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Sunday, March 27, 2005

Easter

Stardate 58032.7 (3-27-2005)
Easter Sunday, 2005. Not too much to say for the week. Today the kids all got candy and DVDs, plus a couple of toys. We went to services at St. Joseph's in Ogden instead of St. Rose. I like the services there better, and the church itself is much nicer. 







We then ate lunch with my Dad. Medicare says if he leaves the facility for anything other than medical reasons, then he should not be there in the first place. I think I understand why, but it makes the place a prison. His attitude is not good because he thinks he will be there for the rest of his life. 

Friday was spent on the phone trying to get my router replaced. It's still under warranty until next month. I talked with a guy in the morning, who said I would be getting a call back to work out the RMA. After waiting four hours, I called again. The guy on the phone took about ten minutes to get the serial number right, and another five to get the case number. Each of the guys had Hindi accents. He has me go through all the steps again to see if it is indeed dead, for the same results. He transfers me, and I get hung up on. I call back again, and finally after another thirty minutes get results. I should get a replacement next week.

Home Depot has been holding my money until they get back the wrong item they sent to me. It worth $15 on their website, and they holding five times that amount until they get it back. According to them, UPS is scheduled to pick it up, but they have no idea when. It's been four weeks. We were told not to ship it back ourselves. I called again on Saturday and asked to speak to a supervisor. No one was available, but they agreed to mail us the labels so we can ship it back ourselves. I made it clear to them I expected the full refund, not the cost of the item I was returning. We shall see. 

End of Entry

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Bookshelf

Stardate 58032.0 (3-20-2005)
Update on the work front; after two days of training, the new guy quit. I am not sure what happened, whether I overwhelmed him or he just got a better offer, but he is gone. I did take a little advantage of it. On Thursday I called in sick and slept for almost the whole day. Since then my energy is back up. 

Friday I picked up Thomas from school and headed over to the Smart Style in the Riverdale WalMart to get haircuts for both of us. I was careful to explain exactly what I wanted with Thomas, since the last time he complained I had him shaved bald. He turned out fine this time. There was a miscommunication with my haircut, though. When she asked if I wanted it trimmed the same length, I thought she was referring to the back and sides. I was corrected when she shaved a row on the top, but it was too late. I have a buzz cut now. It is different, but there are some advantages. No bedhead hair, and no combing. April continues to laugh when I bring the subject up.

Dani Hancock introduced the idea of having dinner at the monthly Ticonderoga staff meetings. It was a good meal, although since it is Lent and I am not supposed to have meat on Fridays, I skipped a lot of it. I am not Catholic, but my kids are, and I try to make a good example even if they are not around. I still forget from time to time. Anyway, I liked the concept, since a few always headed out to dinner after the meetings. 

Saturday was a banner day. We went into the storage room and cleaned it out. It took four trips to the dump with a fully loaded van. Thrown out were a lot of college textbooks that both April and I had, some old blankets, and empty boxes. The space is usable now! You can actually walk in the room. I need to wire a light and switch in there. I also replaced the ceiling lights in the office with ones that won't fall, and took down the playset in the backyard. The next challenge is to build a new, bigger playset. We also got rid of Patrick and Thomas's bookshelf. It was mine for about twenty odd years. I found out trying to tear it apart that it had a good, solid construction. But it was not meant to climb on, which is what the boys did, and it was starting to collapse. 

The Ticonderoga lost the trivia challenge that night with the Kelly. I am not surprised since we did not ever practice. I had a good time, though. 

My dad has a hematoma where the surgery was done. He is headed back to the hospital tomorrow for a few hours so they can check it out. It is probably nothing more than him being to aggressive with the physical therapy. It's a little setback. He is doing well otherwise. 

Finally, after weeks of asking, we bought a trampoline. It is almost set up. I lack a 7/16" long socket wrench, or almost any wrench that size. I have a short one, but it will only screw the nut on about halfway. So off to an auto parts store tomorrow. 

End of Entry

Monday, March 14, 2005

Sick

Stardate 58031.4 (3-14-2005)
Rotten time last week. I was sick the majority of it, and my head still aches and my ears seem stuffed with cotton. It would have helped if I had been able to rest, but there were deadlines to meet at work, and we are short-staffed. So I worked from home. This would have been ok, but the router died. When I plug it in and no cables are attached, I get a 3 light, and nothing else. No power light, no wireless. I called tech support and left a message, but I have not heard back yet. I hope to get them on the phone before the warrenty runs out next month.

Speaking of and bashing tech support, Tuesday I tried logging in the the unix server. I was at that time not feeling well and somehow managed to disable my account. I called the help desk, who transfer me back east. They ask for my user id, and proceed to tell me that id does not exist. They ask for my employee id. I give them that, and they tell me my user id is something that bears no resemblance to anything I have every had, and that I have no access to the system. The tech then asks me if I am a new employee. I reply that no, I have been with the company for fifteen years, and I have been using that user id for the last ten. She replies that she is forwarding the matter to security. A little later security emails me that the user id I have been using does not exist, and they have created a new one. If I want access to any servers, I need to fill out online request forms. I email back that I can't access the forms. I have not heard a reply. In the meantime, I called the local sys admin, explained what was going on, and asked for help. He takes a minute or two to get his laughter under control, confirms why I can't login, and enables my account. I explained this in the reply to security, but they ignore it. To date, I still have no clue what went on. It makes me a little nervous.

Wednesday my dad went into the hospital. The fall he had last week did indeed crack his hip. They did surgery that night, and inserted three pins. It could have been much worse. He is in a nursing facility now for physical therapy. I wonder why the surgery was done that night, though. By the time the surgeon got to the hospital (the rest of the team arrived on time from what I gathered, and the anesthesiologist was a little annoyed the doc was late), it was 10:30. He did the surgery in an hour, so it was about midnight before my dad got back to his room. By the time I got home it was 2 AM. This would not normally bother me, but my head was splitting open, and I was trying not to cough up a lung. Thursday and Friday were a haze, but I managed to get everything done, and did not use any PTO. I would have loved to do so, however.

