Not just us

The wind damage was on the news this morning…. denuded rooftop after rooftop all across the Northern suburbs.  The speculation is that the damage is all tied to one particular company's product.  I find that hard to credit.  The different housing tracts involved are anywhere from brand new to 15 years old at least.  In any case we have someone coming by today to take a look at ours.

DI Competition

Saturday both kids' teams presented their solutions to the challenges they selected last October. This was the first time that I was able to watch Sunil and the Gators perform their tour of the Statue of Liberty. While on the tour they discover that the statue is really a fake. It was very cute.

Sheela nararated for her team, The Solar Storm. They were a group of Superheros defending their city against a dragon and his dragon master. The superhero that saves the day had to overcome her fear of reptiles in order to help.

At Sunil's level, Rising Stars, they don't get scores or awards. They do all get ribbons, pins and certificates. Sheela's team did not place in the top six (the only ones that are annonced). They received pins and ribbons as well.

The State competition is in April here at the University of Dallas. Sheela has asked to go and watch. I'll take her and any of her team mates that want to come along so that they can see what the level of effort went in to the first place teams solutions.

Home disaster number three

Let's hope that "disaster" is an overstatement. We had some incredibly high winds yesterday. The sky was a muddy brown all day long. Even though it was finally warm it wasn't a nice day to be out. So I spent my spare time curled up in my bed attempting to sleep through my allergies and listening to the wind rip the shingles off of the roof. The good news is that half of the ones that turned up in our backyard really came from the neighbors roof.... not really much comfort that.

I can't see our roof well enough for a picture but I have a great view of Greg's. As you can see the sky is clear and bright today. I'm hoping we get at least a few days rain reprieve so we can get the roof fixed.

Summer Cruise

Dad and Eileen have made their arrangements to join a large flotilla (or armada, maybe) of boats cruising the Eastern Med this Summer. I think that they will hit Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. They get not only to visit the coastal towns but will take numerous in land trips to round out the experience.

The TAKS Fairy

The third graders (and perhaps the 4th and 5th graders) were visited by the TAKS fairy on Monday. She blew magic bubbles at them and sprinkled pixie dust on them to help them obtain good scores on their TAKS tests. The tests were administered today.

Bone Density - Not mine

A friend of mine has just been informed that she is firmly situated in the danger zone for low bone density. She is in her mid-40s and was not expecting this. They wanted her to go immediately to obtain her handicapped parking tag in order to eliminate those long, dangerous walks across parking lots. They've told her not to lift anything heavier than 8 pounds (one of her cats weighs 13 pounds - Bello's kitten, Norbert). She has been given a variety of prescriptions and will really take them. She is not cancelling next week's ski trip. She's an adult, its her risk to take.

Over-scheduling pays off

The original; plan was to kick off our weekend with a babysitting gig (I owe a friend a favor), a soccer practice and a play date with a friend for Sunil. Tomorrow we have two parties, a soccer game, a t-ball practice and laundry, Sunday there is one more soccer game, a funeral (well the viewing) and both kids need to rehearse their DI parts.

Tonight the planets aligned in my favor. I had to leave work early to drive the girls to soccer practice. Normally I bring them back but the other mother's plane was delayed (snow storms, yada, yada, yada) and I need to be home when when Jaden comes over (I was going to be cutting it very close). Sunil was going to play with his friend up the street but the friend came home from school with a fever. Sunil rode to practice with us.. and fell asleep in the car on the way back. Sid was delayed. Jaden (and his folks) were delayed. I ended up with a whole hour of uninterrupted computer time. I managed to outline goals for the department and the staff, plan for two Monday meetings and follow up on a host of other outstanding items. I managed another two hours after everyone showed up because they were watching a movie. I'm almost caught up.

Sick to death of death and dying

Another co-worker lost her mother this week after a very brief fight with cancer (of pretty much everything). That funeral is Monday. I've known Brenda and her baby sister ten years. Another co-worker has cancer in both lungs, her stomach and her spine. This has been a hard year around here.

Daddy Daughter Dance 2006

I finally managed to swing by the AISD office to pick up the picture. I think they look great (and happy). Sheela wanted to take off the sweater but they had already recorded her as wearing red on the form (to avoid screw ups) so they convinced her to leave it on. I like it anyway... it makes them look more like the 2004 picture.

The bloom is off the rose...

the new dishwasher has developed an "issue". It isn't too bad really, one of the tines on the upper rack rusted through and broke off. At less than a month old the warranty will take care of it.... except that I didn't keep the original receipt and can't prove its age. Today I will try to wheedle a replacement receipt out of the retailer.

