This week's recipients, in no particular order: (Mostly so we don't forget and deliver again later in the month...)
- Christensen
- Pyles
- Johnson
- Rencher
- Pickett
- Egbert
- Pope
- Fromm
- Harper
- Morales
- Hunt
- Kovacs
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Christmas Cookie recipients - week 1
I decided that since I can't have any Christmas sweets, everyone else should. On Sunday evening, I made a pile of cookies and stuff. (Cream puffs, several cookies, brownie cupcakes, that sort of thing. I didn't take any pictures, so you just have to take my word for it, sorry. Tara was the taste tester, I don't know how any of it tasted...) I had enough stuff for 12 plates, everyone got to pick 2 families to deliver to. Monday night, the girls drew pictures on Christmas cards, and we went out delivering.
This week's recipients, in no particular order: (Mostly so we don't forget and deliver again later in the month...)
This week's recipients, in no particular order: (Mostly so we don't forget and deliver again later in the month...)
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Road worthy
(Sorry for the half picture. It was cold out there...)- I had to buy a 2 week temp permit to drive it around. I guess they figure if the vehicle can't be made to pass inspection within 2 weeks, it's not worth being registered. It worked out ok, if I had all the ducks in a row 2 weeks ago, I would have missed out on the new license plates.
- The tinting needed to be removed. By the time I figured out how to do it properly, I had it half off. The second half took 10% of the time the first half took.
- I took the thing in for the inspection, they added 3 more things for me to do.
- Replace the windshield wipers. This was a piece of cake.
- Install mudflaps. I wanted to find some really cool set of mudflaps, but couldn't. By the time I started looking around, it was too late to order something off the internet. I settled for a very subdued picture of some mountains, etched into the mudflap. There were already holes in the wheel well where mudflaps used to be, I thought this would make it easier for me to install them, but it's hard to put in mudflaps when a big giant tire is in the way. My cordless drill couldn't get in the right angle to screw them in. None of my screwdrivers were the right size. I couldn't find my little angled screwdriver thing until just now, it's sitting here next to the keyboard. (10 hours too late...) I took a socket wrench and a phillips screwdriver bit, and made my own angled screwdriver.
- Replace the muffler. I don't know when the tailpipe came loose from the muffler, I suspect it was when Missy took it in for an inspection in July. It really explains why the truck was always so loud when I drive it. It turns out the muffler was a custom job, with 2 tailpipes coming out the back. The guys that did the inspection wanted me to do the muffler with them, but they kept trying to talk about a 'high performance' muffler (I assume this is a muffler that gets to your destination before you do.), but it sounded like they were headed for their high pressure sales environment, so I asked them to back the thing out of their bay. (They also charged $50 an hour labor, I didn't know if this was a good rate, so I wanted to talk to some other places. On Monday, I tried to go to Midas in the morning. I asked the guy inside the place if I could get a ballpark estimate on a new muffler. He told me I needed to have an appointment for that. (They get your car up on their lift, and try to pressure you into doing it with them, I'm sure.) He asked if I wanted to schedule and appointment for later in the day, I told him no. Eventually I ended up at a new Meineke. I went in to ask for the ballpark estimate, the guy came out, looked under the car, then spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out exactly what parts were needed for the replacement. He looked all through his muffler book, he called a couple of people on the phone, that sort of thing. He finally figured that the best thing to do it bring the muffler out from the converter, and bring out a single tailpipe. (The original configuration for the truck) The parts had to be ordered, he thought they could be ready to go Wednesday afternoon, I could call him as late at Tuesday evening to say yes. Meineke has a flat rate labor charge for mufflers ($65), which was a big plus. After talking with Adam, I called them back, and took the truck in Wednesday afternoon. I went back at 5, they weren't done. They had trouble connecting the thing, and were something like 6 inches short on the pipe they had. The auto parts delivery guy came at 5:15, after he drove off, they realized that it was the wrong pipe, and it was too late at night to get the right one. They had the tailpipe and stuff pulled off, but I drove the truck home anyway. On Thursday, Missy and Steve drove it up to his family's house. I'm sure their eardrums were rattling both ways. (It's something like a 2 1/2 or 3 hour drive.) On Friday I took the truck back, it took them 3 hours to get the thing finished. (The right sized part didn't work either. They had to bend a pipe on their own to make it fit.) I'm glad for the flat rate labor charge, it ended up being $10 an hour...
- After I took the truck back over to the other place to get the inspection certificate, (they wouldn't let someone come out and just spend a minute looking at the 3 things, they made me come back in an hour and a half. I think they are still bitter I didn't pay them to do the muffler.) then went down to the motor vehicle office to get the plates. The guy entering it in said the VIN on the computer didn't match the VIN on the inspection. (The computer had an X, the cert had a Z) We went outside to verify the VIN. He looked at the door and the dash, they both had a Z, not an X. I was suddenly wondering if I didn't know my Z's from X's when I was filling out the paperwork. The guy had to go to the back to look at the original paperwork. They hadn't just processed the title, which was good, because I would have had to wait for the title in the mail so they could fix it. It turns out that the girl who was entering things in 2 weeks ago when I was getting the temp tag put in an X instead of a Z. That's forgivable, they are right next to each other on the keyboard. Anyway, he fixed things on his computer, and I got the plates. (A brand spanking new design, by the way.) The plates are on, the truck is good to go, finally. ($350 and 2 weeks later, including about 15 hours of time I spent on it.)
(Not the real plate number)
Pie Day
If it were up to me, turkey day would be replaced by pie day. Tom requested his old standby, banana cream. When Tara and I were at the store, the apples called to me. They also had berries on sale, and I decided to go for the "pie day trifecta". It helped that Thanksgiving was the last day before no more sugar or fruit...
