Lynn's Lances

I've signed up to join a group of Lynn's friends at the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life this Friday night. We've been given conflicting information about the event, but the fundraising piece and the start time are both pretty clear. The end time isn't nailed down as well. We are either walking from 7PM Friday night until midnight, or until 7 AM Saturday, or possibly midnight on Saturday night. I'm okay with either of the first two options. Soccer games start at 8AM on Saturday. I'll have to break away before then.

In the meantime feel free to make a contribution to the cause. Apparently I can't get the link to work so please take it upon yourself to go to www.acsevents.org/faf/home and search for my name under the donations page. Thank you!

House Sparrows

Our flock of house sparrows continues to grow, thrive and generally take over.  We have the obligatory nest inside each of the bathroom vents and one in the bluebird box.  But new this year is the one that keeps trying to nest inside the barbeque grill.  We cleared it out twice then resorted to leaving the lid open... maybe for the rest of the Spring. 

Welcome home, Grandma and Grandpa!

They've been off visiting Ravi and family for the last three weeks. The kids are thrilled. I've been informed (by Sunil) that I'm no longer needed to drive him around. Grandpa will take care of all of that again.

What size was that?

The time has come to survey the kids bathing suits and summer clothes. They will swim at least twice a week all summer. Sunil finally did outgrow both of MY favorite suits. He's had them for nearly three years. That leaves him only the bright orange one. It is HIS favorite because it looks like Dad's. It fits better than ever... it is a size 12 Months. The child is about to turn five. That's just wrong.

Date Night

It has been a busy few days.  Friday we passed our transfer audit at work.  I got to step up and assist with the process.  I wasn't intending to be "in the room" but our Regualtory Manager had a family emergency and is still out of town.  The audit was quick and painless and we were very well prepared.

 

Late Friday afternoon Sid and I agreed to accept a placement of two girls, one eight and one seven.  Luckily for us that fell apart at the last minute.  We really don't need to have two more children to deal with.

 

Sheela took the screening exam for the talented and gifted program at school.  All she can say about the test was that it was easy and involved drawing pictures and applying captions.  One of her pictures depicted what life would be like if you had an egg for a head.  Test result will be mailed the week of June 5th.

 

While she was being tested, the Panthers were losing a soccer game.  The team started off three players short, and a fourth got sick on the field and had to be benched.  The girls played okay, not great, but not bad.  They just ran out of steam.

 

Sunil's team played later and was another of the high scoring variety more on the opponent's side than on ours.  But they played well and had fun.  They were only short one player.

 

Both kids spent the night with friend on Saturday.  Sid took me to Fogo de Chao for dinner, it's another Brazilian chop house.  Yummy!  We followed it up with a few hours at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar and dessert at IHOP.

 

We collected the kids at Sheela's soccer game today.  Super Blue finally won a game (against an older team).  Woohoo!  They played pretty well but a number of the girls were all at the same slumber party and a little bit tired.

 

On our way home we swung by the Natatorium for swimming.  The plan was to wear the kids out so that they'd take a nap.  That didn't work so well, but as I fell asleep as soon as we got home it was okay by me.  My understanding is that they went to play with a neighbor.

Tot-kwon-do

We attempted to sign up Sunil for a martial arts class at school.  Actually we tried back in Septemeber and he wasn't interested, now he has asked to join.  We signed him up, they gave him his uniform and let him come to class one time.  The next two weeks they told him not to come.  It may have been more polite when they said it, but translated through the mouth of a disappointed four-year old it sounded rather rude.  After the first time the school said they were investigating the difficulty and I failed to follow up.  It happened again this week.  The school did follow up.  It turns out that we never paid for the class.  We wrote down our credit card information and checked the box requesting that they bill the card but they didn't do it.  Apparently this was true for both the kids that tried to pay by credit card.  I'm still waiting for a call back to work out the details.  There are only four more classes before the end of the school year.  It may just not be worth it.  We've promised Sunil that we will find him a local class as soon as soccer wraps up anyway.

Belo Horizonte

It looks like Brazil might actually happen.  The discussion now is who really needs to go and who just wants to tag along.  The Latin American VP will be there the third week in May.  He'd like me to come while he is there.  The Director of R&D (I think he's going just so I don't have to travel alone) has another trip already planned for that week.  The VP of Finance wants to go and he's available that week too.  So it comes down to whether the R&D guy is neccessary or just my babysitter.  If he's neccessary it may be a month or two before we can reschedule, if he's not I'll be gone the 14-19th of May.

I'm so happy.... and proud.....

my little girl has started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I figured it would be a few more years before she would be ready for it.  I tried to get her to read it out loud to me but we only had an hour before bedtime and apparently reading out loud slows her down too much.  I went back to my own book which wasn't nearly as good.

Choclate Daddy

I placed Mom's picture of the Chocolate Daddy iris to my desk top at work. The picture is so rich that I can smell the chocolate, or so it seems to the general public. I know that there is a bag of Hersey miniatures underneath the scanner. Even without the smell of the chocolate I would still love the picture.

Job Perk

Maybe not a perk but definitely a reward.... Our marketing department runs a contest each year for all off our patients.  They have the opportunity to write up their experiences with our products and win a prize.  It gives us a way to see the difference that we make in our patient's lives.  Here is an excerpt from this year's winner (not from her entry but from the thank you note she sent after receiving her prize)..."I hope that your use of my photos and my story of recovery will help to spread the word about the benefits of external fixation.  I am fortunate to have the use of my foot after what could have been a career ending injury.  I thank Orthofix and my doctor for a second chance."  Its always good to know that we helped.

