Santa Summary:

Stinky Beaumont says: "If you see a big fat guy in a red suit trying to break into your house, you might let him."

Tom Roach

Rest in peace, Tom Roach, you are now whole and suffer no more. Your family and friends will miss. May God bless you and your family. Your impact will last a long time.

Vacation time and the end of the year

As there is little I can do at this time of the year from a work standpoint, I usually save my vacation until now. So officially, I am off until next year.

However, I will periodically sit and read email, submit the final expense report for the year, etc all on my time. I will also make some travel reservations for January and February of next year for work. In my company, two of my colleagues from China will be in the US for some training in Boston during January and I must attend to assist; also one of my British co-workers wants to go to Ohio in early February for some product development investigative work, after having been in California and Florida, so it should be a bit of a shock to them.

Other than that, I will change the brakes on my Passat, change the struts on A's Jetta, my Passat and possibly the Van, Make detailed sketches of several variations for adding onto the house, help K with the final Christmas shopping.

It is now official

C has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award.

Way to go C! We are proud of you.

Some of you have seen this picture

But others have not. This picture serves two purposes.

First, it is a picture of C's surrounded by the product of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. There are 40 black and white checkered teddy bears that were donated to The Victory Junction Gang camp for children in Level Cross, NC. This is one reason for the smile

Second, and equally important, this is the first picture of C after getting her braces off. That is the reason for the size of the smile.



Congratulations C on finishing you GS Gold Award and getting the braces off. We await the confirmation and receipt of the Gold Award which should come sometime in January.

The joys of traveling, More information

I came down with a cold during this trip in NY. It is not fun traveling with stuffed sinuses, sore throat from coughing and a minor fever.

This is the weather that caused my travel problems.

After the airline called to cancel my flight, I was able to extend my checkout time at my hotel until 2PM in Albany, but starting at 11:30 and every 15-20 min, the front desk called to make sure everything was ok. So I decided that at 1PM to go to the airport and wait there. That way, I could infect as many people as possible. I found I was not the only one with the sniffles.

It seems the hotel was interested in getting me out of their room as all the hotels in Albany were booked solid because the Snow/Ice had knocked out power for a 5 county wide area. Any hotel that had power was booked, and the hotel wanted my room and me out of it. Since I knew my flight was going to be on time, I left.

Because of the delays, both flights were packed. Probably because of my coughing, the only extra seat on the first plane ended up next to me. :-) The second flight was completely full but the guy next to me had 2 JD with a beer chaser, probably enough alcohol to prevent infection.

These kind of delays are why I generally like to travel by car. That way, control of the travel plans are up to me and not someone else. I would have left Thursday evening, heading south to slightly warmer climes getting out of the potential for ice and snow, but Upstate NY is really farther to drive than my company would accept.

I am glad to be home, where I can heal in my own digs.

The joys of traveling

I am in Albany, NY tonight, it is raining/sleeting/snowing. The festivities are expected to continue all night long, but I have a 6:30AM flight. It is really slippery outside. I hope my flight gets out tomorrow.

Hope your day is a good one.

UPDATE:

My airline just called cancelling all the flights out of Albany until noon. That means I get onto the 4:15 flight, arriving at home around 9PM. At least they let me know before 4AM so I can now sleep in.

Yeah, right.

I like a good athletic performance

But this is ridiculous! Possibly Bruce Lee playing ping pong with a couple of other guys, but with a twist. Very amazing!

Well that was unexpected

I went to bed last night and the skys were relativel clear. Many stars were seen as I took out the trash. A light wind, but nothing significant. But when we awoke this AM our back yard looked like this:



Global warming is great! It will be gone by noon, but it is a little early.

It is fall, and I get to ge neat places

I was traveling recently north of Boston up into Maine. While traveling, one stop was in Belfast, ME to visit a potato manufacturer. After the appointment, travels took us down RTE 1. It seems that I hit the best time for seeing the leaves change. It was a calico quilt of color. I drove from Manchester, NH to Rye NH, then up to Portland, ME then on to Belfast, then back to Boston. What scenery, what beauty. The below pictures were made standing in the same area, just different directions.

As I do not watch this program

I did not see this below segment. However, it is astounding what is happening in brain research. This is probably how Stephen Hawking (physicist) is still doing his remarkable research.


Watch CBS Videos Online

The Symbol of The United States of America, no politics

Found this, thought I would share it:



Please vote tomorrow if you have not voted early.

An attorney friend of mine

said recently, beware of things sold through infomercials.

The Sun

While wandering the web, I found an interesting photo essay about the sun. It consists of 21 or so pictures with descriptions about solar activity. Below is one of the pictures.




The whole photo essay can be found here. Some really hot pictures. There is even a photo animation of what happens to a comet during a period of extreme high solar wind.

Two in one day

Especially after not posting for a month, I am posting two in one day.

I had to go on a business trip to Northern NJ, so I brought K along. K had never been to NYC so I thought that this would be a great opportunity. K and I drove from our hotel, down to the NJ docks and took the ferry over from NJ to Midtown.


