2009-2010 School Year

We are underway and off to a good start.  Both kids love their teachers and are still excited about doing their homework.  I know it won't last so I have to enjoy it while I can.

Sheela managed to switch in to the orchestra.  That was the plan all along but took a little bit of doing to get it done.  Tomorrow she'll go for the first time. 

Shavings and Chips - Practice

Sunil is working on his Cub Scout requirements today.  He is carving a racecar out of a bar of soap.

Kaleidoscope

Six Sunils sharing secrets.

That's a lot of vacation

I'm wiped out and we still have to slay the dragon, twice.  It's almost 7PM on the second day and we're done with the water.  The girls are in the arcade and the boys are cleaning up. 

This place isn't so much a nickle and dime operation as it is a $5 and $10 operation but I'm glad we came.  The waterpark is great and inclusive but the Magiquest wands are $15 min plus $10 to make it work.  Then you can dress them with jewels, ornaments, belts, etc.  I hate feeling cheap but I'm not buying bling for a wand.  Or dress yourself in cloaks, armour or fairy garb - which I'm also too cheap for and the kids were too cool for.  You can pay extra for the arcade, the spa treatments.  There is a whole kid spa with a sweet shop theme for the kids - imagine chocolate fizz facials and cheesecake scented scrubs. 

Great Wolf

We are enjoying our mini-vacation at our local Great Wolf Lodge.  There are both indoor and outdoor waterparks.  For a little bit of extra cash you can enjoy a ton of extra activities.  So far however we haven't left the water (and we are on hour six).

Charmed Life

I've always known that I live a charmed life - bad things don't really happen to me, for which I'm eternally grateful, but even the minor inconveniences rarely plague me for long.  All of that just say that Sid and the kids found my camera in the "zoo" backpack yesterday.  Yay!  I got all my vacation pics back and can take the camera with me tomorrow to wish the Sharmas a safe journey and the on to the "Lodge" for a back to school celebration. 

"Value People", "Own It" and "Have Courage"

These, along with "Be One", "Create Dialog" and "Just Imagine" are our company's six cultural beliefs.  I think I exhibited all three of these today by teaching a full day class today on our company's "Journey to Accountability".  I rated "Value People" both for taking the time to invest in myself and for sharing this knowledge with others.  I rated "Own It" for ensuring that my level and breadth of knowledge were sufficient to the task and for ensuring the whole team of trainers gave it our best effort.  I rated "Have Courage" for getting up in front of 30 people to teach a subject I'm still learning.  I still hate talking to groups but I did it.

This was a fabulous experience (that I get to repeat two more time this week) and a few more times later this month and again with the Sales force at the National meetings.

I am so wiped now that I couldn't even eat dinner and I only taught a third of the day.  I can only imagine what it takes to do the full day.

Weekend Work

I’m up here at the office again on a Saturday.  This time I’m helping out the quality department with incoming inspections.  They have a huge backlog and too few hands so a few hours here and there make a big difference.  I’ve posted here almost every time I’ve had to work on a weekend so it seems like it is often but really it’s not.  What I find striking today though is that nearly our entire manufacturing staff and half of the warehouse staff are here again.  The mfg folks work a four day week with Fridays off but they’ve been in every Friday and every Saturday since early June and they are still cheerful.  This is a great group of people.

Sponge War practice

The Cub Scouts are practicing their funnelator aiming skills in preparation for a pirate battle planned for the Family camp out later this Fall.  Mostly it's an excuse to play up at the sprayground on a hot day while showing off pack spirit.  The "sponges" are cloth covered sponge balls soaked in cold water.

New approach to life

Our corporate culture is heading for a shake up. I'm pretty excited about it now that we've gotten past the misrepresentations of what is to come. The initial directive was related to the hyper-precise set-up requirements sent along for the training room layout. Once we got to the actual content I was pleased. The watch words are a "culture of accountability" and the process is very positive. I spent a whole day in training this week absorbing the big picture, the watch words, the goals and the steps in the process. I was in one of the early classes but eventually all of our employees in North America will receive this same training. I was particularily impressed with the number of division Presidents and Vice-Presidents in attendence (and teaching portions of the material). What I didn't appreciate at the time was that I would be teaching the class myself by the end of August.

