You Know It's Monday....

When you try to log out of the email program at work (not log in) and it asks you for your password... and then won't accept it. I finally gave up on that and called the help desk. THEY gave up on it after 15 minutes and will try again when it's Tuesday.

MSA: win the battle; lose the war

For those that are not up to speed on my mother, she is in the end stages of a disease called MSA (Multiple System Atrophy) see www.acnr.co.uk/pdfs/volume3issue6/v3i6reviewart1.pdf if you want the technical details, one of the best articles I've seen on the topic. In short, you lose control of muscles, generally by muscles tightening up so you can't use them. With mom it started with difficulty in going up stairs; her hand would lock on the handrail when climbing stairs - she would have to pry the fingers open with her "good" hand to break the grip. Eventually she couldn't write - no small motor control, couldn't climb over steep objects - like the threshold. Other functions are affected: blood pressure drops when you stand, which causes falls - as if limited muscle mobility wasn't bad enough to induce "clumsiness".

Loss of vocal skills, inability to chew, inability to swallow effectively followed. We now have to insert most of the consonants (and some of the vowels) in her speech, although the occasional "Yes" or "No" are clear. When agitated, the speech becomes somewhat clearer: like "leave me alone" after a gastric tube was placed in her nose. (She was not happy with the surgeon or the nurse).

Other systems are likewise affected (hence the name MULTIPLE system). Swallowing difficulties affect the lungs with the most likely result being aspiration pneumonia. (which brings us to the hospital a week ago).

I asked the attending physician about gastrointestinal complications of MSA as mom was having difficulty keeping food down. He responded that this was not an area of expertise that he could comment on. I've done some research and found some articles:
1. Those with MSA, who were capable of participating in the study, took nearly twice as long to pass food from the stomach to the intestines as the control group.
2. Peristalsis (movement of the intestines) is slower.
3. Tightening of the muscles, makes it harder for MSA patients to defaecate. (BOTOX treatment was suggested in the literature to loosen rectal muscles).

Mom was having trouble keeping ANYTHING down (water, which had to be thickened with corn starch to make it easier to swallow without aspiration, ice cubes, not to mention "solid" foods like yoghurt and pudding). Initial thoughts were that it was pneumonia or stomach bug related. A CT scan showed a hernia with an intestine poking through and being blocked. The surgeon was able to push the intestine back into place during his initial exam and insert a gastric tube to relieve the stomach pressure (a gallon total was drained from her stomach). He also performed surgery to repair the hernia - a minimally invasive hole (about 1" long) was created to insert the patch and check out the colon, which appeared to be good. (THAT'S THE BATTLE THAT WE WON).

As to losing the war, it appears that, so far at any rate, that nothing is passing from the stomach to the intestines, and though uncrimped, nothing is making its way through the intestines and out the back door. The initial estimate was that after uncrimping in a normal patient activity should commence within about 4-6 hours. We're well past 24 hours now. With nothing coming out, nothing else is being allowed to stay in. (Water and ice cubes for comfort in the mouth are removed by the G-tube).

I was watching mom tonight before I left the hospital. She was having trouble swallowing saliva in her sleep. The choking woke her up. The aspiration can't be good for the pneumonia.

Long term, we're losing the war. For that matter, short term, we're losing the war.

Google Phone... oops

On a lighter note, before I left the office, I forwarded my desk phone so that I could appear to be working while not in the office. I forwarded it to my google phone number.... and tested a call. It worked quite well.

Google phone is pretty cool. It has a number of features that let you control what phone numbers will be called when someone calls the google phone number, even letting you set up a schedule as to when what phone numbers will be called. There are even google phone groups so you can direct calls from specific phone numbers to specific phones... kind of your own mini-switchboard. If a google phone were the home number, calls from the boss could be sent to voice mail, while calls from the daughter's boyfriend could be sent to her cell phone, etc., etc., etc.

When you set up a new phone number as the destination for a google phone, there's a validation process that you have to go through. It prevents you from redirecting calls to a wrong number. You click on "validate", it calls the destination number, you type in the validation code and voila... that phone can now be a target for your google phone.

Before I left town, I set up some defaults for my google phone: send calls to the house between 5 pm and 8 am, send calls to my desk from 9 am to 5 pm, send calls to my cell phone anytime. I even validated my cell phone and my home phone. Note: the office phone hadn't been validated, so no google phone calls were being redirected to the office phone (which is just as well - I'm not in town).

