring. Becky Joy's birthday would have been in about a week or so.

Holiday season again. Getting time off work and lots of food. We had Thanksgiving at our house this year, with Mom & Dad K., Laura, Mom G., and Judy & Jim. Overall I think it went all right, but in hindsight going to Branson may have been a bad idea the day after Thanksgiving. The traffic was...heavy. It was raining. But it was still a good time. Saw the IMAX, visited the winery, shopped a bit, saw the lights. This week we shifted gears a little...earlier this week we drove Mom G to Memphis for her flight and from there to Little Rock for Beth to see a specialist about some surgery she'll need before getting pregnant again. We need to go back again for x-rays and ultrasounds and stuff next week so we're really hoping for some good news. I volunteered to help out a the Lego League competition tomorrow, which is a high school level robotics competition sorta like Olympics of the Mind. I'll be busy with that all day tomorrow, should be fun.

I missed out on last week at work again, this time for a training seminar in Chicago. Chicago is exactly the way I remember it being...it was cold, wet, and dark. Well, it is November. And at least I had something entertaining to watch on tv in the hotel room...who would have thought the election coverage could be fun. Check this link out: David Letterman's top ten list from last Wednesday, the top 10 things overheard at the Florida election commission. Someone should also have kept track of the dumbest things said by an anchor that night. Anyway, I'm back.

Our church had a sock hop for the little kids last night. Beth and I aren't doing anything else for Halloween this year so we dressed us as '50s as we could. Me in a white t-shirt with a deck of cards rolled up in the sleeve (don't have cigarettes, and soap was too heavy), hair all John-Travolta-as-Danny-Zucko (they say a little dab'll do ya, but I used most of the tube), jeans, black shoes, and navy issue sunglasses. Beth with Peg Bundy hair, a scarf tied around the neck, white shirt, jeans cuffed, bobby socks...we should have a polaroid to scan soon. I won a Twist contest (prize: a plastic jar of bubbles) which I attribute to the John-Travolta-as-Vincent-Vega fingers in front of the eyes move from Pulp Fiction. One of the kiddies almost choked on a Life Saver so I turned him upside down and whacked his back until he spit up a whole bunch of slime all over my arm. Good times.

I haven't been to work in a week now. Last Monday I was visiting the Baxter plant in Cleveland, Mississippi to check out their molding stuff. Cleveland, I think, is best described as Mountain Home without the glamour and excitement. Anyway, Tuesday through Thursday I was in Tunica again for more 6-sigma training. Tunica is Mountain Home with casinos. And Friday, I was sick and spent almost all day sleeping or blowing my nose. Beth's sister Pam and her husband Marve are visiting us for the weekend, so we've been showing them all the sights of Mtn Home.

Well I haven't posted much lately, but not for lack of anything to post. Beth and I went on a church retreat to Shepard of the Ozarks a couple weekends ago. That was just what we needed, really, to get out of town with friends for a couple days. If you check out the link, we stayed in the Indian Lodge at SOTO, the most luxurious lodge I've ever stayed in. It was like a really nice hotel. Our friend Mike from Michigan visited us last weekend. Monday I drove out to Tunica MS for company training. Why Tunica? Probably it was the cheapest place where there were convention type places roughly halfway between Cleveland MS and Mountain Home, the two regional Baxter plants. Tunica happens to be a big casino place. The Las Vegas of Mississippi, I guess. Beth and I are doing pretty well still. The other day we got the pictures of our baby the hospital took, and they made both of us cry, but overall I think we're OK. Last night we went to our first Mtn Home High School Bombers football game with Titus and Lesli and the boys. We left after the halftime marching band show because it was getting too cold for the kids. The band was really good, but the football team was behind 35-3. The final score was 49-9.

Beth is finally feeling better. Actually, for the first time in about 6 weeks she says she feels good. She's gotten better to the point where we can do things like go watch the parade (last Wednesday) and go to the fair. She even worked at an antiques store booth at the fair Friday afternoon and still feels pretty good. We went out to dinner and to the auction last night (I bought an electric grinder for $12.50) and were going to be babysitting all day today but the parents cancelled on us (how often does it happen that way?) so we went shopping instead. We found a nice dresser for the guest room and put it on layaway, and got a few odds & ends.