Yesterday I sat through a second day of training this one "Train the Trainer". A small group of us have been selected to champion this throughout the company. We have two weeks to polish up our act and then we have to start training the rest of the employees. I don't do a lot of structured, formal training so this is going to be stretch for me.

Cracked tooth

Out of respect for Sheela's privacy I no longer blog her every comment and action (Sunil isn't embarassed by it yet) but she was pretty proud of her latest "doins".

She broke a tooth biting in to popcorn last night not even a kernal but the fluffy white part.  A molar split right in half.

Today the dentist pulled both halves out by hand.  The root had already resorbed (which is why the tooth was so weak) and the replacement is ready to pop through her gum.

Sunil - Pretournament Shot

Sheela - Pretournament shot

The money pile

Etruscan Money Amphora

The children have been collecting their change (and a fair amount of ours) since Beckie's Holidaze Party back in Feb.  The jar is full.  Tonight is the ritual breaking of the jar followed by the laborius counting of the change.  The intended wish is for a night at Great Wolf Lodge.

The lodge is a camp themed hotel with indoor and outdoor waterparks.  I hope they saved enough.

Spring 2009 Angel Pics

The pics came a little bit late this year and featured a preprinted back drop instead of the pond/fountain at the park. The rain this year pushed the pictures back so often that they eventually gave up and moved the shoot indoors.

Comedy of Errors

Poor Sunil had a difficult time getting himself retrieved from his unaccompanied minor flight tonight.  First I called one time too many to check his arrival time and gate.  The auto voice indicated a 1 hour delay for causes unknown.  So I told Sid to be an hour late.  Either the message was wrong or they said 5:37 but I heard 6:37 or I mistyped the flight number.  Anyhow we now know that unloved, unclaimed children are taken to a holding cell in a different terminal. 

Then when Sid tried to go through security they had a problem either with Sid not being the obvious nickname for Sudhir or the fact that his business card doesn't have his picture on it - depending on how you look at it.  In order to get around this they had to call Mom to get permission to let him pass.  On the official paperwork Mom would be Marilyn but she thinks her name is Lyn which adds another layer of complexity.

Eventually Sid was allowed to retrieve Sunil from the cell (heavily populated with other unclaimed kids) but then they had to back to the original terminal to retrieve the golf bag from the unloved unclaimed baggage holding cell.  In the end it is a happy ending and I'm pleased to have him home.

Camera

It's official my camera is gone.  I'm afraid I let it behind a bush along the trail.  I'm pretty bummed.  It had two years worth of photos still on it going all the way back to Carlsbad Caverns.  Of course the good pics have mostly been blogged or emailed so it could be worse.  Mostly I lost pics from this trip which was pretty well covered by Sheela and Mom.

Nostalgia

We picked up my old viola today.  I gave it to a friend years ago but she still has it.  Sheela is going to use it this year for orchestra.  It's looking a little worse for wear but still has a good sound... If we could tune it worth a darn.

IMG00092.jpg

Future site of my new building!

Texas

Wow, it's hot here!  Back up tp 108 outside and 98 inside.  The A/C was off while were gone.  I cleaned the fridge when we got back as a legitamte excuse to stick my head in for 20 minutes.  Now I'm going to the airconditioned store... It could take hours to choose dinner.

Mt. LeConte

The family survived the trek to and from LeConte Lodge.  Sid and Sheela topped out in the standard 4 hrs.  Sunil and I stayed with GJ and Grammylyn.  It took us 7 hours all told but we made it -- in time for dinner no less.  We spent the night in a pair of cute cottages, enjoyed a great breakfast and headed back down.  Pictures will follow but now we need to clean up and start the drive back to TX.

Tail removal

Sunil takes his turn

Tip 1

A sharp knife is worth its weight in gold.

