Random Words

I was standing in my kitchen. I suddenly started to speak words at random such as "Cheese" and "Bag". I continued to do this for a few minutes, then went back to my activities.

Tidying up my desk

I noticed my desk was a little cluttered. I had many papers and pens on my desk. I grabbed the papers and placed them one by one in the trash can. I then proceeded to place the pens in a cup, which is where I store the pens. Once this was done, I then proceeded to my normal activities.

My Christmas List

To those who don't want to buy me anything for Christmas, ignore this post:P

Tools
Quick Square
Laser Level Square
2' Level (to match my 6' level)
4' Level (to match my 6' level)
Pliers Set
Cats Paw / Medium Sized Crow Bar

Gift Cards
Game Stop
Lowe's
Home Depot
Menards
Wal-Mart

I am also wanting to do more puzzles. I would like to start a collection of puzzles that have Movie Themes (Especially Star Wars) These puzzles will be put into frames and will be my "Theme" for my Theater Room at our new house!

Happy Friday Everyone!

So it's Friday again. And the minute we walk into work we start riding out the rest of the day. Me, I'm just riding it out until 1, and then I'm gone. I decided to take half a day today so I can help with the family at home. Chels has been feelin overwhelmed a little this week, so I'm goin hom to get some stuff done to relieve that feeling.

Also, It's been a lil while since I posted. I wanted to wait until I wrote up my Birth Story for Kylie, but I've been super busy with work, I just decided to let you all know I'm Alive! Lately, things have been crazy at work and kinda busy at home. Two kids are hard to keep up with and I'm only there at night! We' ve been trying to teach Carson to put his toys AWAY when he is done with them, but that means just putting them under the baby swing and then it piles up. We bought him this somewhat expensive Thomas the Train set (the nice wooden tracks with the magnetic trains instead of battery operated ones) It's just a oval track but I taught him to use a book as a bridge so he has something to go under, and put cans or other toys in the middle for scenery. (He calls them mountains) I plan on buying more of these trains tracks so we have a bigger one for him.

Found out this week too that this or next month will be my last doing the Musco vans for Doak's Details. I guess they are hiring a guy to do car cleaning, vehicle maint scheduling, and grounds keeping (which I might apply for). But i've been having people ask here and there about detailing so I hope I pick up a few there.... I have plans in place to maybe build a garage in the back and set it up to do details efficiently, and then pick up Carriker Fords cars and possibly overflow for Osky Motors and such. I hear Carriker needs help for their cleaning!

I haven't posted since Kylie was born, but I'm sure you all are aware of her now! She is a beautiful little girl who is pretty content most of the time. She has let me put her to sleep a few times, but other than that she is a mommas girl! (that is until she realizes she can sucker her Dad, stickin out that bottom lip). I seen her do that the other day and I told Chelsea, "That bottom lip is gon cost me a lot of money!" But it's all good. I don't mind it. I'd rather be spending money on the people I love than being addicted to expensive stuff like smoking, drinking, drugs and etc.

But anyways, I hope you all have a great and safe weekend. I am going to be cutting down a tree hopefully! There's a evergreen/something tree in my back yard that I have been wanting to get out of there! Eyesore! See you all later!

Golf!

Happy Friday everybody!
I love Fridays... Looking forward to the weekend, relax tonight, watch a movie, play with Carson, get stuff done. Well this Friday had a change of pace. We had a little girl this morning!!!


Just kidding, but it was a different morning. I got up at 5:15AM and met my dad at Harvest Point Golf Course and we tee'd off at 5:30! I tell you what, I think I had my best round EVER this morning. I shot a 6 over par, and par was at 35, so I shot a 41. For all of you who read this (if anyone) and is wondering, "What the crap is Par?" Here's what it is: If a hole is a Par 3, that means that your goal is to get the ball from the tee into the hole in 3 or less shots. 2 shots is a Birdie, and 1 is an eagle, technically a hole-in-one for a par 3, but a par 4 and 5 are the same concept. So, you add up all the pars on each hole and you come up with 35 for Harvest Point.
On each hole, you have Double Eagle, Eagle, Birdie, Par, Bogey, and Double bogey. Double eagle is 3 under par, eagle is 2 under par, birdie is 1 under par, par is par, bogey is one over par, and double bogey is 2 over par.... Anything after that is just called +x...
Anyways, so I shot a bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, par, par, bogey, double bogey, and birdie... All equaling up to 41 strokes, par is 35, 6 over par...

