Tucanos
Tara wants me to babysit for the next 2 days while she heads out to Women's Conference, so she decided to butter me up by taking me to Tucanos for lunch today. I have to say, I think it worked.
Emma spent the entire time eating, but didn't have any of the meats. She ate lots of bread, lots of fruit, and lots of other stuff. Ruth didn't eat all that much, but was always ready to get more meat from the dudes. Lily kept pouring water on herself. I ate a bunch, but not too much...
We nearly had a vendor take us to Tucaons last Friday, but when we got there the restaurant was seating a party of 150 people. (It was graduation here...) We ended up going somewhere else.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Mary had better not get those teeth knocked out when she's ten...
Absolutely, positively ridiculous. The saga of the unpaid tooth extraction continues.
Today was the day that the dentist's office was prepared to send our $59 bill to collections. I didn't remember this until yesterday, and realized that DMBA had not yet paid them off.
I called the Dentist's office today, at 1pm, and found out the balance was still outstanding. They confirmed that lacking money in hand, the bill would go to collections. She offered to take care of it over the phone, but I figured that would rob me of making scene about it, so I told her I would prefer to bring the payment in.
I called DMBA and explained that I had already had multiple hour long conversations with them about this, so the lady looked at the call log to figure out what was going on. (In case anyone is interested, it's tooth #N that has not yet been paid for.) She looked at the payment side of something, and indicated that the claim was number 7 in the queue, and would be paid out today or tomorrow.
I went down to the dentist's office at 1:40pm to pay the money (thus giving up) and to raise a stink about it, since it's their fault this got messed up in the first place. When I got there, the front door was locked and the lights were all out. I tried calling again, and just got an answering machine. This is the point that the "Absolutely positively ridiculous" state got reached.
I called an hour later to ask if their office was open, and found out that the dentist was not in the office today. So much for raising a stink. I would much rather have an audience for that little conversation. I went back down to pay, and when she asked how I would like to pay, I assked her what exactly the procedure was for my getting my money back once DMBA pays in the next 2 days. She said something about a cabinet, and someone who cuts checks every month. Then she said that they have all kinds of problems getting DMBA to pay for extractions. I said "No you don't," and she said something about the other 30 families that are having problems. Not wanting to get completely into it without the audience I wanted, I gave her my card, she processed the money. Then she said something about DMBA not paying for any extractions, my reply was "Yes, they do." I stapled my receipt to the printouts of the claims and left.
I plan to go back tomorrow to try to talk to the dentist. If he's not there, I will return Wednesday. I want to make it perfectly clear to them that they were the ones that billed the exact same thing 4 different times. They billed twice in November, with different dentist's names on the bill, for some reason. DMBA rejected both, one labeled as "More explanation required". I explained this to them in December, they just billed out again, DMBA rejected as a previously billed claim. In February, when I yet again called the dentist's office and explained what happened, I asked them if they could contact DMBA to figure out what happened. Their response was to bill out a 4th time, DMBA rejected again.
It's 6 months now since Mary had her teeth pulled and the other girls had their teeth cleaned. The silly thing here is that sometime later this week, I am sure we will get a postcard from the dentist's office telling us it's time for a checkup. It's all very silly.
Today was the day that the dentist's office was prepared to send our $59 bill to collections. I didn't remember this until yesterday, and realized that DMBA had not yet paid them off.
I called the Dentist's office today, at 1pm, and found out the balance was still outstanding. They confirmed that lacking money in hand, the bill would go to collections. She offered to take care of it over the phone, but I figured that would rob me of making scene about it, so I told her I would prefer to bring the payment in.
I called DMBA and explained that I had already had multiple hour long conversations with them about this, so the lady looked at the call log to figure out what was going on. (In case anyone is interested, it's tooth #N that has not yet been paid for.) She looked at the payment side of something, and indicated that the claim was number 7 in the queue, and would be paid out today or tomorrow.
I went down to the dentist's office at 1:40pm to pay the money (thus giving up) and to raise a stink about it, since it's their fault this got messed up in the first place. When I got there, the front door was locked and the lights were all out. I tried calling again, and just got an answering machine. This is the point that the "Absolutely positively ridiculous" state got reached.
I called an hour later to ask if their office was open, and found out that the dentist was not in the office today. So much for raising a stink. I would much rather have an audience for that little conversation. I went back down to pay, and when she asked how I would like to pay, I assked her what exactly the procedure was for my getting my money back once DMBA pays in the next 2 days. She said something about a cabinet, and someone who cuts checks every month. Then she said that they have all kinds of problems getting DMBA to pay for extractions. I said "No you don't," and she said something about the other 30 families that are having problems. Not wanting to get completely into it without the audience I wanted, I gave her my card, she processed the money. Then she said something about DMBA not paying for any extractions, my reply was "Yes, they do." I stapled my receipt to the printouts of the claims and left.
I plan to go back tomorrow to try to talk to the dentist. If he's not there, I will return Wednesday. I want to make it perfectly clear to them that they were the ones that billed the exact same thing 4 different times. They billed twice in November, with different dentist's names on the bill, for some reason. DMBA rejected both, one labeled as "More explanation required". I explained this to them in December, they just billed out again, DMBA rejected as a previously billed claim. In February, when I yet again called the dentist's office and explained what happened, I asked them if they could contact DMBA to figure out what happened. Their response was to bill out a 4th time, DMBA rejected again.
It's 6 months now since Mary had her teeth pulled and the other girls had their teeth cleaned. The silly thing here is that sometime later this week, I am sure we will get a postcard from the dentist's office telling us it's time for a checkup. It's all very silly.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
AN "OLD" CAR!
We are selling our "old" minivan. I say it like that because it's the same age as the van we just bought.
It's a 2006 Mazda MPV. We really liked this van, it was our second one of these. The van has 23K miles on it, which means there is 2 years and 27K miles left on the factory warranty. It's in good shape, no bad driving mishaps to report.
In addition to the base LX package, it has: Front Side Airbags, Rear Air conditioning, a roof rack, a cargo net in the back, and traction control.
We are asking $15K for it, if you are interested, let me know.
It's a 2006 Mazda MPV. We really liked this van, it was our second one of these. The van has 23K miles on it, which means there is 2 years and 27K miles left on the factory warranty. It's in good shape, no bad driving mishaps to report.
In addition to the base LX package, it has: Front Side Airbags, Rear Air conditioning, a roof rack, a cargo net in the back, and traction control.
We are asking $15K for it, if you are interested, let me know.
A NEW CAR!
The Price is Right just doesn't have the same excitement behind it as it used to, say what you want about Bob Barker, but for some reason, the crowd was always whipped up into a frenzy when he was on...
We bought a van this week. It's a 2006 GMC Savana 3500, which means it's new to us.
It's a 15 passenger van, or it was until I took the back seat out. Now it's an 11 passenger van with a really big cargo space in the back.
We found the thing on an auto auction lot, there aren't a lot of used vans for sale around here in size we were looking for. This one was a pretty good deal. I found it late Tuesday afternoon, Tara and I went back up Wednesday to drive it around. Wednesday night was the auction places night to do their little thing, so we kind of bought the van in a hurry to avoid losing it in the auction. (There were some vans in Salt Lake at some dealerships, but they were a bit more.)
The van has a rubberized floor, which is not really a bad thing with our kids. One of them spilled water all over it on Thursday. We now have plenty of space for them to spread out, and as an added bonus, the thing is long enough that putting Mary and Emma on the last bench kind of dampers the noise. It has a few dings and stuff, but seems to run well. It's got tinted windows, and rear heat/AC. It has 67,000 miles, but I don't think that's all that bad, since the thing is only 2 years old. That means the place that owned it before drove it a lot. (As opposed to aways having problems with it and having it in the shop all the time...) I talked with the motor pool guy at work, he had vans to surplus, but no vans to replace them because of a auto worker strike in Ohio. We could have gotten a van from them, it would have had about the same number of miles, but a few years older.I think we did ok with this one.
Anyway, now we can all fit in the same car after the baby is born, and we have room again for road trips...
We bought a van this week. It's a 2006 GMC Savana 3500, which means it's new to us.
It's a 15 passenger van, or it was until I took the back seat out. Now it's an 11 passenger van with a really big cargo space in the back. We found the thing on an auto auction lot, there aren't a lot of used vans for sale around here in size we were looking for. This one was a pretty good deal. I found it late Tuesday afternoon, Tara and I went back up Wednesday to drive it around. Wednesday night was the auction places night to do their little thing, so we kind of bought the van in a hurry to avoid losing it in the auction. (There were some vans in Salt Lake at some dealerships, but they were a bit more.)
The van has a rubberized floor, which is not really a bad thing with our kids. One of them spilled water all over it on Thursday. We now have plenty of space for them to spread out, and as an added bonus, the thing is long enough that putting Mary and Emma on the last bench kind of dampers the noise. It has a few dings and stuff, but seems to run well. It's got tinted windows, and rear heat/AC. It has 67,000 miles, but I don't think that's all that bad, since the thing is only 2 years old. That means the place that owned it before drove it a lot. (As opposed to aways having problems with it and having it in the shop all the time...) I talked with the motor pool guy at work, he had vans to surplus, but no vans to replace them because of a auto worker strike in Ohio. We could have gotten a van from them, it would have had about the same number of miles, but a few years older.I think we did ok with this one.