Midnight finances

Okay, its closer to 3 AM. Sid just remembered that we set up an automatic payment that we need to cancel before it gets paid this month. Most of the payments go out tomorrow so here we are checking on it. This is sort of a good news bad news type thing. The good news is that we did already take care of this (nearly a month ago) and just forgot. The bad news is its 3:00 AM and I'm not asleep and I don't fell like going back to sleep. This isn't so bad for me but I feel sorry for everybody that will have to deal with me while I'm cranky tomorrow.

Fondue

It took us three meals to eat all of the fondue that was supposed to have been Easter dinner. There was just too much food and it takes too long to prep AND cook AND eat. So we had the cheese course for dinner on Tuesday, the chocolate course for desert on Wednesday and the oil course on Thursday (with some left over chocolate course to round out the night). I now have both Sid and Sheela hooked on the shloss sauce that I use to jazz up the steak and mushrooms.

Mom I'm still using the same recipies that we used in Canton 20+ years ago, except I did try a new cheese recipe. It has finely chopped shrimp, American cheese and cream cheese. Definitely a winner.

Play-off Tickets

I almost bought a pair of Stars vs. Avalanche tickets for tomorrow night. They were excellent seats right on the glass behind our goal. A guy at work was trying to unload them for half price. As we were working out the finer details, he realized that they were for a 2PM game and not a 7PM game. I had to back out. Oh well, its not like I had my heart set on them or anything.

Spring Fling

Anderson Elementary celebrated the end of the TAKS testing with their annual Spring Fling tonight. All four of us went this year. Nothing like a 150 kids dancing in the gym surrounded by 150 parents. As TAKS isn't administered until the 3rd grade I didn't really feel the need to celebrate its conclusion, but I definitely celebrated the end of the Spring Fling with a margarita or two after the kids went to bed.

Open House

Sunil's school had their annual Open House last night. Sunil and I went. He selected two works to demonstrate for me. The first is called Color Block II. There are two sets of colored tiles. Each set contains 12 colors. First he has to lay out the twelve tiles in a straight line, then he matched the colors from the second set to the first set and lays them along side. Then he takes the names of the colors and places them next to the proper colors. As a class work he would then color in a picture of the twelve tiles and write the correct names next to the colors. Then everything gets put neatly back away.

The second work was the 100s board. There is a wooden plaque with the numbers 10, 20...100 printed on it which is placed on the floor. Then he opens a box of ten-strands (wires each strung with 10 beads). He places one strand next to the number 10, two next to the number 20 and so on. As he places the strands he has to count the number of beads by 10s. Then he puts it all neatly back away.

I like watching the kids work, but it was more fun to go to the old school when the watching was done during a normal school day with only one or two parents there at a time. The open house was much too loud and too crowded and you don't get to see as much or the true work. I was pleased in any case.

Destination 2006 - Brazil

First a flashback....
Destination 2005 - Italy
Destination 2004 - India
Destination 2003 - Italy
Destination 2002 - England

We seem to have a hobby here at work. It involves telling me to pack my bags because they really need me to go to ____________ (on some super secret project) and then never actually letting me go anywhere. I haven't actually taken one of these trips since 1997.

I've recently been informed that I'm needed in Brazil. They don't know when they need me to go but it is a job that only I can do... (much like the others).

Sailing Triumph

Dad and Eileen should be on their way to the airport for their return to the cruising world. At the last minute I brow beat them in to providing the link to their fledgling blog. It has been added to my links. They wont have much time to work on it before they get underway. Once they get underway they wont have access to work on it. As long as occaisional posts are added I think they will love it when they get back home.

Have a safe journey, and fair winds, K

Dinner Party 2 - Cancelled

We planned on having friends over for fondue on Sunday. I even made multiple trips to the store to pick up those last few items.... and then those that I'd forgotten.... and then some more that I hadn't even thought about..... By mid-afternoon we got a better offer anyway. We went with Rick and Patricia to visit some of their family down in South Dallas. They have six horses and a few acres of pasture. There were roughly 40 people and a ton of food. We just hung out, practiced our Spanish, and watched the kids ride and hunt for confetti filled eggs. It was a really nice way to spend the day.

Dinner Party 1

Brenda and Art Porth came over for dinner tonight. They brought all four kids: Ronni Sue, Taylor, Christian and Alli. We had roast pork with mushroom Swiss gravy, corn on the cob, a green salad and strawberry shortcake. All very yummy. Christian is now twelve years old and six foot two, all the kids are tall but he's the most obvious at the moment.

Our kids are in bed and asleep at last and the kitchen is mostly cleaned back up. Now I get to go hide some Easter eggs and the Easter baskets. Then I think I'll go to bed and hope to sleep really late.

Popcorn overload

Sid and I took the kids to see Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown. Sheela and Sid loved it, Sunil was afraid and I was bored. The upside was the first show was sold out so we had an hour to kill before the next showing. We went to the park next door and rented a paddle boat. It was fun, but it made my legs really tired. The radius for the paddles was about two inches.

Good Friday

Today is a nearly perfect Friday. I'm off from work, the kids are off from school, Sid is coming home early and the weather is GREAT.
I indulged the kids with donuts and a trip to the zoo. We weren't exactly the only ones there but it was too pretty for complaints and the honeysuckle is in full fragrant bloom.



They've opened another new exhibit, Crocodile Isle. It's not very large or very original. It does have three very large crocs, a pond and a sand bar.

Snapdragons

I planted two flats of snapdragons after work today. I ordered them last week from a neighborhood kid's choir fundraiser. They only had to desiccate on the front porch for two days before getting planted. That's actually pretty good for me. If they perk up overnight I'll take a picture of those around the Live Oak.

Abandoned puppies

Brenda and Jeremy rescued four puppies from their property up North. They are awfully cute and big enough to go to new homes. The same day she called to ask for help finding families for them she received emails from two other friends. Each friend had rescued other abandoned pups. Sometimes I really hate people.

