72 hour kits

It's Conference Saturday, that means we change out our 72 hour kits. It goes like this: Go get more stuff, then one at a time, replace the contents of each kit. Ruth gets bigger diapers. Everyone gets different food. I open the flashlight in mine just to remind myself that I didn't leave the batteries in it to corrode.

Taking all the food out, and putting in more (and sometimes different) food means there's a bunch of stuff for the girls to eat. They are having 72 hour kit food for lunch. The rest of it got put back in the cupboard.

Hopefully we won't need them in the next 6 months, just like we haven't in the last 6 months...

Game Time

Age of Empires III

Me, Rob, and Rob's brother - 1
3 hard level computers - 1

I think I was a little rusty...

(Sort of) proof I was at my conference

Ok, so the picture was taken at the Houston Astros game, but I did attend the conference...
To my left is Rita Workman, she works for the State of Virginia or something like that. Steve E's knee is right near my right ear.

You want what?

We got a letter at the Stake this week from the Church Archives department. It turns out that they recently received the patriarchal blessing number 347 given by the late Flake Rogers of our Stake. They indicated that record numbers 342-346 and 348-367 were still missing. They were asking for copies of these blessings if we had them.

Brother Rogers died 5 years ago, and blessing #347 was given in 1996. I tracked down and called Brother Rogers son, and explained the problem to him. His response was "In the medical profession we have a term for this, it's 'hmm.'" He had no idea what to tell me, he hadn't seen anything like that when they were emptying the house.

I looked through the file cabinets at the church (they haven't thrown a lot out there. ever.), and didn't find them at all. I found a whole bunch of priesthood ordination records from the late 70's and early 80's, but no blessings.

Now I have to write a letter back to the Church archives people explaining the situation.

It reminds me of things that happen at work. I get a call: "We are trying to track down a server from 1992. Do you know what happened to it?" (I started working there in 1993...)

National Grassland Protection Act

My yard was just sited by the National Grassland Association as a prime example of how grasslands can be preserved in a city setting. I had mowed the thing last about 12 days ago, and it's had lots of rain fall on it since, and is quite high. I had grand plans of getting done at the Stake Center early tonight, getting home, and mowing the thing before nightfall, but alas, I walked home in the dark. The lawn will have to wait a few more days...

Manual Transmission

Any time I drive a stick shift, and afterwards, am asked how it went or something like that, I make sure to say "It was fine. I just left it in 1st gear the whole time."

My results vary. I'm not sure that Tom knew I was joking today...

Book Review

Garbage Land - On the Secret Trail of Trash
Elizabeth Royte

This was kind of a trashy little book. It was just garbage.

The author of this book lives in NYC. She one day up and decided to start tracking all the garbage she was generating. She started weighing and cataloging everything. Then she decided to start following her garbage.

It was interesting hearing her travels with garbage from her street in NYC, all the way to the landfill. She also followed her recyclables. Then she started following the sewage generated. (Everyone needs a hobby, right?)

Basically, when it came right down to it, here is was she decided: If you really want to help generate less of a waste footprint in your life, you need to buy less stuff. A strange topic, it's true, but there it is. No matter how careful you are at home with your waste, if you are a consumer, waste happens just getting your products to you.

It was an interesting book, at least up to the last chapter. (I was playing Catan at Russ's, and struggled through that last chapter.) I can't wait for my next visit to NYC to notice some of the sanitation things that are there. (Like when I read the book on NYC rats, then went to the city and saw all the signs of rats that I would have missed...)

Book Review

HPUX CSE - Official Study Guide and Desk Reference

I guess I'll count this book, since I read most of it, and more importantly, passed the test.

I do not recommend this book to anyone who has not worked on HPUX and is not planning to work on HPUX. If you do work on HPUX, I highly recommend this book. It's great. This book will continue to sit on the bookshelf at my desk, for the next time I need it...

Also, do not pack this book in your suitcase, if you are close to the 50 pound limit. It's very heavy and thick.

The outrage is back (already)

Security here in the Pheonix airport was kind of a joke. (They ticked me off, just a little bit.) The airport has free public wireless. Every airport should be that way. It can't be that expensive, and I can't imagine other airports make all that much out of the per hour charges they do. (Orlando also has free wireless, what other airports are like this?)

They only had 2 xray machines running, and the guys running the machine were spending too much time (I thought) re-running things through those machines. There was a lady just ahead of us, they ran her purse through 4 times... (Just open the thing up already!)

I was chastized for grabbing my shoes before they were fully off the conveyor. Then they wanted me to go with them to check my Bi-Pap before my laptop bag was fully off the conveyor. Those dudes were punks.

They checked my Bi-Pap, as usual. I verified that the thing needs to be checked every time I go through security. They did not do this in Houston. I mentioned this, and these guys said that they should have. Now, who do I complain to about the lax screening over in Houston? They seem to be doing roving secondary checks while people are boarding. Why are they doing that here in Phoenix, where the screeners at the checkpoint are over evaluating everything, yet in Houston, you can just meander on through the airport? I just hope they don't pick me to profile me for a screening...