Anyway, now we can all fit in the same car after the baby is born, and we have room again for road trips...
2008 Goal update
- Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 8 updates - Right on schedule.
- Don't let a post go by without some progress to report.
- Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books
- Finish the retaining wall. Sometime after I sell the Minivan
- Finish the mission journal. No progress.
- Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring.
- Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 204.
- Go to the temple at least once a month. We went last week. The girls were on Spring Break, I had someone take my on-call for the day, Tara got a baby sitter, and we went. I took Tara to Olive Garden for lunch after. (3 visits in 4 months.)
- Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. We are going to Orlando in September. Tara and I plan to get there a couple of days early. Mom said she would come out to watch the kids.
- Read 18 books. 9 books completed so far, half way there.
- Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas.
Sunday School
The Bishop has had us attending the current round of the Temple Preparation class, which he is teaching. I think he wanted a critical mass there, and our ward has a capacity problem with Gospel Doctrine, so all optional classes are running to help pull people out of the Gospel Doctrine class.
He goes slower than the manual says, we are still on lesson 1, six weeks into the course. It's not bad, the Bishop just likes teaching, and likes to delve into the topics. Today we talked about the resurrection. He started by asking if everyone's patriarchal blessing talked about "the morning of the first resurrection" or just the resurrection. Me and another guy indicated that the resurrection was not mentioned in ours. The Bishop made some comments, he was trying to get a rise out of us, he didn't out of me, but I kind of got the idea he was making the other guy a little nervous.
I asked a question about those who were not included on the diagram he was drawing on the board. We talked about people who are changed in a twinkling, and I said something about those people who just had a lot of work to do leading up to and into the millennium. Hopefully the other guy isn't worried about it, I'm certainly not. What comes comes. It doesn't worry me that my patriarchal blessing talks about one thing and maybe not another, it's not like it's a GPS for life or anything. Advice - Yes. Blessing - Yes. Lineage - Yes. Direction in your life - Yes. Complete map of your life - No.
A couple of good talks about patriarchal blessings (For those who want more than the wikipedia answer):
A Patriarchal Blessing: A message of identity, promise, and love
Patriarchal Blessings
Anyway, now you know. No mention of the resurrection. I checked tonight just to verify.
He goes slower than the manual says, we are still on lesson 1, six weeks into the course. It's not bad, the Bishop just likes teaching, and likes to delve into the topics. Today we talked about the resurrection. He started by asking if everyone's patriarchal blessing talked about "the morning of the first resurrection" or just the resurrection. Me and another guy indicated that the resurrection was not mentioned in ours. The Bishop made some comments, he was trying to get a rise out of us, he didn't out of me, but I kind of got the idea he was making the other guy a little nervous.
I asked a question about those who were not included on the diagram he was drawing on the board. We talked about people who are changed in a twinkling, and I said something about those people who just had a lot of work to do leading up to and into the millennium. Hopefully the other guy isn't worried about it, I'm certainly not. What comes comes. It doesn't worry me that my patriarchal blessing talks about one thing and maybe not another, it's not like it's a GPS for life or anything. Advice - Yes. Blessing - Yes. Lineage - Yes. Direction in your life - Yes. Complete map of your life - No.
A couple of good talks about patriarchal blessings (For those who want more than the wikipedia answer):
A Patriarchal Blessing: A message of identity, promise, and love
Patriarchal Blessings
Anyway, now you know. No mention of the resurrection. I checked tonight just to verify.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Book Review
Yankee Stadium: The Official RetrospectiveMark Vancil and Alfred Santasiere III
I should had read through this book before I went to the Yankees game earlier this month. I also should have taken the time to walk around the outside and inside of the stadium...
This is a really nice book. It's got lots of pictures, lots of first person reminiscings, lots and lots of the stories of Yankee Stadium. I think if I had read this book before going to the game, I would have had a much larger appreciation for the place. It's definitely an interesting read.
Something I didn't say when I talked about the baseball game a few weeks ago. The place smelled like hot dogs and beer. I don't even know if people near me were eating hot dogs, I imagine they were, there were definitely people drinking around us. I wonder if the place permanently smells like hot dogs and beer. The guy sitting next to me was a little older, he kept commenting to the people behind us (who he seemed to be related to) about the ERA of the pitcher, after every out. (It was the pitchers first game of the season, so it was easy to calculate.) He went around the 5th inning to get something from vending. When he came back, he found an old hot dog bun shoved into a slat in the back of his seat. My seat didn't have slats, but his did. It turned out that he had gotten mustard all over his coat, which was very bothersome to him. At one point in the game, when a Toronto player got on base, I yelled "Go two! Go two!" The guy thought it was pretty funny. (This is what I always do in intramural softball to try to get people to jump off first base. It's pretty funny when they do.) It was at this moment that I realized the guy was missing most, but not all, of his front teeth. New York City is an interesting town...
That place has a lot of history in it. I don't think my experience at Yankee stadium is all that typical of most of those that happen. This book talks about a lot of the big dramatic events in the history of the stadium, I think the rest of them are a lot like the one I had. If it's unclear to you what the history of Yankee Stadium is, go find this book and read it. It's definitely worth the read.
Game Time Update
Let the record show that Dad, Dave, Tom, and I played Age of Empires this morning.
Let the record also show we played a free for all game with one expert computer.
Let the record also show that we were supposed to wipe out the computer before each other, Tom started attacking Dad a little early.
Let the record further show that Dad ended up pinned between Tom and I, and we squeezed him out. Dave waited for Dad and Tom to get beat out of the game, and then tried attacking. This went well for a while. Eventually I breached his defenses, at with time Dave announced his intention to leave for work. He didn't quit the game when he left, so I had to sit here to knock out his dudes...
Let the record also show we played a free for all game with one expert computer.
Let the record also show that we were supposed to wipe out the computer before each other, Tom started attacking Dad a little early.
Let the record further show that Dad ended up pinned between Tom and I, and we squeezed him out. Dave waited for Dad and Tom to get beat out of the game, and then tried attacking. This went well for a while. Eventually I breached his defenses, at with time Dave announced his intention to leave for work. He didn't quit the game when he left, so I had to sit here to knock out his dudes...
Night Owl-ette
Ruth has been keeping long hours the last few nights. Not that it's anything new, but she been keeping really long hours the last few nights. 3 nights ago, she fell asleep on the floor under the reclining chair I was sitting in sometime well after midnight. 2 nights ago, she was up until 2:30 in the morning before passing out. Last night we were tired, and turned out all the lights in the house at midnight and put her in her bed. She seems to have gone to bed at that point. Tonight, it's just past midnight, and she's here in the back room doing puzzles. She's got about 18 of them out right now, going through them one by one. She's a little tired, but she's not going to drop off.
Not sure what to do at this point. This must be punishment for my past...
Not sure what to do at this point. This must be punishment for my past...
Friday, April 25, 2008
Waiting for a refill
About a week and a half ago, I ran out of acid reflux medicine. On Friday afternoon I tried to call the doctor's office to get the refill done, but I couldn't get them to answer. On Monday, I was able to call in, but the receptionist acted completely put out that I was asking. The pharmacy didn't have the thing by Monday night. On Tuesday, I went up there to the doctor's office, they said that the doctor had approved the refill, and that the nurse was going to call it in sometime that afternoon. The pharmacy didn't have the thing by Tuesday night. On Wednesday I was ready for a throw down, but the pharmacy had gotten the prescriptions from the doctor's office.
It seemed like a long time to wait for a prescription. One of them was for a new Epipen. I'm glad I didn't get stung by a bee on Monday or Tuesday, that would have been awkward...
It seemed like a long time to wait for a prescription. One of them was for a new Epipen. I'm glad I didn't get stung by a bee on Monday or Tuesday, that would have been awkward...
Must be all that prime rib I eat
Every 6 months at work, the wellness program here sponsors a glucose & cholesterol screening. Usually this tends to happen on days when I am out of town, I have missed them the past few years. I went 2 weeks ago, they ended up sending the results yesterday. I have been keeping the old results in my file cabinet so I can compare the next time I do one. This time they send the results with the last 2 screening I did.
My glucose level has been at the same basic level in the past 4 years, so no diabetes for me yet, I guess.
My triglycerides have been high for a long time. In 2005 they were up at 201, in 2003 they were at 181. Now they are down to 98. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise to me, since I don't have nearly so much sugar these days...
My cholesterol level has always been on the higher side of normal, but is down to 151. The HDL is finally nearly up to where it should be, the LDL is right smack dab in the middle of normal.
I guess that means I'm eating right. Or something.
My glucose level has been at the same basic level in the past 4 years, so no diabetes for me yet, I guess.
My triglycerides have been high for a long time. In 2005 they were up at 201, in 2003 they were at 181. Now they are down to 98. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise to me, since I don't have nearly so much sugar these days...
My cholesterol level has always been on the higher side of normal, but is down to 151. The HDL is finally nearly up to where it should be, the LDL is right smack dab in the middle of normal.