Apple Pie
Berry Pie
Banana Cream Pie (Chocolate garnish provided by Tom)
Apple Pie
Berry Pie
Banana Cream Pie (Chocolate garnish provided by Tom)
Turkey
We "bought" a turkey breast for Thanksgiving dinner. (Tara and the girls really prefer the white meat, and Adam wasn't here, so we had no use for a gigantic turkey leg...) We actually used turkey vouchers, the turkey was free. (Spend $25 - get a 50 cent voucher. Spend $50 - get a dollar voucher) We got a number of them ourselves, but Tara got some from her sister and Mom, the turkey was free.
I cooked the turkey in our pot, I didn't want to go looking for the big giant roasting pan for the little turkey. We have been watching a lot of the Food Network in the past week, a couple of people advocated cooking the turkey upside down for the first hour or so, then turning it over. This is supposed to make more of the juices stay in the turkey. When I got the thing cooked, it was very tender and very juicy. It was quite nice.
I cooked the turkey in our pot, I didn't want to go looking for the big giant roasting pan for the little turkey. We have been watching a lot of the Food Network in the past week, a couple of people advocated cooking the turkey upside down for the first hour or so, then turning it over. This is supposed to make more of the juices stay in the turkey. When I got the thing cooked, it was very tender and very juicy. It was quite nice.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Game Time
Age of Empires - The War chiefs
Drew, Dad, Dave, and I played a free for all game tonight.
Drew ended up (I think) having a bit of a problem where I was attacking him from the Southwest, and Dave was attacking him from the East. I eventually got tired of trying to knock down the corner of his city wall, and losing mass quantities of guys in the process. I eventually backed off a little and went looking for Dad, who ended up being Southeast of me. I sent lots of dudes in to siege Dad's town, but it's never that easy when you are playing against Dad. He generally has villagers all over the map doing stuff, if he starts to lose his town, he just finds a nice quiet spot to rebuild. It can be very maddening. Dave plays with horses. There is no other way to explain his play style. When you play with Dave, be prepared to see hundreds and hundreds of horses guys coming and attacking you. (It might have even been thousands, who knows.)
Dave knocked Drew out, I'm not sure that Drew was all that happy about it. Towards the end, I thought I was a goner. Dave kept sending horses at me, and breached a wall. In the meantime, I was sending a ton of guys at Dave's town, and busted in. By this point, he didn't have any dudes to defend against. (He was working on knocking at my door.) Once I got in and started in on his town, Dave decided it was bedtime.
Long story short, we played 1 game, it lasted 3 1/2 hours. Next Thursday I will be at a play, the Thursday after is our department Christmas party...
Drew, Dad, Dave, and I played a free for all game tonight.
Drew ended up (I think) having a bit of a problem where I was attacking him from the Southwest, and Dave was attacking him from the East. I eventually got tired of trying to knock down the corner of his city wall, and losing mass quantities of guys in the process. I eventually backed off a little and went looking for Dad, who ended up being Southeast of me. I sent lots of dudes in to siege Dad's town, but it's never that easy when you are playing against Dad. He generally has villagers all over the map doing stuff, if he starts to lose his town, he just finds a nice quiet spot to rebuild. It can be very maddening. Dave plays with horses. There is no other way to explain his play style. When you play with Dave, be prepared to see hundreds and hundreds of horses guys coming and attacking you. (It might have even been thousands, who knows.)
Dave knocked Drew out, I'm not sure that Drew was all that happy about it. Towards the end, I thought I was a goner. Dave kept sending horses at me, and breached a wall. In the meantime, I was sending a ton of guys at Dave's town, and busted in. By this point, he didn't have any dudes to defend against. (He was working on knocking at my door.) Once I got in and started in on his town, Dave decided it was bedtime.
Long story short, we played 1 game, it lasted 3 1/2 hours. Next Thursday I will be at a play, the Thursday after is our department Christmas party...
Doctor's Visit
I went to a new doctor yesterday. My doctor is really too busy to actually see patients, unless they have 4 to 6 weeks to wait for an appointment.
I've previously talked about problems I'm having. After the Vitamin D regimen, things didn't get better. This doctor came highly recommended from someone at work, but he also sounds like he had "witch doctor" tendencies sometimes.
Anyway, he interviewed me, and got some of my medical history. I thought he would run out of room on his paper. We talked about me not having a gall bladder, he said "You're kind of young to already have your gall bladder out." I just shrugged. We talked about my sleep apnea, he said "You're kind of young to have sleep apnea." I just shrugged.
He looked me over, and poked at me for a while. He told me I seem to be in general good health, except for being tired, and in pain, and having a tender colon, and having an irritated nose and throat. (My throat wasn't sore.) Anyway, he told me I have sensitivity in 14 or 15 of the 18 fybromyalgia test points. He said that usually means a diagnosis of that or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but he didn't want to pigeon hole me into that right off the bat. He took some blood to do some blood work, and is testing for Lyme disease. He thinks I have a yeast overgrowth problem in my gut. (A white coated tongue is a symptom?)
The blood work for Lyme Disease takes 10 days to process, I am going back in 2 weeks. (He would have had me back Monday or Tuesday otherwise. Getting back in in just a few days? What a concept.) He wants me to start on a yeast medicine, and start a new diet tomorrow. (It would have been right away, but today is Thanksgiving, and he didn't want to ruin it for me.)
My new diet is a yeast control diet. Starting tomorrow, for a month, the following are off limits:
In the meantime, I'm planning to eat as much of the apple pie and blackberry/raspberry pie that I made today...
I've previously talked about problems I'm having. After the Vitamin D regimen, things didn't get better. This doctor came highly recommended from someone at work, but he also sounds like he had "witch doctor" tendencies sometimes.
Anyway, he interviewed me, and got some of my medical history. I thought he would run out of room on his paper. We talked about me not having a gall bladder, he said "You're kind of young to already have your gall bladder out." I just shrugged. We talked about my sleep apnea, he said "You're kind of young to have sleep apnea." I just shrugged.