From there, K and I walked to the Empire State Building. We walked around it, but the line was 2+ hours wait, so we did not go up. But here is K at the Empire State Building:


Then we wandered back to 7th Ave and found the Macy's. This is for all the shoppers out there (A, C and others.):


We wandered around in Time Square for a bit, going into the Hershey Chocolate shoppe and the M and M building. I got K to pose for a picture with the M and M:


I also saw a poster on one of the walls in Time Square that reminded me of a young woman in my life. So I took a picture for her, A this is for you:


We then went on a 3 hour Circle Line tour. It was nice to see NY from a different point of view. As we went by the Statue of Liberty, it was moving and impressive. As if there are not enough pictures of the SoL, here is my take from the Circle Line tour boat:


Then, after taking the ferry back across the Hudson, the night scape of NYC is fantastic. At the right of the below picture is the Empire State building. It is a glorious place to visit and a great place to leave.



We also visited Ground Zero, but it is busy with construction of the new building. We got to GZ too late for us to view the Memorials, etc, but the area was still impressive. One of the things that struck K was how there were sooooooooooo many really big buildings.

We lunch and dinner at some corner restaurants in "Hell's Kitchen". There we had some good Greek and Italian food.

K and I had a great time in NYC, but were very tired when we left. It was a day well spent, just touching the fringes of the culture and sights of NYC.

It has been too long, part 2

It has been a month since my last post. Not much has really happened, other than me traveling a bunch. As I was in western PA a couple of weekends ago, I stopped in to see a bunch of the relatives. They were not overly chatty, but I was glad to see them anyway.
Mom's Stone:


LFD and Aunt Nell's


AJ and UK's stone:


Grandma and Pop's Stone:


And we (K ws with me) finally found ALS's stone. I was looking in the wrong section. First the marker up close:


And now a picture showing better where ALS is located:

My pants in the picture above were covered in dirt as I did some minor weeding as a couple of the sites. Sorry about that.

A's new condo

A while ago, I suggested that A had moved into a Condo at school It is a 4 BR, 2 BA condo set up specifically for college students. There is not a master bedroom or master suite. It is a workable 4 BR condo. The place is a two story unit, up one level from ground.

Each BR is about 10x12 and is upstairs. As they are all girls, the AC bill is not bad, but we will see what the heat bill brings in the winter. A's BR window is the one with the blind partially open in the top of the below picture. A knew several people already before moving in, so it worked out nice.

Rain - the storms

Last week, them remnants of Hurricane Fay dumped 6+ inches of rain in our area. Some of our friends, with rain gauges in their yards measured 13 inches. It really depended on which bands of rain passed overhead. Our friends in Atlanta were also glad to get the rain, filling up their reservoits. Any way you look at it, the drought that we were having is off the daily news shows, at least for now.

With Hurricane Gustav heading toward LA, please pray for my friend BP and his family as they evacuated NOLA ahead of this storm. He will be heading back to NOLA on Wed or Thurs to assess any damages. Although his house was without power for 3 weeks after Katrina, he experienced none of the flood damages. I pray for his safety this time as well.

It appears that Tropical Storm Hanna is on track for arrival here next weekend. The current forecast puts her at about Greenwood, SC on Friday at about 8PM, meaning Saturday and Sunday will be wet around here. That is if things do not change.

For our Anniversary

I decided it would be fun to take K off to a Ruth's Chris Steak House. K had the Petite Fillet, with Mashed potatoes and a salad, I had the Three Combo, Small Fillet, Crab Cake and Roasted Free Range Chicken with Sauteed Mushrooms and a Gumbo. For desert we had Cheesecake and Creme Brulee.

Everytihing was prepaired perfectly. The steaks were tender with a great flavor, the chicken and crab nicely seasoned.

It was a great way to spend the evening, especially our 26 Anniversary. Thanks K for putting up with me all these years.

For the Nerds

I ran across this while looking for something else on the web, but it explains a bit about the new CERN Particle Accelerator over in Switzerland and France in a way that will reach a bunch of folks. I thought it was a great way to do this.



I know some of what they talk about, but my sister CP probably knows way more. "The Higgs" is what is called a Higgs bosson, thought to create gravity. The statement Gravity is weaker than weak refers to the Weak force.

If you go here, you can see some really cool pictures of CERN. Some of them look like sets from Star Wars, like this:

All of us

As I have not been in a picture recently, I thought I would post this one. It is all of us at K's wedding.

Interesting Picture

In southern Ohio, between Dayton and Cincinnati, just off Interstate 75 sits a statue. It is about 45-50 feet tall and about as wide. It is a bust statue of Jesus. The most interesting thing about this statue is the pose.

Jesus is looking to heaven, arms out stretched, beseeching God for wisdom. Really just normal for a statue of Jesus.... or is it.













Is Jesus refereeing a football game amongst the Disciples????



This statue is commonly called Touchdown Jesus by the locals. Cannot imagine why.

C has a new room

C moved into school last week. As noted, she is an RLA (Residential Life Advisor). This means that she is a first line go to person when someone on her hall is having a bad day, whether school, emotionally or other.

Here is C in front of her dorm.



Here is a picture of her room, at least her half. The hutch on the back of her desk should look familiar as it is the one that A used last year. It fit perfectly on C's desk.



As RLA, C and her fellow RLA's were responsible for various bulletin boards through out her hall. This is one just outside her room (and across the hall from the Hall Mom (?))



At the end of her hall is the "lounge" where there is a TV, some "This End Up" furniture and a place to just hang out.



So far, C has been quite busy and enjoying seeing old friends as well as making new friends with the incoming students.

C's new room mate seemed very nice.

As promised....

Here are some images from our recent trip to southern Ohio. Unfortunately, the camera I was using created problems, focusing on the wrong things, so many of my pictures are horribly out of focus. I am posting the ones that turned out ok.