I guess that means I'm eating right. Or something.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
New Career
I've been working my way to a new career. Making little yarn purses. I made one for Ruth, then Emma. My latest does a new pattern, I think it worked ok.
Mary was hoping it would be for her, but it's for a girl in one of the families I home teach. She turns 10 on Saturday. I got it done just under the wire. I think Mary's will be all pink with a black or white border. (Or maybe both.)
As for the career, unless I could sell these things for $500, or make them faster, this career would put us in the poor house...
Mary was hoping it would be for her, but it's for a girl in one of the families I home teach. She turns 10 on Saturday. I got it done just under the wire. I think Mary's will be all pink with a black or white border. (Or maybe both.)
As for the career, unless I could sell these things for $500, or make them faster, this career would put us in the poor house...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Blog Visits
Today I had a visit to this blog from Delaware. I don't know who they were, but it was my very first "Delawarian". Or "Delawarite". I can't remember which they said it was on that one episode of Taxi.
The only states I haven't had visitors from are Vermont and Montana. I guess those people just have other things to do. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Maybe it's a department of tourism thing for Montana and Vermont, since I will have to visit those states some day just to get a hit on my blog from there... Or I will have to send someone in my place.
I have also had visits over time from 63 different countries, including the old mysterious "Locale not set"...
The only states I haven't had visitors from are Vermont and Montana. I guess those people just have other things to do. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Maybe it's a department of tourism thing for Montana and Vermont, since I will have to visit those states some day just to get a hit on my blog from there... Or I will have to send someone in my place.
I have also had visits over time from 63 different countries, including the old mysterious "Locale not set"...
Busdy week
This past week has been kind of busy at work, not so much for Church stuff. Lots of people left town for Spring Break this past week.
This coming week will be really busy at work, and incredibly busy at Church, although I am not currently at liberty to say why... If it's quiet here for a few days, it's because I'm busy. If it's not quiet here, I'm likely blowing off steam, in one way or another.
This coming week will be really busy at work, and incredibly busy at Church, although I am not currently at liberty to say why... If it's quiet here for a few days, it's because I'm busy. If it's not quiet here, I'm likely blowing off steam, in one way or another.
The Great Scissors Ban - re-implemented
Tara and I have been pretty lax on our scissors ban lately. Late Friday night, Ruth came into the front hall screaming about something. The 3 middle girls had been in the bathroom, Emma and Mary took off running before Tara got there to chase them out and back into bed, Ruth was left by herself. Tara got them into bed and didn't see what was going on in the bathroom.
An hour or so later, I went into the bathroom, which was covered in hair. Some of the hair was 3 or 4 inches long. Mary, Emma, and Ruth were trimming their hair. I confiscated all the scissors I could find, and took all the scissors the girls would fess up to having. I guess the scissors ban is back on.
I guess in their defense, they seem to be getting a little better at it, if nothing else. It's not like anyone was scalped this time... I guess Ruth cut her hair then decided she really didn't like it and that's why she was screaming. It's kind of hard to take good pictures of the work done, I don't really want them thinking I approve at all, so you are left with pictures of them asleep.
Mary made herself bangs. (Again.) She doesn't seem all that sorry about it.
Emma had pig tails that night, I think she trimmed them down some. Tara tells me that there is a patch on the side she got, but it's hard to see, and I think it's on the other side of the way she is lying down tonight.
Ruth says she cut something on her hair, but it must have just been a little piece of hair, you can't really tell.
An hour or so later, I went into the bathroom, which was covered in hair. Some of the hair was 3 or 4 inches long. Mary, Emma, and Ruth were trimming their hair. I confiscated all the scissors I could find, and took all the scissors the girls would fess up to having. I guess the scissors ban is back on.
I guess in their defense, they seem to be getting a little better at it, if nothing else. It's not like anyone was scalped this time... I guess Ruth cut her hair then decided she really didn't like it and that's why she was screaming. It's kind of hard to take good pictures of the work done, I don't really want them thinking I approve at all, so you are left with pictures of them asleep.
Mary made herself bangs. (Again.) She doesn't seem all that sorry about it. 
Emma had pig tails that night, I think she trimmed them down some. Tara tells me that there is a patch on the side she got, but it's hard to see, and I think it's on the other side of the way she is lying down tonight.
Ruth says she cut something on her hair, but it must have just been a little piece of hair, you can't really tell.The funny thing is, I'm the one that needs the haircut, but there is no way I would have these girls cut my hair, and not one of them are anywhere near brave enough to cut my hair, either with me awake or asleep.
Game Time
Yesterday, Dad, Dave, Tom and I played Age of Empires. We decided to play 3 vs 1, where they played against me. I thought I was doing ok for a while, but it turned out they were just toying with me. In the end I found myself saying "There are just too many of them"
It might be a while before I volunteer to take a 3 vs 1 beating again, there were just too many of there little dudes coming into my town...
It might be a while before I volunteer to take a 3 vs 1 beating again, there were just too many of there little dudes coming into my town...
Hot Tamales
I've been thinking lately about some of the good places I've been to eat. Not necessarily around here, just places I've been. I think the trip to New York got me down the path, and I've been wandering down it in the back of my mind once in a while.
Atlanta - The 755 club (Braves stadium), Pitty Pat's Porch, and some little place on the side of the road in Northern Georgia.
Chicago - A little hole in the wall steak and potatoes place downtown, that other place around the corner from it. (Incredibly helpful, isn't it?)
San Fernando, CA - Uncle Mikes, that little diner Lori GoDown used to work at, the Cuban place by the temple, the Toluka Lake Country Club, lots and lots of others. When I was in North Hollywood, we had some of the best street food of my whole mission.
Every day I followed the same basic meal plan. There was a lady who went around getting bread from stores that they couldn't sell, and took it to the homeless shelter. She would always bring stuff to us about 8am. We would always have bread and a pie in the apartment. She heard that I liked chips and salsa, from that time on she would bring at least 1 bag of chips and a big thing of fresh local made salsa. This is what I ate for breakfast, or sometimes for lunch, but usually for breakfast. We occasionally (maybe more than occasionally, now that I think about it) had someone who wanted to feed us lunch. Sometimes this was at the Toluka Lake Country Club, where the food was always good, but the place was very expensive. (Someone who was independently wealthy) Sometimes it was just beans and tortillas with someone we were teaching. We definitely didn't go hungry. We always had a dinner appointment in that area.
Every night at around 9pm, we would have 1 of 3 different types of street vendors. They were the Ice Cream truck (Soft serve - very large cones), a random food truck (not that great), or a little old latino guy selling tamales in his steamer cart. We were always disappointed when we thought we heard the rumble of the ice cream truck, and it ended up being the food truck. We were never disappointed when we heard the ringing for the tamale guy. Those tamales were wonderful. It didn't matter how full I had been from dinner, I was always ready for a tamale at night time.
Now that I write this, I wonder how I came home from my mission under 200 pounds. (Or 300 pounds.) I guess it was because I was busy the rest of the day. My first companion in that area definitely shared the love of food, but I don't really remember him joining in on the chips and salsa early in the morning. He also wouldn't try the egg nog in a can I found back in the cupboards... After he left, there was definitely less excitement in the apartment when the ice cream truck came.
Anyhow, I've been thinking about tamales lately. Last night I decided to make my own to have for dinner tonight. It ended up being more work than I bargained for when I started, but they were pretty good.
I found a recipe on the internet for cornmeal tamales, which was good because I didn't know where to go at 9:30 at night to find masa. I liked the stuff I ended up making, there was mixed reviews in the rest of the house.
I cooked up a beef top sirloin roast and added a bunch of stuff to it until it tasted really good, and added the stuff to the tamales. I don't think it's the way they really make them traditionally, but I liked it.
Last night I made 2 dozen of them and put them into the fridge for tonight.
Only Drew and Anson made it over, everyone else missed out, except I wrapped a couple up for KayLynn to have. Here they are steaming away in the pot. (It was a good thing we had the canning steamer, it's perfect for tamales.)
Anyway, it was a lot of work to get it done, but I liked them. I think they took that craving away, except I might have accidentally started one now for deep fried chicken. (Like they made at Pitty Pat's Porch...)
Atlanta - The 755 club (Braves stadium), Pitty Pat's Porch, and some little place on the side of the road in Northern Georgia.
Chicago - A little hole in the wall steak and potatoes place downtown, that other place around the corner from it. (Incredibly helpful, isn't it?)
San Fernando, CA - Uncle Mikes, that little diner Lori GoDown used to work at, the Cuban place by the temple, the Toluka Lake Country Club, lots and lots of others. When I was in North Hollywood, we had some of the best street food of my whole mission.
Every day I followed the same basic meal plan. There was a lady who went around getting bread from stores that they couldn't sell, and took it to the homeless shelter. She would always bring stuff to us about 8am. We would always have bread and a pie in the apartment. She heard that I liked chips and salsa, from that time on she would bring at least 1 bag of chips and a big thing of fresh local made salsa. This is what I ate for breakfast, or sometimes for lunch, but usually for breakfast. We occasionally (maybe more than occasionally, now that I think about it) had someone who wanted to feed us lunch. Sometimes this was at the Toluka Lake Country Club, where the food was always good, but the place was very expensive. (Someone who was independently wealthy) Sometimes it was just beans and tortillas with someone we were teaching. We definitely didn't go hungry. We always had a dinner appointment in that area.