Short story about the Houston airport:

Most baggage claims in airports have little announcements in the back ground going on to say to look over in one location for oversided luggage, look in this other place if your luggage got here before you, that sort of thing. The thing that made me laugh about Houston was that they had these announcements, but added to it was one that said something to the effect of: "Firearm boxes can be picked up at the customer service counter next to baggage claim 5." Hilarious. Where else but in Texas do you have to have a special annoucement about firearms?

Hanging with my friends

So, now we have finished a weekend with Jonathan, Scott and Monica, and Russ and Barbara. We enjoyed ourselves, I hope everyone else did. (Hopefully we didn't impose too much on Russ and Barbara...)

Yesterday, we pretty much played games all day. (I call this relaxing...) Some games I won, some games, they really stuck it to me. I'm perfectly all right with that.

We want to get back together sometime 3Q 2007. I'm going to research out the options of NYC, Sioux Falls, LA, and our place. Then I will email out to everyone, and maybe we can get it set up right away. (Jonathan wants me to get a firm commitment out of Rob early, we missed not having Rob and Amy out here.)

It was a good weekend, Tara and I went to Sacrament meeting with Barbara this afternoon. It's too bad we ditched out before saying bye to Russ. (By the way, Russ was really struggling to stay awake up on the stand there. His Bishop spoke, and said something about caffeine, Russ and I started chuckling.)

Frisbee Golf

This afternoon, we went and played frisbee golf. This very wuickly turned into 6 man scramble, as none of us are any good at frisbee golf. It's too bad Rob isn't here to show us all how.

Game time

Settlers of Catan

Russ - 1

Me, Tara, Jonathan, Scott, Monica - 0

Game time

7 player hearts, 2 decks, 10 of diamonds worth -10 points:

Russ - -6
Monica - 1
Barbara - 6
Me - 39
Jonathan - 42
Scott - 69
Tara - 105

Settlers of Catan:

Me - 1
Russ, Barb, Tara, Jonathan - 0

Several people really did not like my cuthroat playing style, I'm pretty sure they are just biding their time to get back at me.

More sitting on an airplane

I went in the morning back to the conference, the shuttle was picking us up over there. I went and listened to Sinbad for the Closing session, he was somewhere in the mildly amusing to amusing category, but no more than that. (He did question and answer from the audience...)

Just before the shuttle came to get us, it started pouring outside. Not just rain, but pouring rain.

Flying to Pheonix, for some reason, we sat on the runway for 45 minutes. They never explained the delay, and I slept through a lareg portion of the wait.

We (Tara and I) are now at Russ and Barbara's place, Jonathan, Scott, and Monica are also here.

Free Evening

I had a free evening. (Free meaning it's Wednesday night, I'm not at home, and I pushed my Stake Executive Secretary duties off to someone else....)

Anyway, I went to Ethan and Lindsay's place for dinner. Dinner was great.

Their house is very nice. Ethan's got a nice multi media room there, that's something to certainly think about... Their girls seemed to enjoy looking at the pictures of the girls here.

After I got back, I discovered that the maid turn the AC temp up to 73 degrees. This was tuned down to 67, and I went for a short walk through the mall while waiting for the room to cool. They have out a 10th anniversary Mist/Riven box set. I'm interested, and it's only $20.

By the way, the Galleria mall here has a large proportion of shops that I would not shop at. (Think of just about an expensive store you can... Yep, it's there.)

Objective #4

Objective #4 was really about finding something at the conference that would be immediately useful. The very last session I went to had a developer from India that was an expert in something I had to open an issue on 10 days ago. (The issue is still open, with nothing of progress to report.)

I logged in, showed the developer my problem, and he immediately identified my problem for me. Nice and sweet.

That makes 4/4 for the trip, I call that successful.

The Mother Lode

Today I didn't really feel like dealing with vendors just to get a pen, or some foam brain, so I really didn't talk to anyone at the expo hall. This lowers the volume of free stuff you get generally. I have 2 classes left, and then I am leaving, so I think the haul is done for the day.

I did get signifigant items today:

A bright blue luggage locator
A HPUX VSE book, as previously mentioned
A 1GB USB drive

Now, the 1GB USB drive is very handy, since I lost my 512MB drive about 10 days ago, and have just about given up hope that I will find it. Now I have a brand spanking new one to fill up with stuff and continually lose it...

Lunch

So, the lunch room is in Hall D. The Expo Hall is Hall E.

I went today down the stairs to Hall D. At the bottom, they were forcing everyone out the door to walk around outside to go through Hall E. (I assume to force us into the expo hall. This meant walking out through all the smokers.