This first one is one of A and C as taken by their cousin L, 5 years old.


Here is one of A and L



This is one of A and C



This is K, A and C



Here is K holding her grand nephew T.



I am bummed about my camera.

Our House, our life

Is now very quiet and the drama level has decreased significantly, at least for me.

C was delivered to school last Sunday at 9 PM so she could go through RA training. It started Monday and will continue through Friday. The Juniors move in Saturday AM beginning at 9AM. Both K and I are volunteering to help during the move in process.

A has also moved into her new digs. She is hanging pictures and arranging her room. She got to meet and have lunch with her Pharm Mentor today. The Mentor said that 1st year was not as difficult as year 2. 1st year has Bio-Chemistry as the hard class, but it is only one class out of 16 hours. 2nd year has 20 hours both semesters, so the work load goes up significantly. There are also no Humanities/Social Science classes to lighten the load, all science classes with many labs to be done.

K is really busy right now doing 3 projects things. First, she is sewing a dress for A and her sorority. Everyone must have the same dress, to be sewn by the various people and it is giving K fits. The fabric is inexpensive (read cheap) and ravels easily, giving K many frustrations.

Then, for A's new apartment, K is sewing curtains for the window in A's BR. Not a big deal, but it is another project.

Third, K is still helping C with her gold award project. C is about half way done, and needs to go to the local quilt guild meeting Thursday evening to help with the progress.

There is much work for me to do too. I am working on work work and project around the house. Photo's soon.

Last Weekend

There were going to be pictures of last weekend here along with witty posts, etc, but in reviewing my camera, the images were mostly blurry because of camera issues. I will post what I have tomorrow.

It is going to be a busy week

We are getting both kids ready for their various schools.

A came home asking to go shopping for stuff for her new place. We bought the beginnings of food, some stuff for the house, shelf paper, but the best is yet to come. Wednesday AM we pick up some furniture for her bedroom and deliver it to her new residence. Then there will be the requisite shopping trip for room and home set-up. She will be living off campus, so must have nearly a complete home set-up. I will also get A's Futon repaired as she had broken a couple of welds on the support wire. I wish I had a little MIG welder set-up to fix it, but will need to pay someone to do it.

C on the other hand will be delivered to school a week from Monday. She is an RLA and they report on Sunday. However, we will be on the way back from Wilmington, OH as the family attends the nuptials planned. She got special arrangements to be a day late. So K and C went shopping today for school stuff and of course a new dress to wear to to the nuptials. C will also want to do more shopping this week. Having finished her volunteer work her evenings are free.

I, on the other hand, will be going to Franklin, VA on Monday evening to be in the paper mill on Tuesday AM. After the work at the paper mill, I will be traveling about 45 minutes north to visit BW and KW. Then home from there to deliver the furniture on Wed AM.

Thursday is a breather day, then off to the wedding on Friday AM through the weekend. It will be great to see everyone. Look for pictures either over the weekend or Monday of next week.

Summer is coming to an end

Just after KF's wedding, school activities start for us. The Monday after the wedding, C goes back as she is part of the orientation committee to welcome incoming Juniors, so they have to be there a week early. Planning events to prevent many of the new students from getting home sick and adjusting to a harder curricula.

A on the other hand will be moving into a condo next week, but commuting between here and there until Pharmacy School orientation starts the week after.

Around here, peace will come very soon.

This one is cute

I saw this video on youtube and thought it was cute. Hope your day is a good one.

It has been a weekend

Sorry for the long delays in posting. Everyone here has been busy with life, I guess like everywhere else.

C is getting close to completing her volunteer work at the library. For School, she needed to volunteer 60 hours this summer at a non-profit facility. She tried to get many different opportunities, but the library was the only one to respond. Even they were hesitant. But the other day, her supervisor said; "When your 60 hours are up, you cannot leave. You are here permanently." Why, you might ask. Because she shows up with a good attitude, does the work assigned cheerfully, and dresses appropriately for the place, (not like most teenagers). Way to go C.

C is also about half way done toward her GS Gold award. She has about 60 hours of leadership in, but the project is only about 50% done. It will get done, but it will probably be completed when she gets back to school.

A is working at Duke Hospital as a Pharmacy Tech. This week she got 48 hours due to many vacations. She even postponed a vacation she wanted to take to work some extra hours. He boss called her aside and told her she too was doing a great job according to the others that work with her. Specifically the Pharmacists have told her boss about the extra things she does. Why, you might ask: Because she shows up on time, does the assigned work cheerfully, pitches in doing other things not required, with a good attitude.

K is helping C with the GS Gold Award project. Because it is a sewing type project, and K is our resident sewing expert, she is helping C correct many of the issues created by other people that apparently cannot follow printed directions. Difficult things like making a 1/4 inch seam allowance 1/4 inches (not 3/8 or more), and using the right side of the piece.

I have been in car maintenance mode this weekend. Today was fix the shifter and install new front struts on A's car, yesterday was troubleshoot and repair a smog system on C's car, then help my next door neighbor move a heavy piece of equipment (1200 pounds) from his house to a shop in High Point, about 10 miles away. I also did some research on HD radios as C wants to put one in her car.

Earlier this week, I got a chance to stop by and see MEH up in MD. As always, it was great to see her and to again get caught up on the various facets of both of our lives. And she has the cutest new puppy, a Jack Russell terrier named Lorelai, that is just adorable. Not enough to make me want one, but still really cute.