He looked me over, and poked at me for a while. He told me I seem to be in general good health, except for being tired, and in pain, and having a tender colon, and having an irritated nose and throat. (My throat wasn't sore.) Anyway, he told me I have sensitivity in 14 or 15 of the 18 fybromyalgia test points. He said that usually means a diagnosis of that or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but he didn't want to pigeon hole me into that right off the bat. He took some blood to do some blood work, and is testing for Lyme disease. He thinks I have a yeast overgrowth problem in my gut. (A white coated tongue is a symptom?)
The blood work for Lyme Disease takes 10 days to process, I am going back in 2 weeks. (He would have had me back Monday or Tuesday otherwise. Getting back in in just a few days? What a concept.) He wants me to start on a yeast medicine, and start a new diet tomorrow. (It would have been right away, but today is Thanksgiving, and he didn't want to ruin it for me.)
My new diet is a yeast control diet. Starting tomorrow, for a month, the following are off limits:
- All sugars and sugar containing foods
- White flour and refined grains
- yeast breads and pastries (no doughnuts for a month)
- All cheese, except cottage cheese and cream cheese
- All fruit juices and fruits, fresh and dried
- All coffee, tea, and alcohol. (I've got that one nailed down at least...)
- Leftovers that are too old
- Mushrooms
- peanuts and peanut products
- processed meats
- All artificial sweeteners
- Vinegar
- All meats, fish, poultry, and eggs
- All vegetables, including potatoes and tomatoes.
- All whole grains
- Corn tortillas
- Butter and oils
- Milk and plain yogurt
In the meantime, I'm planning to eat as much of the apple pie and blackberry/raspberry pie that I made today...
New TV
We picked up a new TV last night. Our old TV is 8 years old, and has been having some picture issues lately. (It will die completely sometime soon, we think.)
I have been watching the price of a Tube TV on Best Buy's website for about 2 months now. (Waiting for a deal.) I went over to the store on Tuesday night, it turns out that the TV I was watching for didn't have a very dark black. (It was more a charcoal grey.) The TV we had was a dark black screen , as far as tube TVs went 8 years ago. We thought we were getting a pretty good picture out of it, the darker black made the images look better. All the other Tube TVs we looked at were in the $400-$550 range. (We didn't want to go smaller than our current 27 inches on the screen size.)
Best Buy had a Sharp Aquos 32 inch LCD HDTV on sale for $650 for that past couple of days. We ended up buying this one instead. (I thought I would buy a tube TV, we weren't ready to buy an HDTV at this point, we thought an SDTV was good enough. Especially for the price of an HDTV.) 32 inches from 27 inches isn't that big of a jump, but it's noticeable, at least.
The sound quality on this new TV is really deep and rich. I thought our old TV had ok sound, but this one is better. The picture quality is really nice. We didn't know what we were missing out on with our old TV. The screen is even darker than our old one. (I'd say jet black, but then I'll be talking in 4 years from now how much more dark the screen for some other TV is...) Last night I put in "Superman Returns" to watch the opening credits on the new TV. It looks great. I also watched Duck Dodgers. We don't have too many HD channels on our subscription, but the picture quality on many of the channels just looks better now. The TV also has a VGA input to plug a laptop into. (The model higher has a DVI input) At some point I will have to play Age of Empires on the big screen. In a very short period of time, I have become an HDTV convert.
I also have a number of movies I would like to rewatch (Like Superman Returns) now that we have this TV.
Real food
We recently gave up trying to give Lily something different than what we eat for dinner. She just eats whatever we are having, and usually enjoys it. Here is a picture of her digging into a McDonald's Quarter pounder with cheese. She enjoyed it.
Birthday party
We had a little thing for Mary sometime near her birthday. It was "attack of the littlest pet shop" night. She got about 20 of them, which she really enjoyed.
I put 4 candles on her cake and then she blew them out. Then someone said "Is Mary only 4?" I went and got 2 more candles and had her blow them out again. She seemed ok with it.
Systems support
I was at the doctor yesterday morning when one of the network interfaces on one of our main database servers stopped responding. The guys in the office didn't call because I was at the doctor being poked at, they tried to figure out the problem themselves. After a while, they sent someone into the data center to look at the thing. The ethernet cord was disconnected from the server.
The story we heard was that the thing was just fallen out, the head wouldn't lock itself in when you inserted it. The NOC staff couldn't say for sure if someone was in there during the time it went down. (still not sure why they don't know, but they aren't really saying...) We figure it was either someone in there doing something in the rack (it's the only server in that rack, so I had hoped that wasn't the case.), some sort of earthquake, or someone really big walking or running by. (Which shouldn't happen. They built that datacenter to stay completely in one piece in an earthquake. The racks are secured to the lower floor 8 feet below. They have tons of rebar in that thing. Someday we will have an earthquake, and this giant cement bunker will rise out of the ground. (It is sitting on top of sand...)
Anyway, people were nervous about the plug coming out again, so I offered to glue it in with gorilla glue. This wasn't universally accepted. I decided to hot glue the thing into the NIC. A couple of people I told (like the network guys) didn't think I was serious at first.
I talked the Operations Manager into running home to get her glue gun, when she got in, I headed to the Data Center to do the deed. When I got there, I the ethernet cable in the server looked like it was completely secured. I gave it a tug, it was locked in. It finally came out then that it was the head on the switch side that had the problem. The network engineers didn't really want me applying hot glue to their switch. (Tara wants to buy me the shirt that says "I void warranties") They pulled a new line with new heads, and configured a new port for the server. If the outage reoccurs, the NOC staff will be calling me in a panic.
I imagine when I explain on Monday that the problem isn't resolved, some people will get nervous and decide we need to take everything on campus down to fix the problem...