Fish cleaning 101

Archery set

Sunil finally got to try out his new archery set.  We aren't bothering with targets at this point and just have him aiming at the side of a hill.  He can hit the side of a hill (and presumably the side of a barn).

Grammylyn modifies a bluebird house

It is time to replace the bluebird houses in the cemetary where Grammy and Grandsir are buried.  There used to be one there for each of them but they've fallen apart and fallen down.  Sheela will paint plaques for new ones.

The culvert

My parents always told me to stay out of the culverts under the road.  They are dangerous.  As surely as god made little green apples a storm will break, the creek will rise, disobedient children will be trapped and drowned.  This one is part of the cart path at the golf course.  If I drown -- tell my mother that "I'm sorry!"

Project 1

Item one on our vacation schedule is to restring the hanging chair.  It broke after nearly 20 years.  They've weathered more here than they did in Michigan.  In MI they were taken in for the winter here it's the summer that's rough.  The birds are stealing fibers from the ropes and the wasps are stealing the wood.

Memphis

We made it past Little Rock before stopping but didn't hit Memphis 'till this morning.  We still have 6 hours to go but might be there in time for dinner.

Underway

We are officially on vacation.  In fact we've already hit the Arkansas border.  I think we'll make Little Rock before we stop for the night.

Joy of joys

Its a three-day weekend for me after all!  The operations portion of the conversion is stable (well we can't really stress it until the financials are cleared) but that means finance will work the weekend while I swim and grill and catch up on sleep.  Then Monday and Tuesday Ops will be back in the hot seat.

108 outside means

88 inside.  Most A/Cs are sized to pull the temperature down @20 degrees.  That just is not enough here.

Summer fun

Sheela left yesterday for her week with Grammylyn and GJ.  She did call to let me know she arrived safely.  In theory Mom's Blog (and even Sheela's) should be bursting with new adventures but I think they'll be too busy to share... at least I got that first call.

Go Live

Tonight is "go live" night on our new processes.  We've done all we can to prepare -- now we'll switch to firefighting mode.  Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

Maxed out

I think we finally have too many employees.  I've watched our numbers skyrocket in the last six weeks and as of yesterday we have more cars in the lot than parking spaces.  Luckily I come in early and haven't been leaving at lunch.

Twilight Camp

This is the last night of Sunil's cub scout camp.  It's over 100 degrees for the third day in a row.  A perfect time for a bonfire..  Sid's done his two volunteer stints already and tonight it's my turn.  I baled out of work early (not an easy feat these days) and I'm not even feeling guilty.

Paddling as fast as I can

We’ve hit crunch time on our process integration for the facility consolidation.  I’m working late, working weekends and waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep.  Everything is coming together but in fits and starte instead of the seamless transition we were working towards.  At least it is still on track.  Tonight we are taking a break and taking the team out to dinner.  It isn’t the whole team just the core IT team… and me.  I pretend to be IT sometimes because the perks are better (and the work is fun).  Luckily the dinner starts late enough (and is close to my house) so that I can run home and spend a few minutes with Sheela before meeting up with everyone.  She has been feeling my absence more than anyone else.  Sid naps in the evenings and I’m usually home before he wakes up, Sunil is spending his evenings at Twilight Camp (Cub Scouts) but Sheela is home and lonely.

Father's Day

I don't know about Sid but I had a wonderful FatherKs Day.  Sheela and I brought back donuts for the traditional breakfast in bed.  Then we went out to Lake Ray Roberts for some fishing.  Lunch was mongolian bbq followed by a kid-friendly movie ("Imagine That").  Then I scored a two hour nap - with the cat.  Now Sid's grilling dinner.

Poster

This was cropped from Sheela’s school biography poster.  I like the picture. 

The Ahi Tower

After it toppled.  Its sushi night for the Unitus IT team.

Country Codes

We use a feature on our MRP system to prevent accidental shipment to unapproved locations called “County Codes”.  For each part individual assignments need to be made for each allowed country.  I assigned 162,540 country codes over the weekend.  I don’t like it when I have to work during “family” time but at least I feel like the time was well spent.

