Application Time

Sheela received her application request to apply as a Junior Zoo Keeper at the Dallas Zoo.  She has a few weeks to turn it back in then a round of interviews.  The competition is pretty stiff for either the Saturday or Sunday time slots and since we don’t home school the weekday slots aren’t an option.  She’d be committed to a 4.5 hour shift every week for 13 weeks.

Texas is Beautiful

I don't always think so but we are enjoying one of the most amazing weeks right now.  It's been in the mid-60s and sunny for nearly a week.  Sid and Sunil are camping so I'm squiring Sheela and her best friend around.  We walked to the donut shop this morning.  There is actual fall foliage out there this year no bright, yellow but plenty of reds, oranges and burnished golds. 

Now we are up at the tennis courts.   While the girls play I'm alternately reading a book and sending emails.  Neither one is really capturing my attention, the sky is too bright a blue to be ignored today.

Later on we will go to see "New Moon" with my friend Cindy.  I don't see her often enough.  One of the things that has suffered from my travel and lunch meeting schedule has been meeting my other friends for lunch.  I'm getting lonely without them. 

I used to think that I read when I got stressed but apparently the reading is for boredom or lonliness.  I get obsessive over music when I'm stressed.  I play the same song a dozen times until I can wear it out and move on.   

Well the sky has captured the girls too.  They are both laying on the court watching the clouds now.  They are about the same age as I was when I became friends with Kathy.  They don't dress alike or talk alike yet but they will before much longer.

Early snack

Sunil, tired of waiting for turkey, tried to eat Dad's ears.... Again.

Sports

Sid took Sunil to the last of high school football games last night.  They played in Cowboy Stadium and the game didn't even start until after 9PM then it went in to double overtime.  The Eagles missed the two point conversion to lose in the last few seconds 35:34.  They didn't get home until 2AM.

 

Sheela and I stayed a little bit closer to home.  We went to another Allen Americans game.  They beat the Corpus Christie Ice Rays 4:0.  This time there were five fights instead of just one but they seemed almost contrived.  I think they got scolded for not fighting enough last time and just put on a show.  That aside the game was good and we sat on the glass once again.  There were maybe 1/3 as many people there this time.  It was also Choctaw Casino/Resort jersey night.  So we received jerseys with the Americans logo on the back and the casino logo on the front.  There were so few fans there that we got an extra jersey for Sunil and a second one for me (they didn't have any larges left so I'm keeping Sid's medium).  One of the boys Sheela knows from school was in the row behind us so he came down to sit with us.

Premier, etc.

Sheela did opt to go to the midnight movie last night.  She should be back at her friend's by now and will go to school today.

It's storming pretty hard right now and we are supposed to be camping tonight with the Cub Scouts.  We don't really want to go because we have too much else doing but there aren't that many Cub Scout activities.  I'm also supposed to be passing out the class B uniforms (t-shirts) there.

Sunil's first basketball practice was last night.  His team will be the Dynamites.  His first game (preigame) will be the weekend of the parade/holiday party but we won't know when until that week.

Jersey

So this was the trip that should never have been.  It took two weeks longer to schedule than it should have needed and changed purposes at least three times.  In the end I came up early enough to spend the whole afternoon in the office where I spent the whole time calling in to meetings that I needed to attend back in TX.  Meanwhile a truck wiped out a telephone pole next to the tissue bank's distribution facility.  The real reason to be here was to become familiar with their customer service/distribution interface.  The telephone pole wiped out a series of serious high powered power lines.  The live lines constituted a serious risk to public health and safety.  The police closed the facility.  No shipments yesterday or today.  I was supposed to go to the other location but as no shipments were going to be made the customer service department was busy calling all of their customers to apologize.

While this was going on I did manage to drop down to Freehold to visit Rav and Renee for dinner (the trip highlight).  I saw Samantha for a few minutes and talked to Katie on the phone.

Then I tried to check in to the hotel only to be turned away.  My confirmed reservation pulled up in their system for next week.  No biggee - I went across the street.

Today I went to a training class in the office here that I've wanted for 2 years.  It is taught by a group of my friends from TX.  Not really worth a flight here but at least I got something out of it.  Now I'm heading home.

On the Hilton situation a further investigation by my travel agent and the hotel general manager has determined that someone at the hotel altered my reservation when I showed up late and then tried to blame it on a programming glitch.

TV

Sheela was on TV this morning.  ESPN broadcast College Game Day from TCU today.  Sheela went down with some friends and managed a few seconds of air time.