The story we heard was that the thing was just fallen out, the head wouldn't lock itself in when you inserted it. The NOC staff couldn't say for sure if someone was in there during the time it went down. (still not sure why they don't know, but they aren't really saying...) We figure it was either someone in there doing something in the rack (it's the only server in that rack, so I had hoped that wasn't the case.), some sort of earthquake, or someone really big walking or running by. (Which shouldn't happen. They built that datacenter to stay completely in one piece in an earthquake. The racks are secured to the lower floor 8 feet below. They have tons of rebar in that thing. Someday we will have an earthquake, and this giant cement bunker will rise out of the ground. (It is sitting on top of sand...)
Anyway, people were nervous about the plug coming out again, so I offered to glue it in with gorilla glue. This wasn't universally accepted. I decided to hot glue the thing into the NIC. A couple of people I told (like the network guys) didn't think I was serious at first.
I talked the Operations Manager into running home to get her glue gun, when she got in, I headed to the Data Center to do the deed. When I got there, I the ethernet cable in the server looked like it was completely secured. I gave it a tug, it was locked in. It finally came out then that it was the head on the switch side that had the problem. The network engineers didn't really want me applying hot glue to their switch. (Tara wants to buy me the shirt that says "I void warranties") They pulled a new line with new heads, and configured a new port for the server. If the outage reoccurs, the NOC staff will be calling me in a panic.
I imagine when I explain on Monday that the problem isn't resolved, some people will get nervous and decide we need to take everything on campus down to fix the problem...
Exchanging tickets
Last Thursday, we were supposed to be going to a play. Tara decided that she had something else to do that night, so we went to exchange them. I had bought her 4 sets of tickets for this year, someone we know had the other 2 tickets, they had already turned them in to exchange them for a different night.
When I got there, I explained that I wanted to exchange the tickets, and that the other 2 tickets on my account had already been turned in for exchange, and we would like to go with them if we could. The girl found the new tickets in the will call pile, they were for next Thursday.
I called Kirk to make sure that day was good for them, then told the girl we wanted to get the seats right next to the other 2 next week. She went into the computer, and even though the 2 tickets were printed, they were not in the computer. This confused her, she started trying to talk to everyone in the sales office about it, most of them were all busy with other things. The girl eventually got her manager to come over, it took them 10 more minutes to figure out what happened and how to fix it. Once they knew how to fix it, it took another 5 minutes to get it fixed.
Eventually, after a half hour or so, they were done. There was supposed to be a $2.50 per ticket charge for the exchange, but the manager waived it because it took so long. I started walking back to the car, and called Kirk to let him know I had their tickets. Then he said "Oh, the 29th? That's the SAS department Christmas party. We can't go that night. I should have looked at the calender when you called the first time."
So, right now, we are still planning to go next Thursday night. Kirk wants to take the tickets back and exchange all 4 again. At this point, I don't want to go near the place...
When I got there, I explained that I wanted to exchange the tickets, and that the other 2 tickets on my account had already been turned in for exchange, and we would like to go with them if we could. The girl found the new tickets in the will call pile, they were for next Thursday.
I called Kirk to make sure that day was good for them, then told the girl we wanted to get the seats right next to the other 2 next week. She went into the computer, and even though the 2 tickets were printed, they were not in the computer. This confused her, she started trying to talk to everyone in the sales office about it, most of them were all busy with other things. The girl eventually got her manager to come over, it took them 10 more minutes to figure out what happened and how to fix it. Once they knew how to fix it, it took another 5 minutes to get it fixed.
Eventually, after a half hour or so, they were done. There was supposed to be a $2.50 per ticket charge for the exchange, but the manager waived it because it took so long. I started walking back to the car, and called Kirk to let him know I had their tickets. Then he said "Oh, the 29th? That's the SAS department Christmas party. We can't go that night. I should have looked at the calender when you called the first time."
So, right now, we are still planning to go next Thursday night. Kirk wants to take the tickets back and exchange all 4 again. At this point, I don't want to go near the place...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
School (Kindergarden) project
Mary is doing a report on Dolphins. She needed pictures to go along with it. We figure looking things up on images.google.com is too easy. We found some in National geographic. Mary drew some pictures. We had a hard time find some pictures of the enemy of the dolphin.
I got a couple of quick pictures out of Zoo Tycoon 2. (Fun and educational...)
We had a good shark picture from Las Vegas this year. (This was a land shark. We didn't open when it knocked, we got this picture later, walking around the strip.)
Mary wanted a picture of the dolphins "greatest enemy", man. I think these 3 are up to something...2008 Christmas list
Here's my Christmas list for this year:
- 1993 Chevy 1500 Silverado
- http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/coder/9e4a/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/frustrations/59fe/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/7184/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/65a0/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/60fd/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/5eb7/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/9718/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/generic/9722/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/frustrations/38e2/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/coder/60f5/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/science/5b6f/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/tshirts/science/9899/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/geektoys/games/9766/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/apparel/hats-ties/9b49/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/geektoys/cubegoodies/94d7/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/geektoys/games/91b8/ - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/geektoys/rc/91ab/?cpg=wnrss - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/computing/bags/918a/?cpg=wnrss - http://www.thinkgeek.com
/gadgets/cellphone/8928/?cpg =wnrss
Friday, November 16, 2007
Game Time
I was supposed to be at a play with Tara last night, but she remembered that she had a book club last night, so we switched the tickets. (That's another story) Dave wanted to play the Asian Dynasties expansion, but Drew and I don't have that one, so we played Warchiefs.
For the first game, Dave had to run to work, someone had dropped a printer. Dad, Drew and I played against 2 expert computers. It took us a little while, but we eventually won.
For the second game, Dad, Dave, and I played against 5 Hard computers. This didn't work so well. The computers kept us contained, then beat us on a trade route victory. We'll have to try to get back at those guys another time...