Five minutes every other month for a year.

I succumbed to an impulse yesterday and booked a year of laser hair removal (underarms are on special this month) and I had my first treatment tonight. It took less than five minutes and only stung for a few minutes (and not too badly at that). Within an hour all of the pain was gone. Theoretically I shouldn't have to shave again for nearly two months.

Easter egg hunt

Supre Blue Academy ended their Monday practice with an Easter Egg hunt for the girls (and their siblings). It was more of a run-and-grab than a hunt but the kids had fun. I didn't get any stellar pictures..... the kids were running away from me by the time I remembered that I even had my camera. In this picture Sunil is the white shirt back and blue pants on the right, Sheela is the pink pants and the yucky green penny, Claire has red hair and a white shirt back with black shorts and Travis has red hair, a white shirt, blue pants and is on the left. Sarah is wearing the blue penny and Becca is behind Sunil.

The houses in the background are stereotypical Texas: tiny front yards, even less side yard and completely fenced backyards.

Once again with pictures

Dad says he can receive file sizes up to 35000 bits. Let's see how he does with one picture..... this one is from Christmas a year ago. Brian and Tracy sent yukata to the kids.

Soccer update

I missed Sid's coaching debut, but it was a smashing success. The girls played great and Sid says he did very little but cheer. The Hot Wheels probably lost but it was definitely the highest scoring game we've had and at more than one point we were winning by multiple goals. Sunil is rumored to have scored at least one, if not two, of the goals. He denies them both and I couldn't tell through the sea of little brown heads around the goal. Sheela's academy team won their match on Sunday 3 to 0 against girls a year older (but only a little bit taller for a change), usually we look like shrimps. The weather both days was glorious.

Countdown to cast -off

Dad and Eileen will be returning to Triumph in nine more days. This means that they will lose their ease access to the minutiae of my life. So I'm attempting to have the updates emailed to them via their radio link. This will be the first such post to be sent. If it doesn't crash and burn I'll try one with a picture. I'm hoping that I can find a way to suppress the pictures so it doesn't overload the system.

Kite Flying

It's a beautiful day here today. I'm guessing low 80s, and brilliant sun. I forced the family out of the television cave to go kite flying this morning. The winds were a little bit too light so we ended up flying Sunil instead. He's not quite as colorful but he squeals more so he is actually more fun.

Elephant Rides

We went to the circus last night, right here in our own little sleepy town. They come every Spring and set up within two miles of our house. It's not exactly Ringling Brothers but they do well enough. The tickets are relatively inexpensive but then you have the option of paying more for an upgrade, or two. They charge extra for the animal rides and the pictures of the animal rides. Sid, Sunil , Sheela and I paid to ride the elephant, but we didn't get the picture. We bought the cotton candy and the peanuts which are only available for two minutes during intermission (hurry, hurry, hurry) and just about froze to death in the big top when the sun went down. All in all a nice time.

Another not-quite-placement

The foster agency called again today with a 6-year old girl being removed today from the care of a relative. The relative was unable to protect the child from an abusive parent. About two minutes into the call an email came through placing her with another agency. So we miss out again. Drat.

Owl Pellets

The second graders dissected owl pellets at school last Friday. Sheela's pellet contained mostly shrew parts, and a remarkably large number of shrews at that.

Coach Sid

Well Sid has been blessed by the Allen Youth Soccer Association as the Panther's new head coach. Tim's new work schedule wont let him attend either practices or games for the rest of the season and Sid has stepped up to take over. He is not exactly thrilled about it but after he works out the kinks I think he'll be great. Tonight was his first practice, it went better than he thinks. As extra back up I'm getting mine too but I don't plan on needing it.

Blake Rae

Happy 4th Birthday Blake! We wish you all the best, where ever you are.

Shopping

Brenda and I went on an impulsive shopping trip this afternoon. This was the first time I've been in an actual shopping mall in at least two years. Much as I remembered you have to walk along way to get where you want to go only to find that there wasn't anything I actually wanted there anyway. I do not like clothes, I do not like shopping and I do not like shopping malls. Luckily they close early on Sundays and we only stayed an hour and a half. Brenda did manage to find what she was looking for and I managed to enjoy catching up with her life.

Pleurisy?

It has been suggested to us that Sheela's chest pain is ideopathic pleurisy. That is to say, fluid build up around her lungs that comes and goes rapidly with no identifiable cause and hurts like the dickens. I'll talk it over with Liz at work tomorrow, she is an RN and see if its worth calling the doctor over.

Sheela was sent home from school on Tuesday, she was having chest pain again so I took her to the doctor. Once again they were unable to identify a cause. It was not as severe as before.

Del Frisco's

After a soccer-filled, Saturday morning (the Hot Wheels finally won a game, or would have if we kept score) we took the kids to Farhana's for the night and went out on the town. We caught an early movie (V for Vendetta) and then went out to one of the two nicest restaurants in Dallas, Del Frisco's. I really love a good steak and this was probably the best one ever. We split a 34-ounce, long bone, Kobe steak and an incredible bottle of Henry Estates White Reisling. We finished the weekend with another pair of soccer games and a bonus Kindermusic class.

Underground Railroad

The second graders are escaping from slavery today via the underground railroad. They are dressed in hand-me-down clothes and carrying all of their wordly possessions (read as "a snack"). They will sneak off in groups traveling all the way from one end of the school to the other, guided by singing, where they are searching for the Canadian flag while trying to avoid the marshals. The marshals catch them by making eye contact, as long as the kids hide their eyes behind a banana leaf they should escape in time for a picnic lunch. They could hardly ask for a prettier day for their picnic, we should have brilliant sun and clear skies today. Unfortunately, it isn't actually warm.

Happy Birthday Grandpa-John!