All in all, I did pretty good (for me anyways) Some people would consider that bad. But hey, I hope to get better! my goal is to par the course by the end of the year! I used to have a really bad slice (hitting the ball straight and then it curves hardcore to the right ) so I asked a routine golfer here at work about it (Kiley Broadway) and he gave me some tips and it helped tremendously!

Anyways, still no sign of baby yet... I am hoping this weekend and then take all next week and then through wed of the next week off work, but who knows. This baby obviously is as stubborn as his/her mother and father! So keep my wife Chelsea in your prayers! She is getting impatient! So am I, but it will happen when it's ready. I trust in God to make the best decision for me and my Family in that area!.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and stay safe!!

July 1st

Hello all. I hope all is well with everyone and this week will be a good one!

Right now, I am at work making call after call, doing my daily follow up calls from previous reports I have started. There are about 50 I would say. Not too but, but 4 of us have about that many, so I try to help all those too!

Well I started my first furniture cleaning last night. A buddy from work asked me to clean some furniture he has. I told him I wouldn't charge him normal or at all since this would be my first time doing it on furniture, and it is more like a test run. And thankfully they were really bad! (I know that sounds weird, but it is good) Having really dirty and nasty furniture will let me know how much I can get out without using heavy duty cleaning materials. The chair was the worst. It had mold spots and was pretty bad. So, i got out the $4,000 carpet extractor and put it to use! I have this cleaning solution that eats organic materials (aka: mold or anything that is produced naturally from bacteria and waste) and it worked amazing! It got most of the mold out and it gave the color back to the chair, got all the dirt out and it looks awesome. I was impressed. I got about 3/4 of the chair done, and I would've had it all done but my garage doesn't have much space right now and I was on and off the phone quite a bit. But after about 1 1/2 hours I got most of it done. It looks awesome! I hope he spreads the word, cause it was kinda fun to do. Both my good friends do stuff like that for a job so I hope they don't feel like I'm the enemy. HAHA, right, like I threaten Craig;)

Quick update: Finishing the drywall in the bathroom this week, then it's painting bathroom and second bedroom. Think all we are doing is the living room and kitchen wall then all the house stuff is done on that... I will need to do tile and stuff in bathroom sometime too, but better than have it all "unchecked"!

Well, have a good Tuesday and rest of the week, and keep my good friend Ashley in your prayers. Thanks!

The Tour!

Hello everyone and welcome to the mind of Alex Doak. Today, we will be touring three components in Alex's mind: Thoughts, Work, and Fun.....

Our first stop today is work... Oh the joy in work. Alex likes his job but gets tired of the repetitiveness it offers. It seems every day there is the same problem of that dang control module going offline. And the remarks here and there from his co-workers about how red dye is great for you! (not in my eyes) and of course, the weekly trip to Dollar General to satisfy his sunflower seed addiction. But despite the ups and downs of work, the things Alex enjoys most is the interaction with customers all over the country, and even outside the country, and of course, the people here in the office. Even though it is repetitive by nature, it is still enjoyable and he still finds joy/rewarding to fix problems or find solutions for problems.

Our second and most exciting stop, is FUN! Alex enjoys movies, video games, working on his house, golfing and especially, playing with his son Carson. Carson is one cool cat! Alex can't wait until Carson gets old enough to play games with, go to movies, teach him how to golf, play baseball (even though his daddy sucks) and maybe even driving cars. He also enjoys the rare dates with his wife and hanging out with his friends.

Our third and final visit today, is the Thought department. Over the course of each day, Alex has these thoughts... Most of the time it is about work, Chelsea, Carson, friends, sex and video games. And also thinks allot about ideas that he would like to do. One time he brainstormed with his buddy Austin about a shopping cart design for grocery stores. It is a GPS assisted, USB Drive enabled, touch screen shopping assistant where you can type in how much you want to spend and has a built in scanner, so you can scan each item as it enters the cart, and it will tell you if you exceed or are under your wanted spending limit. There were other things to that, but there are tons more ideas as well. Alex also thinks alot about Golf lately. He wishes he could play every morning before work and a round after work. Become good, and potentially play in tournaments and stuff. (Trust me, as the tour guide, I've seen allot, and I'm not so sure his slice can be played that good)

Well that's our tour of Alex Doak's mind... Thanks for joining us and I hope this was a pleasurable Friday afternoon for you. Feel free to come back anytime and ask more questions about Alex's Mind!