For the first game, Dave had to run to work, someone had dropped a printer. Dad, Drew and I played against 2 expert computers. It took us a little while, but we eventually won.
For the second game, Dad, Dave, and I played against 5 Hard computers. This didn't work so well. The computers kept us contained, then beat us on a trade route victory. We'll have to try to get back at those guys another time...
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
T-Shirt
Thinkgeek.com has a new tshirt. I must have it. If you don't get what it's saying, I can explain it for you, I just choose not to...
Game time
Phase 10 dice
Tara - 1
Me - 1
We were playing so that Tara would stay awake for the rest of Transformers. It worked, and you might say that it would be unfair for me to post my win if she was half asleep, but she won the first game, and was fully awake for the second game that I won...
Tara - 1
Me - 1
We were playing so that Tara would stay awake for the rest of Transformers. It worked, and you might say that it would be unfair for me to post my win if she was half asleep, but she won the first game, and was fully awake for the second game that I won...
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Baby Doll bunkbed
A while back, someone at work gave me this doll bunk bed. It needed a new paint job, and I hadn't done that until now.
The girls have always seen it, and wanted it, anytime they asked about it, they weren't willing to do what it took to get it. (Like clean their room.)
Mary asked Tara about it again the other day. I ended up painting it for her and giving it to her for her birthday. Ruth is very impressed.
If you had told me 10 years ago how much bright pink paint I would have used up to this point in my life, I would have laughed at you...
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Restaurant Review
El Azteca Taco Shop
Drew gave us tickets to the football game, Missy babysat for us, and came early, so we peeled out of the house, leaving plenty early enough to be able to go out to eat before the game. We thought about going to Panda Express, but 30 or 40 other people had the same idea. We went to Hogi Yogi, but it looked like there were only 2 employees working, they were ignoring the people in the store, and running around trying to get the drive through taken care of. My patience was low, we left.
We ended up going to El Azteca. I had never been there in all the time I have been out here. My office has been half a block away for 4 years now. The draw of Del Taco is just too much when you get close to El Azteca. (Mostly because I like to confuse them by saying I want a "Macho Macho Combo Burrito Combo." They can never seem to wrap their minds around it, even though it's a valid menu order. I used to like to go to Burger King, and order the Whopper with no mustard. The BK near my office would always have someone that would get really irritated and say "Sir, the Whopper doesn't come with mustard." My response was always "So what's the problem here?" Back in the days when the Whopper was a dollar, we would have great fun with it, Sorrel thought it was the funniest thing in the world. This has nothing to do with El Azteca. Tara says this is a parenthetical statement, so it's proper to have it in parenthesis.)
We both had the carne asada burrito plate. It came with a drink and chips. We really went in because Tara likes taco shops (like Betos) who had jalapeno soaked carrots. El Azteca fit the bill here also.
The place had some dude fairly worked up about the Dr. Pepper being out, but didn't seem to want to do anything about it but complain to himself about it. I asked them to change it out, which they did, I made sure to fill my cup before the other guy did.
We liked our burritos, but Tara had to make 2 meals out of it. I just made one meal out of it, and suffered the consequences later.
It seemed to be good food, they had it made very fast, and were fairly responsive. Not a bad place, I guess.
Drew gave us tickets to the football game, Missy babysat for us, and came early, so we peeled out of the house, leaving plenty early enough to be able to go out to eat before the game. We thought about going to Panda Express, but 30 or 40 other people had the same idea. We went to Hogi Yogi, but it looked like there were only 2 employees working, they were ignoring the people in the store, and running around trying to get the drive through taken care of. My patience was low, we left.
We ended up going to El Azteca. I had never been there in all the time I have been out here. My office has been half a block away for 4 years now. The draw of Del Taco is just too much when you get close to El Azteca. (Mostly because I like to confuse them by saying I want a "Macho Macho Combo Burrito Combo." They can never seem to wrap their minds around it, even though it's a valid menu order. I used to like to go to Burger King, and order the Whopper with no mustard. The BK near my office would always have someone that would get really irritated and say "Sir, the Whopper doesn't come with mustard." My response was always "So what's the problem here?" Back in the days when the Whopper was a dollar, we would have great fun with it, Sorrel thought it was the funniest thing in the world. This has nothing to do with El Azteca. Tara says this is a parenthetical statement, so it's proper to have it in parenthesis.)
We both had the carne asada burrito plate. It came with a drink and chips. We really went in because Tara likes taco shops (like Betos) who had jalapeno soaked carrots. El Azteca fit the bill here also.
The place had some dude fairly worked up about the Dr. Pepper being out, but didn't seem to want to do anything about it but complain to himself about it. I asked them to change it out, which they did, I made sure to fill my cup before the other guy did.
We liked our burritos, but Tara had to make 2 meals out of it. I just made one meal out of it, and suffered the consequences later.
It seemed to be good food, they had it made very fast, and were fairly responsive. Not a bad place, I guess.
Travel log
Where have I been the past couple of days?
On Sunday, I went down to the "2nd North" building for a ward conference. When I walked in, the Stake President told me about how we forgot to have the wards announce Stake Priesthood meeting (coming up this week). I went up to the Stake Center to let that ward know, and raced to the "Locust lane" building to try to get the word to the 3rd 9am ward. I only made it because that ward forgot about bringing sacrament bread, and the Bishop was in the hall waiting for it to get there. (It's the Spanish ward, they only have a couple of youth.)
After I got the word out, one of the other wards in the Locust building needed help with their temple recommend book. We have been converting to the new bar code recommends. They had about 20 of them that had been distributed but not activated. I took their book and went to the Stake center with it so I could fix things. By the time that was done, and I took it back up to them, it was time for the ward conference sacrament meeting to end. I went down there, the Stake President was still speaking. I think it was his longest talk for any of the ward conferences. (He does a different talk for each ward) I got the stuff I needed to do done, and went back up to the Stake center to talk to a different Bishopric.