It is not this bad, yet

I find that I am doing more travel by air these days and these flights are getting more and more crowded. Good for the airlines but not so much fun for the traveler. Many people will disagree with my Airline of choice, Southwest, but they go where I need to go on a schedule that fits my travel plans.

However some airlines have begun charging for various things. Here is one parody that I found funny.



It is not this bad, yet.

Super Hero

C has a summer job at summer day camp for kids and adults with mental and physical handicaps, providing activities for them during the time when not in school. She has been doing this for 4 years as a paid member of the staff and for 8 years in total. She enjoys the campers and the staff, so will probably continue doing this for several more years as it is 7 weeks for 35 hours per week, 9-3. She is liked and appreciated by the campers and staff because she shows up on time, anticipates needs, works hard and has a great attitude.

Friday was costume dress up day for the staff and C went as Superwoman. She had the red cape, blue body suit, etc and she looked great. The staff and campers always have a great time with these types of things as it provides some break from the routine.

One of the younger campers was really fascinated with C's superwoman costume and the following exchange occurred:

Youth (Y): Are you really able to fly?
C: Not yet, but I am working on it.
Y: Do you have any other super powers?
C: Like you, I am in school learning how to use them properly. I am in Super Hero school during the year when you are at school too.
Y; Really, what are they teaching you.
C Well the next lesson is on my X-ray vision, but, it will be a while before I get than one perfected. Remember, I am a Super Hero in training.

With that last exchange, the other counselor with C burst out laughing. That caused C to get slightly embarrassed, but also laughed really hard as well.

Unfortunately it also rained Friday so pictures could not be made, but C looked cute in her Superwoman costume. That is my Super Hero in Training.

Some thing different.

I got referred to NerdTests.com for something I was seeking and saw these pictures. They made me laugh. Hope they do the same for you.

Print Screen


Math Expanded


Math Joke


Life on Mars?

Yesterday in DC

Yesterday I stopped in to see cuz MEH of the HimesGang up near DC. I got there about 7PM last evening and ultimately spent then night at her house as she was kind enough to offer. I had business calls in the area yesterday and one today, then on to home.

We had a great time. She bought dinner that was grilled by me, something about a guy and fire seems to go together, right? We sat and chatted about many things in both our lives since our last visit. We caught up on the family gossip about members on both sides, told many stories about silly things that happen to each of us at work and in general enjoyed the company.

Then Sh and Au come over from their dad's house next door and now we had new people to join in our conversation. It seems as if Au had his sugar/caffeine fix for the night as he was in pretty good form, wound up telling funny stories and being a energetic 15YO. Sh and I also had some good conversation and she seems to be maturing nicely as a young lady. She has a ready smile that is warm, with a great conversation style.

MEH, you have two wonderful kids, and thanks for the very enjoyable company last evening

Anybody good at sewing???

Curved parts?

C and her GS Gold Award has decided to make teddy bears for the Victory Junction Gang camp in Level Cross, NC. They give the kids attending a teddy bear so the kids can leave theirs at home so not to get dirty.

Anyway, C has committed to coordinate the making 40 of these things. So far, there have been 28 cut out and 3 sewn together. We had a group get together today for about 5 hours and cut out about 18 of the bears. K and a neighbor sewed the bears together, while 6 other people pinned and cut the fabric pieces.

If you are up to the task, we can send you some bears to sew together.

How I spent father's day weekend

Yesterday, I had planed to change the timing belt, water pump and thermostat on C's car to make sure that I know when it was last done. After going to but the parts, I started about 11AM. Had the whole car apart in a little over an hour. Installing the parts and re-assembly took about 2 and a half hours.

However, in the middle of this I get a call from A that her call stalled on the interstate about 3 miles from home. She is in tears as she could reach nobody because I had left my phone on C's front seat while I worked on her car, C and K's phones were on vibrate mode in their purses and not within hearing distance for vibrate. It took A 4 calls to me for me to hear the phone ring. She did not try to call home, why?????

After calming her down and asking what happened, I asked her to try to restart her car. It ran with a Check Engine Light (CEL) but nothing worse. I asked if the car was running ok, with a positive affirmation, she was told to drive the car home. (take note of the interruption, needed later in this missive).

She arrived home and I used my scanner to determine the problems. The diagnostic codes for the CEL indicated that a sensor was going bad. This sensor was not inexpensive, but not bad, so I sent K off to the auto parts store to get the part.

So while K was off to get the part, I finished the job started on C's car. After that was completed, I turned my attention to A's car. I looked at the part and tried to find in my manual where the part was and how to replace it. I used the Internet to try to locate the part and a DIY on how to replace it. I took the part to the car and tried to imagine where the part fit to figure out how to replace it.

Well I selected the wrong part for K to buy. So after much searching and digging, the right part was determined, so after church, K and I went to exchange the old part and get the right part. Well, NAPA took the old part back without problems, but did not have the desired part, so we had to go to Winston-Salem, about a 20 minute drive to pick-up the part.

We get home about noon and begin have lunch. C says that her car made a horrible racket just as she was turning onto our street and as she was turning into our drive, the temperature gauge had started to rise. Remember the interruption mentioned earlier. Well that interruption came just as I was tightening the bolts on the water pump drive pulley. I had neglected to tighten them enough, so her car shed a couple of bolts and the water pump drive belt. A quick trip to Ace Hardware for a couple of new bolts, then 20 minutes after arriving home, C was back in business.

