Today is Emma's 8th birthday. Emma is 8. Kate is nearly 12. Hard to believe...
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
More Bad Parenting
Today's edition - age inappropriate toys
I guess she's still got a couple of weeks before she can use the Ultra Saucer...
I guess she's still got a couple of weeks before she can use the Ultra Saucer...
Monday, August 22, 2011
1st of school - 2011 edition
Today is the first day of school - and Tara couldn't be happier!
Emma is listing forward just slightly, because she decided last night that the backpack she used last year was too small. She opted for a much larger one this year, and filled it full of stuff the school was extorting out of us. (National Parent Extortion Project - AKA School Supply Lists)
Anyway, the girls are excited. Kate was doubly excited when she found out that they would get breakfast at school today as well. I'm not sure what that indicates about her priorities at school, but then again, she comes by it naturally. The main thought on my mind for the last 36 hours is the fact that Rocky Mountain Wing Shack is opening a place here in Provo in two weeks...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
If I had been faster on the draw, we could be saying "Drat! Foiled Again!"...
A few weeks ago, one of the guys on our team went on a vacation for a while. At some point early on in his stay away from the office, a small fund was put together, aluminum foil was procured, and we went to work wrapping his desk, his stuff, his pictures, everything. Lots and lots of people helped. We labeled it as a "team building activity", but I think we had people from all over the department eventually help. And they enjoyed it.
The final product looked pretty good. I folded up some fold creations with absolutely nothing in them, so he would open them up and not find anything. I was getting ready to do one when someone came in asking some questions, I used the foil to draw the picture, then I folded it up. (He opened it up, and wanted to know what the picture was trying to say...)
It was a fine foiling job, but the day he came back, I decided it needed just a little more, so I went to the store and got some of those large Hersheys bars, and took the other wrapper off, so they were just foil. Blended right in. Took him a while to find them.
Here he is, clearly enjoying the craftsmanship. We had our building dedication two weeks later, a few days after he came back, the department HR lady showed up, said "What happened to your desk?" They talked for a few minutes, then she told him to have it cleaned up before the dedication.
The dedication was last Friday, his desk looks really good, and not a lot of traces of foil. (They are there, we stashed some things...) No one really came through our area to tour the place after the dedication. He could have left his desk foiled.
Sunday night, at around 10pm, I realized that we could have come back in on Saturday, and refoiled all his stuff. That would had been funny. He gets foiled, he cleans it up, we immediately refoil... Too bad I didn't think of it sooner.
The final product looked pretty good. I folded up some fold creations with absolutely nothing in them, so he would open them up and not find anything. I was getting ready to do one when someone came in asking some questions, I used the foil to draw the picture, then I folded it up. (He opened it up, and wanted to know what the picture was trying to say...)
It was a fine foiling job, but the day he came back, I decided it needed just a little more, so I went to the store and got some of those large Hersheys bars, and took the other wrapper off, so they were just foil. Blended right in. Took him a while to find them.
Here he is, clearly enjoying the craftsmanship. We had our building dedication two weeks later, a few days after he came back, the department HR lady showed up, said "What happened to your desk?" They talked for a few minutes, then she told him to have it cleaned up before the dedication.
The dedication was last Friday, his desk looks really good, and not a lot of traces of foil. (They are there, we stashed some things...) No one really came through our area to tour the place after the dedication. He could have left his desk foiled.
Sunday night, at around 10pm, I realized that we could have come back in on Saturday, and refoiled all his stuff. That would had been funny. He gets foiled, he cleans it up, we immediately refoil... Too bad I didn't think of it sooner.
Monday, August 15, 2011
New camcorder
I got a new camcorder on Friday, just hours too late to do an incomprehensible recording from the Chinese boot camp that happened for Emma and Ruth last week. (It is wholly possible that I was just not paying attention, but I had to ask Tara several times what they were talking about.) The camcorder came without a SD card, and the best deal was on Amazon, so it's only ready to roll tonight.
Anyway, next time there is some sort of presentation at the school, we might actually be able to record and present it, not just give you slight blurry pictures. For now, you will have to make due with "children confused by technology"...
And we will try to focus on "Noel thinks her Dad is funny" another time:
Oh, by the way, the camcorder was free. Not a bad deal at all...