I haven't posted in a long time, mostly because I didn't want to relive the events. Beth miscarried August 30. The memorial service for and burial of little Rebecca Joyce Knight was September 3. That's all I'm going to post about it.

We got another ultrasound today, this time because Beth's been having some problems. But the baby is just fine, although we still couldn't tell the baby's gender (baby is too modest). But the nurse said it has "very delicate features" and it's face was "dainty" so I hope it's a girl. To me, however, the face looked like a bare skull. You can see a picture on the baby pictures page. By the way, we've changed our minds about the name if it's a boy, but we haven't decided what we've changed to. Anyway, Beth's been hurting like hell for about a week nonstop now, hopefully we've turned the corner on that though. In other news, it hasn't rained here in weeks, it's hotter than the 4th of July in Muscat, and two of my bushes (see 3-26-2000) I have officially pronounced dead. A third is dying too and I'm trying to save it. The other two look OK so far. The tomato plant is also doing well, producing like crazy.

Last night I felt the baby move for the first time! Just after we went to bed I put my hand on Beth's belly where she said the baby was, and a few moments later I felt a kick! It felt like a little ripple moving across her belly. She says baby's been kicking her in the same spot for days now (her bladder) and she is really getting tired of it.

Rewind to mid-May. Beth's mom is visiting us. Out of a small patch of dirt right by the deck, a plant much taller than the other weeds has sprung up to around a foot tall. Beth and I wonder what it is. Beth's mom says it looks like a tomato plant. We leave it alone, marveling that a tomato plant should be growing right there, where none grew last year, where I dug everything up and turned the earth over a few weeks before. We staked it when it got tall enough to fall over but otherwise left it alone. Today, Beth and I shared the first vine-ripe cherry tomato from that plant. Large as cherry tomatoes go, and just about perfectly ripe. Good stuff!!!! Beth and I had our Wednesday night class at church with the preschoolers today. We all had a lot of fun tonight because they found out that the little plastic buggy in the room can fly. On a related note, my arms are really tired. Thank goodness for the distracting power of cookies over 2- and 3-year-olds.

Beth and I have sold the Jeep, with plans to be car payment-free until the baby comes and get something a little more baby-practical afterwards. We got $15000 for it, which was enough to pay off our lease and cover the remainder of our other car payment. We'll miss that Jeep, but the nearly $600 a month that this will save us is worth it for now. We already have used some of the savings to paint the master bedroom and put up a border.

Lot of stuff happened in the past week or so. I was alone for a few days and headed up to Michigan... ..again...last Thursday. I made the trip alone in 11 hours and 47 minutes (as opposed to 14 1/2 hours with a pregnant woman, her mother, and a flat tire) but that kinda sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy joke. Reference his first album. Anyway, Beth had a baby shower last week and we got a whole bunch of stuff for the wee one. Our neice Stephanie got married on the 29th, and nobody got into their luggage, due to betrayal by insiders. I never would have suspected Marve to turn to the dark side. We were prepared (4 boxes of minute rice and 2 BIG bags of bean bag chair stuff) but their luggage was in the Jeep, which was hidden at an undisclosed location that Marve knew and wouldn't tell. The wedding itself was really nice, and the reception was a lot of fun. The next day we drove back down here (13 hours 20 minutes with a dinner stop) and that's it. No more travelling until...well, maybe ever. Beth is just beat, and the doctor told her today to stay put and rest. Fine with her. Me too.

This is strange. I already feel like it's been a really long weekend, and it's Sunday afternoon. We've been busy the last few days. Beth is gone now, she's gone back to Michigan (for the third time in 2 months) to get ready for our niece's wedding next Saturday. I didn't want her to have to drive up there alone ( I'm not going until later this week) so we got train tickets for her. The only problem is the northbound train leaves the nearest station (100 miles away) at 3:30 in the morning. So last night at about 9:30 we headed out, the plan being to get there, check into a cheap motel, sleep for a few hours, get Beth on the Amtrak, I'd go back for some more sleep and return home in the morning. Well the big problem with this plan is that Walnut Ridge Arkansas is well shut down by midnight on a Saturday and there are apparently no motels for miles around. So, we decided to try to get some sleep in the car while waiting for the train. I got maybe an hour and a half of sleep and Beth got none (somehow, mosquitoes got in the car, and their racket is practically deafening when you're trying to sleep in it. Plus a freight train went by every half hour). Then the train was almost an hour and a half late. By the time she got on the train, it was starting to get light. I just drove on home and went to bed right away after that. It is now about 2:00 pm and I've only been up an hour.

