Stardate 59030.1
March again. Seems like it was only March this time last year. You are supposed to laugh. It is also the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and for some, a time to sacrifice. For the next 47 (yes, its 40 days, but I read David-Morgan Mar’s explanation, and the 40 days does not count Sundays) days I am sacrificing beef, poultry, and pork. Meat is off the food list. I am not sure why seafood is not considered meat. I might do some research if I remember to. The other reason for sacrificing the meat is my weight is still going up, and I am looking to change my diet to turn the trend around. This is the practical and efficient use of resource view that on occasion annoys April.
It snowed again last week, and Rachel, Patrick, and I went sledding again. The little embankment in Kaysville is slippery, and Rachel has a hard time climbing it. Someone had made a rope climb, but she refused to use that. So in the time it took her to do one run, Patrick did four by using the rope. He found a small jump someone had made, and went over it and flying for a few feet. He loved it. A woman suggested getting the foam sleds for that, though, because the plastic ones have no padding. I went over one of the jumps a few weeks earlier, and my back and hips hurt the rest of the day, so I can’t agree more. My legs were sore for a few days following, so I consider it good exercise.
Thomas is now six. His birthday was yesterday. The down side is that Patrick had a soccer game, a First Communion tour of the church, and the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. And Thomas had to go to school, which he was not happy about. Patrick took the opposite view; he wishes he could go to school on his birthday, which is always on Christmas break. The grass is always greener syndrome. His party is Friday evening at the Layton Fun Center, and he is really looking forward to that. One of his classmates is having another birthday party there on Saturday. I suppose they won’t mind going two days in a row.
The banquet was fun. We let the kids bid on one cake each. The CubMaster was delighted with that, and I got several thank yous for the wonderful support (this is the only fundraiser for the pack). Thomas got a cake with King Kong figures, Patrick one with pirate stuff and walkie talkies, and Rachel got one shaped like a pig (it was a Hawaiian Luau theme).
Patrick had his friend Trey stay the night last Friday, and April worked Saturday, so I skipped Thomas’s basketball game. Not that I would have heard a complaint from Trey, the kid is very polite and accommodating. But it’s not much fun to be dragged out of bed and up to Ogden for a couple hours. We dropped Trey off at his home on the way to Patrick’s game. He played well, and his team won. The lady sitting behind me on the bleachers during the game was a mom for one of the kids on the other team. She started talking to me about how the kids on Patrick’s team could not be eight years old. Most of the kids on his team go to St. Benedict’s, and I know they are all seven or eight, and I told her that. She huffed, and said the boys were all really big, and that I said she might be right, but that’s the way the team was put together. She made a good suggestion that maybe they should include height on the forms. It may not make a difference, though, there are some relatively short kids who play really well.
Rachel’s game went pretty much the same as the rest, with her standing on one end of the court or the other. Then the girl who never passes to anyone but her friend passed the ball to Rachel, who took a shot. She didn’t make it, but I said maybe a little too loudly, “OMG, did she get a pass?” She got fouled, and had two free throw attempts. She made the second one, which made the game worthwhile for her.
Monday my Dad and I went to Denny’s instead of Sizzler for dinner. That was a little frustrating for me because the server messed up my order, and the kid just could not get it straightened out. The manager came over twice to fix it. Later my dad launched into the story about why my grandfather (his father) never would go to church, except for friends funerals. My great grandfather (first name John) was a womanizer, and my great-grandmother finally divorced him over it. The minister of the Methodist church they attended did a sermon not long after about how women who divorced were no better than whores. It was all my great-grandmother could do to keep my grandfather (he was a teenager then) from giving the minister a beating. From then on he refused to go to any church.
It occurs to me that when people ask me if I am related to John Madden, I could tell them he’s my great grandfather, provided they are not specific about the sportscaster. That would be interesting to see the reaction. I had that question last week.
April picked up a book called Marly & Me, about a dog owner and his slightly demented Labrador Retriever. It’s a good book. I started reading it Saturday afternoon, and finished it Monday night. I can relate to the antics of the dog in the book, our dog Leo has done some of the same things. Leo, however, has calmed down in the last couple of years. The author was surprised when his dog was frightened by thunder, and that this was common in dogs. Every dog I have had has cowered and shivered at the sound. Leo is ok so long as he can have contact with someone when it happens.
April bought a new bed for us yesterday from RC Willey. The salesman said the headboard was backordered, and it would be a week before it could be delivered. This morning, just as we were leaving, the delivery driver called to say the bed would be there in about 30 minutes. This was good, I guess, but some more warning would have been nice.
Monday was the day the databases were moved to a new server at work. I thought I had prepared the development staff for it, but I was mistaken. Panic was pushed to the group. Development stopped because the virtual machines (VM) could not see the new servers. I asked what was being done and what they had found. Nothing on both questions. I logged into one of the VMs and pinged the servers. No response. I pinged the IP addresses for the servers. That worked. This leads me to check the Domain Name Servers (DNS) in the TCP/IP setup. Yup, there are a couple of missing entries. Things worked after I added them to each of the VMs. This should not frustrate me, but I wonder why I get the task of diagnosing and solving the problem. A DNS problem is pretty simple to find and fix, at least in my mind. It’s probably because this follows a review last week were I rated average, and I don’t ‘step up’ enough.
Music for the Moment: The Ballad of Davy Crockett – Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse
Weight: 205 lbs
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