We had the right part for A's car now. After trying for 3 hours to get the old part off the way that folks on the Internet said, I finally resorted to plan W, having exhausted all of plans A-V.

This called for me to remove a motor mount on the car. It took about 40 min to remove the motor mount, supporting the engine with a jack stand and 1x4 under the oil pan. Once the motor mount was removed, it took about 20 min to replace the sensor and about 90 minutes to put things back together. At no point when the motor mount was removed was I under the engine. The work was done from the top during that period. The car was on ramps.

All this finished about 7:45 tonight with a successful test drive. After putting my tools away, a not so quick shower, K and I were off to the grocery store for a couple of items.

Both cars are now running with preventive maintenance done. Hope your Father's Day was a good one too.

Fathers Day

Dad, thanks. You have shown me how to be a good husband to K, and father to A and C. In the way you treated Mom and the way you now treat D. There is firmness enough take charge to get things done when needed, but enough softness to let me make the mistakes I needed to make to become a better person. The older I get, the more I sound like you. That is both scary and comforting because this road is pretty well traveled, and the example is a good one.

I remember all those nights, you standing in cold, snow or rain on game nights, offering your advice to us when we skating or playing ball. Delivering newspapers at very below zero, you were right there.

Having the 5 of us with our differing personalities, you and mom had your hands full. But for the most part, we came out just fine. No major issues among any of your kids. You call it luck, but really good examples do not hurt either.

Love ya and see you soon.

Dominoes

I saw this on Youtube and thought it was pretty cool. It is an advertisement for a beer, but there are no professional actors in this commercial.

Life is

semi back to normal right now with both A and C home for the summer. C got home yesterday and slept from about 4PM Saturday until 11AM today. She spent the last day at school celebrating graduations with her senior friends and spending special time with her rising senior friends that she will not see until September.

C was sad at leaving school, something she was not when leaving her previous HS for the summer. We have seen C grow and mature significantly over the last 9 months and are very proud of what she is doing.

Picture of the final day at school will be posted later.

Boston

Beer, the brewery and not the town is the maker of Sam Adams family of beers. It is located just outside Allentown, PA at the site of an old Stroh brewery. A few weeks ago, the purchased some of my equipment and called yesterday to say that they were having problems with my equipment. This just after I was there last week and there were no problems then.

So I make flight reservations yesterday to fly into Philly, then drive to Allentown for a 7:30 AM meeting at the brewery. With storms in Philly delaying all arrivals and departures, my plane gets in after midnight and I drive the hour plus to the hotel.

We (my local Rep and I) get there and the person that we were to see had not told security that we were to arrive. It takes nearly an hour for "security" to reach our contact, and we are escorted into the facility. We get to my equipment and it is not running, so we stand and talk; stand and talk; stand and talk some more.

About 10:45AM they are just about to use the equipment, an aid to filtering the suspended solids out of their product. About 11:15, my pumps start up and work great for about 20 minutes, and then a loud hissing sound just before liquid starts shooting out of inappropriate places.

We shut the equipment down, quickly and find that a valve has closed in the process, creating no place for the liquid to go. This means that there is a control issue on their part creating problems for the equipment. Once this is discovered, our contact is really embarrassed and thanks us for the assistance.

We then talk with him and a couple of other people about 1) how outstanding our service was for this issue and 2) about an outstanding quotation for $20K worth of equipment. At that point we got a verbal commitment for the additional equipment to be purchased next month.

They do need the equipment, but we helped them and they appreciated that. Breweries are interesting places to go. They smell good (like a fraternity house on a weekend morning) and there are interesting processes. It seems that Sam Adams is taking control of their brewing from Miller. Good for them.

I can tell

That summer is coming, just by looking at my home.

A is already home for the summer from UNC and is dominating life around the house with everything she brought home. She is purely type A, and must have a schedule weeks in advance. (As an example, when we visit family in Toledo, A wants to know exactly what is happening and when, so K and I would make up departure times and activities just to get her to focus elsewhere. When these things did not happen, we said plans changed.)

We have also been over to C's school bringing stuff home for the summer. One van full so far. and we are not close to done. C has 7 days of classes, then finals and will be home on June 7th.

It is OK as when both A and C are at home, they get along quite well and do many things together when there is time.

C

C went before the GS Gold Award committee yesterday to discuss her project prior to approval. She is fearless when it comes to making presentations, which is great. She spent 20 minutes in front of 4 adult GS Council members, explaining her project, how she selected it and what it does for the community. Confident, she answered their questions with knowledge and authority.

In the end, it was approved without modifications. Way to go C. You are truly a member of our family.

Job Latest

I got the news today that I will be covering the New England states beginning in June. This is due to a corporate realignment of personnel. Starting June 15, my territory will now cover Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virgina, North Carolina and South Carolina. Yep, 16 states. Should get more interesting.

Mom

I do not wax as eloquently as some of the rest of my blogger family, but I will try anyway.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Although you are at peace, not a day goes by I don't think of you. Each day, that some little thing reminds me of the joy you had when around your children and grandchildren. You standing by Dad, supporting and encouraging all of your children, and reminding them from where they came. You told the great stories to the grandkids of how your children were just a mischievous as they were, encouraging them to be just like their parents, then read stories to them.