Going in to Hall E, and through it, you get to Hall D, the tables with the food were still on the far end of Hall D, over by the first set of doors they wouldn't let us through.

I walked over, and the food was some sort of Italian thing. Now, I ate a lot of junk last night, and still had a bit of an upset stomach from that. This Italian fare did not look very appetizing, and I was pretty sure that I would be sick if I did eat it, so I walked back out of the hall (Through Hall E, of course, not directly out of Hall D...)

I was kind of ticked off by then, the first time this week. (Was that a record?) Luckily for those around me, Steve E saw me, and distracted me long enough that I ended up giving up the "lunchtime outrage", at least until I created this entry, except that when I got upstairs, I stopped at a snack table and got a banana, so I'm not all that outraged right now, either.

More work to do

This morning i went to a hands on session for HPUX VSE. This is the stuff that I spend so much time working on last week for a presentation for Kelly.

After sitting through the thing, and talking to them about our capacity problem in our web environment, they have very compelling recommendations for me to go back and look at. It looks like I will be spending plenty of time looking into it soon....

They also gave me a book about HPUX VSE they wrote. It's a $55 dollar book, that would have saved me plenty of time last week...

Objective #3

Tonight we went to the Houston Astros game at Minute Maid Park. They have the roof open. The Astros lost 5-4 to the Reds.

I went with Steve E., I think he enjoyed himself, I know I enjoyed myself. We sat next to a bunch of people I know from the ITRC forums. I got a little ragging about the fact that we (meaning Tara) are expecting baby #5, all girls. Pete's wife Jill said when she first saw me:
"How many kids do you have now?"
"4"
"Don't you have more every conference?"
"We are expecting another girl in December, but it's not every conference..."
That sort of thing went on.

They had all the food I cared to eat, and we had 2 tickets for drinks. I gave my tickets away, it was much more useful to other people. I made 2 large plates of nachos, with plenty of jalepenos, a bag of cracker jacks, and a bag of peanuts.

It was a very nice evening.

Today's haul

This afternoon I attended a series of classes that were baiscally panels with all the HPUX experts (HP employees) in various different things. These are always interesting to hear the different problems people have and questions people have.

During one of the sessions, my phone rang incessantly, I didn't catch very much of it.

Not getting down to the expo, I'm actually suprised at the things I ended up with. Today I got:

6 very large pens
1 shirt stuffed to look like a cowbot boot
A set of funny looking barnyard animals, including: a duck, a rooster, a pig, a horse, a cow, and a farmer. (Ruth should really enjoy these...)
Laura's Lab Kit v7 (Not that I ever use any of the tools out of there, but I keep getting the updates...)
I also ended up with a bag of trail mix that I forgot I picked up.

I field tested my new bag today, it's really nice. Tomorrow I plan to go back to me bigger backpack so that I can spend a little time in the expo and potentially come away with free stuff...

Restaurant Review

Pappas - Houston

Ethan L took me to lunch today. (Thanks Ethan!)

It turns out that the Texas BBQ I had yesterday was just a cheap convention center knockoff of Texas BBQ. Ethan explains that at church, they identify 2 different kinds of BBQ, the one where you start by smoking the meat for 12 hours (real Texas BBQ), and the one where you do hotdogs and hamburgers (This they call grilling).

Now, at this place, after I ordered (there was some sort of communication problem, I guess I don't speak Texas Mexican very well), and got my food, I have to agree. Real Texas BBQ is very good. Very very good. I really enjoyed my meal.

It sounds like Ethan is enjoying himself down here. It sounds like he gets lots more opportunities here than he ever did when he worked for Operations.

Objective #2

I passed the exam I came to take. I am now a HPUX Certified Systems Engineer: Networking and Security

It's a long title for "He passed 2 exams."

Anyway, that's 2 out of 4 objectives completed...

Free Stuff

I stopped at the front desk on my way in to ask if they could bring up a razor for me. (It was the last thing I tried to remember to pack, of course I forgot it.) They let me know that HP is comping the fee for the in house internet access. I just got a call, they were out of razors, he was going to run to the store to purchase some more. I told him it wasn't that big of a deal, but he is doing it anyway. That's what I call service.

I am supposed to be heading over to the Houston aquarium right now for a reception, but I got out of the last thing late, and missed the timeframe to get on the bus. Oh well, when you've seen one fish, you've seen them all. But it would have been funny to get there and find out they were serving seafood. (Do they do that at aquariums?)

One of the nice (at least kind of nice) things about a conference like this is getting free stuff. Tomorrow I am going to an Astros game, and they have some hospitality suites there full of food. They will also give me all the peanuts I can eat. I will have to remember to take heartburn medicine with me, just in case.

