Mike Jones http://www.mjonesweb.com/ No, I'm not the rapper... 2007-03-14T17:54:49-05:00 Site Update http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/03/site_update.html   I couldn't sleep last night so I decided it was a good time to update my website. For those of you who read my blog, it has now been merged into my main page. I hope you like the new look!

  For those of you who follow the blog with an RSS reader, please update the URL to http://www.mjonesweb.com/atom.xml (or index.rdf).

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-03-14T17:54:49-05:00 The move continues... http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/03/the_move_contin.html   This weekend I filled the Mustang with boxes (small ones, of course) and drove it to NH. The car is now a NH resident. On Thursday the 15th, my house officially goes on the market. Now I'm just hoping for a great job to come along!

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-03-10T08:54:07-05:00 DAMN DAMN DAMN! SO CLOSE!!!! http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/02/damn_damn_damn.html   As you know, I'm a HUGE Mark Martin fan. Mark just missed winning the Daytona 500 by a nose! What a great race!!! It would have been better if Mark won though!!!

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-02-18T19:14:19-05:00 The Vein Viewer http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/02/the_vein_viewer.html   This one doesn't do me a lot of good, but for those (like my Mother) who have veins that are hard to find this one could be a God send!

"The VeinViewer by Luminetx™ uses a combination of near-infrared light and patented technologies to image vascular structures, thus allowing physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to clearly see accessible vasculature (or lack
thereof) in real time, directly on the surface of the skin. "

  This could make those days of getting stuck over and over while they try to find a vein a thing of the past!! Very Cool!

]]> Health msjones71 2007-02-17T21:45:38-05:00 Phew! http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/01/phew.html   Well, the free KFC Snacker sandwich that I won arrived today. Thankfully, it was a coupon!! :)

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-01-22T17:19:20-05:00 Moveout.com has impressive shipping! http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/01/moveoutcom_has.html   Yesterday, I ordered a "box kit" of 20 medium sized boxes from moveout.com. It was $37.88 for the boxes with no shipping charge and no sales tax which works out to less than $1.90 per box. That seemed like a good deal to me. Based on the confirmation page I got when placing the order, I was a little skeptical on what I might actually get. There was no indication of how long the shipment might take. But, much to my surprise, they were waiting for me when I got home from work today. Ordered yesterday, delivered today! I can't ask for more than that!

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-01-17T19:13:03-05:00 A tough month for NASCAR. http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/01/a_tough_month_f.html   NASCAR lost two people this month to cancer. On Sunday, January 7th, Bobby Hamilton passed away at age 49 from neck cancer. Then, today, Benny Parsons died at age 65 from complications with the lung cancer that he spent the last year battling.
  I know people say that bad things tend to happen in three's, but let's hope the rest of the year goes better than this month!

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-01-16T20:49:26-05:00 I WON! :) http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2007/01/i_won.html   I went to KFC for dinner tonight and on the side of my drink cup was a code to plug in to a website for "your chance to win!". So I went ahead and filled it in and I won! This is the email I received:

Congratulations!

You are an instant winner in the Mountain Dew Ultimate Gamer's Sweeps!


Your prize (One (1) Complimentary KFC Snacker valued at .99) will be delivered to you in about 4-5 weeks.


Congrats on being an instant winner.

Your friends at
Mountain Dew and KFC

  EWWWWW! I REALLY hope that's a coupon!! :-) Otherwise, I don't want it!

]]> Personal msjones71 2007-01-06T18:24:17-05:00 Christmas http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/12/christmas.html Christmas

  Christmas day was anything but normal this year. Of course, there is a 7 year old in the house who is overly excited that Santa has visited. That meant that we were woken up at 4:18 am. We managed to delay going downstairs until around 5:00. All the presents were open by about 6:30. As it turns out, this was a good thing. Just before 7:00 I received a call that my Mother was at the Emergency room at Milford Medical Center. MMC is a small local center and they don’t open until 7 so they were waiting for it to open because she was having abdominal pain. By 8 I received another call that she needed a CT scan which is something MMC can’t do. So I went and picked her up and took her to a hospital in Nashua. There they determined that she had appendicitis and performed an emergency appendectomy. All went well and she is doing fine.
  It amazes me that they can go in laproscopically, remove an organ and send you home the next morning.
  So, we will be celebrating Christmas with my side of the family today. I guess that’s one way to spread out Christmas over an entire week but I’d rather do it with everyone healthy!

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-12-29T10:37:15-05:00 What a day... http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/10/what_a_day.html   I took today off from work because a contractor was supposed to be coming this afternoon to install a new sliding glass door. I got a call this morning from Lowes saying that when the contractor came to pick up the door, they noticed a large crack in the bottom of the door. So, now I have to wait while they order a new one (it's a special order door).
  Based on the time, and the fact that my back was bothering me, I decided not to go in to work and instead to work around the house. So I showered and then went to Target where I picked up some hardware to put up curtains in my bedroom. By the time I got home it was about time for lunch. So, I called my friend Sue to see if she wanted to do lunch. Her parents were in town and we decided to all meet at Bertucci's in Columbia. On my way there I was sitting at the light waiting to turn left into the plaza. My light (the left turn light) was red while the straight lanes had a green light. Well, about that time a woman decided to cross the road. She went in front of me and almost got hit by the car in the middle lane who managed to stop. She waved to them and started running across again and ran right into the side of a moving car. I watched as her body bounced into the air like a rag doll. I don't think her body had hit the ground before I had 911 on the line. They responded pretty quickly and ended up flying her out on the helicopter. It was quite a scene and a picture that I just can't seem to get out of my head.
   After all of that, I continued on to Bertucci's for a nice lunch. Now I'm home where I plan to hibernate for the rest of the day.