I went home, and had enough time to pile everyone in tot he car to get back to the Stake Center to be there
for a couple of interviews. We had church after that, but I missed Sunday School because the Stake President called to ask a bunch of questions, then we tried to get next week's Priesthood preview worked out.
After dinner, Tara and the girls went up to see her Mom. (It was her Mom's birthday.) I fell asleep right after they left the house.
On Monday, I didn't go into work, but went somewhere else on campus to work on my mission journal. I pretty much got through 2 months of stuff.
We had parent teacher conferences. When we got to Kate's teacher's room, DCFS (Department of Child and Family Services) followed us in, but they were looking for someone else, not us. The only real concern Kate's teacher had was that Kate was tardy to school 16 times in the first marking period. Kate's teacher is a first year teacher, I could tell she wanted to ask us if we could try to get Kate to school on time, but didn't seem sure enough of her position to actually ask.
Tuesday was the Elections, we had 650 people show up to vote at our voting location. Last year we had 450. It was crazy. We had someone there voting nearly the entire time. We also had an old guy working, he's been there the last few elections, I have been giving him different jobs hoping I would find one he could do. His job this time was to write the names of the voters in the poll book. He messed up the book 6 or 7 times, we had to keep going back to try to figure out what he did wrong. I asked that he not be invited back next time....
Wednesday, I got called from work, because "a server was down." It turns out that an operator got into an application on another machine, decided that they couldn't connect to the machine in question, so it must be down. The "down server" was in fact up and functioning perfectly fine, but they had opened a severity 1 issue on it. (The equivalent of shouting "The sky is falling!") People in my building started asking why I was there, (I was on vacation) my answer was "because people are dumb." Also, we got to bed late Tuesday night, and the girls got up very early Wednesday. They were either practicing for the day they would be in a parade, or for the day they would be in a yodeling championship, or something. You'd think with being up so early and having a carefree life, they would have been ready to go to school on time. They were not.
Today, I have yet to do anything. I'm trying to get the doctor's office to answer, they took blood last week to look at my Vitamin D levels again. I hope they call back today, everything hurts right now.
Tonight we are going to a football game.
That is all.
On Sunday, I went down to the "2nd North" building for a ward conference. When I walked in, the Stake President told me about how we forgot to have the wards announce Stake Priesthood meeting (coming up this week). I went up to the Stake Center to let that ward know, and raced to the "Locust lane" building to try to get the word to the 3rd 9am ward. I only made it because that ward forgot about bringing sacrament bread, and the Bishop was in the hall waiting for it to get there. (It's the Spanish ward, they only have a couple of youth.)
After I got the word out, one of the other wards in the Locust building needed help with their temple recommend book. We have been converting to the new bar code recommends. They had about 20 of them that had been distributed but not activated. I took their book and went to the Stake center with it so I could fix things. By the time that was done, and I took it back up to them, it was time for the ward conference sacrament meeting to end. I went down there, the Stake President was still speaking. I think it was his longest talk for any of the ward conferences. (He does a different talk for each ward) I got the stuff I needed to do done, and went back up to the Stake center to talk to a different Bishopric.
I went home, and had enough time to pile everyone in tot he car to get back to the Stake Center to be there
for a couple of interviews. We had church after that, but I missed Sunday School because the Stake President called to ask a bunch of questions, then we tried to get next week's Priesthood preview worked out.
After dinner, Tara and the girls went up to see her Mom. (It was her Mom's birthday.) I fell asleep right after they left the house.
On Monday, I didn't go into work, but went somewhere else on campus to work on my mission journal. I pretty much got through 2 months of stuff.
We had parent teacher conferences. When we got to Kate's teacher's room, DCFS (Department of Child and Family Services) followed us in, but they were looking for someone else, not us. The only real concern Kate's teacher had was that Kate was tardy to school 16 times in the first marking period. Kate's teacher is a first year teacher, I could tell she wanted to ask us if we could try to get Kate to school on time, but didn't seem sure enough of her position to actually ask.
Tuesday was the Elections, we had 650 people show up to vote at our voting location. Last year we had 450. It was crazy. We had someone there voting nearly the entire time. We also had an old guy working, he's been there the last few elections, I have been giving him different jobs hoping I would find one he could do. His job this time was to write the names of the voters in the poll book. He messed up the book 6 or 7 times, we had to keep going back to try to figure out what he did wrong. I asked that he not be invited back next time....
Wednesday, I got called from work, because "a server was down." It turns out that an operator got into an application on another machine, decided that they couldn't connect to the machine in question, so it must be down. The "down server" was in fact up and functioning perfectly fine, but they had opened a severity 1 issue on it. (The equivalent of shouting "The sky is falling!") People in my building started asking why I was there, (I was on vacation) my answer was "because people are dumb." Also, we got to bed late Tuesday night, and the girls got up very early Wednesday. They were either practicing for the day they would be in a parade, or for the day they would be in a yodeling championship, or something. You'd think with being up so early and having a carefree life, they would have been ready to go to school on time. They were not.
Today, I have yet to do anything. I'm trying to get the doctor's office to answer, they took blood last week to look at my Vitamin D levels again. I hope they call back today, everything hurts right now.
Tonight we are going to a football game.
That is all.
Air Guitar
Emma picked up an "air guitar" move recently. She uses it any time she hears any kind of guitar in music. Sometimes she seems to not be able to resist it, for some reason. What do you do for a girl that can't stop the air guitar? You play "Freebird", of course. It's just too bad our digital camera can't give you the music at the same time. Mary is playing the drums, Ruth is their singer.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
More Election fun
Nearly every general election, we have someone who does something stupid, asks something boneheaded, or gets me irritated. (Ok, the last one is easy to do, I'll admit.)