When I am home, I am in the kitchen frequently. There are too many evenings spent in restaurants in towns across America, so that when I am home, home cooking is preferred. K is at home and wants a break from cooking, so I take over. So, when I am in the kitchen, nearly everything I do reminds me of you when you were in the kitchen. You taught me to cook, though I am not as good as you. When cooking together when I was young, you talked about your childhood, your grandparents and your relatives along with the unspoken expectations for each of us. We discussed what was happening from this child's perspective.

Looking back from a 51 year perspective, the only thing that could be better is for you to be here. Thanks and love ya Mom.

Tornado

As some of you may have seen, parts of Greensboro, NC got hit by a tornado. Fortunately for us, it hit the west side of the county and we are on the east side. It did not even rain here, some 10 miles away while the tornado did it's damage.

In case you were wondering.

So, I'm in Dallas

at a trade show. Staying at the Sheraton in downtown Dallas, on the 36th floor. So other than dirty windows, the view is pretty good. It is Tuesday, and there is nothing to see when looking out my window. Normally there are buildings, planes and cars when you look in various directions, but not today. Apparently the view from my room is going to be gray all day.

Some say I have my head in the clouds, and at least for today, they would literally be true. No sense taking pictures to show you, because how do you show a cloud when you are in it.

Update: It is 9AM here and there is lightening and thunder outside the window and from the 36th floor it is really weird, but also really cool.

Cell Phone Madness

I am in the market for a cell phone. I want to stay with V, so that begins to limit things. I carry a laptop nearly everywhere I go and do not need to be that connected, so a blackberry or smartphone is out, at least to me. I want a good, sturdy phone that will take the beatings that I give. No need for MP3 player, etc. The only thing that I do reasonably often is text message K and the kids.

The kids want EnV phones, but I am not so sure. Any suggestions for me?

Begining tomorrow

I will be in Dallas for a trade show dealing in the Pulp and Paper market. These things bore me, but at least I will know many people at this trade show. Not just vendors or my business associate (with whom I enjoy spending time) either. There are many people from various Paper Companies that will be attending that I know and I have asked many of them to go to dinner on the various nights. Some said yes, some said no due to other commitments, but at least I will be able to see some friendly business aquaintenances.

I will not have a car, so cannot go to Southfork, but may go to Dealey Plaza and the Book Repository, and the grassy knoll as they seem to be close to where we are staying.

Coming back Thursday PM. Cannot wait

I will spare you the pictures

but another thing that happens this time of year is that I get a case of poison ivy. It usually happens when weed eating the lawn, somewhere there is a small growth of the blasted stuff. Even though I wear long pants, work boots, long socks, wash with yellow soap, somehow, there is always some that make it through the defenses. Got it all over both legs.

Just a right of spring.

History

For my Dad and brother. I was traveling in northern NJ recently and decided to visit some old stomping grounds. Yes, I stopped at 23 Corona Road in East Brunswick. The hills were not as big as my memory indicated, but the house was little different. The neighborhood was as I remembered. The road entering the subdivision on the south was now not allowing left turns as it is a very busy road.

The new owners had sided the house, but were not home when I knocked on their door. The school R and I attended had added multiple classrooms, so much of the playground was now classroom.



The picture reminds me of one with Pop and Grandma in front of the house with checker board windows. If I recall correctly, the boy bedroom was the upper right window, the one I threw a toy sword through. (Great story to be told when little kids are not around so there are no bad ideas placed in their heads).

We moved from this house in 1964 to Jeannette so Mom could have my sister C, living with Aunt P for 3 or so months and then on to Toledo where Dad had been transferred.

[Begin Music] Memories, like the corners of my mind...for the way we were...[/Music]

Speaking of Transition

Beginning this weekend, we start to become a family again. C is home for an extended weekend at home. C then goes back for a couple of weekends, then home for Memorial day and then finals for her. Home for the summer by June 6th.

By attending NCSSM, C needs to have 60 hours of volunteer work for some non-profit agency over the summer. No problem you say, but C has a summer full time job at a camp for challenged kids and adults that lasts 8 weeks, and is doing her GS Gold award project his summer. This summer is going to be busy for C and for K.

A has finals next week, so will be home the following weekend for the summer. There will be a huge transition for her from the hectic life of a college sophomore to that of daughter of D and K.

This should be quite a transition for all 4 of us. We miss them when they are attending school.

In Transition

I must be in a generational transition zone. I use email, a lot. I use AIM, some. I have a MySpace page, but my kids think that I am weird for having it. I do eBay (think Weird Al Yankovic) and Craigslist. And of course there is this blog.

This blog is really a way to keep distant family and friends up to date on what is happening in our lives. Some of my posts are ridiculed by my family, some not seeing the point of blogging. It is a public diary, sharing happenings.

I am trying to figure if I need a MySpace page and how to integrate it into my routine if necessary. We shall see

Also this weekend

After taking pictures of C for her prom, K and I went to Smithfield to see B and K. B was asking for help on how to install some trim on windows in his dining room. The old sills had rotted from condensation from single pane windows that were installed in the house originally, but are now long gone, replaced by vinyl.

Since the window trim is now unpainted, there was nothing great to see. I promised B that I would not post pictures of the work until after the painting had been done. It took us all day to replace 3 sills, put a finish edge on a floor and fix an electrical outlet.

B is generally a good student when it comes to doing work around the house. It was tough for me to let B do the work as I am a hands on kind of guy and like the doing, but like everyone else, B learns best when he does the work and I supervise.