Be Safe!!!!

Crawlspace fun

I just wanna take a second and thank big brothers everywhere, especially my biggest (age wise) brother Ben. He is VERY skilled with home remodeling and woodworking and such. He has been a huge help to me and my house. He has helped me install my dishwasher, do this tub/shower combo, some plumbing and electrical work too. Huge help, so thanks Ben!!

So the title of my post sounds so fun doesn't it! Crawlspaces... Gotta love them. Dirty, sandy, damp places that are 2 to 3 feet tall, and the only thing you can do is crawl and sometime be able to be on your hands and knees. I have about 3 scars already from nails and such poking down and scraping my back. It took me 15 minutes in the shower last night to get all the crap out of my hair.. But anyways. I spent about maybe 2 or 3 hours in there last night working on my drain for the shower. That drain is crazy and probably does not meet the 273 codes that Iowa has for drain, but at least it will work! It is too complicated to explain, but lets just say you would look at it and say, "Pht, Amateur..." I did all that in the crawlspaces while Ben was upstairs answering my questions and working on the water supply lines and getting the holes drilled in the third wall for the faucet and the supply handle and such. It is looking better!

After we did all that, I cleaned up a bit and after my shower (At my FIL's house) I sealed the edges and corners in the shower so hopefully that was a good job. It was kinda a pain! But tonight we should be able to use the shower, granted I get support underneath the tub. The bottom of the tub is almost 3 inches of the ground in the front and about 1.75 inches off the ground in the back. Only because the floor is not even. Once I get that done and the shower head put on, We can bathe AND shower now! First time ever in this house!

Then once that is done, Ben said he knows a little bit about drywall (he must dabble with it lol) he said he will patch up what needs patched and once it is painted we can have a complete bathroom again.... Oh wait, I forgot, now the floor needs redone too.. Man, one thing after another! Austin, can you say, "Money Pit". LOL, just kidding ;) Hopefully once we paint, finish bathroom, and maybe insulate the garage and stuff, our house will be worth 15,000 more than we paid for it. And luckily, we didn't spend half that;).

Also, congratulations to my friend Ashley Dubra, he got a hole in one last night! Granted, it was a video game and he did with a controller sitting on my couch, but it was still awesome! Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 is the most addicting game, I swear.

Well, that's about it for today. Once I finish ranting about all the house work, then I will start posting more interesting stuff. Thanks for reading!!

My blessings to you and your families:)

Almost Done!

So now that it has been 12 years, 245 days, 5 hours and 32 minutes since my last post, now I am finally at the top of Katy's Blogroll! (Inside joke) But just an update on the good ol' Doak life, I have got my AC finally ready to get hooked up, but still waiting for the guy that's going to hook it up to get some free time to do it. Good thing we have a few window air units! Those work great!

And the next big project on my list is underway. Or, at least my "Current" list, right Michael? We are currently replacing our single shower unit with a tub/shower combo. So we had to tear old one out, move a wall and tear out another wall, and redo all plumbing and supply lines, and spend twice as much and I originally anticipated! But that's ok, it's just money right? I hear that somewhere it grows on trees.... Or maybe that was something else..... But that's almost done. All we have to do is make plumbing connections and supply connections, clean up, put third wall on, patch drywall and fix floor.. Wait, that's allot!!!!!!

But after that's done, I think that's going to be my last big project for a while. Until it's time for the garage or a new house maybe? I would like to have a guest room so when Doobsday comes back to town or friends come over they have a place to stay, instead of a floor or a couch.. So we will keep looking around...

I am also getting really excited to hold baby #2! I am hoping for a girl, but then again another boy would be fun. I went golfing yesterday with my good friend Ashley Dubra (guy) and we thought it woulda been fun with Carson and stuff, so I'm down with boys too. Oh, and I'm definitely taking my daughter golfing too;)

Well, that's about all I have to say for today... Sorry to keep you all on the edge of your seats, waiting for whatever I had to say! Stay safe!!

My blessings to you and your family:)

Weather....

So I have been TRYING to get my new A/C running so when it's not cool from raining a couple trillion gallons of water every week, it's not so hot in my house! Right now, I have the new copper line set ran, in the furnace room ready to connect, but I am trying to get some concrete poured and set in a small wooden square my Dad and I framed up to pour in. But the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I could have done it Sunday afternoon, when we made the frame, given I had to concrete available. So I get to wait a little longer on the A/C... Bummer...