One time for the Presidential election, we had a reporter come and start walking around asking people who they just voted for. He wasn't trying to be discrete, and he should have been out of earshot of those trying to vote. I approached him, and told him to knock it off. He got upset, showed me his press credentials. He then told me he could ask anyone any question he wanted, wherever he wanted. My response, while folding my arms and dropping the eyebrows was "Oh yeah, you think so, huh?" He wanted to get into it with me, but I didn't let him. He left the school angry. (He could have left the school arrested, really.)
Last year, some dude came in wearing a George Bush mask. People really can be stupid sometimes. (I'll let you go follow the link back to last year's craziness.)
The past couple of elections, there has been this one kid who comes in with his wife, and has to talk in his "so loud it's nearly not talking anymore" voice about an issue on the ballot or what he thinks about one candidate or the other. Last time, I was busy on the other end of the room, and didn't get a chance to stop him before he stopped. I was ready for him this time, I fully planned to go after him about it. (Note to everyone: You shouldn't be discussing the issues or candidates within earshot of those trying to vote. That's illegal.) Anyway, he came in, and was in line, and started talking to the people at the table about how he thought it was ironic that they were voting on Prop 1 in a school. (Prop 1 was about vouchers for private schools.) I started heading his way ready to knock him down a notch or two, he saw me coming, and said "Not that I'm endorsing either side or trying to tell anyone how to vote. I'll shut up now." I'm glad I'm not a football quarterback, I must have telegraphed what I was going to do from a mile away. We'll have to see what happens for the Western States Primary in February. I'll still be ready for him.
At one point while we were busy, some chuckle head came in wanting to know how far away he had to be from the polling place so he could safely do some electioneering. One of the poll workers told him 150 feet, he asked how far that was. The poll worker told him way out at the sidewalk. I had no knowledge of this conversation, but the guy didn't like this answer, and he was pointed my direction. I was busy, and when he said he wanted to do some electioneering, I stopped listening. He asked how far away 150 feet from the building was, I said "I don't know, the sidewalk, I guess." He stood there for a minute while I continued to ignore him, then asked "Are you sure?" I simply said "No", gave him a look, and walked away from him. The guy disappeared, which is probably all for the better. What does he expect us to do, go find a tape measure to figure out exactly the spot where he can start harassing voters? I said the sidewalk because it was way out where he wouldn't be able to bother anyone, and wouldn't even be able to talk to the people parking in the parking lot to come in to vote. I figure he looked like the kind of guy that should be holding up those Little Cesears signs, waving them at the street for minimum wage. I'll keep that picture in my head for the next time I see him. (I've seen him on campus before.) At least he didn't go to the newspaper to tell them that a poll manager kicked him out of the voting place, like the guy with the mask did. If that had happened, I would have happily invited the guy back so I could do it properly.
We had some kid walk in about 7pm that wanted to vote, but wasn't in the register. We sent him over to the provisional ballot desk to do one of those. He didn't have proper ID, so we sent him home to get it. He came back with his lifetime worth of bank statements, cell phone bills, tuition statements, etc. (He looked to be about 19.) He only needed 2 forms for proof of residency, he brought 100. We were busy with normal voters, and the assistant poll manager was busy with a number of provisional voters. The kid kept trying to come over to me to ask about stuff.
One time for the Presidential election, we had a reporter come and start walking around asking people who they just voted for. He wasn't trying to be discrete, and he should have been out of earshot of those trying to vote. I approached him, and told him to knock it off. He got upset, showed me his press credentials. He then told me he could ask anyone any question he wanted, wherever he wanted. My response, while folding my arms and dropping the eyebrows was "Oh yeah, you think so, huh?" He wanted to get into it with me, but I didn't let him. He left the school angry. (He could have left the school arrested, really.)
Last year, some dude came in wearing a George Bush mask. People really can be stupid sometimes. (I'll let you go follow the link back to last year's craziness.)
The past couple of elections, there has been this one kid who comes in with his wife, and has to talk in his "so loud it's nearly not talking anymore" voice about an issue on the ballot or what he thinks about one candidate or the other. Last time, I was busy on the other end of the room, and didn't get a chance to stop him before he stopped. I was ready for him this time, I fully planned to go after him about it. (Note to everyone: You shouldn't be discussing the issues or candidates within earshot of those trying to vote. That's illegal.) Anyway, he came in, and was in line, and started talking to the people at the table about how he thought it was ironic that they were voting on Prop 1 in a school. (Prop 1 was about vouchers for private schools.) I started heading his way ready to knock him down a notch or two, he saw me coming, and said "Not that I'm endorsing either side or trying to tell anyone how to vote. I'll shut up now." I'm glad I'm not a football quarterback, I must have telegraphed what I was going to do from a mile away. We'll have to see what happens for the Western States Primary in February. I'll still be ready for him.
At one point while we were busy, some chuckle head came in wanting to know how far away he had to be from the polling place so he could safely do some electioneering. One of the poll workers told him 150 feet, he asked how far that was. The poll worker told him way out at the sidewalk. I had no knowledge of this conversation, but the guy didn't like this answer, and he was pointed my direction. I was busy, and when he said he wanted to do some electioneering, I stopped listening. He asked how far away 150 feet from the building was, I said "I don't know, the sidewalk, I guess." He stood there for a minute while I continued to ignore him, then asked "Are you sure?" I simply said "No", gave him a look, and walked away from him. The guy disappeared, which is probably all for the better. What does he expect us to do, go find a tape measure to figure out exactly the spot where he can start harassing voters? I said the sidewalk because it was way out where he wouldn't be able to bother anyone, and wouldn't even be able to talk to the people parking in the parking lot to come in to vote. I figure he looked like the kind of guy that should be holding up those Little Cesears signs, waving them at the street for minimum wage. I'll keep that picture in my head for the next time I see him. (I've seen him on campus before.) At least he didn't go to the newspaper to tell them that a poll manager kicked him out of the voting place, like the guy with the mask did. If that had happened, I would have happily invited the guy back so I could do it properly.