Inspired by Tracy

As a special favor to the birthday boy the kids and I cleaned out our front hall closet last weekend.  Here it is in its organized splendor.  New hooks along the back allow us to hang up the newly updated zoo backpack (contains refillable zoo cups, monorail passes and carousel tokens), the camping backpacks (flashlights, mess gear, lanterns, air mattress pumps, etc) and all of the camel backs.  The real difference is in restricting the hanging rod to two coats apiece.  We have hooks in the front too for my purse and everyday coat, Sheela’s backpack and favorite sweatshirt, Sunil’s baseball bag and backpack, and Sid’s sweatshirt and windbreaker.  Unfortunately it’s been nearly a week and the pieces that didn’t go back in are on the floor in the front hall.  Fun for another day I guess.

A Zoo Day

Gorilla Nap

Love the zoo

Sunday is Zoo Day

Sid's Birthday

Last night Sid and Sunil went to the last regular season football game. It was the first time they've gone to an away game. They expected to leave early (on the assumption that Allen would be trampling Wylie) so that Sid and Sheela could go to a Rock Climbing lock-in with HATS. But it wsan't a trample and Sheela was worn out plus the boys had some logistical issues with getting back home (shuttle buses to the car and traffic and going the wrong way) that kept them out pretty late. In the end they bagged the climbing night.

That said we haven't really celebrated his birthday yet. I'll wake Sheela up in another half hour or so to make pancakes and bacon for breakfast in bed. Tonight we'll do gifts and then take him out. Sheela is getting him a new tent but wants him to pick it out so she is going to make a tent diorama for him to open. Sunil got him tickets to the first home game of the Allen Americans (our local professional hockey team). They are 5 and one on the year. Tonight they will play here for the first time. Our brand new event center just opened last night with a Reba concert. I bought him an accessory for his Garmin that he needed and will take out to buy new boots (his are falling apart before our eyes).

Decision time

I've been unofficially offered a job in our IT department. I've talked to the hiring director and the two other managers and it looks like a lot of fun with a great team. I love both of the direct reports and the director. The job would be supporting and managing all of the IT support for a third of the company (thus the need for the other two managers - both of whom are excellent and would cover my back while getting me up to speed on the actual technical stuff).

The porblem is that my current job is also a lot of fun and hits a wider area of responsibility. I just want to get out of having to support manufacturing in favor of working on more multi-company projects. When our Operations department was a shared service supporting all four companies this was easier to justify. Now we all fall back under one company again and that makes it difficult to the big boss of that company to allow me to spend my time on the others. I've talked to my boss about it. Next week I'll talk to his boss about it. The week after that I'm travelling with his boss. We'll see where it goes. Either way I'm still going to like my job. Not everyone can say that.

A me brag

I won closest to the pin (for the women) in the golf tournament today.  It was pretty much my only contribution to the team's efforts.  I spent my $100 gift shop credit on golf shoes and Hurricane Creek jacket.  Whoo-hooo for me.

Happy Halloween

I was hoping to have some photos from the company party to share but that will have to wait.  Thursday was our 9^th Orthoween party at work.  The Marketing Department did a spoof of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory complete with inflating a girl to look like a blueberry to tie for first place with the accounts receivable department’s reprisal of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  My favorite was the IT department’s 1980’s MTV Video Award show.  Different people filmed themselves singing the songs and then edited the original videos to feature themselves.  My friend Steve shaved his head, put ona dress and did a Sinead O’Conner song, Suzi did Madonna, we also had Devo, Kiss, ZZ Top and Rick Ansely.  Excellent!  Once again went around with the judges for a prime viewing spot.  I did not intend to be in costume but was drafted to fill up the giant underwear as the Fruit of the Loom grape leaves.  There were five of us in that underwear.

 

The kids are mostly costumed up.  Sunil is going to be a werewolf and Sheela a vampire.  They’ve both found friends to Trick-or-treat with tonight.

 

Today Sheela has some friends over helping her make her campaign posters.  She’s running for PRIDE council president.

 

Sunil has gone to escort his friend back home.  The friend got poked in the eye with a light saber (she’s okay) but she’s had enough of the boys for today.

 

Sid’s catching up on property stuff.  I’ve been alternately working from home and cooking.  The kids carved albino pumpkins this morning and we roasted the seeds.  They look good (the seeds) and they smell good but when its all said and done they’re still pumpkin seeds and more trouble than they are worth.  I made shrimp fettuccini for lunch and have an apricot pork loin in the crock pot for dinner.

 

The sun is shinning today so I keep finding excuses to just go stand outside for a few minutes.  If I could kick the kids out of the house I’d go for a bike ride.   

Campaigning (or more Mom bragging)

Sheela is running for school president.  She spent the weekend with "her staff" writing speeches and making posters.  Yesterday she had to address all 600 students.

She also gets to represent her school (along with another good friend) in the UIL Number Sense competition in January.

Missing post

I wrote a huge post over the weekend but don’t see it today.  Makes me wonder where I sent it……..  Long story short:  The weekend was beautiful, the kids are fun, Sid worked some, I worked some and Halloween candy is good.