Then over the weekend, I had one of my less lucid moments. (I've been out of town long enough that I've had to do laundry). I thought: I can validate my desk phone. Since it's redirected to my google phone, it will ring my cell phone. It did and I did.

I got a call on my cell phone from the office today. Seems my office phone number was being reported as "out of service". If you haven't figured out yet, I nominate myself for the genius of the year award: my google phone was forwarding calls to my desk phone, which was forwarding then to my google phone which was ...

Sukie's Right!

This past week, I've eaten several times at the Hospital Cafeteria. If the food here (at the smaller satellite hospital) is the same as the hospital she likes to frequent, she's definitely got a good deal. I've eaten twice at the grill - outside of the main meal time; the hamburger's are better than DQ's - grilled buns and fresh cooked off the grill. When I asked about the "Halibut Burger", the cook said with a twinkle - "It's good. It's deep fat fried".

The quirk is that french fries and onion rings (with REAL batter, not bread crumbs) are sold by the ounce, so you're not sure what you're getting.

I also had the fried chicken for lunch today (actually at lunch time), and the sides (mashed potatoes and gravy & veggies - broccoli and squash) were better & fresher than Popeye's (I can't eat KFC due to the MSG, so Popeye's is the fast food standard).

Medical Stuff

It's been an interesting past few days. The Crew was good preparation for the past few days, but I've had more "patient contact" in the past few days than all of what I've done as a First Responder on our various activities. And that patient is my own mother. Mom is nearing the end stages of MSA (Multiple System Atrophy), so at this point her movement is nearly totally compromised - including her speech. It's been difficult because of the patient. I've worn more nitrile gloves in 5 days than ever before. Most of the contact has been cleaning up, and trying to figure out what's going on with mom.

If she's healthy enough, there will be surgery tomorrow to repair a hernia that's been constricting her intestine. We'll see if she continues to respond to the antibiotics for the pneumonia.

Glad I could be here

Self Inflicted Damage

So, I got a call from a daughter that the car (on loan) had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident. The policeman that responded to the call couldn't quite figure out how the damage was caused. After looking closer at it, I determined that the cause was a parking lot block, that parking too close had caused the bumper cover to be snagged on the cement block, which pulled the bumper cover off when backing out.

This isn't the first damage that has been caused to this car by being too close to the road; most of the damage has been my fault - - - driving on snow-packed roads has ripped of 2/3 of the under car shields. In this case, the bumper cover was snapped back into place, and for the moment secured with a twist tie (and a promise to find a nut and bolt for later).

My Week At Girl's Camp

Our Girls' Camp was at a new facility that the Church is developing. I say is developing because the construction is about three weeks behind schedule. Even so, the facilities available exceed that which we have had in the past. Since the Father and Son Campout, a lot of work has been done: the main Stake Pavilion was largely built; the rest of the tent pads were built; an amphitheater was built; an archery range and and a canoeing facility was also setup; and the latrines, which had been empty open vaults in May (some even slept in them - the vaults were clean and level), were now completed cement structures - likely solid enough to withstand tornadoes or bears. It was amazing to see the change.

What was even more amazing was to see the changes that occurred during the week - and to be part of the changes (I have not worked so hard for a long time, and am still nursing a strained shoulder / kinked neck - most likely caused by sleeping in the car, instead of one of the tents. I was led to believe that there was electricity in the gathering areas of the campsites - such was not the case, although the Priesthood campsite will have electricity).

My week went as follows (skip the rest of the post, if you don't want the travel log). Also, the timing may be off a bit - the week was a bit of a blur, but I think that I got most of what I did included. I know Samara had an entirely different experience:

Monday: "Ward" pavilions had not been set up. It is intended that there will be permanent structures, but likely not this year. We set up screened canopies; the first one took the better part of an hour and a half. Others went up considerably faster as we first figured out, then followed, then improved upon the assembly instructions, although it was not until Wednesday we were able to finish them all up (The overseeing Stake President found two more pavilions that needed to be set up, if we could find the appropriate camp sites).