Every night at around 9pm, we would have 1 of 3 different types of street vendors. They were the Ice Cream truck (Soft serve - very large cones), a random food truck (not that great), or a little old latino guy selling tamales in his steamer cart. We were always disappointed when we thought we heard the rumble of the ice cream truck, and it ended up being the food truck. We were never disappointed when we heard the ringing for the tamale guy. Those tamales were wonderful. It didn't matter how full I had been from dinner, I was always ready for a tamale at night time.
Now that I write this, I wonder how I came home from my mission under 200 pounds. (Or 300 pounds.) I guess it was because I was busy the rest of the day. My first companion in that area definitely shared the love of food, but I don't really remember him joining in on the chips and salsa early in the morning. He also wouldn't try the egg nog in a can I found back in the cupboards... After he left, there was definitely less excitement in the apartment when the ice cream truck came.
Anyhow, I've been thinking about tamales lately. Last night I decided to make my own to have for dinner tonight. It ended up being more work than I bargained for when I started, but they were pretty good.
I found a recipe on the internet for cornmeal tamales, which was good because I didn't know where to go at 9:30 at night to find masa. I liked the stuff I ended up making, there was mixed reviews in the rest of the house.
I cooked up a beef top sirloin roast and added a bunch of stuff to it until it tasted really good, and added the stuff to the tamales. I don't think it's the way they really make them traditionally, but I liked it.
Last night I made 2 dozen of them and put them into the fridge for tonight.
Only Drew and Anson made it over, everyone else missed out, except I wrapped a couple up for KayLynn to have. Here they are steaming away in the pot. (It was a good thing we had the canning steamer, it's perfect for tamales.)Anyway, it was a lot of work to get it done, but I liked them. I think they took that craving away, except I might have accidentally started one now for deep fried chicken. (Like they made at Pitty Pat's Porch...)
Ruth's Baby Brother
Ruth talks a lot about "Her Baby Brother". Sometimes it's in the vein of him just being down the street, and he's coming soon to live with us. Sometimes she doesn't act like she's fully got a grasp on what's happening, but at least she's excited about it. Speaking of not fully grasping things, she calls Ted Duffin, who lives 2 doors down "President Hinckley." He's kind of flattered by it, I think.
Anyhow, yesterday I went down to Home Depot and picked up a small can of blue paint to paint the little bassinet. I had Ruth come out to help me paint. The very first thing we did was spill a good little puddle of it onto the cement.
She didn't stop at painting the crib. She also decided that the can needed to be painted, and then decided that I hadn't gotten any on the shirt I was wearing and swiped me with it...
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Restaurant reviews
Late this morning, I was listening in on a conference call with some Oracle people who didn't listen well. I was getting fairly tired of the conversation when Drew called. 3 other guys in the office were in the call, Drew wanted to go to lunch, so I jumped at the opportunity.
We went to Pastorero. The service was pretty good, although I thought my pork needed to be just a little crispier. Drew seemed to like his fajitas ok.
For dinner, Tara and I went to Smokehouse. We took our little scratch off mailing thing, this time it had $10 off the meal. I ended up having the sausage/pulled pork platter. The pulled pork was good, but I don't think I will ever try the sausage there again. It tasted a lot like some buffalo meat sausage I had in Van Nuys once, it tastes ok, but just a little different. I kind of expected this sausage to have some spice to it. This didn't. (They make it themselves, but it doesn't sound like they plan to change the recipe at all.) I really like the beef brisket there, maybe I will just stick to that...
We went to Pastorero. The service was pretty good, although I thought my pork needed to be just a little crispier. Drew seemed to like his fajitas ok.
For dinner, Tara and I went to Smokehouse. We took our little scratch off mailing thing, this time it had $10 off the meal. I ended up having the sausage/pulled pork platter. The pulled pork was good, but I don't think I will ever try the sausage there again. It tasted a lot like some buffalo meat sausage I had in Van Nuys once, it tastes ok, but just a little different. I kind of expected this sausage to have some spice to it. This didn't. (They make it themselves, but it doesn't sound like they plan to change the recipe at all.) I really like the beef brisket there, maybe I will just stick to that...
Unscheduled diversion
Last week, while shopping for a weed whip, Sears had a pergola on sale. This thing was on sale before, we looked at it then, but I got it this time. They were out of stock at the time, it came in today.
I went and picked it up after work, and set it up tonight. Now Tara has a place to sit in the shade outside while the girls are playing.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Lunch
I have a consultant from back East here today and tomorrow working on something. At 11:30 this morning, he asked when I normally think about lunch. My response? "Usually about 3pm. By then I figure its to late and just carry on." Not totally true, I also often think about lunch at about 10:0am...
Anyway, he was pretty hungry, since it was 1:30pm his time. We went to Smokehouse. The food was good as usual. The strange thing was the place was totally empty. We got there about 20 to noon, and left at 12:15pm, and were the only customers there the whole time. Normally that place is packed for lunch. I don't think it helped any that it was nearly 80 degrees outside, and this week is Spring break. Maybe there just wasn't anyone else working today. (I didn't know it was Spring Break when I scheduled him to come out, otherwise I might have picked a different week.)
Anyway, he was pretty hungry, since it was 1:30pm his time. We went to Smokehouse. The food was good as usual. The strange thing was the place was totally empty. We got there about 20 to noon, and left at 12:15pm, and were the only customers there the whole time. Normally that place is packed for lunch. I don't think it helped any that it was nearly 80 degrees outside, and this week is Spring break. Maybe there just wasn't anyone else working today. (I didn't know it was Spring Break when I scheduled him to come out, otherwise I might have picked a different week.)
President Thomas S. Monson
For those who are curious, here is a little video clip about the new President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the current prophet:
Sunday, April 13, 2008
2008 Goal Update
- Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 7 updates - Right on schedule.
- Don't let a post go by without some progress to report. This is the most productive of these this year by far. 5 books read and a play set stained.
- Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books.
- Finish the retaining wall. Sometime very soon. The block is $1.77 each at Home Depot, I need to go down to the place they make it at to see if they have any overruns. (Slightly defective pieces. Most of them look fine to me, but they can't deliver them to Home Depot if there is a ding in it somewhere.)
- Finish the mission journal. No progress.
- Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring.
- Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 206. I only gained a couple of pounds with all that food I ate in NYC. I guess you really don't pack it on when you are eating Pho Bo.
- Go to the temple at least once a month. We've gone twice this year so far. I didn't get there last month. I don't have Stake Presidency meeting this week, we are going to try to go during that time. Hopefully I can get rid of the allergy problems by then...
- Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. No trip picked or booked yet. We will likely go somewhere for a couple of days around the trip to visit with Rob, Jonathan, and Russ in Florida. I plan to book the house for that one in the next couple of days.
- Read 18 books. 8 books completed so far, which gets me right back on track. I'm reading a book about Yankee Stadium right now, after that one I might need recommendations because I only have one other book lined up in the queue.
- Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas. Plants are starting to grow. I might have to put a couple of them out a little sooner than I would like. Mary brought a pumpkin plant home from school in a little cup, it's starting to go all over the place now and needs to get in the ground.
Game Time
Settlers of Catan/Risk
With Brian, Brett, and Rob. (Rob's brother and cousin.)
I won the first game of Catan, then was treated like an interloper...
Not really. Brian won the second game.
Rob won Risk, but I think it was in part due to my meddling.
That is all.
With Brian, Brett, and Rob. (Rob's brother and cousin.)
I won the first game of Catan, then was treated like an interloper...
Not really. Brian won the second game.
Rob won Risk, but I think it was in part due to my meddling.
That is all.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Staining the playset
BeforeI ended up staining the play set today. I managed to even get the very top stained without killing myself, which I think is a bonus, really. There were a few spots, like the roof, that looked pretty sun beaten, and the stairs were pretty worn, and they look, well, less worn and sun beaten now. All the other spots actually look pretty nice. I can take it off my list until this time next year...
I have also got the lawnmower going for the year, the lawn was starting to look a little shaggy (about the same as my hair, really) and I used my brand spanking new weed whip - with pivot action to also be an edger. The old weed whip bit the dust last year in a cloud of smoke. The engine on the thing fried.
AfterGame Time
Age of Empires
This morning we had Dad, Drew, Dave and I, we played against 4 expert computers. The computers really didn't stand much of a chance once we got going.
We got done just in time for me to watch the girls so that Tara could go to Stake Relief Society Enrichment. The Stake Relief Society presidency asked me a month ago if I could help out with the thing, I told them no because I needed to babysit so Tara could go. This seemed like an acceptable answer to them.
This morning we had Dad, Drew, Dave and I, we played against 4 expert computers. The computers really didn't stand much of a chance once we got going.
We got done just in time for me to watch the girls so that Tara could go to Stake Relief Society Enrichment. The Stake Relief Society presidency asked me a month ago if I could help out with the thing, I told them no because I needed to babysit so Tara could go. This seemed like an acceptable answer to them.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Message to Amy
Amy,
I just beat your currently posted Digger high score. It's still 4000 points shy of Dave's, but it's higher than yours. I just thought I'd let you know.