B and K are doing well.

It was Junior Prom Time

For C this past weekend. Being reasonable parents, we took many pictures of C. All of the pictures were taken at the Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University. There were sooooooo many people there taking pictures for various proms that it was difficult to keep other people from showing up in the pictures.

C was a good sport because I took 17 pictures of her in various locations and backgrounds.













C went with a group of 10 students from her school. They went to dinner at Carrabba's, then off to the prom. They had to be back on campus at 1:30AM unless they had parental permission to stay in a hotel. There was a 2AM breakfast catered in by a local restaurant for all the students. As is typical for proms, C made a full night of it by viewing movies, etc until 5 AM.

All in all, C said it was fun and I am glad she went.

Another one gone

I just learned of the passing of my Aunt N from Minnesota in February. She was 84. While my family and hers were never super close because of them being in MN, she and Uncle D were fun people to be around, as were my cousins. Uncle D passed away a only a year or two ago, and Aunt N suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer's.

God speed Aunt N and my condolences to T, T and D.

Randomness

Sorry for the volume of posts in a single day, but when they come, they come.

K and I are now the parent of a 20YO college student. When did I get so old. I just celebrated the 22nd anniversary of my 29th birthday a few weeks ago, so I cannot be THAAAAAT old.

Pray for A

A is taking Organic II with a new professor. This professor has not taught at the college level before and is causing many of the Organic Chemistry students anguish. So much so that the average on a recent test was 34, with no one scoring higher than a 50.

A has put lots of work in for this class, appears to understand and can apply the materials presented in the text, no all night cramming sessions. Just solid study habits for 2 solid weeks before the exams, along with keeping up on the day to day work for this class.

The Professor gave an in class assignment for the students to work and not a single student had the correct answer (according to the Professors statement in class after reviewing the work).

A is currently managing a "C", but is getting frustrated at the Professor for giving tests worthy of graduate studies. Pray that she can focus for the next 3 weeks and finish the class with the "C".

Oh No, it has started.

The cycle has started. K and I mowed the grass tonight for the first time. Dueling riding lawnmowers to get the job done in a reasonable time. K started about 3 after weeding some of the flower beds, and I came out after dinner was prepared, post work. We worked until about 8PM, slightly after sundown.

Based on normal happenings, this cycle will be repeated every two weeks from now until November.

It was nice while it lasted.

Usually

I am a relatively high energy type of laid back guy. I guess that means (to me anyway) that I am frequently in motion but sometime lack specific direction. That said, I have been doing slightly less travel this year as the Agents that I direct are fewer in number and in a different geography, making organizing effective travel more challenging.

With all the travel that happened late last year and early this year, there is a mental fatigue that has set in, to the point of not really wanting to travel. Maybe I need to take a week off for vacation and not pick up my phone or email.

After coming back

from a trip to Northern Ohio, I got a cold, with sinus drainage and fever that was somewhat nasty. The symptoms did not really start until Friday PM and I spent most of Saturday and Easter Sunday with a fever, coughing and hacking.

Seems the yo-yo weather in NC and Ohio finally caught up with me. C had the cold the couple of weeks before me and is just now really getting better. Traveling with her during her spring break is probably where I got the bug.

New Places, New Faces

Last week, I traveled to Southeastern PA, Delaware and Southern NJ. It was new territory for me and as such it was very interesting. I will be going back in about a month to follow-up what was started on this trip.

We went to some interesting places. In Southern Delaware, we went to a microbrewery called Dogfish Head Brewery with their specialty beers, IPA's. They use several different pieces of my equipment and had some questions. While it is the same processes as in a place like Anheuser Busch or Miller, the scale is much smaller, the place is more artisan, and the people are more interesting. The whole environment at these type places is less of a chemical plant that just happens to make beer to that of a place that seems more free spirited, almost artisan like to the point of having 2 Boccie Ball courts out in front of their front door. They do tours on MWF at 3 PM if you are ever in the area with even some sampling of their products. This was a good, but fun sales call.

Earlier that day in more northern Delaware, we had gone into a manufacturer of the inert ingredients of pills (as one end use example). They take paper pulp, break it down further to the cellulose and use the cellulose as the inert ingredients. This company, prior to us going in, had a bad experience with my type of equipment in the past.

Upon arriving, the Process Engineer was informed by a co-worker of the challenges previously experienced. (Seems as if one of my competitors had been in there, sold them some equipment based on price, not no the application and the equipment was significantly undersized for the process.) This made for an awkward sales experience, but we were able to demonstrate knowledge of my product, coupled with experiences that we had in similar applications to garner a trial to prove the equipment acceptability to this customer. By the end of the sales call, there was significantly less skepticism about the ability for the equipment and an open, honest dialog had been established.

I was slightly west of York on Friday AM at a Paper Mill retrieving demo equipment. Interesting town (very small) but beautiful country side. I will need to take K with me next time to this area as she would enjoy it.

And so it was, all week.

This is truly amazing

One down, one to go

Spring breaks that is. A had her Spring break over the last week. She and some college schoolmates went to Kiawah Island in SC. One of their parents owns a portion of a house there and they spent the week just beach and doing nothing. It was a relaxing spring break for A. It is nice to have friends that have places like this.

She as also home Friday, through earlier tonight, now on back to school. She is finished with school on or about May 2 for the summer.

Next up, C's spring break that begins on Thursday at 5PM and lasts for a week and a half.