We remembered to call John last night to wish him a very happy birthday. He got to talk to both kids (Sunil with a ton of detail on ALL of his latest advntures).

Kindergarten Roundup

It is official, Sunil has been registered for Kindergarten starting on August 7, 2006 at Anderson Elementary. Say it with me now "One drop off, one pick up". The world is a wonderful place.

Spring pictures are in

Ms DeWaters is on the right, Ms Holacka and Ms Streitmatter are on the left next to Sheela.

Loan Consultant

Yup, that's me. I'm an official Loan Consultant for Chardi Financial. That is the Mortgage Brokerage that Sid is buying. My function will be to pass along potential borrowers to someone licensed to help them..... but I can't wait to pass a card to my boss. Every few months he asks me about the rental protperties and how close I am to retirement. I like to keep him just a little bit nervous.

Pediatric Cardiologist

The official appointment was today. Sheela does, in fact, have a heart murmur and there is, in fact, no reason for concern. It did not even rate "keep-an-eye-on-it" status. They repeated the EKG and did a sonogram. The sonogram was pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Opa!

I did remember to call Dad last night for his birthday. Actually it was a Skype call which should have been even better but neither of us could get our cameras to work. Still, it was nice to get caught up.

Chalk Plantation

The kids planted a garden yesterday. The sign labeling it as a "Chalk Plantation" blew away during the night however I snapped a picture on my way by this morning. These are sticks of sidewalk chalk that were left out to soak in the rain over the weekend and are no longer good. This was as good a use as any for them I guess. I can't wait to see what grows.

The campers lived

Sid and the kids had a great time in Arkansas. Sunil and Sheela both earned their Junior Ranger badges. They managed hiking, boating and fishing before the rain started. They also went to one of the Hot Springs and took the duck tour. Here is a picture of Sunil standing under his bed in the camper, and another of the camper in our driveway. Luckily the camper didn't leak until the last night, and then it leaked only in the kitchen area over the linoleum floor and not in the beds. Hopefully the rain will let up today and we will be able to set it up one more time so that we can clean it out really well before we take it back to Brenda and Jeremy.

Justice

Ms. DeWaters' class lead the morning spirit rally at school today. The topic of this week's rally was: Justice. In the picture, Sheela is the blue blob holding up the "S" (third letter from the left - trust me.)

19 Years

Sudhir and I started dating 19 years ago today. That should seem like a long time.... but it doesn't. I wouldn't change a thing.

Rainy Days

The rain held off until late last night but we've been getting a very thorough soaking ever since. My niece Seema is playing in the State basketball tournament here this weekend. They won their first game this morning so we went out catch the next game. They won in the last 0.9 seconds of the game on a rebound from a missed free-throw. It was very dramatic. Unfortunately the other team contested the match based on a screw up on the time clock at two minutes to go in the fourth period. So instead of being done for the day Seema had to drive back up there to re play the last two minutes of the game. If they won (again) they will play two games tomorrow. If they lost then they played another game already today and have one more tomorrow. They haven't called yet to tell us how it went.

I talked to Brain and Tracy over Skype today. Both the audio and the video worked this time! It sounds like they could get some rain today too but they might get to enjoy the day a little bit first.

I need to go get ready, it's girl's night out. Beckie, Brenda, Cindy and Amy are meeting me up at Joe's Crab Shack for seafood and drinks. Maria couldn't get her babysitter lined up so we are running one short. We may catch a movie later or we may just sit and talk. Traditionally, we get together once a month for our birthday's from April-August. This is a bonus night since the kids are out of town.

Hot Springs National Park

Sid and the kids have gone off on their spring break camping trip. They drove up to Hot Springs this morning. They called to tell me that they've arrived safely and some how its my fault that they are one bathing suit short. Ha! He's an adult, he'll work it out. The camp site is over looking the lake and they've already purchased their fishing license.

I've planned some nights out with the girls and some general housekeeping to keep me busy. What I didn't plan on was the work backlash from Lynn's death. So I'm working late (and much harder than normal). Our ISO 14385:2000 training expires at the end of May and we have to upgrade to ISO 14385:2003. Lynn has been working on this for quite sometime but she didn't disseminate the information. We need to complete one year of work in two months. I've also promised my boss that I would pick up a few other larger projects to free him up. I think that this is the third night I've worked late in the last two years. It's been nice but now I guess I have to make up for it.

Memorial Service Today

We are having a memorial service at work today for Lynn Stimpson and Linda Sawyer. Both women worked here in the Quality for over 15 years and will be sorely missed. After the service we will be planting trees outside in their honor.



This is picture of Lynn was taken on an Alaskan cruise a few years back and the other is Lynn and Andrea from our company Holiday party this past November. I haven't found any pictures of Linda.

Ides of March

Trivia based on my "word of the day email". Julius Caesar was assassinated 2050 years ago today (if you ignore changes to the calendar).

The ides are the 15th day of March, May, July and October but the 13th day of all of the other months.

Norbert.....

Here is a picture of the kitten that we called Monster. He and Jojo are very close to each other in size and their paws are still huge compared to their bodies. These are going to be very large cats. When he went to live with Nancy he was the size of the remote control.

Shaving cream

Sunil's friend Travis spent the night on Saturday. They amused themselves by shaving, again and again.

Fondue weekend.....

After Sheela's game today we came home and made a three course fondue dinner. It took us nearly three hours to eat but it was worth every minute. We tried veggie eggrolls for the first time. They worked out very well.

Sheela's game was pretty good. They lost 4-2, but the opponents were a year older (we'll get a lot of that this year) and the wind scored one of their goals. I like the games a lot more when they are close.