Anyway, next time there is some sort of presentation at the school, we might actually be able to record and present it, not just give you slight blurry pictures. For now, you will have to make due with "children confused by technology"...
And we will try to focus on "Noel thinks her Dad is funny" another time:
Oh, by the way, the camcorder was free. Not a bad deal at all...
Saturday, August 13, 2011
A "lifestyle changing" offer
We have have a vendor at work whose products we have used for a long time. We've had a fairly good relationship with the vendor, I suppose, and two of us on my team know one of the products absolutely inside and out. The other guy knows a related product just as well also. From time to time we have helped the vendor out as a reference client, talking to other potential clients about our environment, deployment, and the benefits gained. We primarily used the product to help manage a mix environment, when we had all kinds of Unix and Linux machines on the floor. These days we have one Operating System we use the product for, and we think we can replace the product with native tools. Our department pays quite a bit of money for the product, and a replacement would save a bundle. I am targeting being done by the end of the year.
The vendor has a guy that started being the rep for this product something like 6 years ago. A couple of years ago he was promoted to being the rep in the Mountain West, and then I think the entire West. We last talked to him about six months ago, they had another reference client call that they wanted help with. He called last week, and wanted to visit with us again. I assumed it would be another reference client he wanted to see if we could talk to, and planned to break the news to him that we were moving off the product.
It turned out that he has been promoted again, and he is a company VP over the product. Good for him. He also told us that the product had finally been the top performer in the company for the first time ever, and his people were busier than they had ever been. He had 12 positions opened for Senior Architects and wanted to know if we wanted the job.
We had upgraded the two products in question from one version to another a few years ago. He had heard it from our sales rep and didn't believe it at first, because the two versions were fairly different from each other, and they hadn't to that point had any customers worldwide that had done the upgrade by themselves. To that point, everyone had engaged with the company for professional services to get the upgrade done. It wasn't too terribly hard for us, since we understood the products so well, and understood our environment so well...
Anyway, I think if we had said yes, he would have had us on a plane next week to help a customer design their deployment. (This is what Senior Architects do, professional services to help design deployments, upgrades, and the like.) The job would involve quite a bit of travel, which I am not sure I am willing to do. I have a 30 minute commute to work if I walk. I try to avoid going more than 10 miles from my house, as much as possible. (I generally stay within about a 2 mile radius, really.) When Tara wanted to go to France, I bought her tickets out of Provo, instead of Salt Lake, so that I didn't have to drive up there and back to drop her off and pick her up. The small increase in ticket cost and the baggage fee was well worth the tradeoff. I would not be a good commuter. I assume I would suffer from road rage if I had to drive a significant distance to work on a regular basis. The idea of taking a job where I would have to fly all over the country fairly often doesn't really excite me.
The guy from the vendor tried to talk up the job. It would double my pay. He has a lot of day trips, and his wife travels with him a lot. The technical guys participate in the sales bonuses that come in. He had one guy that got a million dollars in bonuses last year as a technical guy, then he quit to go live on a beach somewhere. He said it could be a 'lifestyle changing' job. I could afford a nanny to take care of the kids while I traveled. (And on and on.)
I'm not sure I want to change my lifestyle. It's not a bad lifestyle. Our family is not starving. I work close to home. This summer I have been taking Thursdays off and taking the kids to the waterpark. We like living here. I like my job, it stays varied enough to keep me fully interested in the things we are doing, and in the next couple of years, we can see ourselves making some very interesting changes in our environment. I'm not sure going from client to client helping design their deployments of the product would keep me as interested in what was going on, it seems like it would be generally the same time after time. Also, it's not like I am anywhere close to the end of my career, and I'm not sure that working for a vendor is an incredibly stable idea. Sure, I could make a lot of money for four or five years, but then be tired of it and ready to move on. Or the company could be sold and gone, or carved into pieces. You never know.
With all other job offers I have had, I haven't had the feeling that it's time to go. There has always still been work to do here. I really like my job, and am really looking forward to some of the things we want to try to do here. At this point, I don't want to leave, and while the money would be nice, there are more important things than money...
Having said all that, the other guy is in a much different point in his life than I am. I could see him taking the offer, and doing really well with it...
Anyway, I am not taking this offer. The benefits really don't seem to outweigh the consequences.