Our friends Craig and LeeAnne are moving away in a couple weeks (he's going to seminary in Cincinnati) so we combined our excess stuff to have a garage sale this weekend. It was advertised as being Friday-Saturday 7am - 3pm but by the time Beth and I got home from posting the signs at 6:30 am Friday, people were lining up. Unreal. Beth and I didn't have a whole lot of stuff, but almost all of it sold. We netted $211 altogether. Craig and LeeAnne had a lot more stuff and made a total of $332. We do still have some stuff left over, and another couple we know may join in and we'll do another one next week.

Just back last night from a nice weekend with my sister in Oklahoma. Beth and I are really running low on time left for travel (at 4 months, it's already hard for her) so we thought we'd better go while we had a chance. We drove out there Friday after I got out of work and were there by 10:00 (Note to self: remember money for tolls next time; the nearest ATM to the pike entrance is 7 miles back the way you came). We spent the next day in Tulsa shopping at a craft fair and the mall (bought a couple wooden toys at the craft thing and some maternity clothes at the mall) and went to see "Chicken Run" in the evening (Two thumbs up! Four stars! I loved it!). The next day we went to Eskimo Joe's for lunch before Beth and I had to head back. A 6-hour drive on a Sunday always makes me feel like I need another weekend.

Been a little while since the last update, mostly because I've been on vacation or lazy. July 1st Beth, her mom and I drove up to Michigan to spend a week visiting her family. The trip was 14 1/2 hours, punctuated by a lot of potty breaks and one flat tire (It was so worn, I cut my hands on the steel belts protruding through the rubber. It was so worn, that if I'd noticed it before we left, I never would have driven on it) but overall not bad. We had some good visits with family and bought a stroller on sale at Tot to Teen. Stayed in St. Louis for the weekend on the way back (got a room at the airport Mariott for $35 a night through priceline.com) to visit friends (I most highly recommend Riddle's Penultimate for dinner if you're ever in St. Louie) and visited Meramec Caverns as well. Been home a couple days now...back to work...

The mills up in MO are cool! especially the Dawt (say "Dot") Mill, which still operates and is now on the site of a big ol' resort where you can go to fly fish, canoe, tube, camp, etc, or stay at the Cotton Gin Inn. Dawt Mill was the only place around where there was a grist mill and a cotton gin, both of which were powered by the same mill. Also noteworthy is the fact that the waterwheel is only there so tourists can look at it...it was built because the guy who owned the place decided that you can't have a mill without a waterwheel. The mill is powered by a turbine.

Beth had another doctor's appointment today. Still pregnant, still just fine. Baby's due date has been readjusted to December 31. I had an unusual week at work, since I was nearly the only one there (Lee, Mike, Jim, Roy, Carla, and Brian all went to a convention in Chicago) so I was picking up the slack as best I could...and just because everyone was gone, everything broke. Tomorrow Beth and I are going with her mom and some other friends to a tour of the local historical mills (waterwheels & such) near Gainesville MO. I hear it's quite an interesting tour and the mills are really cool. Hope it doesn't rain (like it's supposed to).

Today is Beth and my 8th anniversary! I surprised her by getting her flowers for the first time in a long time. I figure she deserves them this time more than ever before. Especially since she was the ONLY one in the office last Valentine's Day who didn't have flowers delivered to her at work.

Beth had her first ultrasound this morning! Check the main page for a link to pictures.

A few new things to report. Beth is home (since last Sunday) and her mom is visiting us for a couple weeks. We have had our carpet installed, and it was on the floor about a day before one of the cats threw up right in the middle of it. Our friends Craig & LeeAnne had a baby May 31st. We rented "Sleepy Hollow" tonight, which we really wanted to see when it was in theaters last year but never got around to, and really liked it. (Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman...perfect!) Last Monday I had an awful softball game (struck out...looking... to end the game). Beth saw the doctor again today and is doing great. The doctor also thinks we may be way off on the due date...didn't give us a new date, he just said we'd see what the ultrasound said. That's next Tuesday.