Deuce and Daisy - RoughRider Mascots

 

OFIX Summer Classic

The spring golf tournament was rained out (a company first) and had to be rescheduled.  This worked out well for me because I was unable to play in the spring.  Shelby, Miguel, Christina, David and I tied (with four other teams) for second place.

Crunch time

We have only 20 days left before we go live on the combined process and we are getting a touch panicky.  It's all good and things that aren't done (and late) are close.  We're going to make it.

Training Day 1

We completed our fist training class today.  We'll teach this one two more times tomorrow and then do one advanced class on Wed.  For now though we are ready for a night on the town or a quiet Italian dinner in honor of Suzi's birthday.

More little things

This is the "smoking bench" between the hotel and the day care center (taken in the weak, early morning light from my 3rd floor window).  It comes with a bench an ash tray and a firehydrant.  It is even labeled as a fire zone.

We each received a "Welcome" package at check in:  two doses of Alka-Seltzer Plus and one of cherry Pepto-Bismol.  We've decided to eat out.

Last night on the national news there was a story about the discovery of three buried pipebombs right here in Wayne, NJ.  The bomb squad detonated all three plus the two old cans of gun powder.  No one was injured.

The score keepers

Annual Riders game

Sunil and Grammylyn during the Roughriders' pre-game.  We were all featured on Rider vision during the National Anthem.

Oma and Opa as pirates

I can’t wait to show this one to Sunil…..

The end for the Quiet Series III?

The dishwasher seems to be malfunctioning.  There doesn’t seem to be any water used during the wash or rinse cycles.  Hopefully Sid is either fixing or replacing this today.

2nd Grade Pirate Day

Just because

Birthday bounty

Sunil is wearing his new fishing hat and sorting through his tackle.

Birthday boy

On baseball photo day

Welcome baby Kiera

Congratulations to Brenda and family on the arrival of baby Kiera!  She was born last night and is beautiful as expected.  I was hoping to get by the hospital at lunch today for a quick visit but I’m still at my desk so I guess I’m not going to make it today.

So close and yet.... Not

We managed to get bumped up two flights out of Gainesville but a weather delay combined with a mechanical delay still have us on the ground.  Our connection through Atlanta is now in jeopardy.  I'm really ready to be home and the estimated arrival ranges from 7:30PM to tomorrow mid-morning.

Sunil's leatherwork

Sunil drills with the guns

Sheela with the army

Civil War Reenactment

We are riding our bikes down to the Allen Heritage Village (via the donut shop) for the Civil War Reenactment.  Hopefully we'll get the chance (for a small fee) to shoot the muskets.  I think I'm the one most excited about going but Sheela's AIM class spent all year studying the war not to mention the 5th grade social studies class covered it too. 

The other Big-D

Nancy and I flew to Denver for the day to meet one of our tissue suppliers.  We got the full tour including the processing rooms.  It was just about what I expected.  I did get the feeling that the current company liason expected us to either turn green or pass out.

The four-opter picture

My camera battery was almost completely dead so this was the best I could do in the low light.

Skyblue frames

Check 'em out!

Confederate Jazmine

I wish you could smell how fabulous this is.  Of the five plants we planted last summer four are thriving and one recovering.  The whole backyard smells like heaven.

The Four-Opter

Sunil will be getting his new sky-blue glasses on Monday.  He had a great time checking out the different instruments (pictures to follow).  When first reading the chart he got the big "E" right and then couldn't do the second line.  Really his eyes weren't as bad as that made it seem.  But he ended up with 20/80, great motility, no astigmatism, and full color range.  Not bad.

Big City Lights

Tonight was the school talent show.  Sunil sang "The Eye of the Tiger".  I was very proud.  We stayed for the first 20 acts or so (an hour and a half) and then brought the in-laws home. We didn't even make the intermission.

As long as were out and it was still early I walked the kids up for ice cream and to play in the park in the dark.  Seema and Nita are here for a visit.

The Adventures of Lewis and Clark

Tonight is the 5th Grade play.  Sheela and two of her friends will sing the first featured song, The Ballad of Lewis and Clark, before retiring to the chorus.