Today I got a nice backpack/laptop combo bag thing. My laptop actually fits in it, which is a feat in and of itself. I think I will try to use it tomorrow to try it out. (maybe)

Other things I got:

laser pointer
the previously mentioned Home Depot gift card
Some sort of beach/gym bag
A new, smaller library bag (Tara knows what I mean)
A CD player/CD Holder thing
pen/pencil set
A nice polo shirt (white, which may not work the way I make messes)
Little cheapo flashlight
foam football
T shirt

I take an exam at 9:30am. No new posts until after then...

The loud shirt worked

So today I wore my Mr. Incredible shirt. For those who read this top down (I recommend bottom to top, by the way), I am at a conference, they give away prizes if the prize patrol stops you. I have 3 shirts to make me stand out, and I ranked them in order of impact. Mr. Incredible was at the bottom, The Superman shirt was #2, and I figured the Donald Duck shirt was the most attention getting, since it is bright orange, and has one of my favorite sayings on the back.

Anyway, this afternoon I got stopped. Mr. Incredible did the trick. I still plan to wear the other shirts... I won a Home Depot gift certificate. I have no idea how much it's for, Home Depot's policy is to have you come into the store to check your balance. Not that I'm complaining. My guess is that it's $25, $50, $75 or $100, since anything above that requires you to fill out a tax form. Even $25 is nice. Tara might just get her closet finished after all...

I got stopped a second time, but it's a one prize per person thing. (They identify you by your hat, and write "I won" on the hat after you win so you can't win a second time.)

OK, so it helped that the session I went to was fairly boring, mostly just reading off slides of information that's on the web, nothing new and exciting, so instead, I saw one of the prize patrol, watched where they were going, and went down the next hall. (The place is set up in "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike") Start from point A, turn right or left 3 times, and you walk into the place you started from. Several interations of following and turning paid off. Who says being a stalker never paid off?

Anyway objective #1 has been met (Win a prize). Still 4 more objectives to go, I'll let you in on them as we go along.

Last year, I won a gift certificate to the HP certified store. I got this pen, and a nice shirt, that's a little too big for me. (It was the afternoon of the last day, and the store had been pillaged by then. The store appears to not have the pens in stock here this week, but they do have a nice electronic sudoko then. (Or Electronic Number Place) I'm thinking hard about that one. I did really like that pen. It wrote nice and had a really nice feel to it.

"Contest"

We got a letter in the mail today, with a $2000 check. The letter said something to the effect that I had won 2nd place in a contest, worth $100,000. They were sending the check to help defray the $1,900 surcharge, transfer of vital documents, like settlement claims certificate. I'm a little skeptical because of this link.

12:25pm:
"Checking a file on a computer. I was awarded a $100,000 check. We are an insurance company so that we can provide assistance. We are there to provide the help for you to get the payout you are entitled to. Mr. Johnson is in a meeting, he will be out in 5 minutes, and can help you get all the information you need."

Of course, the first guy garbled his name when he said it. When I called back at 12:53, got VM with no name, and "leave a message at the tone."

At 12:57 - I got back to the first guy I talked to:
"I found out what happened, he gave me access to his files. You got a check for $100,000. Federal law says that the company has to issue a check for $1900 to pay the IRS. As soon as he gets out of his office, he will give me the rest of the money. It helps so that you can pay for the International sweepstakes. Give a call back in 8 minutes, he'll be out of his office then, and I will have more information for you."


At 1:15pm - VM again.

Well, this sounds fisky to me. Sorrel thinks I should open an account in Houston or Pheonix, and deposit the check, then come back in a day or two, and withdrawl all but is little of the money, leaving the account open. Then I walk away with that money. At this point, I might just wait and call them back tomorrow If nothing else, it's a little amusing. (For instance, why can the phone jockey not give me any 'more info' without the as of yet anonymous Mr. Johnson? Why am I calling a number in North Bay, Ontario? Is it really a phone relay to somewhere else?) If I ever talk to them again, I will try to get their company info out of them, and a name.

Lunch

Texas Barbque!

Brisket, corn on the cob, and something they called "Southern Coleslaw". For dessert they had a fresh berry cobbler. I am thinking about going back down for another round.

Meeting people I know

Having been going to the HP Conference for about 7 years now, I have gotten to know some of the regulars, at least on the HPUX side of the house.

This morning, I talked to Mike D, from work. He and Steve are here. I not sure why I didn't expect people from work to be here, except I haved been very busy the past few weeks, and sick, and I guess I just didn't think about it.

I talked for a few minutes to Pete R. He lives up in Vermont or something like that. Pete organized a little gathering for some of us from the ITRC HPUX forums, which I would have gone to last night had the trouble getting in didn't happen. Pete says there was a pretty good number of people there last night that I know, so I guess I can look forward to seeing more people I know later.

I saw a guy named Mike (from U of Iowa) on my way out of the general session. The session wasn't over yet, so I didn't actually talk to him yet. Mike does some very wierd things in his HPUX environment. That's the only reason I remember him.