Tuesday: We almost finished setting up the Ward pavilions. I think there were 8 pavilions set up between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
There was a general gathering after the girls arrived on Tuesday in the amphitheater. The benches are made from logs that have been cut down the middle, supported on 6" X 6" X 2' blocks, with a curve cut in them to seat the log. The bench I chose to sit on was not well assembled, which let to a comment to the overseeing Stake President, who gave me a 16" long drill bit, instructions on where to get a drill, where to find the rebar, and how to fix the assembly. We also were involved working on pavilions and misc camp related tasks.

I drove into the nearby "big town" to visit a Radio Shack and buy spare parts to hook up my CPAP machine. It made for peaceful sleep, although sleeping in the car is not the most comfortable sleep.

I spent a good deal of time on Tuesday afternoon "helping" to light campfires and encouraging the Young Women to burn any of the scrap wood they could find. I first taught a group second year girls how to build a fire, and helped them start one; then I described to a different group of second year girls the process of building a fire, while one of the second year girls from our ward started their fire with flint and steel and dryer lint that she'd brought from home. Fires were critical to the campers as they were cooking dinner on these fires. The second year campers cooked 50 baked potatoes in the coals of these first two fires, although the one that our ward's pyromaniac/pyrophiliac started was stoked enough to have coals to cook on, whereas the one that was left to the leaders to feed, was barely adequate to serve as a warming oven. I started the fire for the first year campers - their YCL's would release them from instruction to start a fire as their certification included only how to put out a fire (starting fires is a second year's class). There were coals, and as I had no matches, it was more a matter of reviving the previous fire and instructing them that if they wanted to eat, they needed to keep stoking the fire so that there would be coals. They did end up with enough that the tin foil dinners were mostly cooked. The fourth year girls only needed instructions on where to build their fire - there was a fire left over from before they arrived outside of their fire ring, with enough coals to survive a rainstorm and after not being fed all day, still being hot enough to burn anything put on the fire. They didn't want a fire started, as they were only cooking hot dogs (something wrong with that in my mind - I'd think the fourth year's should be doing some significant cooking, not hot dogs). The third year girls only needed to be told that if they wanted to eat, they needed to build a fire, so we observed their fire starting, while we set up their canopy.

Wednesday: First task was scouting out the course for the 5 mile hike. I drove the truck on our quest; ultimately we decided that the logistics of driving the girls to the trail head was too great, so the hike was changed to 2.5 miles out of camp down the county road, and then 2.5 miles back. Out was almost all up hill. Then work on the amphitheater started. I couldn't keep up with the pounding of the rebar into the benches, but fortunately John, who came up Wednesday morning, could. We fell into a rhythm of me drilling most of the holes, and him pounding. We finally took a break for lunch at 2 pm. The cooks were good to accommodate us. Then there was setting up one of the last two pavilions, then back to the amphitheater. We started the amphitheater on the premise that there were a few benches that were not attached to the support blocks; we found the opposite to be true. After dinner we finished the last canopy.

Wednesday was also Bishop's night, so I got to play games with the girls from our Ward, eat ice cream and peach cobble / peach dump cake; we also had the "singing trees", a camp tradition that Samara can blog about, if she chooses.

Thursday: I was hanging around the Stake pavilion while waiting for breakfast, I got to help put the last window in the kitchen, while eating. (The other windows and door had been installed by another crew the previous day). Then we went down to the archery range to replace the lock on the door; then over to the amphitheater to help put in the power pole and wire a temporary connection for the sound system (which was "borrowed" by the Stake President from the institute in a near by city). There were a few issues getting power to the amphitheater, which were finally determined to be a broken wire.

After lunch we went down to assemble the sound system. Ultimately we figured out what parts were needed to build a sound system. We had to set up a pre-amp for the mike, which had to be wireless, as there were no mike cables in the raided kit, but fortunately a hi-fi jack from the wireless receiver which could be plugged into the pre-amp. There was a single scrap cable with a mini-jack on one end and bare wires on the other which fit into the headphone jack of the CD Player. The bare wires were duct taped to a hi-fi cable (no hi-fi cable was harmed in the process), so that we could hook the CD Player up to the amplifier. There was plenty of cable to have the speakers spread out far enough to avoid feedback. All was well. We went up to have dinner and a bit of rest.