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-10-24T14:59:05-05:00 California files lawsuit over auto emissions http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/09/california_file.html I was going to write a rant over this story, how stupid it is and how nice it is of California to kick our automakers while their down. But it appears that WIRED magazine already did that for me...

http://blog.wired.com/cars/#1560246

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-09-22T08:10:15-05:00 Another exciting weekend... http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/09/another_excitin.html   I went to NH again last weekend. It turned out to be a great weekend! On Saturday Marianne and I met up with Kathi, Mom, Larry and my Grandmother at the Wilton Legion where we had a tile dedicated to my Grandfather (who died before I was born) and presented it to my Grandmother.
  What Marianne and I thought was going to be a quiet Saturday night dinner with us, her Mom and Step-Dad and my Mom and Step-Dad turned out to actually be a surprise engagement party! So Saturday night we had a house full of people and it was great! I saw some relatives that I haven't seen in a long time and it was nice to catch up.
  Sunday was Lauren's birthday. We had a few presents in the morning and then had her birthday party at the Animal Rescue League in the afternoon. This is the second year in a row that Lauren has asked that donations to the Rescue League be made (money, kitty litter, whatever...) in lieu of birthday presents for her. I think that's pretty amazing for a 7 year old. It shows a good heart.
  I went right from the party to the airport. I was SO tired from the weekend but it was SO worth it!!

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-09-19T19:36:20-05:00 Marianne and I are Engaged! http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/09/marianne_and_i.html   Well, most of the people who actually care received this in email, but I figured I would post it here anyway.

As of Saturday, Marianne and I are engaged!!! I was going to write up a long email explaining our Incredible weekend, but Marianne has already done that much better than I ever could. So, I'm going to cheat and send everyone what she wrote! :) I have put up pictures of our weekend trip to Maine at:

http://groups.msn.com/MichaelSJonesPhotoAlbum/ourmainetrip.msnw

and I have put pictures of where I proposed here:

http://groups.msn.com/MichaelSJonesPhotoAlbum/theengagement.msnw

I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Love,
Mike

PS. Here is the story...

==================================================================================================
Hello All:

What a weekend I had.....and all in a gloriously wonderful way....brace yourself, this is a long e-mail!

Keeping in mind that Mike and I's first dating anniversary was on Saturday, September 9th.

Since Mike had come up and spent the long labor day weekend with Lauren and I and is coming back up next weekend for her birthday, I had planned to do laundry, cleaning and getting together with close friends. In any event, that all changed on Thursday night....

It was @ 8:30pm and I was laying in bed with Lauren (putting her to sleep) and she was happily trying to teach me how to do duck sounds when I heard "HELLOOOOOOOOOO" echoing through the hallway. Mike had surprised me by flying up from Maryland to spend the weekend with me for our anniversary! I was in shock! He simply said, "You don't think I'd make you spend our anniversary alone, did you?" He whips a brochure out of his pocket saying pack your bags, we're leaving tomorrow for Maine. I of course came right back with "I can't, I have to work, etc." In any event, the planning for this event had been going on since June so my boss knew about it, both sets of parents, etc......as usual, I was the only clueless one!

In any event, Lauren went off to school and then to her dad's on Friday and Mike and I left in the morning for Maine. We stayed in an adorable cabin right near the entrance to Acadia National Park....his mom and step-dad had scoped it out for Mike in advance (thanks Brenda & Larry)! We spent Friday and Saturday cruising through Mountains, beaches, etc......way too beautiful to describe via e-mail!

The pinnacle of the weekend came on Saturday afternoon (our anniversary). We had climbed up to an area where you could see ocean, mountains and beach all around you. It was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was shining bright and Mike then proceeded to say "There's only one thing that could make this weekend better"....he then got down on one knee and proposed to me! Needless to say, you all need to start calling me Mrs. Jones:) Of course, I said, yes! He presented me with a GORGEOUS three stone leo diamond ring (past, present & future). We enjoyed our happy occasion for the rest of the weekend with lots of sight-seeing and smiling :) The more I talk to "the parents", the more I hear just how much planning went into making this weekend perfect.....and PERFECT, it was :)

Lauren took the news better than expected and proceeded to take out an old ring of my and "marry" Striker (our beagle). Whatever gets her through the news :) I overheard her explaining to the dogs this morning that her dad would still be there dad but that Mike was going to be their step-dad.

Gotta run and get some work done (if I can pry my eyes away from my rocks as I type today, that is:)

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-09-12T19:19:40-05:00 This should be my new life moto... http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/08/this_should_be.html   I love this picture! I've been doing this at work a lot lately :)


Do one brave thing today

]]> Personal msjones71 2006-08-14T19:12:17-05:00 Virtual PC is now FREE! http://www.mjonesweb.com/blog/archives/2006/07/virtual_pc_is_n.html   Microsoft has now made Virtual PC a free product! If you have used any virtualization technology (VMWare, Microsoft Virtual Server/PC, etc) then you know how great it can be. This is especially true if you like playing around with beta products but don't want to screw up your machine. Try it out... it's free! You can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

]]> Technology msjones71 2006-07-23T13:38:35-05:00