Travelog (to Houston)

Yesterday I flew to Houston. I got stopped at security, as usual, so they could check to make sure that my bi-pap was not some sort of explosive device. The screener was suprised that I needed one, and was making a minor deal out of it. The guy in line behind me heard this, pipped up and said that he worked for a pharmasutical company, and if I called him, he could get me something that would make it so I didn't need the bi-pap. I laughed at him, he told me not to laugh, and gave me his card.

His card did not indicate that he was from a drug company, but listed him as a "lifestyle trainer", and on the back of it, had some baloney about how working too many hours of the day left you too little time for yourself. Some sort of crap like that. On the plane, waiting to take off, I wondered what he thought sleep apnea was, and why it would impress me that he worked for a drug company. Anyway, I kept the card, just in case I need a good laugh, or someone to send junk mail to.

Our flight took off about 10 minutes late, they were looking for the passenger who got on the wrong plane. We actually landed a few minutes early in Houston, but our gate wasn't quite ready, we ended up sitting for 25 minutes waiting to pull into the gate. My luggage was in the last batch from the flight, I waited 30 minutes for it to spit out, then I didn't recognize it for the first turn around the luggage conveyor.

I had picked the flight I did so that I could hop on an HP bus to the hotel, the conbination of waiting for the gate and my luggage made it so I missed the oppotunity to take the bus, I picked up a shuttle. The shuttle had 10 people in it with 9 different stops. It was quite a ride. (I was the last one off.)

The hotel is attached to a very large mall, which is good if you want a quick bite to eat. They have a skating rink in the middle of it.

The bus to the convention center runs from 6:30am - 7:30 am central time. This is a little bit of a struggle, especially after not having gotten to bed anytime before 1am last week...

Steve E just got in, he's at the airport. He's picking up a shuttle, and flies out at the same time, so I told him to get the same shuttle service, and we can go out there at the same time. Steve tells me we have an invite for dinner on Wednesday.

They just broke out the caffinated beverages, I'm going to go get me one, then do a little studying for my test before the first class at 12:15.

Game Time

Cities and Knights of Catan

Tara - 1
Me - 0

It wasn't even close, Tara was merciless. I'm thinking of renaming her Ming, and if you can name the reference without using google, you win a prize...

We got a lot of rain today. Tara reports that we had heavy hail at 5am, and our (pockmarked) zuccinni plant confirms that fact... It was also quite cold, I expect that by the time I return from my trips, there won't be a leaf left on the tree out front.

Are you wondering about the loud shirts? At the conference I am going to, the HP certification team goes around handing out prizes at random to HP certified people during the conference. I plan to wear the shirts to draw attention to myself in an effort to get free stuff. I have a bright red "Incredibles" shirt, a bright orange Donald Duck shirt, and a bright blue Superman shirt...

Not sure when the next post will be, the hotel I am staying in has High Speed Internet, but it turns out to not be a free connection...

Cold Snap

It's gotten cold here. It's only 45 degrees out right now. You can see the snow up on the peak of this mountain, and it's not even one of the higher ones... WeatherBug says there is a freeze warning on for tonight, this is the time of year I become a "Weather Gambler". I'm gambling that tonight I will not have to cover the tomatoes. Of course, when I am a weather gambler, I check the temperature about 5 times a day to see what it does. If it's near 40 by 10pm, I'll find something to cover the plants with...

Having said that, I'm going somewhere warm. Houston, in fact. Tomorrow. Then I plan to stop in Pheonix. It should warm back up here by the time I get back. I plan to wear nothing but loud shirts while I am gone.

Galaxy Quest - DVD

I am now the proud owner of Galaxy Quest on DVD.

Now, if you have never seen the DVD release, here's a little tidbit for you:

The DVD has a special audio track with the movie all in Thermian. (It's the 3rd 'English' for those MPlayer people out there...) Now, if you've seen the movie, and know the basic plot, go back and watch the movie in Thermian. It's hilarious. Simply hilarious.

Now, normally this track is not allowed to be played at the house, but I took it to work yesterday, and found a large number of people who appreciate it in Thermian. Hilarious.

New Vacuum

Tara was saying at lunch that we needed a new vacuum. She said that they girls vacuumed the back room for a long time, and it still looked like it hadn't gotten done.

I looked at it, and ended up pulling out 8-10 inches of packed in stuff from the vacuum hose.

1. Kind of nasty
2. The vacuum works lots better
   

Restaurant Review

Brick Oven

We had 2 birthday club cards, and the girls cleaned up the back room, so we went back here for lunch today.

I had the Calzone. I like the calzone. It's not nearly as greasy as pizza, at I don't feel like I gorged myself on it.

On our way out of the place, the girls all got helium balloons. The wind was blowing outside, the balloons were whipping all over the place. Mary's hit the ground and popped, which caused her to cry like she just lost an arm or something. It was sort of sad, but it was mostly funny. Not sure that level of crying was called for...

Anyway, we stopped on the way home and bought Mary a new balloon from the store. She seems fairly apprieciative...