We had some kid walk in about 7pm that wanted to vote, but wasn't in the register. We sent him over to the provisional ballot desk to do one of those. He didn't have proper ID, so we sent him home to get it. He came back with his lifetime worth of bank statements, cell phone bills, tuition statements, etc. (He looked to be about 19.) He only needed 2 forms for proof of residency, he brought 100. We were busy with normal voters, and the assistant poll manager was busy with a number of provisional voters. The kid kept trying to come over to me to ask about stuff.
- "I made a mistake on this form, can I get a new one?" My response - "Go over to the provisional ballot desk and talk to the lady that was helping you."
- "Do I have to fill out this line?" My response - "Go over to the provisional ballot desk and talk to the lady that was helping you."
Monday, November 05, 2007
Restaurant Review
Brick Oven
Ok, I know I panned the place the last time we were there, or at least the last time we talked about going there. On Monday, we decided to go out to eat for Mary's birthday. Mary's birthday actually was Wednesday, but I had Stake Presidency meeting then, so we went on Monday.
Anytime you ask Mary where she wants to go out to eat, her first pick is Chuck-E-Cheese. This is always voted down. Her second pick is always Brick Oven. It being her birthday, and not wanting to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and Monday night being free root beer when you buy pizza night, we went to Brick Oven. We also had 3 coupons for free kid's meals.
We got to the restaurant, the guy in line just ahead of us asked for a table for 7, the hostess nearly panicked. It turns out the place was full, and they had to do some fancy footwork to get the guy his table. When I asked for a table for 6 and a high chair, the manager had to get involved. He asked if we would might sitting way in the front, in their little room where no one else was, and have us sit at 2 tables, across the walkway from each other. The manager must have known that Tara and my dream is to be in a nice quiet area of a restaurant, be able to sit without the kids hanging all over us, and actually be able to carry on a conversation. It was nice. (The girls were well behaved, but we pretended to not be sitting with them anyway. It was the next best thing to going out to eat by ourselves.)
Their special pizza of the week was a "buffalo chicken pizza". Tara and I both got this one. It turned out to be strangely good. They didn't have a tomato sauce on the pizza, and it wasn't too greasy. The cheese was some sort of something with blue cheese mixed in. I couldn't quite get what kind of cheese the other was, but it could have just as easily been a mozzarella of some sort. (It tasted a little salty to me, but that could have been the blue cheese mixed in it.) When I saw the chicken on top of it, I thought I wouldn't like it. It was some sort of breaded chunk of chicken, but it ended up being strangely ok. The breading was very light, and the chicken wing sauce they used tasted good. They ended up also drizzling on sauce onto the top of the pizza, so you tasted wings through the whole thing. The pizza ended up being too rich to eat the whole thing, so we took some home. I think Mary and Kate ate the rest for lunches.
They sang their little happy birthday song to Mary, and we left. The Hales were coming in as we were going out, they ended up in the same little area of the restaurant where they spanned 2 tables. It seemed like they were getting there kind of late for dinner, it was dark out and it seemed like we were in there for a long time. When we got to the car, it was only 7pm. I hate Daylight Savings.
It's still a better pick than Chuck-E-Cheese.
Ok, I know I panned the place the last time we were there, or at least the last time we talked about going there. On Monday, we decided to go out to eat for Mary's birthday. Mary's birthday actually was Wednesday, but I had Stake Presidency meeting then, so we went on Monday.
Anytime you ask Mary where she wants to go out to eat, her first pick is Chuck-E-Cheese. This is always voted down. Her second pick is always Brick Oven. It being her birthday, and not wanting to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and Monday night being free root beer when you buy pizza night, we went to Brick Oven. We also had 3 coupons for free kid's meals.
We got to the restaurant, the guy in line just ahead of us asked for a table for 7, the hostess nearly panicked. It turns out the place was full, and they had to do some fancy footwork to get the guy his table. When I asked for a table for 6 and a high chair, the manager had to get involved. He asked if we would might sitting way in the front, in their little room where no one else was, and have us sit at 2 tables, across the walkway from each other. The manager must have known that Tara and my dream is to be in a nice quiet area of a restaurant, be able to sit without the kids hanging all over us, and actually be able to carry on a conversation. It was nice. (The girls were well behaved, but we pretended to not be sitting with them anyway. It was the next best thing to going out to eat by ourselves.)
Their special pizza of the week was a "buffalo chicken pizza". Tara and I both got this one. It turned out to be strangely good. They didn't have a tomato sauce on the pizza, and it wasn't too greasy. The cheese was some sort of something with blue cheese mixed in. I couldn't quite get what kind of cheese the other was, but it could have just as easily been a mozzarella of some sort. (It tasted a little salty to me, but that could have been the blue cheese mixed in it.) When I saw the chicken on top of it, I thought I wouldn't like it. It was some sort of breaded chunk of chicken, but it ended up being strangely ok. The breading was very light, and the chicken wing sauce they used tasted good. They ended up also drizzling on sauce onto the top of the pizza, so you tasted wings through the whole thing. The pizza ended up being too rich to eat the whole thing, so we took some home. I think Mary and Kate ate the rest for lunches.
They sang their little happy birthday song to Mary, and we left. The Hales were coming in as we were going out, they ended up in the same little area of the restaurant where they spanned 2 tables. It seemed like they were getting there kind of late for dinner, it was dark out and it seemed like we were in there for a long time. When we got to the car, it was only 7pm. I hate Daylight Savings.
It's still a better pick than Chuck-E-Cheese.
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