We borrowed a pop-trailer from some friends. Sid is going to use it when he takes the kids camping next week. The weather is still unpredictable around here. It was at least 80 degrees today and gorgeous. I hope it stays this nice all week.
While we were picking up the trailer, we got to visit with Jojo (the kitten we called Belle). It turns out Belle was a boy and not a girl, oooppps. The point is now moot but I'm sure I'll hear about it for years to come.

and we got to watch Brenda and Sprite practice their Frisbee routine for their next competition.

They had to work extra hard to because it was very windy and they aren't used to the heat.

Spring

What a beautiful morning, well actually it was cool and overcast for the soccer games this morning which was even better. But it is beautiful now. I went out and trimmed the hedges around the front of the house. I'm using the manual trimmers because the electric ones freak me out when they get dull... they start catching and jerking. I just know I'm going to flay open my shin. The problem is that the manual clippers are dull too. So my hands are shaking and I can hardly type or drink my Coke. Also I ran out of steam halfway through the redtip. The redtips were the huge overgrown bushes at the corners of the house. Sid whacked one of them down to size last year but there were birds nesting in the other and I wouldn't let him touch it. Now we have one overgrown redtip on one side and half an overgrown redtip on the other.... when Sid gets home I'm going to try to talk him into whacking them both down to size.

BTW - The girls won their game this morning (but it was actually close), and the boys played their best ever (but still didn't score a goal). Honestly, the boys came very close more than once but their aim just wasn't true.

Another tragic day

My friend Lynn passed away yesterday. She fought lung cancer for two years. She woke up coughing, ruptured her lung and bleed out before EMS arrived. She'd just been in to work the day before leading a "Meet and Greet" with the regional FDA office. She was one of the most interesting people I've ever known and I'm really going to miss her.

Open House

Last night Sheela took us up to the school to tour her classroom, the computer lab, the gym, music room, etc. We actually went late (after soccer) so we didn't get to see everything that she wanted to show to us. For the most part we've seen it all before but we did go through all of her work from this year, take a run through the lost and found, and a quick trip through the book fair. I bought her a new dictionary, her old one was better but its been gone for at least six months and I've given up.

"Big A** TV Day"

Sid brought home the TV today. Sunil is watching Shrek 2. Right now it is in front of the entertainment center, but something has to go.

Process Validation

I just completed a three day long training class on the FDA's new approach to process validation. We sent 25 people from our company to the class, actually I guess we brought the class to us. In either case the class was excellent. We came out bursting with new ideas and a strong desire to revamp our whole system. As soon as we got back to the office, my boss had me unload most of my current projects in an effort to dive in completely. Unfortunately, there were at least three things going on that I don't want to get rid or that I'm too tied into to pass off. I'll work them in somewhere.

Jewel of the Seas

We have officially booked a Royal Caribbean cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. We will go in November along with the kids, Dad and Eileen, Karl and Luke and their families. I'm pretty excited about it. We will leave from Ft. Lauderdale go on to Key West, Cozumel, Costa Maya, George Town and then back to Ft. Lauderdale. The kids will both miss one week of school but it wont kill them (Sheela is convinced that it might).

We started to go for a cheap inside (no view) cabin, but for only a little bit more we could get one with a tiny balcony and an extra 40 feet of floor space. We looked a little farther and found out for just a few more dollars we could get two inside rooms with no view and a lot more floor space. So that's what we are doing. I'm sure the kids aren't supposed to have their own room but they are right next door and I'm thinking they can handle it.

Of course the day we decided to go ahead and book the tickets was the day that Dr. Sharma decided he should take us all on a cruise this year for a family reunion with Sid's siblings. Sid wont let us do two cruises in the same year. Bummer. I though it was a good plan.

Spring Season

Well we kicked off the Spring soccer season on Saturday and it looks like we are picking up where we left off last Fall. The boys got trounced soundly and the girls did a fair amount of trouncing of their own. Sheela scored at least five goals of her own and set Claire up for at least three more. They were not the only ones scoring for us.

Sunday we went for a family bike ride up to Celebration and then to go get haircuts. Poor Sunil still has a bike with 10" tires so he has to work awfully hard to ride very far. He will get a new bike for his birthday and we will pass then one on along to another friend with a small boy. The weather was pretty dreary while we were out. It did end up being a beautiful day but by then Sunil had fallen asleep on the lunch table and Sheela had gone to play with friends. I spent some time reading in the hammock instead of going back out to ride.

The second graders came alive as statues today.

Each one dressed up as a famous American (except for Darius who dressed up as King Darius) and arranged themselves on the school lawn. The kindergarteners, first graders and parents walked around and brought them to life by pushing their buttons. The living statue would then explain who they were and what they'd done to make them famous. Sheela was in the Mia Hamm section with the other Mia Hamms. It was a very strange collection of fame.

Bowling Tournament

I went bowling after work last night with the IS department from work. There are just enough real bowlers around here to make it respectable, the rest of us just had a really good time. I did manage two decent games including a new personal best (still only a 133). I did manage to get a turkey. For those of you that don't bowl that would be three strikes in a row. I've actually done that before but I usually balance it out with gutter balls.

Skype

Well we reinstalled Skype last night. Its a new version since I loaded it last. While I was still trying to find my way around I called Brian. He answered so fast that I hadn't even figured out what I was doing yet. I knew I couldn't actually talk to him, we broke the microphone and haven't installed the camera. I wasn't actually expecting him to answer. Hew was a good sport about it though and eventually Sid and Brian got to do some instant messaging (I went back to my book).

Keep an eye on your kids while you shop....

X-rays

I love X-rays. They look cool and the skeleton is very pretty. I never had any desire to study medicine or surgery but I certainly appreciate the complexity and interactions that make us work.

Sheela and I went for a nice long walk last night and we were talking about many things including x-rays. She did not get to see her chest x-ray. So I'm trying to find a way to get her back to the Dr's office so we can look at it. It might be as simple as stopping by and asking to take a look.