Ah, the Tuesday after a 3-day weekend...I never feel like going back to work. But anyway, I had a pretty busy week/weekend. Our niece Stephanie was visiting all last week while her fiance and his 3 friends hiked in the Ozarks Nat'l Forest; they came back Friday evening. Mom & Dad and Laura arrived for the weekend on Saturday afternoon. All 10 of us went out to dinner at Fred's on Saturday evening and then saw M:I2, which sucked. Stephanie, Beth, and the guys left Sunday morning for Michigan. The rest of us went down to Mountain View AR for some cave exploration (Blanchard Springs) and local culture (Ozark Folk Center). We rented "Being John Malkovich" which was odd. On Sunday we went to Top O' the Ozarks before the folks left. I'm on my own this week, but I got Little Caesar's yesterday so I already have dinner for 4 days.

Biggest news yet...Beth's pregnant! Just found out a week ago but didn't want to post it until we'd told everyone. My sister has had the best reaction yet, which was what can only be described as a prolonged shriek. Mom was practically speechless but I could almost hear her grinning over the phone. Anyway, little Matthew Christopher or Rebecca Joyce will be arriving on or about December 20. And now that we've finally got the house almost just the way we want it...we have to figure out where a baby is going to fit. I see a garage sale in our future. By the way, we finally got our disposal installed last Friday.

Had a pretty good weekend. Beth and I went up to Branson MO on Saturday morning. Her place of business always does something together after tax season; this year it was going to a show. "Legends in Concert" this time. Saw the impersonators of Cher (sounded just like her, didn't look much like her), Nat "King" Cole (dead on), the Blues Brothers (Elwood was perfect, but Joliet Jake looked more like Chris Farley), Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and the obligatory Elvis. The best part of the show was when Elvis' jumpsuit ripped during his "old" Elvis rendition of Suspicious Minds. It ripped right in front where a fly should go. A roadie ran out with a towel, and Elvis tucked it into his belt for the remainder of his number, but also couldn't stop laughing. We went out to a pub with a band (lead singer looked like Tom Cruise and Dennis Quaid put together) which we hadn't done in years and can't do in Mountain Home Arkansas, that's for sure, and stayed overnight in a resort lodge overlooking Table Rock Lake (nice...big). Sunday was a little more sedate. Mini golf and skee-ball and such. On the home front, we still don't have our garbage disposal and I'm getting really dorked off at the appliance place. Service after the sale doesn't seem their strong suit. And the vinyl siding is half up. Another few days and I'll get some new pictures of the house for the house page.

There's a lot I should have posted on the homepage by now, but haven't bothered. I spent a week in Atlanta at a conference...got back on the 13th...and when I got back the new kitchen was in! Except for the appliances anyway. That was another interesting sidebar. The dishwasher, microwave, and garbage disposal were all delivered at the same time (as in "uh, where's the stove we bought?") but they couldn't come to install them for a few days. But we had to have a plumber come to install the kitchen sink and the fittings for the dishwasher and disposal before they could install them (as in "uh, what exactly are you going to install?) so they sat for a few days until we got a plumber in here, who informed us that we needed a switch in the wall before he could hook up the disposal (as in "uh, we bought a switchless kind") so as it is now, all our appliances are installed but the disposal isn't wired and they're going to come and replace it with the right one this week. And carpets will be in soon too.

I haven't even been at my computer for almost a week. Lots going on here...Beth and I had our new vinyl flooring put down this past week and that has caused mayhem here. They started last Monday by ripping up all the old vinyl, underlayment, and 11 sheets of particle board that had old water damage. And you would not believe how much mold and mildew was under there. So we were unable to live here because of that...and the water heater was moved out to the garage as well so we had no hot water. Tuesday and Wednesday they didn't even show up because the flooring shop had overbooked the subcontractors and they had to be somewhere else. But we stayed with friends Wed. and Thursday night. Monday we were at the Ramada for the big game (the final score was too high, so I lost the office pool tiebreaker... oh well!) and Tuesday as well. So anyway, we have all new vinyl down in the kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, and dining room, and Monday begins the kitchen cabinets installation. And the carpets all come next week too. And by the way, I learned how to solder copper piping this week. Truly, that is an art.