The vendor has a guy that started being the rep for this product something like 6 years ago. A couple of years ago he was promoted to being the rep in the Mountain West, and then I think the entire West. We last talked to him about six months ago, they had another reference client call that they wanted help with. He called last week, and wanted to visit with us again. I assumed it would be another reference client he wanted to see if we could talk to, and planned to break the news to him that we were moving off the product.
It turned out that he has been promoted again, and he is a company VP over the product. Good for him. He also told us that the product had finally been the top performer in the company for the first time ever, and his people were busier than they had ever been. He had 12 positions opened for Senior Architects and wanted to know if we wanted the job.
We had upgraded the two products in question from one version to another a few years ago. He had heard it from our sales rep and didn't believe it at first, because the two versions were fairly different from each other, and they hadn't to that point had any customers worldwide that had done the upgrade by themselves. To that point, everyone had engaged with the company for professional services to get the upgrade done. It wasn't too terribly hard for us, since we understood the products so well, and understood our environment so well...
Anyway, I think if we had said yes, he would have had us on a plane next week to help a customer design their deployment. (This is what Senior Architects do, professional services to help design deployments, upgrades, and the like.) The job would involve quite a bit of travel, which I am not sure I am willing to do. I have a 30 minute commute to work if I walk. I try to avoid going more than 10 miles from my house, as much as possible. (I generally stay within about a 2 mile radius, really.) When Tara wanted to go to France, I bought her tickets out of Provo, instead of Salt Lake, so that I didn't have to drive up there and back to drop her off and pick her up. The small increase in ticket cost and the baggage fee was well worth the tradeoff. I would not be a good commuter. I assume I would suffer from road rage if I had to drive a significant distance to work on a regular basis. The idea of taking a job where I would have to fly all over the country fairly often doesn't really excite me.
The guy from the vendor tried to talk up the job. It would double my pay. He has a lot of day trips, and his wife travels with him a lot. The technical guys participate in the sales bonuses that come in. He had one guy that got a million dollars in bonuses last year as a technical guy, then he quit to go live on a beach somewhere. He said it could be a 'lifestyle changing' job. I could afford a nanny to take care of the kids while I traveled. (And on and on.)
I'm not sure I want to change my lifestyle. It's not a bad lifestyle. Our family is not starving. I work close to home. This summer I have been taking Thursdays off and taking the kids to the waterpark. We like living here. I like my job, it stays varied enough to keep me fully interested in the things we are doing, and in the next couple of years, we can see ourselves making some very interesting changes in our environment. I'm not sure going from client to client helping design their deployments of the product would keep me as interested in what was going on, it seems like it would be generally the same time after time. Also, it's not like I am anywhere close to the end of my career, and I'm not sure that working for a vendor is an incredibly stable idea. Sure, I could make a lot of money for four or five years, but then be tired of it and ready to move on. Or the company could be sold and gone, or carved into pieces. You never know.
With all other job offers I have had, I haven't had the feeling that it's time to go. There has always still been work to do here. I really like my job, and am really looking forward to some of the things we want to try to do here. At this point, I don't want to leave, and while the money would be nice, there are more important things than money...
Having said all that, the other guy is in a much different point in his life than I am. I could see him taking the offer, and doing really well with it...
Anyway, I am not taking this offer. The benefits really don't seem to outweigh the consequences.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tour of Utah
They have a bike race out here called "Tour of Utah". It's billed as 'America's toughest stage race', I think that's mostly because they have it in the middle of August, and we have lots of mountains...
Anyway, this one of the stages ended up going up the road half a block from our house. We took the kids down to see it. Here's the extent of our excitement for the week:
Anyway, this one of the stages ended up going up the road half a block from our house. We took the kids down to see it. Here's the extent of our excitement for the week:
Clearly we are excitement deprived here. They had the road blocked off for almost an hour, for the 30 seconds of bike riding. I guess we should have watched from a few miles further up the road. The road goes on a pretty good incline from our house for another 2 miles or so, then drops fairly fast. It sounds like 10-15 riders wiped out in the transition from the incline to the decline. (They also said the riders were going 38 MPH at the bottom of the hill...)
In about a half hour, if we are still bored, we can go out back to the same street and watch the gridlock as everyone comes in for the BYU graduation...