Eclectic Day

I love days like today. I started my work day by reviewing old X-rays, CT scans and MRIs looking for a viable pool of patients with intact intact distal radii. This was harder than normal as most of the patients were in the hospital with upper extremity fractures. Out of 60 I ended up with 25 candidates. If we are lucky the hospitals will still have the electronic files of the MRIs and CT scans and will be willing to part with them (or copies of them). With the changes to the HIPPA laws that may not happen. But if it does then I can try to find a company that will use their software to convert the data to CAD models of the bones which our R&D department can then use for some design modifications that they have in mind.

Shortly after I finished that I spent an hour with a woman with very small feet validating a foot pump that is made by one of our sister companies. For reasons that escaped me they sent us the smallest size unit to test. I'm hoping that we get to take over the manufacturing of the unit later this year.

From there I went back in to the warehouse to set up a plan for charging our PDAs while they are still on the shelf. It seems if we leave them back there too long with out charging the custom program gets dumped. Oops!

Then I did the paperwork to release a product line expansion to our new bone substitute product line and had a meeting to discuss the changes needed to the shelf life. The product was made with only a one year shelf life and that doesn't give us enough time to turn it. We are going to need to bring it back and have it reprocessed.

Then I worked on gathering examples of our quality records. We are partnering with a software company to look at a unified quality system for our internal records. But first we have to put together a pretty strong business case for why its worth the money. Its going to be a lot of money.

I even managed lunch with a friend from the R&D side of the house. This always gives me some more insight in to what is going on around me (I don't always notice the big picture). We went to a faux 50's diner called "Bel Aires and Burgers". The burger was excellent and the drive pleasant. Its back in the 80s today and beautiful again.

Mardi Gras

It may not be the same here in McKinney as it was in New Orleans but we had a pretty good time anyway. We use this as an excuse to bring food in to work. I made red beans and rice. We also had crawfish etoffee, stuffed merletones, boiled shrimp, fried catfish, hot links, jambalaya, a dozen side dishes, pies and cakes including king cakes. We even managed to get some work done.

Fourth grading period

Sheela brought home another straight A report card. It's hard not to focus on the grades when they are so obvious but we are really trying to shift the focus off of the grades themselves. Still we are pretty proud. They are doing a great job of keeping her interested and of asking her to do more and more.

Soccer free weekend

Even though today was beautiful Sheela's game was cancelled due to the rain the previous couple of days. So our only commitment today was to go see a play. Sheela and I took her friend Peyton and Peyton's Mom, Andi, to see Alexander, Who Is Not, Not, Not, Not, Not, Not Going To Move at the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts. It was very cute and I like Peyton and Andi.

When 40 hours of sleep is not enough

Perhaps its time to reevaluate your medications. After some 30 years of looking I've finally found a medication that stops the drainage down the back of my throat that make me cough. I've hardly coughed since Thursday afternoon. I've hardly been awake since then either. I would give just about anything to go back to bed for another full day. At least today's soccer games have been cancelled that just leaves Kindermusik. Tomorrow I'll have to go back to coughing.

Christmas Parade Picture

Farhana just sent me this picture of the family at the Christmas Parade back in December. The extra child is Jazmine.

The foster child that never came.

We got a call last night asking us to take in a seven year old, girl from a sibling set of five. She is the second oldest. They thought that they might bring her over around midnight when they finalized all of the kids' arrangements. Apparently CPS didn't like the way the kids were to be split up so they've taken them all to a shelter for a week to create a more considered plan. We may get her yet or they may not mention her again.

"Don't let the night bugs eat you"....

It is finally Winter here in Texas. We've had at least a week of cold and wet with more to come. Almost everyone has either allergies, a cold, bronchitis or the flu. My friend Lynn is in the hospital, she is a lung cancer survivor with a cold. I'm sure she'll get straightened out over the weekend and be back home on Monday. I've finally progressed from allergies to an actual cold so I stayed home from work today to sleep. Actually I've been asleep since 6PM last night and its just now 10AM. I woke up briefly last night to eat and kiss the kids goodnight and again this morning to tell them goodbye. Before Sunil left for school he tucked me back in to bed, gave me a kiss and said, "Dream sweet dreams and don't let the night bugs eat you".

Soccer hookey

I rebelled last night. I refused to drive the girls to their goalie practice. I was tired and cranky. It was cold and wet. There was a pretty good chance that the practice was cancelled but we didn't have a way to check. Instead we went home and spent some time together doing family stuff. Sunil read me a couple of books and then tucked Sheela and me into bed. Then he put himself to bed. Don't tell him but we got back up after he put us to bed. Sheela and I then spent an hour playing on the internet. She looked up the definition of "reign", "monarch", fish (plural) and fishes (also plural), pictures of Harriet Tubman (which Sheela insists on spelling Herriet Tubman so that google will correct her) and the feeding habits of owls native to Texas. Then we spent another 20 minutes playing with different screen savers. Then I went back to bed.

It was chaos but we survived....

We had the parent's meetings for the soccer teams tonight, both meetings more of less at the same time, at our house. That gave us seven boys, eight girls, seven assorted siblings and seventeen parents. We were supposed to be outside on the practice fields but its still rainy and cold (gee its finally Winter). Four girls locked themselves in the bathroom to get away from the boys (who incidentaly were not interested in chasing them anyway), and one of the younger boys kept turning off the lights in Sunil's room and making scary noises which made one of the older boys cry. Its going to be another great season.