Other than that, I had the list of things to do over the weekend, and I got them all done except for the setting of the new A/C unit and the new windows in garage. I decided those weren't all too important yet. I also got some other things done too, such as mowing, and a little bit of cleaning. Oh, and I didn't do the shower caulk yet either. Just cause we wanna put in a new shower/tub combo sometime before the baby. But yeah, thats about it.

I NEED (more want) to get my Yamaha WaveRunner out from winter storage and take it out to the river. Going 68 Miles Per Hour on water, sitting on top of a powerful jet propelled engine, on the water, is quite the rush. Especially on the river, because it's like riding on glass there. The lake is just nasty water with tons of debris floating around and very choppy water, doesn't ride the greatest, but also more than a ton of fun to ride on! But priorities first! I'd much rather get my stuff done around the house and keep getting ready for baby #2 rather than spend all my weekend work time on stuff like that, as much as I want to.. Still got allot to do!

Well that's it for now. I should get to work. Have a great day!

My blessings to you and your families.

Today is Friday, and boy am I glad! Sort of... Friday just means another weekend of working on the house, which I'm excited to get done, but kinda not looking forward to getting into my crawlspace again! I have to run a new copper line set to the AC from the furnace and then hopefully sometime soon I can get the AC hooked up. our house stays somewhat ok, but still hot at nights..

Here is my list of stuff to hopefully get done this weekend:
Tonight: Paint the window trim in living room (Not the big one, still need to replace the cracked window sometime). And do the caulk in the shower tonight after our showers.

Tomorrow: Run copper line set; after garage sale, try to do garage windows; set new AC; re-install kitchen trim.

Sunday: Family reunion in afternoon, and if I don't get the windows done, do them then, and if they are done, I will get the computer room ready to paint... which means moving all the stuff outta there, finding a place for computer and desk, and taking stuff into attic... Fun stuff

And thats my work plan. As most of you know, I am a little bit of a movie/video game buff. I have 2 movies to watch and a couple games I like to get a lil bit of time in, which are:
Movies:
August Rush
Rambo (New One)
Games:
Lego Star Wars (Hey, it's fun!)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (Kinda like Indiana Jones)

There are my later-at-night plans, after Carson is in bed and all the stuff is done for the day...

Another dumb thing one our countries states are doing: Colorado is allowing gays/lesbians to go to the opposite sexes bathroom/locker rooms/shower rooms. never mind the sexual predators who will take advantage of this. So stupid.

Anyways, thats all for today.

My blessings to you and your families.

Happy Hump Day

SO today is Wednesday, and I believe they call it Hump Day. Mostly because it's the middle of the week, and if the week were a hill being climbed, with all the proper safety gear and following all the codes of the Climbers Association of Iowa and Other Awesome States of course, then Wednesday would be the top of the hill, and the rest of the week follows. And of course, the other thing about Hump Day....... Think like the Doak's and you'll figure that one out;)

I have to work late tonight, a customer called in needing to "Commission" his new lighting system, which means we run a test with the lights and then turn them on for 30 minutes. Once the lights burn fo the 30 minutes, we take a reading on each pole on how much electricity it is pulling from the grid, and save that in our memory bank so if a lamp were to burn out, then we would read a different amount than the initial commissioning amerage. Anyways, long story short, its a 45 minute process and he calls at 4:50.... Fun Fun. But I guess I don't mind. Only thing is, I have a full detail tonight that I want to go quick, and then I am working out with my Sister-in-Laws boyfriend at his place after that. Trying to get back in shape. Austin and Tyler made fun of me a few months ago for my "Man Boobs". So trying to get rid of that!

And then my wife asked me to paint the kitchen windows. And I also have to redo the caulking in our shower, and install our new A/C, and paint a few more rooms, and then try to get a shower/tub combo installed, and try to keep up with working out and car details, and try to be there for my family!!!!!!

And to all who make fun of me: This is why I have GRAY HAIR! I swear i'm going to look like George Clooney in 2 years, except not as rich.... Bummer....

Anyways, I just realized I could write on this thing forever and probably bore you so much that you would rather watch a movie from the silent film era.... So to all a good night!

My blessings to you and your families.