Scrimage Results

Last weekend Sheela's DI team (Solar Storm) entered an instant challenge scrimmage.  We just received their results.  They tied for 8^th place out of out of 45 teams in the task based drill and finished 16^th in the performance drill.  I never did get a clear understanding of the challenges.  The task involved suspending at least one lego a certain height off of the table top.  I don't know what they used to build their fixture but they received full credit for the first one and a few extra points for the additional pieces.  The performance involved a person going on a trip being presented with three gifts by their friends.  They went on a shopping trip and bought a canteen, a map and a snack which were then given to the traveler for use on her trip to Madagascar.  Their originality points hurt them there but they did pretty well on their presentation. 

Angels

Sunil is an Angel, and this time it isn't just me saying so.  That is the name of his t-ball team.  There are 14 five year olds on this team… I'd go so far as to bet that he is the oldest one.  I can't imagine trying to keep these kids on task.  So far from the list of names I don't think there are any that he already knows.  Practices start this weekend… stay tuned.

Reduction

Our manufacturing department had its first reduction in force in five years or so.  Luckily it was a very small number, but we've gotten so efficient with the production that we've been holding back our capacity until the sales catch up.  Even after stellar sales the last six months we can still make more than we need.  It was sad to see the people go but it had to be done.  Two chose to leave even though they'd been offered other positions and one took the transfer.  The shortest term employee affected had been here over four years; the longest had been here eleven years and was considered by many to still be a newbie.  We don't let people go often and they almost never leave on their own.

Metric mania

I just survived a two and a half day meeting/seminar on setting meaningful metrics at work. It was actually extremely useful... if a little bit dry. A simple analogy was used to explain why tracking most metrics doesn't really help you reach your goals:

when you become dissatisfied with your physique you resolve to lose 15 pounds. For the next few months you track your weight gain and weight loss. The result of which is a nice graph showing your normal weight fluctuations. Instead you should chose the primary behaviors that would make your clothes fit better: eat less, excercise more. You track food/calories and excercise time/frequecy instead. This way you focus on something you can actually control and you get immediate feedback on whether or not you are on track. Every few weeks you can check your progress but you don't focus on the result.. you focus on the behavior.

After that 10 minutes of class we spent two more days choosing goals and establishing our metrics (based on previous project pitfalls). It seems like a lot but in the end I think it was worth it, and it was very gratifying to find out that we all agree on our past mistakes and that in every case we've already laid a foundation for correcting the problems. Now we need to track our progress on implementing the changes and then monitor the new systems. Simple, eh?!

Extra work?!?

Sheela brought home her practice TAKS scores this week. She did very well, in my opinion, 36 out of 38 and 39 out of 40 fro reading and math. I not only had to acknowledge that I'd seen her scores I had to choose a method for her extra practice. She can stay in from recess one day a week and work with the teacher, stay after school one day to work with a teacher or bring home extra practice sheets to do at home. She chose to give up a recess, but was curious as to why she needed extra practice. I'll admit I was satisfied with the scores and didn't think it appropriate to assign extra work. I guess there is always room for improvement.

It turns out that it wasn't getting three questions wrong that earned her the extra work. She didn't show all of her work on all of the problems. In the true TAKS test it doesn't matter for the scoring but they want to make the point that the method matters.

Because I so enjoyed the sting index....

Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist created the Schmidt Pain Index after being stung by almost every type of bee, wasp and ant. This index compares the overall pain of Hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale.

1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
1.2 Fire Ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
2.x Honey bee, Africanized bee and European hornet.
3.0 Red Harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream). That would be our friend the Tarantula Hawk.
4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

The Tarantula Hawk

Sunil found a fully intact (dead) tarantula hawk in his room today. Instead of giving it to Sheela for her bug collection he has decided to keep it and start his own collection. The tarantula hawk is closely related to the cicada killer wasp but instead of placing a dead cicada in with its larva it places a dead tartanula in with the larva. Charming.

According to the Wikipedia "The sting, particularly of Pepsis formosa, is among the most painful of any insect. Commenting on his own experience, one researcher described the pain as '...immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."It is listed near the top of the list in Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Although the sting is quite painful the effect is reported to last only a few minutes and is fatal less often than the honey bee. '"

Happy Birthday Seema!!!

Seema is the tall, willowy one in purple. We are celebrating her birthday this time around. It coincided nicely with the Sharma's return from India which always means new clothes and sparkly jewelry. Don't they look great?!?

Snow that sticks

Last night the snow finally kicked in. Sheela was disappointed to find that the schools didn't close. But as you can see the streets are pretty clear. Sunil was disappointed to learn that when you stay home sick you don't get to play outside.

Actual snow

We had snow yesterday morning for nearly an hour. It fell in big, beautiful flakes that never actually made it to the ground. Not even the cars turned white. Sheela didn't even believe that it happened (she was in the school library with no windows). Sunil's class went outside to play in it for a few minutes.