Sheela Update

I asked the school nurse to check Sheela's blood pressure today now that the pain has been gone for a few days and its back down to normal. The pulse was still on the high side but not too bad. We did track down the date that Sheela first complained of chest pain and that was way back in October, so it may not be related to the broken shoulder blade. I'm waiting for calls back from a variety of cardiologists.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

by Robin S. Sharma (no relation), I finished another book last night. This one was more or less an Indian version of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It was good, short and easy to read. Long story short: meditate, think only positive thoughts, don't waste your time on trivial pursuits, appreciate simple pleasures, do nice things for other people, critic every action and every thought at the end of each day and you will live a long, healthy, balanced life.

Next up: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Losing the Moon by Patti Callahan Henri. Some of my life is wasted in trivia but I do appreciate the simple things and I am happier than most.

Betsy Louise Drawert (3/1/72 - 2/27/05)

I went to a "tea" yesterday held in memory of my friend Amy's sister, Betsy. She passed away suddenly last year 10 days after giving birth to her second daughter. She was a wonderful person and very much admired. It was a nice way to remember her and to get to see both of her girls again. Jenna is now three and a half and Taylor just turned one.

Ice scrapping

I had to scrape ice off my car this morning for the first time this year. Yuck!

Vonage

We have successfully switched over to internet phone service. Our new provider is called Vonage. For one small monthly fee we have unlimited calling (local and long distance), we can transfer calls to another number for example if a call comes in for the Sharmas while they are out I can send it to their cell. We have a mobile router that we can use to make calls while we are traveling (at no extra charge), we can check our voice mail from any computer on the internet. If the internet goes down and we lose our phone service incoming calls are automatically routed to our cell phones. The change became official last night so its too early to say that we like it.

We had to attach another router to our wireless transmitter. The new router ties back into the wiring in the house for the phones (first we had to disconnect all of the phone lines at the box. We managed this all by ourselves.

The Saturday schedules are in

The Hot Wheels have mostly middle of the day games and only twice will they actually conflict with Kindermusic.

The Panthers are scheduled for four games at 8AM, two at 6:15PM and two mid-day. of couse the team pictures are scheduled for half an hour prior to one of the 8AM games. We did that last Fall and the pictures weren't very good.

Now we need the SDL schedule and we can plan our lives.

Chest pain and more

The illusive source of Sheela's chest pain Wednesday night appears to have been a broken scapula (mostly healed). We are guessing that she broke it falling off of Sunil's loft last month. She hasn't complained about it hurting since the day it happened -- though it was plenty sore that first day. They also heard a "click" when listening to her heart, which coupled with the elevated heart rate and elevated blood pressure mean that they want her to go to see a pediatric cardiologist. They've already done an EKG (perfectly normal) and a chest x-ray (great lungs and a healing scapula). Speculation is that the elevated pulse and BP were actually due to pain but they really want us to rule out a heart murmur.

Board Meeting - take two

Well the announcement made yesterday by the Board of Directors was the retirement of our CEO and Group President. He started here about 10 years ago right after I did. His replacement is our recently hired COO. It turns out that they hired him for this very reason but wanted to give him a few months to settle in before taking the top spot. We like the new guy and are looking forward to a new corporate phase.

Hot Grease

While cooking dinner last night I got to see a single droplet of hot grease up close and personal. It jumped straight up into my open eye before I could blink. I may have blinked sooner if I hadn't been admiring the beauty of it. It didn't so much hurt as make my eye really tired and it was very hard to see through for the rest of the night. Much like trying to see through a film of oil, hmmmm. Anyhow my eye rinsed its self clean over night and apparently I didn't actually cook it. I'm back to normal today.

Board Meeting

Roughly once a year the Board of Directors comes to Texas for their quarterly meeting. Usually, that means we spend four days cleaning up our "work spaces" so that we can impress them with our tidiness. Then we all have to come in to work on a Friday in suits instead of jeans so that we may impress them with our professional demeanor. The Board goes to some swank hotel and has their meeting and a few of them manage to stop by for a hurried tour before they bolt back to the airport and jet out of town. Few people actually see the Board and fewer still are actually seen by the Board. It makes the jeans lovers cranky.

This time the meeting is on Thursday (so our jeans day is safe), the meeting its self is being held in our training room, and most of the board members will still be here this afternoon when we all gather for our SOB (State of Business) meeting. This means we can actually look professional in front of a live audience.... it makes the whole thing more palatable.

52" HDTV

Honestly, this isn't really ours... yet. Sid has had to resort to eviction for one of his tenants for the first time. Apparently, when going through this the landlord is allowed to legally seize and hold the tenant's property until the back rent is paid. Should the tenant not pay up before the eviction is completed the landlord can keep the stuff. So he is holding on to the monster television for another week in hopes that she comes up with the rent.

PAL Schedule

The first soccer schedule is in... Sheela has 10 Sunday games over the next 13 weeks. Seven games are against teams a year older and three are against teams the same age. This will also be on a larger field, with a larger ball, a larger goal and more players per team.

We are still waiting on the SDL schedule (also Sunday games) and the two rec schedules (Saturdays) one each for Sunil and for Sheela. Pretty soon we will be able to plan our lives in advance again.

Happy Hallmark Holiday!!

Sid and I were planning to go to dinner after we escape the house for the Gifted and Talented information meeting this evening but we just figured out that its Valentine's Day. This is not a night for going out. Oh well, I'm sure we will find another time in a few months and we can try again.

Gifted and Talented Screening

Sheela has been invited to test for the Gifted and Talented Program. The basic requirement is to test higher than the 97th percentile in one of the three cognitive categories. She was only 93rd in quantitative, but she did 98 in verbal and 99 in nonverbal, and her composite score was a 99. Then you need a teacher's recommendation. That wasn't much of a stretch goal Mrs. DeWaters loves her. The next step is to take both the Iowa Test of Basic Skills Achievement in both Math and Reading plus the Critical and Creative Writing Assessment. Those tests will be administered on the last Saturday in April with results due on the 2nd of June.