Twilight Camp Shirts

The Cubmaster passed out our t-shirts for twilight camp.  Sunil will go for four hours every evening for a week.  Sid and I will each volunteer to work at least one night.  The shirts are pretty cool (at least they aren't grey) but we have to keep track of them for six weeks before we can even wear them.

Spine Surgery

Well I survived three days of mock surgeries -- as the surgeon not as a patient.  I enjoy the erector-set design of the fixation systems.  We covered at least 12 different systems with countless variations most of which I won't remember until Monday.  But I do understand the finer points of the different approaches and the families of systems so I'm counting it a success.

Spine surgery is slightly less brutal than orthopedic surgery but can still be pretty aggressive.  It did give me a clearer picture of what Mrs. Alonzo just went through and I'm glad she held out for the minimally invasive approach.

Family Campout

We spent the weekend tent camping by the lake in what turned out to be perfect weather at the Clements Scout Ranch outside of Athens, TX.  Mostly the kids spent their time fishing (catch and release) for perch and large mouth bass.  Both kids (and Sid) had really good luck.  I didn’t fish but spent some time with the other families just chatting.

The Trip

I really missed being at home this time which is not to say that I didn’t have a great trip.  Outside of the office we didn’t get to see or do much of anything but that was made up by a very productive training session.  The big software package that I’ve been begging for for the last four years is still not mine but this one if filling my days nicely.  It is very complicated to set up correctly so that the maintenance will be minimized but I’m enjoying the challenge.  I have two other team members that are both awesome and we work really well together.  The three of us would be my ideal crew for most of the projects that I’d like to tackle over the next two years.  Now that I’m back in the office I need to clear away some of the inevitable paperwork so that I can get back to playing with my new toy. 

 

But in true May (read as “Hell Month” fashion) we go straight from work to a baseball game, then on to a two night cub scout camp out, back in time to do laundry and celebrate Mother’s Day with the In-laws and back to work. 

Glasses again

It looks like Sunil's turn to join the ranks of the bespectacled.  His appointment is a few weeks away but I did make him an eye appointment after he failed a vision screening at school.

the pandemic

I’m sick of hearing about the Swine Flu.  I must have missed the early reports about it being deadly, etc because all I’m seeing is articles about it not being as bad as feared, one fatality in the US, and less severe than the miscellaneous other strains of influenza that we’ve endured this year.  In one day I received advisory warnings from the school, the office and the cub scouts.  I’m receiving emails from friends scattered near and far checking on our health and well being.  We’ve had large gatherings like the Scout Show and MayFest cancel but are still having the elementary school dance and baseball games (if the fields dry out).

TAKS - again

Assuming everyone passes, the 5^th graders will be taking the last of the TAKS test for the year today.  This time around is Science.  Two years ago when Sheela first had to sit for these tests I bought her strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to take for her “healthy snack”.  We’ve had them for every test (well, not the raspberries) since.  We forgot to buy them last night when we went to the ice cream parlor next door to the store (Baskin-Robbins birthday celebration – 31cent ice cream cones).  Sheela took the disappointment of not having the TAKS snacks pretty well.  So I ran out this morning and picked them up.  I came in work all pleased with myself for being dedicated to family traditions even though it was awkward until I talked to my friend Carolyn.  Her family tradition, now in it’s four year, is a breakfast buffet.  So she prepares three or four full breakfast meals form which the kids can pick and choose.  This year she’s quite ill (but not with Swine Flu) but still in there doing her best to whip up pancakes, fruit/yoghurt parfaits and quiches with fresh squeezed orange juice for the fourth morning in a row.  She has three kids, each in different grades, taking different tests on different days.  That’s dedication to a tradition (and why its best not to go nuts in the beginning).

 

Treasure

During the gardening portion of our weekend we cleared fallen leaves from underneath the hedges.  I found a variety of broken plastic toy parts, a fair pile of trash and a rodent skull.  I'm guessing it's a squirrel skull but I haven't really looked in to it yet.

