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.

C came home

this weekend because she needed to study in a quiet place for finals. So she is sequestered in her room, books and papers all over the place, studying AP Chemistry. It is way quieter here than at school.

Final Computer Update

It did end up being a memory module that was bad. Because of that, the computer was upgraded to 1GB memory as I bought a couple of the from eBay for $31 total including shipping. No more BSOD and the anti virus program can run without crashing the computer.

I knew you were just waiting.

My posts

have been somewhat nerdy, so says a S-I-L, posting about obscure subjects like Blue Screen of Death messages. I don't know. It kind of fits me, at least I think.

Anyway, K has completely stripped the cedar chest that we got from JO and we are now waiting slightly warmer weather to put the finish on. We will post pictures after this is done.

Update on the computer

The computer had been running without issue for 6days, which means that the one memory module was bad. Now the real challenge: Do I change the computer for a new one or just buy a couple of new memory modules?

Decisions.

Computer update

The computer has been running without issue for 2+ days. It seems as if removing a suspect memory module has corrected the issue. I will let it run for a couple more days before proclaiming victory, but it is looking good.

Troubleshooting Computers

Our desktop computer has been a pain lately. It is a bit old and has been giving the BSOD, showing random errors causing the automatic shutdown. I am trying to isolate the problem, but Microsoft and Google are very little help when trying to figure out these types of errors. MS indicates it is a driver that is causing the fault, but does not say which one or how to troubleshoot. Google says the same thing, but some sites indicate that a memory module may have a faulty chip, so I am trying removal of one of the memory sticks to see if that will isolate the problem. I originally thought it was my Antivirus, then Java that was crashing the computer, but was incorrect on both counts.

Based on what happened earlier today, either I removed the good memory module or the problem is outside the SDRAM boards. I will probably know within a day or so.

BTW, the BSOD error codes are about worthless.

Boredom In NY

I am waiting for business associates to fly in to Albany, NY. I am sitting in a Panera Bread typing this, having started this day in Pottsdam, NY. It has been a long day of business calls and snowy travel. Near Oswego, NY, along Lake Ontario, there was one of those "Lake Effect Snows" that was wild. We were traveling along in partly cloudy skies, when we could see the sky ahead turn dark. It went from dry conditions to heavy snow in about 3 minutes. At times, the snow was so hard that it was nearly impossible to see 100 feet to the car in front of me. This lasted for 15-20 miles and then, just as fast, was gone. Saw many cars in ditches and a truck that was blown over. The cars were from States other than NY. All in all, just another day in business.

Hope yours was good too.

Yesterday was one

Of those great weather days in NC. It was a day that beginning at 8 AM, the local television crews were on the road, with reporters at several "key" locations through out the region looking for bad weather. They knew it was going to be bad, and all wanted to be the first to show how bad it is.

Even the head meteorologist was on the road to demonstrate how bad things were going to get. All were predicting snowfall in my area at 2-3 inches as a cold front mixed with a low coming off the Gulf full of moisture. It was to be worse east of here as well, but these guys were concentrating on the local area.

Well it finally started raining, as predicted, about 11:00 AM. and it rained for about 3 or so hours before changing over to snow. It never did snow hard, and we ended up with about 1/2 inch of snow.

Over at college, A ended up with less than 1 inch of snow. I think BW got slightly more when all was completed.

What do you call a Chief Meteorologist that is driving around in the television station van looking for snow that does not get here?......Desperate for job security.

Testing Just this one time.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's one of my favorite singers was Peter Gabriel. Recenly whlile wandering around on some of the political related websites I read occcasionally, I stumbled on the below videos of Peter and two of the more memorable offereing by him. They are apolitical, so no body will be offended, but they are offered as entertainment.

In your eyes



Sledgehammer

Some Pictures from Key West

As promised earlier, here are some pictures of my time here in Key West. The temperature is in the upper 60's and the wind is about 10MPH, but gusting to the mid 20's so it can be cool, in a relative sort of way. I like it, but I have more insulation.

First, some local vegetation, a Coconut tree. Notice the blue sky in the background.


This is a view over a marsh. It was only slightly breezy at the time of the picture.


Here is the stern of the yacht, about 150 feet long, masts standing about as tall. The fit, finish and wood trim is just immaculate and the ship is just beautiful. I hails from the UK and I am told it cost about 25 million pounds. Looking at it, the cost is quite evident. There are many tourists that stop and stare at this fine ship. It has dual 21 ft dinghies, jet powered (vs prop).



Wandering all over, these "free range" chickens are very interesting. Many are very colorful, but I am told they are protected, being descendents of the chickens brought over during the discovery period. It is funny to see them wandering around. They cross the road when they want to (there is a joke in there somewhere), yet you do not see them getting hit by the cars. There is no evidence of chicken pate anywhere, these things are fast.



The cruise ships to Key West dock right outside our hotel. It is only a 2 block walk to Duval Street, the tourist trap area in Key West. It is tremendous fun to people watch as they look at all the stuff for sale here.



If I get a chance, I will post other photos as I take them.