The hazards of not pitching in

Soccer team practice sign up began this morning at 7:00 AM. In spite of my request to the parents of 14 other kids not a single person could be found that would agree to go stand in line to assure us a good practice time. The first guy in line arrived at 5:00 AM. The bulk of the coaches arrived between 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM. Our coach couldn't drop off his son until 7:00AM so he didn't arrive until 7:10 AM.

What we were hoping for was a 6:00 PM slot for the boys followed by a 7:00 PM slot for the girls at Celebration Park. Celebration has the right size fields for the boys but no lights for night time practices (at least not on the little fields). The earliest slot available for the boys at Celebration was 8:00 PM -- 5-year old boys practicing in the dark until 9:00 PM. Not a good option.

The girls couldn't get a field at Celebration at all so we moved both practices to Ford field. That's much more convenient for our coach but worse for me. The best time slot we could get was still 7:00 PM, so now the girls will need to be out there until 9:00 PM. This also sucks. So we signed up for both practices at the SAME TIME, 7:00 PM. We will just hope that both of the assistant coaches actually come to the practices. If no one signs up later than us on that field we will be able to stagger the girls back a little bit.

Colleyville Spring Tune Up

Sheela survived the Colleyville soccer tournament. It was only two games on each Saturday and Sunday. But the winds were gusting to 40MPH and Saturday was COLD. Anyhow the girls played well and had fun. They lost one game and tied one game on each day. Participation ribbons were awarded all around (look at the wind blowing the ribbon). As a reward there will be no practice tomorrow. Yay for me, it was my turn to drive.

$20 Monitor............

I owe Sid an apology. He finally bought me a new monitor for our computer, not so much because he was bothered by the corrupted lines across the top but to shut me up. I know it, he knows it, we can live with it. Anyhow he spent a whole $20 on an eBay special. He even drove over and picked it up. It is a 19" monster and the quality is one would expect for $20. We've been using is for a couple of months now and it is like reading underwater. I have done nothing but complain about him being cheap for months. Finally I moved from complaining back to whining again (this is why you never give in to whining -- it just begs for more).

This time I went out and spent $20 on an old monitor from work -- every bit as large as the last one and crystal clear. I checked it out before I bought it. The plan was to take the good $20 one for us and move the terrible $20 one to the kids computer which we are finally setting up for them. So we move the bad one and low and behold its wonderful. Luckily for us, when we hook up the new one it too is great. I was afraid that there was a problem with the video card on the new computer. We could probably have made some adjustments to the old one if I stopped whining for two minutes and actually thought about it.

Sorry Sid, your $20 monitor was a great purchase and you aren't any cheaper than I am.

PAL and SDL

Sheela (and six of her teammates on the Academy team) have been asked to try to play two games every Sunday. The primary team is playing in the Premier Academy League and the second team is playing in the Super Development League. The top competitors will play PAL, the more passive players will play just SDL and those in the middle of the pack will do both. The extra game time is supposed to get them caught up to their peers (who started multiple weekly practices a year or two earlier). Yikes, I can't see either Sid or Sheela thinking that this is a good idea. Maybe I wont tell them and they wont notice.....

Exiling the Nightingale

I learned long ago that I enjoy books more when I read them one at a time. But every once in awhile something comes up and I end up with more than one in process. As a slight variation, I'm listening to "books on tape" in the car and then reading in the evening. The car book is Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori Series, Vol 1) by Lian Hern. I love it and it is one of the few books that I've preferred to have read aloud to me. The pronunciation of the names works better than if I'm making it up for myself. The book that I'm reading in the evenings is The Exile by Allan Folsom. This is the first of his books that I've read but I will have to go back and read the others.

The problem with all of this is that I tend to dream about the books that I read and with two at once the dreams get rather convoluted. Two nights in a row now I've woken up confused rather than rested.

Friendlies tournament and more

Super Blue hosted a tournament for themselves on Saturday. Sheela's team played against another team of the same age, a team a year older and one a year younger. They lost two and won one but they played well and had a great time.

Sunil and I took Travis and slipped away to go see a Junie B. Jones play. The tickets were Sunil's Christmas present this year. The play was great and the boys were very well behaved. I would take them again.

When we got home we cleaned up and turned right around to go have dinner with friends. They have just moved in to our neighborhood and gotten their place all fixed up.

The pharmacist knows me by name......

this is not such a good thing. Sheela was sent home from school today with ear pain and a slight fever. Of course that means double ear infections and a slight wheezing. Maybe the kids are allergic to the doctor's office?!? Anyhow Sheela is home for the afternoon with the Sharmas and I'm back at work.

St. Petersburg at night

I can't believe that it is already February. I've just updated my desk calendar. This year's theme is World Travel. St. Petersburg at night looks a lot like Venice to me.... not that I've ever seen either one for myself.

Funeral

I've decided not to attend Linda's funeral tomorrow. I will go to the visitation at the funeral home this evening instead. Linda felt tired last week at work went home and apparently died in her sleep. Not a bad way to go I guess, but it would have been better if she'd lived long enough to retire and enjoy it. She was one of the first people to make me feel welcome at Orthofix (then American Medical Electronics). She was one of the smokers. I knew the smokers before I knew anyone else. I had to walk past the smoker's porch to get from the main building to my building. Days would go by when the only people I talk to at all were those outside taking a smioke.

If that weren't bad enough, her best friend out here is in the hospital for observation. We are all assuming this is a stress related issue from knowing that Linda died.

And a third smoker has disappeared. She is one of the original company employees. The rumor is that she is out for a medical reason, but usually there is some pretty specific gossip that goes along with that. This time no one seems to know anything and when we ask, the response is "ask HR". No one ever sends us to HR. They either know, don't know or don't want to say. Those are three answers that we can understand. "Go ask HR" just feels funny.