I just beat your currently posted Digger high score. It's still 4000 points shy of Dave's, but it's higher than yours. I just thought I'd let you know.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
"Your credit will be affected"
Mary had some teeth pulled back in October. At the time, we forked over $100 to the dentist office to cover copays and deductibles. (Well, I wasn't there. They pressured Tara into paying it, but I was expecting the teeth to be $75 each after insurance, so I figured it was ok. The teeth ended up being $13 a tooth for the extractions...)
The dental office did something screwy with the billing. They billed the office visit and one of the tooth extractions separate from the other 3 extractions. After they submitted those 2 claims, they submitted everything together another time. This confused the insurance company. The 3 extractions were paid for, the other 2 claims were both rejected. (This was Christmas Eve when they rejected the 2 claims.)
In February, I figured out that the claims had been rejected and they were billing us for something like $200 worth of stuff. I called the dentist office and asked them what was going on, they were going to contact the insurance company. At least that's what they said they were going to do, what they actually did was resubmit the claims, including all 4 teeth that were pulled, even though 3 of them had been paid for. The insurance company dutifully rejected everything as duplicates.
2 weeks ago, I called the insurance company to explain what was going on. They seemed to figure out what was going on and were going to resubmit the claims for processing. I called the dentists office to explain this to them, it looks like their response was to first resubmit the entire claim (including all 4 extraction) to the insurance company, then turn around and send us another bill.
The bill this time has a big orange "FINAL NOTICE!" sticker, along with the following note: "Unless your balance of $199.82 is paid in full by 4/28/08, then it will be sent to Mountain Land Collections. Your credit will be affected." Isn't that nice of them? I guess that's what I get for calling them to explain that the insurance was working on paying them. Before I had called them, I worked out what we had paid them and what we were going to owe. It turns out that the dentists office was going to owe me $10.
So imagine my surprise when in the mail today came this bill with the collections notice on it. I called the insurance company to talk to them about this craziness, they finally figures out the one line item that hadn't been paid and sent it back out to be processed.
When I talked to the dentists office, they didn't want to take responsibility for the mess. I'm not sure why they thought submitting 5 different claims for the same work would make a difference, but the initial 3 sets of claims all at the same time really messed everything up. Our current balance is something like $58. My $10 they owed me is down to $4, because they have tacked on a couple of "finance charges". I could just go down to their office and pay the $58 to avoid any further 'finance charges', but then I would have to try to get all my money back out of them once the insurance claims finishes processing. The way things have been going, I would have gone back in and asked for my money, and they would have sent me a check in the mail, but it would get messed up and I would get 3 checks for the money instead of just 1, and we would have to go all through this crap again.
The lady on the phone said that as long as the thing gets paid by the end of the month, we would be fine and it wouldn't go to collections. This kind of ticked me off and made me slightly hostile. I asked them if they wanted to take any kind of responsibility for this, since they were the ones that double billed the thing in the first place. She indicated that they have had problems recently getting the insurance to pay out on extractions, she didn't know why, but that's what has been happening. I ended the conversation with something about how if we choose to ever go back there, I would be sure to follow up with the billing people so they submit one and only one claim, it gets paid, and we don't have to go through this again. She stuck to her story about the insurance company being the trouble makers.
So, middle of next week I will be in their office demanding my $4. I should ask for all $10. What I really would like to do it bill them for my time the past couple of weeks I spent on the phone with the insurance company trying to explain that Mary had 4 teeth pulled, and which parts of the claim had been paid and how the mess started in the first place. I figure I'm good for $75 an hour at least. Maybe I should bill them for $160, and start sending them harassing letters.
I guess the biggest problem is that this is the 4th dentist we've tried to take the girls to, and the girls actually like this guy. I guess if we go back I will just have to watch the billing process like a hawk...
The dental office did something screwy with the billing. They billed the office visit and one of the tooth extractions separate from the other 3 extractions. After they submitted those 2 claims, they submitted everything together another time. This confused the insurance company. The 3 extractions were paid for, the other 2 claims were both rejected. (This was Christmas Eve when they rejected the 2 claims.)
In February, I figured out that the claims had been rejected and they were billing us for something like $200 worth of stuff. I called the dentist office and asked them what was going on, they were going to contact the insurance company. At least that's what they said they were going to do, what they actually did was resubmit the claims, including all 4 teeth that were pulled, even though 3 of them had been paid for. The insurance company dutifully rejected everything as duplicates.
2 weeks ago, I called the insurance company to explain what was going on. They seemed to figure out what was going on and were going to resubmit the claims for processing. I called the dentists office to explain this to them, it looks like their response was to first resubmit the entire claim (including all 4 extraction) to the insurance company, then turn around and send us another bill.
The bill this time has a big orange "FINAL NOTICE!" sticker, along with the following note: "Unless your balance of $199.82 is paid in full by 4/28/08, then it will be sent to Mountain Land Collections. Your credit will be affected." Isn't that nice of them? I guess that's what I get for calling them to explain that the insurance was working on paying them. Before I had called them, I worked out what we had paid them and what we were going to owe. It turns out that the dentists office was going to owe me $10.
So imagine my surprise when in the mail today came this bill with the collections notice on it. I called the insurance company to talk to them about this craziness, they finally figures out the one line item that hadn't been paid and sent it back out to be processed.
When I talked to the dentists office, they didn't want to take responsibility for the mess. I'm not sure why they thought submitting 5 different claims for the same work would make a difference, but the initial 3 sets of claims all at the same time really messed everything up. Our current balance is something like $58. My $10 they owed me is down to $4, because they have tacked on a couple of "finance charges". I could just go down to their office and pay the $58 to avoid any further 'finance charges', but then I would have to try to get all my money back out of them once the insurance claims finishes processing. The way things have been going, I would have gone back in and asked for my money, and they would have sent me a check in the mail, but it would get messed up and I would get 3 checks for the money instead of just 1, and we would have to go all through this crap again.
The lady on the phone said that as long as the thing gets paid by the end of the month, we would be fine and it wouldn't go to collections. This kind of ticked me off and made me slightly hostile. I asked them if they wanted to take any kind of responsibility for this, since they were the ones that double billed the thing in the first place. She indicated that they have had problems recently getting the insurance to pay out on extractions, she didn't know why, but that's what has been happening. I ended the conversation with something about how if we choose to ever go back there, I would be sure to follow up with the billing people so they submit one and only one claim, it gets paid, and we don't have to go through this again. She stuck to her story about the insurance company being the trouble makers.
So, middle of next week I will be in their office demanding my $4. I should ask for all $10. What I really would like to do it bill them for my time the past couple of weeks I spent on the phone with the insurance company trying to explain that Mary had 4 teeth pulled, and which parts of the claim had been paid and how the mess started in the first place. I figure I'm good for $75 an hour at least. Maybe I should bill them for $160, and start sending them harassing letters.
I guess the biggest problem is that this is the 4th dentist we've tried to take the girls to, and the girls actually like this guy. I guess if we go back I will just have to watch the billing process like a hawk...
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Staining the play set
It's supposed to get really warm and dry this weekend. Like the mid 70's. It seems like a good time to stain the play set. The only problem with staining the play set is that if I do that, then the girls can't play out there Saturday. It could get pretty crazy in the house if they can't go out.
Of course, there is no school next week, they have Spring break. If I did get it done on Saturday, it should be dry by Monday morning when they are all sent out to play.
I also have to decide what I'm going to stain the deck with. Do I use some sort of water seal? Do I just stain the deck?
So many choices in my life...
Of course, there is no school next week, they have Spring break. If I did get it done on Saturday, it should be dry by Monday morning when they are all sent out to play.
I also have to decide what I'm going to stain the deck with. Do I use some sort of water seal? Do I just stain the deck?
So many choices in my life...
Book Review
Russell M Nelson - Father Surgeon ApostleSpencer Condie
This was an interesting book. Tara gave it to me for Christmas, I have been reading it off and on ever since. Elder Nelson certainly has been a busy man in his life.
He was a pioneer in the field of open heart surgery. He has learned a number of different languages in his life. He ended up dedicating a large number of countries for the preaching of the Gospel. (At least it seemed like a large number to me.)
He seems to believe he can accomplish many things, as long as he set his will to it. Need to learn Chinese? Just make yourself do it, he did. Need to stay healthy, go ahead and do it. This might not work for everyone, but it seems to have worked for him.
An interesting book. He seems to be a guy who just went about in his life trying to do the right thing. I guess that's how it goes...
Sunday, April 06, 2008
72 hour kit buffet
Every 6 months, at General Conference time, we rotate the stuff out of our 72 hour kits. There are a couple of reasons for this.
The most important reason is to get fresher food into the things. At work, Ledge used to have a couple of emergency food kits on his shelf that were something like 8 years old at the time. Every time Ledge went on a trip (which was quite often at that time), Sorrel and I would talk about eating Ledge's food for him. Eventually Ledge opened these things up, and the food in it was nasty. We rotate the food out so it's not nasty when we eventually need it.