I headed down after dinner to hang a flag with the camp theme on the makeshift flag pole that we'd strung up in the amphitheater on Tuesday. (We also had made a makeshift flag pole in the Stake pavilion, which was used for the American flag, starting on Wednesday). I double checked the sound system, and the CD player wasn't working. Turns out the if the pre-amp for the mike was plugged in and on, the CD player wouldn't work. Once that was solved, I went back up to camp so that I could lead the ward into the campfire program. The lead in was a "Lehi's Dream / Nephi's Dream / Tree of Life" experience. Our ward was about 4th in line. I got the girls to the top of the amphitheater, when I was approached by someone with a bit of a problem - they'd tried to start the background music and the circuit breaker had popped... and did I know how to fix it? Yes - I passed off the girls and went running down the hill, reset the breaker, got back into the theater and started tthe music.

The Stake President spoke before the testimony meeting and the rest of the evening went off without a hitch. The testimony meeting was well represented by girls from our ward. Also, thanks to Steve for helping in breaking down the sound system after the event.

Friday: Break camp and go home. Not much to do, as we had no tents to take with us; they were all being used for the next week's girls. Mostly just pack and clean up and leave.

Pictures later.

I used to have a new car...

... and then my wife saw it (not that she hasn't seen a Smart Car before).

Could it be the in dash GPS Navigation System with AM/FM Radio, CD and DVD player, AUX jack and IPod jack that drove her to steal my car? (It will even play separate input feeds on the front and rear speakers, so that those in the front can listen to something different than those in the rear - - - oh, wait, there is no rear seat).

Or is it that it's just a cool, cool car?

Come on Baby, Light My Fire

Friday night was the annual Father / Son campout, expanded this year to include a service project. The Church has purchased a ranch about 5 miles across the state line for use as a Girls' Camp. So our service project was to spend the day prepping the camp. Roads had been cut, trees needed to be cleared, tent platforms needed to be set up, and a number of other projects. For the morning, I had the honor of manning one of the many fires - burning the squaw wood from the clearing of the roads, and stacking firewood for future use. This afternoon, I got to help build tent platforms. A good time was had by all.

Not my mother, but I liked this list....

25 REASONS I OWE MY MOTHER


1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
'If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'
4. My mother taught me LOGIC..
'Because I said so, that's why.'
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.'
7. My mother taught me IRONY.
'Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about.'
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
'You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.'
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'
13 My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out. '
14.My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.'Stop acting like your father!'
15. My mother taught me about ENVY.'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.'Just wait until we get home.'
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.'You are going to get it when you get home!'
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.'
19. My mother taught me ESP.'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'
20. My mother taught me HUMOR.'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'
21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT..
'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.'
22.My mother taught me GENETICS.'You're just like your father.'
23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'
24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'
25. And my favorite:
My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.

Thanks

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks: the wedding, the travel, the reception, wisdom teeth and all the follow up problems, the trip for the second reception (which was likewise wonderful).

We'd initially planned to celebrate Mother's Day in a week or two, when Susie was feeling better; but with her surgery for the abscess (following the dry socket following the initial wisdom teeth extraction) on the day of the first reception (advice on the side: have your wisdom teeth out when you're young), she wasn't feeling quite up to doing a lot with the reception other than attending. Traveling was out for Susie for the second reception. Instead, I flew with Samara to that, cancelled the side trip to the home office on the way home (because I was flying, not driving, and the home office was only "on the way" if I jumped out of the plane). We left on a 6 am flight on Saturday; returned on a 6 am flight from two time zones east of us on Sunday; made it to Church after a brief nap, and had no plans for Mother's Day (which we intended to delay, because I wasn't going to be around to help celebrate).

Enter an invitation to Sunday Dinner from a wonderful daughter-in-law's parents. We were only able to contribute leftover wedding cake; we REALLY appreciated someone looking out for us, when we hadn't had time to look out for ourselves. Our kitchen is still somewhat trashed... but we'll get it cleaned up sometime this week; the lawn is over a foot tall in places... but we'll get it mowed sometime this week; and the windshield wipers on the Festiva are still misbehaving... but we'll get that fixed before it rains on Wednesday. Life is getting back to "normal" - whatever that is.

What's really matters is that at a time when we needed it most, we had a chance to get away for a bit and enjoy a Mother's Day dinner with family.

Thanks!

In Hot Water... Again

Which is a good thing. This morning I noticed the hot water supply was lacking; while relighting the hot water heater, I also noticed that there was a puddle underneath it (not good on a wooden floor). Tonight, while buying a hot water heater (and a drain pan to put it in), I noticed that the size we previously had was rated for a family size of 3-4 people (and if you wonder why we ran out of hot water with a family of 8, now you know).