Work, slave.

I leave town on Sunday, I have been trying to get things done so I can go...

At work, on top of the stuff I already had to do, I was asked to prepare a presentation for tomorrow. It's done, but it took a lot of work.

We found a security vulnerability in one of the apps. For some reason, it didn't sufficiently scare the developers. I am working on some things to shore the thing up before I leave.

Ward conferences start soon, I think we are finally ready.

It got cool and rainy here this afternoon. I guess it was just to give some contrast for the trips to Houston (including a baseball game), and Pheonix (no game)

No school tomorrow, today was early out Thursday. Our on time pick streak is now at one.

I jave lost my USB drive. I can't find it anywhere. I no suspect foul play. Or Ruth play. Or personal stupidity.

I am taking a certification exam on Tuesday, I haven't had a chance to look at the book since Monday. It's going to be a doozy...

While I was out...

Sorry about the silence. Deafing, isn't it? While you are waiting, please check out the previous 556 entries in the archives...

Game Time

Yahtzee

Me - 1st place
Mary - 2nd place
Kate - 3rd place

Bad parenting skills

Sometimes you have to practice your bad parenting skills...

Yesterday someone knocked at our door at 2:15pm. I opened the door, it was someone from our ward. She had Kate with her. I said to Kate "Why are you home from school so early?" The lady in our ward told us it was early out Friday, she had gotten to the school late, and Kate was sitting there still. She took her home and tried to call, but Tara had been on the phone with Amy at the time, so she brought her by. Kate seemed quite ticked that she had to sit at the school for so long.

We had totally forgotten about early out Fridays. We would have piddled around for another hour before we decided to go get her. Between early out Fridays, and the preschools early out Tuesdays, we may go crazy. Or we may get a lot of "Are you going to come get so-and-so calls". Or lots of neighborhood Moms may bring our kids home. We are bad parents.

Now what I really want to know, is why the school lets Kate sit outside for a very long time with no one watching her, on the first week of school? Kate's the oldest. This was our very first early out Friday. (In 5 years, we will be used to it...) Shouldn't they be keeping a closer eye on the children when they are on the school grounds?

Last December, we got Tom to come over to watch the girls while we went Christmas shopping. We took Ruth because at the time, he had concerns about us leaving a 6 month old with him. We merrily drove along, got to Walmart, got out and started shopping. About 10 minutes into shopping, I realized that we had left the house with Ruth, but she wasn't then with us. I ran out the to car, where she was still in her car seat, peacefully sleeping. The car was still relatively warm, no harm, no foul, but we really felt like bad parents then.

Soduko

This soduko thing is getting out of hand. People all over are doing them now. They say it's the biggest craze since the crossword puzzle. I think it's hilarious. I was doing these things more than 10 years ago, but they didn't call it that then. The book I got Kate has a little introduction to it with the History: (paraphrased)

They say it comes to the US from Japan. The puzzle was invented in the US, called "Number Place" in the Dell Pencils and Word games magazine in 1979. I got them in the Math and Logic Problems magazine that used to run. I still have a few I still haven't worked my way completely through, if you don't believe me. (I save them for trips, really) Some dude from Japan saw the Number Place puzzle, started making his own, and get them in a Japanese puzzle magazine. In Japan, it became a hit. The Times newspaper in London started in 2004 to carry the puzzle, and it took off in England and Europe, and has spread all over.

Anyway, I was doing these long before most of the people around here. I guess it's just one more way to show how much of a trend setter I really am...

"New" Freezer

Our neighbor was cleaning out a freezer yesterday afternoon. It was their parents, they were storing it, but no one in their family wanted it, and it was taking a lot of space. (Something like 20 cubic feet...) Somehow Tara heard they were looking to sell it and got excited. She has been asking for a big freezer for about 4 years now. This is often exasperated when the store has a sale like {40 pounds of chicken for $25}, {Buy this gigantic case of chicken nuggets for $15.99}, or {1 pound of frozen vegetables - $0.50}. The problem with these kinds of sales is that often they come around when we have 4 half eaten cartons of ice cream in our freezer, and no room for 13 chickens. (How much does the average chicken weigh? 4 pounds, give or take.) Not so anymore, we bought it off them for $50.
It's a little beat up, but it's one of those old ones that (hopefully) run for 75 years without a 2nd thought. I plan to leave a thing of water, an otter pop, and an ice cube in it for a little while to make sure it works right. We set it in the shed, the freezer has a lock, but no key. I figured the shed was a good place to keep children out of the thing, and the food in.

Anyway, next time we are at the store, I won't have to worry that all the frozen stuff we just bought won't fit. TV dinners - $0.75? No problem. Ice? Sure thing. Chicken? Yes.

Someone wants to give us Elk, Deer, or Lamb? I'll take it. (Soon is the time that people have to start giving away what remains of last year's kill so that they have room for this year's potential kill...)