Another reason is that I have a set of diapers/underwear in those things. 6 months is about the limit for keeping a certain sized diaper for a particular person. Emma's kit had pullups in it, which she doesn't need anymore. Ruth went from size 4 diapers to size 6, and need a diaper update.
We also keep medicine in them. This needs to be rotated out, and correct dosages need to be in there. (There is actually a week's worth of stuff in them.)
Because we pull out the old food from the kits, there is a bunch of "new" food out after these conversions (new to them at least). We let the girls saddle up to the "Emergency kit buffet". We need to do something with the food, and it's a good way to make sure the girls still like to eat in the kits. The food might not be the best things they could be eating, but at least we know that if we end up having to evacuate the house, and take the kits with us, at least there is stuff in there the girls will eat. It's better than getting out, and finding them saying "I don't like this..."
The most important reason is to get fresher food into the things. At work, Ledge used to have a couple of emergency food kits on his shelf that were something like 8 years old at the time. Every time Ledge went on a trip (which was quite often at that time), Sorrel and I would talk about eating Ledge's food for him. Eventually Ledge opened these things up, and the food in it was nasty. We rotate the food out so it's not nasty when we eventually need it.
Another reason is that I have a set of diapers/underwear in those things. 6 months is about the limit for keeping a certain sized diaper for a particular person. Emma's kit had pullups in it, which she doesn't need anymore. Ruth went from size 4 diapers to size 6, and need a diaper update.
We also keep medicine in them. This needs to be rotated out, and correct dosages need to be in there. (There is actually a week's worth of stuff in them.)
Because we pull out the old food from the kits, there is a bunch of "new" food out after these conversions (new to them at least). We let the girls saddle up to the "Emergency kit buffet". We need to do something with the food, and it's a good way to make sure the girls still like to eat in the kits. The food might not be the best things they could be eating, but at least we know that if we end up having to evacuate the house, and take the kits with us, at least there is stuff in there the girls will eat. It's better than getting out, and finding them saying "I don't like this..."
Saturday, April 05, 2008
The death of Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston died today.
This is what he looks like now.
Now, who doesn't get the joke?
This is what he looks like now.Now, who doesn't get the joke?
Book Review
Iron Man
(Based on the soon to be hit movie!)
Peter David
I started running out of things to read on my trip. I picked this book up on Thursday, not having anything else to do then. The book was ok, it looks like the movie sets the Iron Man origin story in the present day. I'm going to reserve judgment of the movie for the inevitable review after it comes out.
I'm starting to sort of get tired of all the super hero movies where they feel forced to tell the story of how the super hero started. I guess it's fine, not everyone knows the stories, but it's not like they need to do it. Super hero movies are about the action, and sometimes it takes too long to get around to it. I hear they might make a Justice League live action movie, I am really hoping they just write in a real script, and not just try to tell the back story. (Just assume we know the back story already.) I know they really just want to be able to make a bunch of movie, then make another movie to make more movie. Sometimes this works, see Spiderman. Sometimes this doesn't work, see The Hulk.
I guess the redeeming quality of the book was that it didn't bog down so far that it made it hard to read. It's in my "quick read" category.
Game Time
Age of Empires - The Warchiefs
This morning we had Dad, Amy, Dave, and Tom in to play. Drew would have played, but had to go do traffic for a marathon. It beats running in a marathon... We played The Warchiefs because Tom and Amy don't have the other version.
Tom and I played against the other 3. It was a West vs. East thing. The game was kind of slow, we eventually won with a Trade Route victory. WE made sure we had 1 extra trade route than we needed before we started the TR victory trigger. Dad and Dave nearly knocked one of them down in time, but the 3 of them were no where near knocking the required 2 down. We got done in time to get ready for conference.
This morning we had Dad, Amy, Dave, and Tom in to play. Drew would have played, but had to go do traffic for a marathon. It beats running in a marathon... We played The Warchiefs because Tom and Amy don't have the other version.
Tom and I played against the other 3. It was a West vs. East thing. The game was kind of slow, we eventually won with a Trade Route victory. WE made sure we had 1 extra trade route than we needed before we started the TR victory trigger. Dad and Dave nearly knocked one of them down in time, but the 3 of them were no where near knocking the required 2 down. We got done in time to get ready for conference.
Final travel log from the trip
Thursday night, we went around looking for a place to eat. Jess found a NY Times article from a couple of years ago that talked about places NYC chefs go to eat when they are not in the city. (Stuff sort of near us in New Jersey.) A couple of the places we had been to already.
We went looking for one place, but we couldn't find it. (We had the address, and drive to where it was supposed to be, but it wasn't there.)
After we couldn't find the place, we started looking at others. We had the address for a Thai place, but Gale can't tolerate spicy food. (He can't tolerate cheese, KFC was too spicy for him, that sort of thing.) We figured Thai was out. Jess kind of wanted to go to a Japanese Hibachi place, there were a number of them out there. The first one we went to gave me sticker shock, we left and went looking for somewhere else. I got over the sticker shock, Jess was kind of upset, he really wanted to go. We found another, and went in, but Gale was unwilling to pay $20 something dollars for dinner. This really upset Jess, I drove the 2 of them out to the Tick Tock Diner, which seemed acceptable to them both.
On Friday, we had an hour of lecture, the lab involved a trouble shooting section, where a script broke the fail over tool a number of different ways, you had to fix them after each different bug was introduced. This wasn't all that hard, I took an hour, then Jess took an hour.
We left at lunchtime, the class was done. Our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 5pm. We went up to the KMart we knew about, I got Tara a Yankees jersey, and the girls each a tee ball baseball.
We figured we could find a place to eat on the way to the airport, but neither Jess or Gale picked a place before we passed it. We ended up just driving in to the airport. (Newark.) The airport was fairly not busy when we got there, which wasn't a bad thing. They had a number of places to eat in the main terminal, but the only one that sounded ok was Chili's, Jess and I ended up both eating there.
I don't know what it is about the service in Chili's located at airports. I always have poor service at these things. I don't know why. I wonder if it's Chili's corporate policy is to make sure there are slow servers at their airport restaurants. The one at Newark airport appears to be no different. The food was ok, I had fajitas, the meat should have been just a little bit more cooked. I guess the good thing is that we had plenty of time to sit there.
Our flight got delayed, there were big problems with weather in Atlanta that made lots of things late. There was supposed to be a flight coming in from Atlanta and back out at our gate before our flight, but the plane from Atlanta didn't take off until about 1/2 hour before we were supposed to go. The lady at the gate was having a bad day. She kept making announcements telling people what was going on, and kept asking all the Atlanta passengers to stay seated so she could get the Salt Lake City people taken care of. People kept coming up asking about the Atlanta flight. Things like "Where is the Atlanta flight?", "Is this an aisle seat", "What kind of food will be available on the Atlanta flight?", and "Is there a movie on the Atlanta flight?" It was driving her absolutely nuts.
We finally got on the flight, but as we were boarding, there were people standing all around the gate. There were dozens of people standing around, but were not in line to get on the plane. (Atlanta bound people.) I got in line when my zone was called, but it ended up not being the line. I had to weave my way around a bunch of people to get onto the plane. It was kind of a zoo.
The flight was supposed to be totally full, when I checked online, the seat next to me was sold, but I ended up having an empty seat next to me. (Good thing) The plane was one of the old Song planes, so it had personal TVs in the back of each seat. The thing included TV, movies, music and games. (Good thing) Because they could, they were charging for all movies. (Bad thing) I didn't pay to watch any movies. It was supposed to be National Treasure book of secrets, but that one is in my Netflix queue, so I will eventually see it. I played the inflight trivia a lot. (Good thing) I ended up winning a number of rounds, I think most of the other rounds were won by the guy sitting across the aisle from me. We only landed 30 minutes late.
There was a family in front of us with a 4 or 5 year old boy. It sounded like the man was a step-father. The little boy was absolutely out of control. He was loud and rude to his parents, any time they tried to get him to behave himself, he would start shouting very rude things to them. Then he would stand up, stand on their laps, and start stomping on them. Then he would jump down and run all the way to the front of the plane. They were absolutely unable to control this kid. It looked like they also got a few bites from their trouble for their efforts...
The girls seemed happy to see I was home this morning. Lily was really happy. The younger girls were a little confused about where I went.
I only gained 4 pounds from all that good food I ate in the last week...
We went looking for one place, but we couldn't find it. (We had the address, and drive to where it was supposed to be, but it wasn't there.)
After we couldn't find the place, we started looking at others. We had the address for a Thai place, but Gale can't tolerate spicy food. (He can't tolerate cheese, KFC was too spicy for him, that sort of thing.) We figured Thai was out. Jess kind of wanted to go to a Japanese Hibachi place, there were a number of them out there. The first one we went to gave me sticker shock, we left and went looking for somewhere else. I got over the sticker shock, Jess was kind of upset, he really wanted to go. We found another, and went in, but Gale was unwilling to pay $20 something dollars for dinner. This really upset Jess, I drove the 2 of them out to the Tick Tock Diner, which seemed acceptable to them both.