The maddest March in near history, and I'm now in a bit of a spot. I lead the office bracket pool by 2 points, but one other guy is left who can catch me. If Michigan State loses any game in the Final Four, I win about $40. If MSU wins the tournament and the total score in the final game is 142 or more, I lose. I still win if MSU wins the final and the total score is under 142, so I just root for the Spartans and a low score. Good thing the final can't be MSU vs. Wisconsin, 'cuz the Spartans are gonna light up the scoreboard like a friggin' Christmas tree agin the Badgers. Did you see that late game alley-oop Cleaves dished to Mo Pete in the Iowa State game? That was when I knew MSU was going to win it all this year.

Beth and I planted bushes along our property line today.

I broke my watch. Dropped it, and the glass shattered. Dang it, that was a graduation present.

There are two ways to completely ensure that dust covers every single square micron of your house. One, drywall sanding. Two, paint the ceiling with a power sprayer. My house is a mess. And that sprayer is one nasty contraption to clean (However I don't recommend painting the ceiling without one cuz that's even worse). On the upside...Beth and I got our taxes done today, and we're getting a refund from Uncle Sam this year! Twenty-seven dollars! Woo-hoo!

That new washer and dryer does what took our old ones all day, in about two hours.

Michigan State. NCAA Tournament. Don't bet on Duke, nuf sed. I love March!!!

OK, OK, I finally got around to updating the web site again. A lot's happened since the previous update.The new windows are now completely installed on the house. We put a deposit on the new kitchen cabinets a week ago and installation should begin in about two weeks. We also talked to the flooring people and that should happen soon as well. Right now, all the cabinets and countertop are removed from the kitchen so I could do some drywalling. It seems that the idiots who built this place got some countertop cabinets that were about two inches too long to fit in the kitchen. So they left the drywall off the walls on either side of the kitchen and chiseled out a half inch from the two by fours in the walls. Genius! Anyway, the drywall is primed now and ready for paint, which will probably happen tomorrow or during the next week. We also bought a new dishwasher and garbage disposal, so if all the coordination goes well, we'll have the floor covered in linoleum beneath the new cabinets and have the appliances installed as the cabinets are going in so they'll fit together as well as a new construction. And we bought a new washer and dryer too (got a good deal on a pair of Maytags).

I finally got the new CD-ROM of PageMill, so I can go back to keeping up on the updates. I was using a demo version and it expired about a month ago, so I bought a used CD on eBay. Well anyway, Beth and I have closed on the house and today signed a contract to get new windows installed. Beth has a new job, as of about 2 weeks ago, at the H&R Block office doing clerical work. The Super Bowl was a great game, way to go Rams! I've joined a web ring of sorts which links all of my old navy buddies together, and have already incorporated some of the hate and discontent into the Truman Stories on the Navy Page. And last week the entire region was shut down because there was a little snow. less than 6 inches here, and most of the plant doesn't show up for work. (In Little Rock, all schools were closed because it might snow)

First off, I want all the techno nerds out there to lighten up about the millennium not starting until 2001 crap. You know what they did to all the people who brought that up in the year 1000? Burned 'em at the stake, that's what. That said, Beth and I closed out the 1900's last night at her sister Pam's, capping off a very nice holiday season. Been a while since the last update, so I'll regress. Thanksgiving was at my sister Laura's, in centrally-located Oklahoma. My parents, Laura, and Beth and I had Thanksgiving together for the first time in years. We all had a good time together and had the Knight family Christmas then, since Beth and I wouldn't be there in December. Pictures are on the holiday page. Since we had Thanksgiving with my family, we had Christmas with Beth's family in Michigan. My mom found great airline tickets, GO MOM! We flew up on Christmas and back today. In the meantime we ran around seeing everybody. Ric and Nickie are doing well, Ryan is now 16 months and Beth wants one just like him. Ted and Jeanne have bought and are restoring another house, their first one is getting done and is gorgeous. Stephanie and John (the other John) will be married in July. Pam and Marve likewise are doing well and keeping busy. Mom G is doing great. We all had Christmas on the 26th at Ted's, pictures are on the holiday page. We caught up with some friends, including Ang who had a kid on the 27th, Todd & Carla who were childless when we last saw them and now have a 3rd coming to complement the 5 and 3 year olds, Sherri & Russ who just added #3 last month or so, and Mikey, who has no kids. In short, family is well, friends are well, and I'm not ready to go back to work yet. Oh well, I have until Tuesday to get ready again.

This gets its own line. Michigan State 37, Florida 34. Nick who?