Kate's Birthday presents

I got Kate a Soduko book and a math test book. (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division) More on Soduko in a later post.

I over reacted a little later when I saw Emma sitting on the floor with this horse and a pair of scissors. It looked like the horse was about to get a haircut, but she was trying to get the stupid packaging remnants off...

Tom's Birthday presents

Tom was here tonight, and got birthday presents. The shirt was from the girls. The handcuffs were from Drew. (And he was able to get out of them by himself. I tried to stress the importance of not trying to handcuff himself behind his back when something like the gas was on...) The iPod Nano was from me and Tara. I figured this way: We call him quite often to come and watch our girls, he comes over, and at best the only thing he gets out of it is time watching the Superman, the Animated Series and Justice League DVDs we have. Not such a good deal for him, maybe this can help offset things a little.

Of course we had cake, but it wasn't up to some of the decorating standards we have had in the past...

Thoughts on traffic

The start of the Fall semester also bring to the front thoughts of traffic. This happens when you are walking down the street, when you are driving, things like that. (I'm sure the same thing happens if you bike down the street, but I have been avoiding our bikes for a couple of years.)

I saw this bumper sticker today, I think it's pretty funny.

I was driving to the doctor's office today, and going merrily down the road, when the person in front of me mysteriously slowed down by 10 MPH. We had been going the speed limit before the sudden braking. I looked around, and the decrease in speed was because there was a patrol car sitting on the side of the road "doing traffic duty".

Now this kind of ticks me off. When I'm driving down the freeway, these people make me laugh. (As long as they aren't directly in front of me, then they tick me off.) I figure that I know full well what speed I am going, if it happens to be higher than the posted limit, that's the risk I am taking. If I get hit by radar, and pulled over, then I get pulled over. By the time I see the trooper, he's likely already tagged my speed, and he's ready to pull me over or let me by. There's no need to slow down. Do people think that by braking, they will get a reprive?

Anyway, I really don't understand why people slow down when they were already driving the posted speed limit. Do they have an open container of alcohol sitting in the car, and don't want to get tagged? Do they have a child without a proper safety harness? It kind of ticks me off. (Not always in bold, but it was today.)

Drew tells me that just the other day, he issued 22 citations on the street just over our back fence. Not bad for an afternoons work. He gets a little worried that it might be someone in our ward, but this time of year, I can almost guarentee it was all students, they all lived in one of the 3 sets of condos East of us, and they all deserved it. Sometimes if the traffic is bad on that corner, they will turn on our street and zoom down the road. (35, 40, 45?) Once in a while they are going fast enough that I really want to throw whatever I have in my hands at them to get their attention...

Mystery photo

I found this picture on my computer tonight. It appears to be one that was scanned in. I recognize the guy on the left, except his sideburns are a little thicker now, and he's currently clean shaven.

I have no idea who the girl he is with is. Some random girl, or more? These things are currently unexplained...

Sitting in the same folder is a picture that seems to be cropped from the first. What's really going on here? Why are these people wearing winter clothing?

Lost students

Yesterday morning, walking into the Data Center, I passed a building we call the JKHB (Some of you may know of it.) They are in the process of gutting the building and actually redoing it so you can:

a) get through the building
b) not die in an earthquake
c) make it look like it was updated at some point in the past 50 years

The building has a East end and a North end. The North end got worked on first, and was looking pretty good. The East end is just a shell, they tore everything out.

It turns out that they have classes down in the North end this semester. Yesterday morning, there were a couple of students sitting out on the steps to the East end, with the look on their face like "My schedule said the class was supposed to be in this building! What do I do now?"

Unfortunately, I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I was over near the Data Center, I wonder if they figured it out or ended up dropping that class. (What were they thinking having a 7am class anyway?)

Kate's Stickers

--News Flash--

Emma really liked Kate's new stickers. Now she has to go buy her new ones...

Mary was excited about the ribbon that came on the present...

Kate's Birthday

Kate's birthday is emminently upon us. (So is Tom's, but he doesn't live with us.)

As you can see, Kate is excited about the books.
As you can also see, she was also excited about the stickers and card.

Where have the posts been?

I'll beat you to it. Is this thing on?

It's been an interesting few days here. On Sunday we went up to a priesthood ordination for one of Tara's Nephews. (He's a teacher now.) His Dad was telling his Bishopric how he wondered if Devon, the older (but still a teacher) brother could participate in the ordination, but he looked it up, and decided that wasn't allowed. I was nodding my head in agreement. (It's not often that Robert and I are in complete agreement, not that we argue, we mostly just don't orbit the same circles more than anything else.) One of the Bishopric, I'm not sure if it was the Bishop or not, said that no, Deacons could ordain Deacons, Teachers could ordain Teachers, and so forth. I shook my head no, but I didn't want to get involved, it wasn't my Bishop (who knows better), or an ordination in our Stake, so I stayed out of it. I'm not sure why they didn't just open the handbook up, when there was a difference of opinion. (New or Old, I'm sure it's the same. (The new ones are on their way!))