On Friday, we had an hour of lecture, the lab involved a trouble shooting section, where a script broke the fail over tool a number of different ways, you had to fix them after each different bug was introduced. This wasn't all that hard, I took an hour, then Jess took an hour.
We left at lunchtime, the class was done. Our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 5pm. We went up to the KMart we knew about, I got Tara a Yankees jersey, and the girls each a tee ball baseball.
We figured we could find a place to eat on the way to the airport, but neither Jess or Gale picked a place before we passed it. We ended up just driving in to the airport. (Newark.) The airport was fairly not busy when we got there, which wasn't a bad thing. They had a number of places to eat in the main terminal, but the only one that sounded ok was Chili's, Jess and I ended up both eating there.
I don't know what it is about the service in Chili's located at airports. I always have poor service at these things. I don't know why. I wonder if it's Chili's corporate policy is to make sure there are slow servers at their airport restaurants. The one at Newark airport appears to be no different. The food was ok, I had fajitas, the meat should have been just a little bit more cooked. I guess the good thing is that we had plenty of time to sit there.
Our flight got delayed, there were big problems with weather in Atlanta that made lots of things late. There was supposed to be a flight coming in from Atlanta and back out at our gate before our flight, but the plane from Atlanta didn't take off until about 1/2 hour before we were supposed to go. The lady at the gate was having a bad day. She kept making announcements telling people what was going on, and kept asking all the Atlanta passengers to stay seated so she could get the Salt Lake City people taken care of. People kept coming up asking about the Atlanta flight. Things like "Where is the Atlanta flight?", "Is this an aisle seat", "What kind of food will be available on the Atlanta flight?", and "Is there a movie on the Atlanta flight?" It was driving her absolutely nuts.
We finally got on the flight, but as we were boarding, there were people standing all around the gate. There were dozens of people standing around, but were not in line to get on the plane. (Atlanta bound people.) I got in line when my zone was called, but it ended up not being the line. I had to weave my way around a bunch of people to get onto the plane. It was kind of a zoo.
The flight was supposed to be totally full, when I checked online, the seat next to me was sold, but I ended up having an empty seat next to me. (Good thing) The plane was one of the old Song planes, so it had personal TVs in the back of each seat. The thing included TV, movies, music and games. (Good thing) Because they could, they were charging for all movies. (Bad thing) I didn't pay to watch any movies. It was supposed to be National Treasure book of secrets, but that one is in my Netflix queue, so I will eventually see it. I played the inflight trivia a lot. (Good thing) I ended up winning a number of rounds, I think most of the other rounds were won by the guy sitting across the aisle from me. We only landed 30 minutes late.
There was a family in front of us with a 4 or 5 year old boy. It sounded like the man was a step-father. The little boy was absolutely out of control. He was loud and rude to his parents, any time they tried to get him to behave himself, he would start shouting very rude things to them. Then he would stand up, stand on their laps, and start stomping on them. Then he would jump down and run all the way to the front of the plane. They were absolutely unable to control this kid. It looked like they also got a few bites from their trouble for their efforts...
The girls seemed happy to see I was home this morning. Lily was really happy. The younger girls were a little confused about where I went.
I only gained 4 pounds from all that good food I ate in the last week...
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Random thoughts on a visit to New York City
Some thoughts from me:
- Driving - I kind of like driving down the street in Manhattan. It's kind of like playing a game of "Crazy Taxi", except I'm not the one in the taxi. I wonder how long it will take me to not drive "New York City style". Parallel parking on the left is kind of weird, but I think I'm getting used to it. All taxis here seem to have a reflector shaped light on the back of their cars, but they are never lit up. I wonder what these are for. I tried to ask a taxi driver last night, but he didn't speak English very well. The answers to all my questions were yes. Only one of them was a question where yes was appropriate. I could be a taxi driver, but I don't know how the Cash Cab dude does it without getting into accidents.
- Rats - I didn't see any. I was looking. I didn't see any on the street. I didn't see any in the garbage. I didn't pass any park where the ground was full of rat holes. I don't think I saw any rat holes at all. The only evidence of rodent life I saw in the city was a couple of signs in one subway station across the tracks that said the area had been baited.
- Mole Men - I didn't get to see any Mole Men. Rob says that even though some of the homeless live down in the old subway tunnels, they come out from time to time. He insists that there is no such thing as mole men. I think he's just trying to cover something up.
- Accents - I don't think my old accent is coming back. It's gone forever. I've heard lots of them this week. The only one that seemed kind of out of place was the one the stadium announcer at Yankee stadium had. It was a "proper Scottish old man" accent. I guess he's been doing it forever, but it seemed out of place to me...
- People - There are a LOT of people here. A lot of them. All kinds of people. Tara and I like to listen to the odd conversations that happen before a play starts at the plays we go to. The same thing happens here, expect of several orders of magnitude larger. Lots of conversations, lots of things going on. 4 homeless guys got on the train the other day, they were singing A Capella, and did a pretty good job. They would sing a few song, then ask for donations. At the next stop, they got off. An interesting way to ask for a handout, at least they were doing something.
- It was good to visit with Rob a bit this week.
Restaurant Review
Arthur's Fish & Chips
Garden State Plaza
We went over to one of the malls here this afternoon for lunch, figuring the food court there had plenty of choices. I stopped at the fish and chips place, because it sounded good.
The food tasted ok, I guess it was pretty good if you consider it was in a mall food court. When I have fish and chips, which is not very often at all, I like the breading on the thing to be thick, and very crispy. I didn't get this today. It was crispy on the edges, not very much at the middle. You could tell the entire thing was frozen when they dropped it in the fryer.
Short of that, things were fine except for the fact that I had a Diet Pepsi with it, and the fish in drink are not co-existing well together...
Garden State Plaza
We went over to one of the malls here this afternoon for lunch, figuring the food court there had plenty of choices. I stopped at the fish and chips place, because it sounded good.
The food tasted ok, I guess it was pretty good if you consider it was in a mall food court. When I have fish and chips, which is not very often at all, I like the breading on the thing to be thick, and very crispy. I didn't get this today. It was crispy on the edges, not very much at the middle. You could tell the entire thing was frozen when they dropped it in the fryer.
Short of that, things were fine except for the fact that I had a Diet Pepsi with it, and the fish in drink are not co-existing well together...
Blog format change
You may be noticing some changes to the sidebar right now. I did it, I'll admit it.
I changes the links to other blogs to show the latest posts on those blogs. I ordered them by latest to oldest updates. I plan to use these to check other people's blogs from now on. Google Reader is nice, but you miss comments, formatting changes, sidebar changes, and that sort of thing. This way, if I use these sidebar links, I will catch these sort of things when I go in and look at people's posts. I might still miss things if posts are not made, but I will miss less things than I am now. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone, but it makes sense to me.
I changes the links to other blogs to show the latest posts on those blogs. I ordered them by latest to oldest updates. I plan to use these to check other people's blogs from now on. Google Reader is nice, but you miss comments, formatting changes, sidebar changes, and that sort of thing. This way, if I use these sidebar links, I will catch these sort of things when I go in and look at people's posts. I might still miss things if posts are not made, but I will miss less things than I am now. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone, but it makes sense to me.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Restaurant Review
28 Noodles
Somewhere on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
After the game, I was pretty hungry. Rob was mildly hungry. Jess wasn't hungry, but was willing to wander around looking for a place for us to get something to eat. We settled on 28 noodles, which was a Chinese/Vietnamese place. As we were going in, we got a glowing review from the lady coming out. We got there around 10:20pm, they were closing at 11pm, so we had to tell them we would hurry.
When they gave me the menu, I opened it and said "look, a big bowl of soup." They actually did have a big bowl of soup, it ended up not just being a joke. Having just gotten mostly thawed out from the game, a big bowl of soup sounded good. I got the bowl of Pho Bo. (Some sort of Oxtail noodle soup.)
The soup was really good. It was much better than the "big bowl of pho" I had several years ago. I really liked this one, so much that I was mostly full at 2/3 of the way done, but had to keep going until the entire bowl of Pho was gone.
I don't remember what Rob had, but he seemed to like it. Rob ended up paying. Thanks Rob.
Somewhere on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
After the game, I was pretty hungry. Rob was mildly hungry. Jess wasn't hungry, but was willing to wander around looking for a place for us to get something to eat. We settled on 28 noodles, which was a Chinese/Vietnamese place. As we were going in, we got a glowing review from the lady coming out. We got there around 10:20pm, they were closing at 11pm, so we had to tell them we would hurry.
When they gave me the menu, I opened it and said "look, a big bowl of soup." They actually did have a big bowl of soup, it ended up not just being a joke. Having just gotten mostly thawed out from the game, a big bowl of soup sounded good. I got the bowl of Pho Bo. (Some sort of Oxtail noodle soup.)
The soup was really good. It was much better than the "big bowl of pho" I had several years ago. I really liked this one, so much that I was mostly full at 2/3 of the way done, but had to keep going until the entire bowl of Pho was gone.
I don't remember what Rob had, but he seemed to like it. Rob ended up paying. Thanks Rob.