We now have the bigger size (50 gallons), suitable for a family of 5-6, which is a lot closer to the size of the current population.

Thanks to Chaelomen for help with the install... and I did take time to read the directions... after we were done.

Sadly, I missed the Crew Meeting tonight. I think a hot shower in the morning is a fair trade.

If I only had a brain...

So as I was pulling away from Carolyn's for the drive back home, I suddenly realized that I'd left the computer sitting on her kitchen table.

For my next trick, I almost made it out of the parking lot, when I realized that I still had the hang tag for Carolyn's complex. Easy enough to turn around and fix that.

For my great and final lapse (at least of the trip), about 400 miles later, I realized that my two suits were hanging in Squirt's closet, which would not be much of a problem, as Carolyn was coming to town for the reception. Coincidentally this weekend was Stake Conference and we have two visitors from the Seventy - the Stake Presidency was being reorganized - and they were interviewing all the Bishops, High Council, and a number of other leaders as they were selecting a new Presidency.

I am now the owner of a third suit (and with Susie's help, a nice looking suit).

The Wild and Crazy Bachelor's Party

Sushi and ...

... what more can I say.

Just me and 25000 of my closest friends

Picture of the class of 2009 marching in.

I came to town early for the graduation exercises for both Sarah and David as well as for the upcoming wedding. The instructions for the 4:00 pm commencement were to be in your seat by 3:15 pm.

My attempt to make the 5 minutes drive, leaving at 3:00 pm, to the event center turned into a traffic jam, filled parking lots, and stumbling into a faculty parking lot by catering services resulted in me finding myself looking for a seat at 3:30. I found one on the top row, with a view of the proceedings, that was only improved by being at the top of the staircase where nobody could sit in front of me.

Carolyn decided to stay at home; Squirt needed a nap. She got to watch the proceedings live on TV with a far softer seat. And David's name wasn't listed in the program, as he is officially graduating at the end of the summer term, staying on campus to work on a research project and present a paper at a convention in Las Vegas.

ESC - Eurovision Song Contest

For those that may not be aware, the competition is heating up. For those that really may not be aware, there is a competition... Here's a couple of the highlights.

Spain makes a respectable showing this year:


On the other hand, Sweden misses on the choreography, and the mixture of pop and opera almost works, but goes a bit too far near the end; the mixture of English and French isn't too bad:
The link for the ESC TV site is: http://www.eurovision.tv/mediaplayer/2009/player.html

"New" Oven ... Elementary

The result for now is repair, rather than replace. Here's the repaired oven in action. The important thing to remember when installing the new element (or for that matter, removing the old element) is to turn off the power at the circuit breaker. And no, I won't tell you how I know this to be the case; there were no injuries and no tools destroyed as part of the repair. Two sheet metal screws, pull out the old element; unscrew the power connectors. Rush to the parts store so that you get there at least 12 minutes before closing. Installation is the reverse.

Fire in the ....Oven?

You've read on Susie's blogspot that we had a "fire". Here's the gruesome details.

It started as a couple of quick pizzas in the oven, so I could eat something before leaving for conference. It ended up with two pizzas in the garbage and , missing the first half hour of conference.

When it started, Susie noticed a spot on the right side of the heating element that was shining brighter than the rest. Our thought was that something had spilled on it and that it was burning off. We closed the oven and let the pizza's bake. Coming back we could see that it slowly progressed, like a giant slow motion sparkler on the fourth of July, burning along the element, leaving a somewhat charred version of itself in its wake. After 15 minutes (the pizza was supposedly done, but not really), and turning off the oven the coil kept burning... and the unburned coil kept growing brighter and brighter.

We decided that it was time to get serious about putting the fire out. (Shutting off the oven didn't stop the fire). As class D extinguishers have NaCl (or so I'm told), Chaelomen tried smothering it with salt. It kept on burning. Next trick was the ABC extinguisher in the garage... again no effect. At this point the smoke form the oven has set off the smoke detectors (we have 11 interconnected detectors in the house), so we opened windows for ventilation and evacuated the house.... and called 911.

I figured we were in no great danger, as the fire was confined to the oven, but was not too comfortable with a fire that I couldn't put out... I was worried about it progressing to wiring that was not in the oven. I called 911 to get some advise as to how to put out the fire. I was transferred from the 911 operator that the cell phone connects to, to a more local 911 operator,... provided all the information, the fire department was dispatched, and the 911 operator told me to call back if there were additional problems.