Sunils's run

Cubmobile Races

Pinewood derby grows up but only a little bit.  Sunil's age group didn't get to use the ramp, they pushed each other around on the flat.

I love my family

We spent the morning on yard work.  The kids chipped in pretty cheerfully for most of it (in the end we had to get perental).  We followed that up with the kids doing the laundry while I read a book.  Then we had a humbling baseball game.  In the end the boys lost 25-11 but the first three endings went all to the other tem (15-0).  This makes up for yestardays win 25-0.  This was much more fun to watchthan the shut out.  Now we are wqtching game shows together.

Another Shooting Star

Sheela was selected to receive the "Shooting Star" award for her class this grading period.  I'm so proud it has been nearly three years since her last one.  The picture of her receiving the award from her principal will follow in a few weeks.

Oz

The current mgmt regime is quite enthralled with the "Oz Principle".  It boils down to accountability in the work place and not burying your head in the sand when disasters are looming.  I read the book a decade or so ago and wasn't that impressed.  It isn't that accountability is a bad thing it's that I don't like the writing style and the examples are trite.  Anyhow I'm forcing myself to reread it and it is slow going made worse by the fact that I have a short stack of novels and "The No Assholes Rule" business philosphy book waiting in the wings.

The ground has been broken

The ground breaking ceremony for our new facility was held today.  After a catered bbq lunch at the office we loaded everyone on to five coach buses and trekked up to our new home.  We'd erected a floored tent in the middle of our huge field, set up a PA system passed out bottled water, commemorative t-shirts and hard hats.  Silver shovels were presented by our four presidents (and one Sr VP) to the mayor, our landlord, our CEO, our North American President and a member of our board of directors.  Speeches we made, dirt shoveled and pictures taken.  Then we trekked back to the office.  In the tradition of our operations department we concluded with an Ops Team happy hour.  The day went off beautifully.

Spring Portraits have arrived

I'm not wild about either one particularly but I do like the way they look together.

The flowers of spring

I planted some white verbena on either side of the front door and coreopsis by the mailbox (we call that one "tickweed" here abouts).  My daylilies are about burst, the snap dragons are blooming, the iris are at their peak and the jasmine is about to bloom.  Now I remember why people choose to live here.

Texas Tradition

Bad mom that I am I skipped taking pictures of "toddler Sunil" surrounded by the bluebonnets.  We stopped for a few quick pics by the raodside today.

Texas Bluebonnets

They are pretty

New cut

The hair finally grew out enough to reshape.  Now Sunil and I are sitting at the slowest traffic light in town.

HATs Canoe Trip

Sid and Sheela leave this afternoon for their daddy daughter weekend canoe trip down near Waco.  One of the HATs tenets is that there is no such thing as inclement weather just improper clothing.  They will put that to the test during the rain showers and thunderstorms passing through the area from now until late Saturday night.  Sunday should be beautiful by the time they head home.  Luckily they both have a strong sense of adventure (and proper clothing).

Game 2

The Angels played their second little league game last night.  They won 20-14 in a game that turned out to be much more about their fielding than their hitting.  It was a very different game from the last one but as much fun to watch.  We couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening.  Sunil won the game ball this week for “effective use of teamwork” while backing up the first baseman from the outfield.  His friend Sam got the game ball for his batting. 

 

It rained pretty hard last night so tonight’s game is in jeopardy but if it dries out enough they’ll play tonight and again tomorrow morning.

Enterprise City

Sheela’s class spent the day at Enterprise City yesterday.  They each had to apply for a job by writing a resume of sorts.  Sheela worked in the gift shop.  She worked for three hours earning three pay checks of $4.50 each which she had to spend on her breaks.  The other stores/businesses included a snack shop, a bank, a newspaper, police station and a radio station.  The businesses had to collect money for services, or sales, pay their employees and purchase advertising.  Her store won the award for the most profitable of the day (they made a whole $1.50 profit).  Apparently a good time was had by all.  I asked her to buy me a newspaper (mostly ads and two sentence stores), she bought Sid a T-shirt, the rest of her money she spent on bouncy balls and junk.