Soon to be "Old Yankee Stadium"
We got into the city tonight, to go to the Yankees game. We took the subway to up to the stadium, which was an adventure in and of itself. Every train was jam packed with people. Jess and I were waiting for Rob to show up, we saw a lot of people go by. It was kind of fascinating to watch a train jam packed with people pull up, some people get out, and another set of people try to cram back into the train. When we got to go on the train, we kind of just had to turn in circles to get onto the train, with all the people moving around us.At the game, they had security lines where you had to unzip your jacket, they would make sure you didn't have bottles, and they were checking to make sure all cell phones were real. They were also inspecting It seemed like just a little bit slightly weird set of things to be looking for. Rob had come straight from work, and had his work bag with him. The girl doing the check wouldn't let him in with his bag. She was trying to convince Rob to take the bag home, which wasn't going to happen. Rob eventually got to some sort of bag inspection overlord, and Rob flashed his NYC DA's office badge. This seemed to be the secret code for "You don't need to see what's in my bag, move along..." I'm not sure I've seen Rob pull rank before, but he did a good job at it. (Almost as if he's a practiced hand at it...)
It was kind of cold and windy at the game, but I was wearing a rugby shirt, my black jacket, and my green jacket. I also had a knit hat and a ball cap on. This was a pretty good mix of stuff. It took an hour, but eventually the peanut guy showed up, I left a big pile of ground up peanut shells on the floor of Old Yankee Stadium.
There was a large crowd of rowdies at the very top of the stadium. They got kicked out by the police in the 6th inning. The guy sitting next to me got mustard on the back of his coat from something (pretzel or hot dog bun, I'm not sure which) which was left from the game last night.
A-Rod hit a 2 run homer. Johnny Damon robbed some dude of a home run at the wall. Jason Giambi dove into a television camera trying to get after a foul ball. (I'm always telling those guys in my head that they 'should have dove for it.') There were a couple of nice double plays. The Yankees lost 5 to 2.
After the 7th inning, we left the stadium, let a crowd push us into a subway car, and headed back towards the car.
I can now say I have attended a baseball game at "Old" Yankee Stadium. You have 79 home games left to be able to say that yourself.
Restaurant Review
Chili's
Paramus, NJ
We decided to go to Chili's for lunch today. (I didn't really want something with bread in it, figured Chili's would provide the right layout.)
I had chicken lettuce wraps, which must be a new menu item there. I also ordered chips and salsa, which I always do when I go to Chili's.
The lettuce wraqps were interesting, they aren't the chopped pieces of chicken you would get from PF Changs, but strips of chicken. It's like a lettuce fajita. The flavor was good, but I avoided the red sauce that came with it, it was kind of sweet tasting. The other stuff was a cilantro thing, which was good.
Paramus, NJ
We decided to go to Chili's for lunch today. (I didn't really want something with bread in it, figured Chili's would provide the right layout.)
I had chicken lettuce wraps, which must be a new menu item there. I also ordered chips and salsa, which I always do when I go to Chili's.
The lettuce wraqps were interesting, they aren't the chopped pieces of chicken you would get from PF Changs, but strips of chicken. It's like a lettuce fajita. The flavor was good, but I avoided the red sauce that came with it, it was kind of sweet tasting. The other stuff was a cilantro thing, which was good.
Book Review
Managing Service Guard for Linux
Most people here will not find this manual useful. For those who do, this manual looks like it will be a very useful thing. It's got some diagrams in it that are not found in the materials from the Service Guard class, but are nice to see.
It's got every single planning worksheet you could possibly need to plan out a Service Guard implementation.
I actually went through this manual during the class this week. I wanted to compare what was in the manual to what was being presented in the class. I think at this point I'm ready to roll at work. The software finally arrived at my office yesterday.
It seems kind of imposing at 400 pages, but I printed it out 4 pages to a sheet, and duplexed it, so I knocked it down to a very less massive 50 pages...
Most people here will not find this manual useful. For those who do, this manual looks like it will be a very useful thing. It's got some diagrams in it that are not found in the materials from the Service Guard class, but are nice to see.
It's got every single planning worksheet you could possibly need to plan out a Service Guard implementation.
I actually went through this manual during the class this week. I wanted to compare what was in the manual to what was being presented in the class. I think at this point I'm ready to roll at work. The software finally arrived at my office yesterday.
It seems kind of imposing at 400 pages, but I printed it out 4 pages to a sheet, and duplexed it, so I knocked it down to a very less massive 50 pages...
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Trouble in "The City"
This afternoon after class we drove into the city to find a place to eat. Our rental car has Virginia plates, not NY or NJ plates. I have been a little worried about cops or someone looking to rob the parked car profiling us because we clearly from out of town. (We've made
We got ourselves into a tollbooth that required exact change, but we didn't have it. We weren't exactly sure what to do, the cars behind us started getting impatient and horns were blaring, so we went ahead and drove on. I was on my cell phone as we crossed the bridge. We got pulled over.
The guy that pulled us over cited us for running the toll booth and talking on the phone while driving. They said they are running a zero tolerance policy this week, and I was arrested. I'm thinking "Isn't this a little excessive for a phone and toll booth?", but I didn't say anything, being in a foreign environment. What I didn't know is after they took me away, they also took Jess away and impounded the car.
It turns out that they had some sort of information from Homeland Security about people entering the city with a Virginia rental car. I don't know the details, but I was held for several hours, our car was searched, and when nothing was found, we were released. They don't appear to be telling the public about this, maybe they are just pulling over every car with Virginia plates going into the city and shaking the people down. I did get a ticket for talking on the cell phone while driving, and I now have a little envelope that I can pay my toll and mail it in. What a pain.
I talked to Rob, there is not much he can say about it, they were just doing their job. It was an interesting experience. After they searched my person, and I ended up sitting in a little interview room by myself for a while. (Not knowing what was going on, when someone would come in to talk to me, or anything like that. I was also getting kind of hungry, but I guess that's besides the point.) I wonder if this will bring be back to having trouble flying again. I have been able to fly without getting hassled lately by booking as JohnJ, which appears to work every time. It's a pain to get stopped at the airport every time to have them call in and make sure I am cleared to fly.
I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, we are supposed to go into the city to go to the Yankees game. Maybe we will have to drive down to Newark to go to National and trade the car for a different one. This car has some sort of problem with the steering column anyway...
Restaurant review
Banjara
East Village, NYC
After the shenanigans getting into the city, we were very hungry. (We were coming into the city in the first place to get something to eat.) Trying to get downtown was a chore, there must have been a big accident on the FDR parkway, we eventually got off and drove down through Harlem. We drove down to meet Rob near a place called "Little India", on 6th street between 1st and 2nd avenues. This street has something like a dozen Indian restaurants all on the same block. I guess the in-joke here is that they all use the same kitchen. Rob didn't confirm or deny it being true, just laid it out there for us.
We went to a place called Banjara. I ended up ordering some sort of spicy lamb dish. It was called "Lal something", I forget exactly at this point. The spiciness of the dish didn't hit you full in the face from the first bite, it kind of built up gradually to get there. I really liked it, the lamb was nice and tender. They served rice with it, but it was a short grin rice with some sort of citrus in it. It was interesting.
It was good food. Up next for tomorrow, ballpark food. Provided we can get into the city.
East Village, NYC
After the shenanigans getting into the city, we were very hungry. (We were coming into the city in the first place to get something to eat.) Trying to get downtown was a chore, there must have been a big accident on the FDR parkway, we eventually got off and drove down through Harlem. We drove down to meet Rob near a place called "Little India", on 6th street between 1st and 2nd avenues. This street has something like a dozen Indian restaurants all on the same block. I guess the in-joke here is that they all use the same kitchen. Rob didn't confirm or deny it being true, just laid it out there for us.
We went to a place called Banjara. I ended up ordering some sort of spicy lamb dish. It was called "Lal something", I forget exactly at this point. The spiciness of the dish didn't hit you full in the face from the first bite, it kind of built up gradually to get there. I really liked it, the lamb was nice and tender. They served rice with it, but it was a short grin rice with some sort of citrus in it. It was interesting.
It was good food. Up next for tomorrow, ballpark food. Provided we can get into the city.
Restaurant Review
Tom Sawyer Diner
Paramus, NJ
I found some very strong recommendations for this place online last night. It opened recently, I thought they had just built a new place to exspand their business. While we were eating, the guys next to us that had come in talked about how the old place burned to the ground, and they rebuilt. It must have been a popular place, we got there at 11:40 pm, by noon the place was packed.
I had an omelet and had beef and barley soup. Both were very good. I had the 1/2 bowl of soup, which was still plenty big. The omelet was gigantic. The omelet came with a big pile of hash browned potatoes.
The place still has it's new smell, everything is clean, and the service was great.
Paramus, NJ
I found some very strong recommendations for this place online last night. It opened recently, I thought they had just built a new place to exspand their business. While we were eating, the guys next to us that had come in talked about how the old place burned to the ground, and they rebuilt. It must have been a popular place, we got there at 11:40 pm, by noon the place was packed.
I had an omelet and had beef and barley soup. Both were very good. I had the 1/2 bowl of soup, which was still plenty big. The omelet was gigantic. The omelet came with a big pile of hash browned potatoes.
The place still has it's new smell, everything is clean, and the service was great.
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