Saturday was the last basketball games. With a combination of DayQuil and Motrin I attended them. I must say that Patrick put an awesome effort into it. He managed to steal the ball away a few times, go off a few shots (didn't make them, though), and prevented his opponent from taking a lot of shots. Rachel's team was actually leading for one period. With a few more moves, and lots of practice, she could be outstanding. Defensively, she already is. 

My head still hurts, and I am still sniffling, but the coughing has subsided. 

End of Entry

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Can't think of what to blog

Stardate 58030.6 (3-6-2005)
How come I can think of lots of subjects to blog on, but I draw a blank when I sit down to write one? 

Saturday was a long day again. There was basketball in the morning, Mountain Con, then Girl Scout Derby Day in the afternoon. Thank goodness neither Patrick or Rachel wanted to try out for Missoula (a theatre company that does plays with schools). That would have made it run well into the night. As it was, I worked until about 11 PM, and then again on Sunday morning. 



























Basketball was frustrating. One of my players was out due to a death in the family, and another didn't show up. Two others played even though they did not feel well. Almost as soon as a player crossed mid-court, one of the other team would take the ball and run down to score with it. This happened over and over. I am at a loss as to how to teach some basic techniques. There is only one game left, so I am out of luck.

Derby Day was fun. There were 35 girls with pinewood cars. The guy doing the racing has been at this for 15 years, and he does a great job. Rachel's car was not that fast, but she still had fun. She raced for another girl who was at Missoula. When the other girl showed up, Rachel told her she didn't win, and tried to console her by saying Rachel didn't win either. I don't think she cared. The fathers were far more into how the cars were performing. Rachel painted her car that same morning, and I put the wheels on it, so I wasn't expecting much. I did learn a few tips for next year, and for Patrick's cub scout derby.

Hurley was the backstory featured on Lost. He's not quite the character I thought he was going to be. He wins big in the lottery with some numbers he gets from mental hospital patient. The numbers are supposed to be bad luck. Those same numbers lured others to the island. The numbers were analyzed all over the net, especially the fact one of them was 42. 47 did not show up. I am wondering if the producers will try to extend all the mysteries to a second season. Twin Peaks tried that, and caught so much flak from fans the show was canceled.

I remember now what it was I wanted to get down. The guy who was hired to replace me declined. He got a counter offer from his current job, and apparently it was massive. Pick of any project, all the training and conventions he wants, six figure salary. I can't blame him, but it does leave me stuck again. 

Finally, my dad went to the ER last Friday. He has a muscle contusion, and can't walk very far. This was from the fall he took last week. It has to be very painful. He didn't break a hip, so there is that.

End of Entry

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Thomas is five

Stardate 58030.1 (3-1-2005)

Lots of people talk about how pretentious keeping an online blog is. Why do I think I have anything important to say to the world? The answer is, I don't think that. I have always wanted to keep a journal, but failed at a number of attempts. Since I work on a computer all day (and sometimes all night), this seems the logical format. I never lose the website. I don't have to carry a physical notebook around. I can write everything down, and reorder it into somehing that makes sense. It is not a stream of thought like Mike Gibby's video blog. That, for me, would be a mess. I tend to jump from thought to thought, and pick up a thread of thinking again a few minutes later. I have noticed my conversation follows that same pattern. I talk about something, switch to some other subject, and come back again with more on the first topic. So it's like a TV show or newspaper comic, if you don't like it, find something else. If you do, I appreciate it, and I admit to walking through the access logs to see if anyone does read it.

Speaking of TV, there was a recent discussion on the UtahFandom mailing list about whether Star Trek:Enterprise was worth any effort to save. One person ventured the opinion that fans were trying to save it because it was Star Trek. I thought long and hard on that question. I will admit that plays a small part, but I can honestly say I have enjoyed Enterprise as much as the other series. It has it's share of bad episodes, but which ones they are is a subjective matter. It does not have the gee-whiz, this is amazing quality. I can't think of a show in the last 5 or so years that has had that effect. It makes me curious what sci-fi shows the people who don't think Enterprise is worth saving do watch. I have seen 6-8 episodes of Stargate SG-1, and a few of Atlantis, but nothing has grabbed me. (A side note here. I thought going back to the start of Stargate would help. So I rented season 1 from Blockbuster Online. I got disc 1 only. Never rent multi-disc sets online. Good safety tip, Egon.) This is not to say its not for others, I just don't care for it. Same goes for any number of shows. April and Rachel watch American Idol. I have watched it with them from time to time, but I don't care for it.

Anyway, Friday we watched "Two Brothers", another online rental. We didn't get halfway through it because Patrick (and by extention, Thomas) were crying so hard about the cubs being separated from mom and dad, and each other. Patrick thought that was mean. Memories came flooding back that I was never able to watch "Born Free" for much the same reason.

Friday as well my Dad was riding his scooter back from the bank, dropped his keys, reached down to get them, and tipped over. Fortunately someone stopped to help. He says he is alright, but his leg hurts.

Yesterday was Thomas's birthday. It's hard to accept my youngest is five. I can go back to a log entry in December of 2003 when he finally got out of diapers. This is good reason to keep the blog. He was not happy about having to go to school and extended day care. But it went well. He got a GI Joe jet and tank (on sale for $7, was $50), an ARC trooper from Star Wars (Rachel bought it for him with her own money), and a toy Anakin starfighter from Revenge of the Sith. Both he and Patrick can't wait to see the third episode.

End of Entry