I got the coolest phone

call today about 11:30 this morning. LO (aka the King)from the Merry old Land of Oz decided to borrow his father's phone and called, unsupervised of course. We talked about L, we talked about the Cadet, and where his father and mother were; in general had a wonderful little conversation. I asked questions and L answered in good, complete sentences. For example:

me: how ya doing?
L: My brubber is sick?
me: Oh, really? What's wrong with him?
L: He's... He's got...I don't know, but he is sick.

And so it went. A pleasant little 3 minute conversation, and then just a quickly, he said goodbye and we hung up. Good future for that guy in sales.

On an email newsletter

that I subscribe, they included a link to the following video. It contains an tourist safari video of a life and death interaction between buffalo, lions and alligators. It is really interesting all that happens in this 8 minute video.



It is safe for young children to see this video. At least I thought it was cool enough to share.

On my last post

It was all about A last weekend. To prove it, here are some pictures of A, K and I at Parents weekend for her sorority:



This is one of A's roommates for next year (at the same function):



The happy Parent unit:



As A's present to C for her upcoming birthday, A got C tickets to the UNC/Florida State basketball game. To prove that she was there, here are a couple of pictures of them:






The game was on a Tuesday night, so C had to get special permission from us and the school to be out past curfew with someone other than her parents. No real problem, just some paperwork.

It is all about A

This weekend. She would have it no other way. Last night, her Sorority had an open house as part of their Parents Weekend Later today, we are going out to dinner with A and then on to a Cocktail put on by the Sorority. Then tomorrow AM there is a brunch, put on by the Sorority that we will attend. "Getting a tan from the light that she is basking..."

I wish there had been a picture

As I am in town this week, I made dinner for K and C tonight. I took some boneless/skinless chicken breasts, poured a little olive oil over them, sprinkled them with some of the bread dipping spices that we got from Sautter's in Sylvania last summer and baked the chicken until done. Also made onion soup potatoes (Lipton's onion soup sprinkled over potatoes per the recipe on the box), green beans and crescent rolls. It was really tasty and there is enough for leftovers tomorrow.

K and C were out Prom dress shopping, so I was home alone all afternoon until about 7PM when they came home, dinner was served. C is home from school for the end of the term.

A and C

When we got together yesterday to give A the papers that were needed for formal entry into Pharmacy School, I took this picture of A and C as we were coming out of Mimi's Cafe in Burlington, NC. We had a great time at dinner and A could not stop beaming. Just a day or two before, A was trying to let herself down easy as she had not yet heard if she was accepted to Pharmacy School and was thinking the worst. Thanks goes to those that prayed for A, now the hard part, living up to the goal.

Got news today

about A and Pharmacy School. Long and the short of it, shezin. The letter came to the house addressed in a normal envelope. As A was at school at a B-Ball game and the envelope did not look like anything out of the ordinary, so K opened it and promptly gasped like the letter had a snake in it.

C and I came running and K had each of us read the letter to make sure what she saw. We did not want a "just kidding" kind of moment. When it was confirmed, we called A, but she could not hear us because of the game. So we did the teenager thing and text messaged her. We got a call back in about 30 seconds, then 22,0000 people at the Dean Dome knew A had been accepted to Pharmacy School as she squealed with delight while her head hit the rafters.

We are proud of her and she is very excited. It has made the work she put in this far worth it. Now to finish out the semester.

Keep smiling sweetie!

Happy Valentine's Day

For you, Sweetie!

Missed it again

A couple of weeks ago, I made some comments about a winter storm that wasn't. How the weather folks thought that there would be much snow, freezing rain and ice, but it never happened. Well yesterday, the weather folks called for rain with an occasional snow flake or two about sundown. Well, last night there was a freak winter storm in our area of 2 - 3 inches of snow, but the temperatures fell so fast the initial precipitation turned to ice then was covered by the snow. Here are some pictures from out backyard.





I had gone to Raleigh on business, meeting with one of my peers from my company and our local agent to do some training and sales forecasting. It was raining intermittently all afternoon, some rain desperately needed. After the work was done, we went to dinner at a restaurant in Raleigh.

I left at about 9PM, with neither A nor C able to come out an play.

When I got to Burlington, NC about 20 miles from home, it was wild. Snowflakes about the size of quarters were falling at a fast and furious pace. I watched as a Honda CRV passed me (I was doing about 30MPH on the Interstate), then do a 540 in front of me then shoot into the ditch. A mile or two further and I watched a dualie pick-up truck pulling one of those car trailers go sideways in the highway in front of me bumping the concrete median barrier, a car plow into the driver's side rear of the same truck, a Suburban hit the trailer and end up off the highway on the right. I was far enough back to avoid the traffic behind me diving for cover and the traffic in front of me by going slow enough to avoid the debris.

There were many other cars and pick-up trucks in the ditches and median along the road. I was fortunate that I stayed far enough from the traffic in front of me and ahead of the traffic behind me that I was in no immediate danger. The drive that should have been about 25 minutes (from Burlington to my house took about an hour and a quarter). Front wheel drive helped greatly as most of the vehicles that had problems were either rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive where the driver had too much confidence in the vehicle. You can go but you cannot stop.

I am glad this does not occur that often. When I got home, twas mentally exhausted. At this point, there is sympathy for my sister and her commutes through stuff like this in Indiana more often than me.

The snow will be gone this afternoon as the high is to be around 48. I already hear the melt running from the roof.