In about a half hour, if we are still bored, we can go out back to the same street and watch the gridlock as everyone comes in for the BYU graduation...
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Problems with comments on this blog
It looks like Blogger has an issue with comments on blogs for some users. I had someone tell me a couple of weeks ago that they tried to make a comment, but something happened afterwards and it didn't work. Tara tried tonight, and it didn't work, either.
I was using the "embedded comments form" layout, and it looked like it was blocking Tara from making comments in IE, but not Firefox. It looks like it's a known issue that blogger is working on. I changed my comment method to do a pop up window for comments, I hope that doesn't offend too many people out there. (I know there are a few of you out there that are offended by pop up windows...)
Anyway, sorry to those that tried to comment and couldn't. Carry on.
I was using the "embedded comments form" layout, and it looked like it was blocking Tara from making comments in IE, but not Firefox. It looks like it's a known issue that blogger is working on. I changed my comment method to do a pop up window for comments, I hope that doesn't offend too many people out there. (I know there are a few of you out there that are offended by pop up windows...)
Anyway, sorry to those that tried to comment and couldn't. Carry on.
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Restaurant Review
Chen's Noodle House
Orem, Utah
It has been a while since we went to a restaurant that we hadn't been to for a while. There is a little Chinese place behind the mall in Orem that hides behind a tire store. When we drive past it, I think we should stop there someday, until the other day, we never had.
We went, I didn't know what 'noodle house' really meant, but it turned out the place is a Chinese restaurant, much like many others around here, except this one has big windows and lets in plenty of light. (I am not sure why most Chinese restaurants around here are in places with no windows, except for the fact that the rent in those places must be low.)
Anyway, the food was pretty good. Our waitress tried fairly hard to be helpful, even though I was being a tiny bit difficult when ordering. (I got the Kung Pao Chicken, but was tempted to get their Seafood Soup, maybe next time...) The food was pretty good, not too sweet, not too greasy, and mine had lots of fresh vegetables in it. I didn't taste tons of preservatives that you sometimes taste. I thought it was pretty good.
All in all, the food was pretty good, and not too expensive. It's a place to stop at again someday.
Orem, Utah
It has been a while since we went to a restaurant that we hadn't been to for a while. There is a little Chinese place behind the mall in Orem that hides behind a tire store. When we drive past it, I think we should stop there someday, until the other day, we never had.
We went, I didn't know what 'noodle house' really meant, but it turned out the place is a Chinese restaurant, much like many others around here, except this one has big windows and lets in plenty of light. (I am not sure why most Chinese restaurants around here are in places with no windows, except for the fact that the rent in those places must be low.)
Anyway, the food was pretty good. Our waitress tried fairly hard to be helpful, even though I was being a tiny bit difficult when ordering. (I got the Kung Pao Chicken, but was tempted to get their Seafood Soup, maybe next time...) The food was pretty good, not too sweet, not too greasy, and mine had lots of fresh vegetables in it. I didn't taste tons of preservatives that you sometimes taste. I thought it was pretty good.
All in all, the food was pretty good, and not too expensive. It's a place to stop at again someday.
Friday, August 05, 2011
A revisiting of my goals for 2011
I haven't really focused on how I have been doing on my goals this year, I think as a result, I haven't done a very good job finishing any of them so far. Here is what I wanted to to, and how far I have gotten. They are still good goals, but unless I focus, I won't finish them this year. I might need a little inspiration on a couple of them. Here is what I wanted to do, and how I have done so far:
Do something significant I've never done before. I wanted to participate in a demolition derby, but I decided that I didn't want my thumbs broken in the derby. I also sold my old truck. It worked out anyway, since I was going to participate in the July 4th derby in Delta. (Noel was born on the 4th of July, I don't think Tara would have appreciated me doing that with her there to drive me to the hospital...) Now I am left without a good idea. Tara is taking a trip later in the year, and will be gone for three weeks. Does watching the kids for that long count? I'm not sure...
Go somewhere I have never been before. I generally stay in about a two mile radius of my house. I may be turning into a hermit. I went to Atlanta in May, but I've been there before. This one won't involve going anywhere too far away. I wonder if there is somewhere here in Utah I would want to visit.