Closet

Every night we tuck Sunil in to "bed" he has taken to sleeping on a pile of boxes in his closet.  It is a rather tight fit but he likes it.  Usually we find him back in his own bed by morning but sometimes he stays in the closet all night.

Iris Pic

Iris

It looks to be a good year for my iris crop.  I’ll have more than 30 blooms of Chocolate Daddy this year and possibly as many as a dozen of the really pretty generic yellow.  Hopefully I’ll get to take some pictures this evening before it gets too dark.  This Fall I’ll need to dig them up and thin them out some.  The place where I’d like to plant the “extras” is along the neighbor’s fence on the low side of the driveway, but they don’t much like to have wet feet so I may not even try that.  I could put them on the high side but I won’t get to see them there.  I have a few months to figure it out.

Business Travel

I counted five trips that I need to take in the next two months.  That’s not going to happen.  But I love the possibilities and all of them are trips that I want to take.  Three of them involve visits to our biologics’ suppliers.  These are trips that I’ve been promised for the last two years that haven’t come to pass.  Unfortunately if something has to slip these are the most likely candidates…. again.  One is to take a training class on our new labeling software.  That will take place back in MA where I just was.  This one is definite.  I’m booking tickets today to go in early May.  The sixth is to teach a training class on some of our custom business processes at our sister company.  This one shouldn’t be my job but I want to do it anyway.  I’m too much of a control freak to let someone else tell these folks how to make my systems work.  If they tell them wrong I’ll have to clean it up.  Plus by teaching the class I’ll know who I’m talking to when we try to troubleshoot it over the phone later.  And we will be troubleshooting because the system is not as stable as it should be.  It was designed as a temporary solution to hold us for a year or two while bigger pieces fell in to place.  That was nearly seven years ago and the bigger pieces aren’t even on the table.

Over

The meeting finished a little bit early and was very successful.  We reduced the number of label templates that we need for nearly 200 down to six.  This sounds good but doesn't really show how good it is.  Each template represents 1000s of individual changes to process every time changes are made.  Even better we now can use electronic reviews and approvals.

Even better my counterpart up here is bringing his wife down to TX next week on a house hunting trip in case they decide to move down.  I really want them to come down.

Sightseeing in MA

I had a little free time before it got dark so I drove around for a while seeing the sights some of which included: the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Bridge, the Long Hollow Bison Farm and Sully's Breakfast "Home of Polish Music".  There is better stuff to go see but I hurried back to watch the Daily Show and South Park.

Springfield bound

In the morning I'm heading up to Massachusettes for a few days.  This close to Easter the flights were pretty full so I'm flying out earlier than intended and not coming back until late Saturday. I'm excited about the trip.  First I'm traveling alone for a change.  I enjoy the group dynamics but being alone can be like a vacation.  Second the purpose of the trip is to get a big start on updating our labeling software.  This has been a hot topic for me for the last four years.  We should have upgraded long ago.

Season opener

The Angels opened their Spring season this morning.  It was cool and misty during the game.  The fans grumbled some but we all know what it will be like come June so we didn't grumble much.  They started off with a double play which was pretty much the field highlight of the game.  The rest of the excitement was all about the batting.  In the end it was a tie 15:15 but it went down to runners on second and third when the third out was made.  One time each the teams scored 5 runs to close an inning rather than three outs.

Windy Day

It was another blah sort of day around here except for the wind.  It was a good, hard, sustainable wind with even harder gusts to keep it interesting.  It finally pulled the back off of our shed but Sid's already put it back on.

Receivership

One of the lending institutions for Sid's business has been taken over by the FDIC.  It shouldn't effect his business (except he has one less relationship with a lending institution).  Still the world is becoming a scary place.

Not for the politically correct (or the sensitive)

I was introduced to a new book today Our Dumb World it is an encyclopedia of countries of sorts.  It was compiled by the editors of my favorite website www.theonion.com.  Unfortunately I won’t get to spend the rest of the day reading it… I’ve got to get back to work.