15 minutes after I called 911, I got a call from 911. Prior to that, we'd pulled out the stove from its cubbyhole in the kitchen, just to make sure nothing was going on behind the stove (there was... a mouse hole in the corner, but that's another story). As the fire was still burning, I decided it was safest to cut the power to the range at the breaker box (even though the oven control indicated "OFF". The fire died out.

Anyway, 911 called... The fire department couldn't find us. As I was giving directions, the fire engine pulled up. They'd been dispatched from a station 8 miles away - - - the closest stations were all busy with a big fire north of us. They came in the house, took a report on the make, model, and age of the range, nature of the fire and our efforts to put it out, pronounced the fire scene safe, mourned with us at the loss of our pizzas, let Jack-Jack see the fire truck... and left.

In all seriousness, we were very lucky. I don't know what a metal fire could have burned through and / or burned if it had been left unattended, but I have a vivid enough imagination.

I am curious about what was actually burning in the oven's heating element. After all, it's supposed to get hot and not burn, right? Any thoughts?

When it's Spring Time

The commute this week has been quite nice, for the main part... during spring break, there's so much less traffic - we can actually drive at freeway speeds during rush hour.

The exception was our spring blizzard. The office shut down early, and the commute home was SLOW. I'm glad that I had swapped cars with Scooter for the week (so that I could fix the radio and the window crank). The Festiva handles so much better in the snow than the Insight, which is so close to the ground that it gets high centered and/or scrapes the bottom on whatever snow is on the roads.

This mornings drive was on snowpacked freeways. It's exciting to be driving on freeways without lane markings. The car right in front of me about 2 miles from the office was moving too fast and he started fish tailing, then slid off the road. Always good for a bit of excitement. Tonight the roads were all clear. I wouldn't be surprised if by tomorrow night all the snow has melted.

And Scooter's car is "fixed", the necessary spare parts were donated by the spare parts Festiva, "Steve".

The Wizard Needs

Top 10 list from google:

1. The wizard needs food badly


2. The Wizard Needs No Bailout


3. The wizard needs to be pluggable


4. The Wizard needs to load the new Wizard image


5. The wizard's node name needs to be confirmed


6. The wizard needs Previous and Next buttons


7. The wizard needs information from users


8. The Wizard needs your teens


9. The wizard needs your help


10. The wizard needs at least 1024 x 768

We're moving...

We used to be 3.2 miles away from the Church. Then there was a ward division and we were moved into the Stake Center, which is 4.3 miles from the house. But as the church keeps growing (we have 12 units in our Stake, 4 in each building), we have the need for a new building, which will be done in June. So, we get to move again. This new building is just down the road from the house.... 5 miles down the road!

You'd think we were in Utah, where it's likely that you drive by at least one other building on the way to yours.

On a sad note, the new building is not wired for internet access, so we'll have to go back to the old way of getting/sending information - - - modem.

Mileage 2009 (Jan - Mar): Jan 1: Skate the Lake (41 mi); Crew meetings: 8 meetings that I've been to so far this year (36*8 = 272 mi); Trips to the Stake Center: 20 trips to date that I can count (170 mi); one round trip to the "close" building (6.4 mi); one round trip to the neighboring Stake Center for Regional Training: (15 mi). Numerous other trips that I can't recall, but ya gotta start somewhere: 504 mi YTD.

Ashes to Ashes

The sequel to Life on Mars is now airing on BBC/America. This time, instead of dropping in on the 70's, the cop in question drops in on the 80's... with knowledge of Sam Tyler's escapades in the 70's... also she visits the same crew that Sam was with in the original episode.

It's quirky enough that you have to pay attention and it's got enough twists to keep it from getting boring.

I made Chaelomen watch it with me... don't know if I got him hooked yet. I'll look for the second opinion.

Across The Universe

I'm home sick today (and hopefully not tomorrow) and I haven't had a chance to watch Across the Universe yet, even though MJ loaned me the DVD as soon as I showed interest. I enjoyed the music, but I don't think I've seen a movie quite this weird for a long time. I kept trying to read too much into the plot; took awhile to pick out the main characters and relations (did I mention that my ability to focus is a bit off too).

Some fun choreography, and some interesting interpretations of the Beatles music, but it didn't quite flow as smoothly as I'd have wanted.