Read twelve books. I have still not gotten back in the habit of reading like I used to yet. Having said that, I have read six books this year. This is a little surprising to me.
Do twelve small projects around the house. I haven't done too many house projects this year:
Walk 200 miles. I have gotten in 49 tracked miles so far this year. Not great, but it's something. I am almost to the point that walking to my office from home doesn't trash my ankle for the rest of the day anymore. This is a good thing. 150 miles is 100 trips to my office, but I don't think there are that many work days left in the year, and I am not currently walking there every single day. This one can only be done if I focus.
Can anyone out there help me with a little motivation? Help would be appreciated...
Do something significant I've never done before. I wanted to participate in a demolition derby, but I decided that I didn't want my thumbs broken in the derby. I also sold my old truck. It worked out anyway, since I was going to participate in the July 4th derby in Delta. (Noel was born on the 4th of July, I don't think Tara would have appreciated me doing that with her there to drive me to the hospital...) Now I am left without a good idea. Tara is taking a trip later in the year, and will be gone for three weeks. Does watching the kids for that long count? I'm not sure...
Go somewhere I have never been before. I generally stay in about a two mile radius of my house. I may be turning into a hermit. I went to Atlanta in May, but I've been there before. This one won't involve going anywhere too far away. I wonder if there is somewhere here in Utah I would want to visit.
Read twelve books. I have still not gotten back in the habit of reading like I used to yet. Having said that, I have read six books this year. This is a little surprising to me.
Do twelve small projects around the house. I haven't done too many house projects this year:
- I put a new front door on the house
- I put some 'dressers' in before the baby was born
- I made a swing for the tree in the front yard
- I did a big one a few houses down, that I'm gonna count...
- I fixed up the little baby crib for Noel
Walk 200 miles. I have gotten in 49 tracked miles so far this year. Not great, but it's something. I am almost to the point that walking to my office from home doesn't trash my ankle for the rest of the day anymore. This is a good thing. 150 miles is 100 trips to my office, but I don't think there are that many work days left in the year, and I am not currently walking there every single day. This one can only be done if I focus.
Can anyone out there help me with a little motivation? Help would be appreciated...
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Rejected!
The Credit Union I belong to has recently added a service where you can add your own custom image to you debit and credit cards. I have been thinking for a while about what picture I can put on my cards. Over the weekend I had a good idea:
I uploaded this Superman symbol for my debit card. I had to shrink the image a little so I would fit, but the preview of the card looked pretty sweet.
I uploaded this Bizarro symbol for my credit card. I had to blow it up some so it would fit. I liked the contrast there: Superman = Good, Bizarro = Bad. You have two cards in your wallet. Are you more likely to pull out the Superman card or the Bizarro card? (The Superman card, of course.)
Anyway, I was really hoping they would just have some automated system that spit out the card and mailed it out to you. Today I got an email saying that my 'MyCard Design' had been rejected. To quote the email:
I uploaded this Superman symbol for my debit card. I had to shrink the image a little so I would fit, but the preview of the card looked pretty sweet.
I uploaded this Bizarro symbol for my credit card. I had to blow it up some so it would fit. I liked the contrast there: Superman = Good, Bizarro = Bad. You have two cards in your wallet. Are you more likely to pull out the Superman card or the Bizarro card? (The Superman card, of course.)
Anyway, I was really hoping they would just have some automated system that spit out the card and mailed it out to you. Today I got an email saying that my 'MyCard Design' had been rejected. To quote the email:
Please carefully review the image guidelines below before submitting another photo. NOTE: Downloaded images from the internet are usually copyrighted and will probably be denied. To ensure that your custom card request is approved and processed in a timely manner, please review the following examples of prohibited items
Then they listed about twelve different generic rules about what you can't have on the card. (No naked or half naked people, no copyrighted materials, no people doing illegal activities, no celebrities - such as cartoon characters, no half naked celebrity cartoon characters, etc.) Oh well, it was worth a shot.
No I am left with still not knowing what pictures I want to put on my debit and credit card. (Well, I know which ones I want, I don't know which ones I want that they will actually let me have...) Any ideas?
No I am left with still not knowing what pictures I want to put on my debit and credit card. (Well, I know which ones I want, I don't know which ones I want that they will actually let me have...) Any ideas?
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