So, long story short, his brother stood in on the ordination. We went back to our Ward after the ordination, (I figured the girls really would rather attend their own primary, and we missed the Sacrament at the first place...) and during Sunday School, among other things, I looked it up in the handbook. The handbook says only priests and Melchizedek Priesthood holders may stand in the circle. (My reading comprehension and retention seem to still be in place, we were right...) Anyway, that's your "Written Order of Things" hint of the week.

Sunday afternoon, I was very tired. It was a struggle for Tara to keep me awake. We went to bed at something like 6 or 7 in the evening, I slept all night long. (Or so I assume) Monday morning, I woke up light headed, a little dizzy, and just generally not feeling well. I basically didn't get out of bed all day. Luckily, I had Zoo Tycoon 2 to keep me company. I would play a little, fall asleep, wake up, and find I had all kind of money to get new animals.

I don't mind occasionally taking a sick day once in a while, but it would be nice to be able to do it on a day that's not already a paid holiday. Maybe I'll have to come down with something in a couple of days to make up for the lost holiday. Maybe it was West Nile Virus, and I just got over it quick.

This morning, I couldn't afford to be sick. It was the first day of school, which normally means there's something that breaks which I need to fix. This year was no different. During the 9am hour, we discovered that load was up 20-30% from last year. During the 10am hour, I decided we would be in trouble by 11am. Normally Tuesdays at 11am on campus is Campus Devotional, so there are no classes scheduled. There was no devotional today, so I figured everyone would want to log into the portal for class schedules, email, or whatever. Or load increase had not gone down any. I didn't have any spare servers to use as web server, so I robbed Peter to pay Paul. (Or in this case, I robbed Peoplesoft to pay the Web Portal) Even this machine didn't help all that much (but it kept things from going completely down, so the time to reinstall the server was worth it), we ended up having the biggest load we have ever had. It's funny, we try to plan for our capacity, and every once in a while, they suprise us. Students.

We kept things up, by 3pm, everything was calm for the day, so we disbanded. Not perfect, but the system didn't go completely down, so I'll claim victory. (Or at least partial victory.) It was a good thing I showed up for work, and it was a good thing I wasn't sick anymore. (And the lunch they fed us was very good. TGI Friday's takeout Fajitas with chips and salsa. They were very good.)

That, my friends, is your 3 day travel log.

College Football is upon us

So the first week of the college football season is an interesting one. There are fans whose hope for their team is sustained. (Only to be crushed in week 2.) There are fans, who had high hopes for their team, and now dispair. (Even if their team is about to go 10-1, they still have doom and gloom for a week...) Then there are the fans, who watch their team, normally in the national rankings, put up 50 points against some division III school, and they think it's great. (Nothing against this, I know it gives some of those little schools the money they need to keep their scholarships going...) Anyway, it's just an interesting time. People attach comments to their team, good or bad, deserved or not. (I say come back in a couple of weeks...)

Anyway, I just watched a late game. (I stayed up all night for that?) I have very few things to say about it. (If Rob were on the phone, I am sure he would have many things to say, but it's even later there than it is here, and he's a Branch President, so I imagine he's sound asleep...) Anyway, I don't think the outcome reflects on the rest of the season. At least I hope I don't have to watch any more games like that one this year. I have a flag, it goes up before the game, if they win, it stays up until their next game. If they lose, it comes down until the next Saturday. Needless to say, the last few years, it hasn't seen a lot of sun.

Anyway, armchair quarterbacks of the world, unite! Get out there, and let me know why beating Bo Diddly Tech means you are the best team around. Let me know how what your team did this week means for the rest of the season. Comments are welcome. (Except for Utah. They deserve what they got...)

When Dilbert imitates life

There are times that Dilbert imitiates life. Then there are others where it really imitates life. When I got to work yesterday, they were waiting for me. Everyone wanted to know if I had read that day's Dilbert, which I hadn't. They seemed for some reason to think that it reminded them of me, I'm not sure why.

Then yesterday, I went to the food tasting lab, they were doing something with KFC mashed potatoes and gravy. I went, got paid for eating KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, and kept thinking about it all day long. What can I say.

Today I brought a lunch. It came in a big giant crockpot. (We had too much zucchini and tomatoes, it got thrown in with a bunch of stuff and rice, it was pretty good.) To top it off, I had more KFC mashed potatoes and gravy. ($12 in 2 days to eat food. How do I get in on this for a living?)

Tonight we went to a Stake thing for dinner. I got a plate of food and a plate of dessert.

That lunch was good...

A good night's rest

I got a good night's sleep last night. This is rare lately, for one reason or another. I went to sleep at about 11pm, and the next thing I knew, it was 8am. Just thought I'd share.