I am NOT the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz

This afternoon I got a call from our mid level corporate wizard that one of the hard drives in our Dell file server had gone bad and needed to be replaced. Dell was on the line and could I take a few minutes to help him check things out.

Two hours later, I determined that the software that the Dell techie needed to have installed on our server (which we'd downloaded at 67 MBps on our T1 - and to think I get 500+ MBps transfer speeds at home), that this software could not be installed by me - - - I no longer have admin rights on our local server. I managed to get one of the national corporate tech guys to page a specialist in the Net Admin group, to remote into the network and to open a "runas" command box, so that I could become a temporary wizard and install the updated software. We'll see in the morning whether the updated software can rebuild the missing volume, or if the replacement that Dell is sending as a precaution needs to be installed.

The CMD box and command line interface was a bit foreign to the specialist in our Net Admin group, but having spent a few years with a DOS prompt, I was able to navigate and get the job moving.

Dental Convention Season

I got to come to town, play, and get paid for it! It's dental convention season.

In exchange for working in the booth and eating out in restaurants that I normally would not go to (not the usual $ and $$ type restaurants I frequent, but more of $$$ type restaurants) I get a weekend to play and a chance to visit family, friends, and friends of family who just "happen" to also be working the convention.

After closing down the show, I got a chance to catch up with Mom, and spent some time with my granddaughter (and the rest of the family).... and best of all, this time there were no emergency calls from the Ward.

Grandma was wanting some pictures of family, so I had Frik burn a CD with a good number of family pictures along with a number of historical pictures of family members.

Cars - can't live with them...

So I've been driving Scooter's car this week, because the radio is broken. (Scooter has my car). Knowing the clown that did the install, I was pretty sure that the electrical taped connections to the wiring harness that I'd done had come loose. I finally got around to soldering the wiring harness in place, and the radio doesn't work. The Cruiser has the same radio, so I've been debating whether to go to the trouble of swapping radios as a test, or filing a warranty claim, because what else could it be but the radio.

As we pulled into Crew meeting, Samara said that the speakers were the problem. So just to humor her, I reach up under the dash to check the speakers and the driver's side's cone is a mess, and pressing in the right spot on the cone on the passenger's side speaker produces sound! This now has become a project to complete Tuesday before I skip town.

Tuesday as I'm scrambling to get final packing at the office done, I get a call from Samara, who was driving Scooter to the doctors office in my car. (Scooter was too tired to drive). The problem was she had hit the curb and popped the right front tire... oh and the right rear was looking pretty low too.

So I bail out of the office, change the front tire (and my spare was low, but this time not totally flat), drive home (closer than the gas station that's a mile from the house) & put air in the right side tires, and drag Samara off to Discount to get the tires fixed. (We made it a half hour before Discount closed). Nothing that money can't solve.

I abandoned Samara and headed off to Sam's Club, because I'd volunteered to pick up the food for our part of the combined 4 ward Mutual activity (tacos and Mexican games), grab dinner at the grocery deli and draft an answer to an email from a Ward member until 2 am. Up at 4:30 to get to the airport for my flight.

Needless to say, the speakers did not get fixed, but at least I know the problem...

AND the solution...

AND I have my car back again.

The Tax Man

I did mom's taxes last night. Something about being disabled opens up an entirely new world of deductions. When all was said and done, the deductions exceeded her taxable income. She'll get back everything that the feds withheld from her social security and annuities, and even with 0 taxable federal income will still owe money to the state...

I'm looking for a second opinion before I click the "File" button.

BTW - Scooter, your W2's were sent here!!

The Last Word

That's what the Bishop gets when the speaker is done before the end of the meeting (We're on a schedule that gives us 10 minutes to exit the chapel as the next ward is coming in. If we're out early, then we wait for classrooms; if we're out late, then they're backed up in the halls waiting to get it). Ending on time is not optional.

Usually, I'll turn to the counselor that's conducting and say "Looks like you're speaking". Today, though, I felt like I had a few things that I wanted to say, so I let the counselor conducting off the hook. All in all, I had 15 minutes of fairly impromptu talk to give. I spoke without notes, and ran out of time before I ran out of things to say.

Too many years speaking on the High Council circuit and too many years doing scout leader training - and a lot less stress than speaking at a funeral.

I may not be allowed to leave town again...

Friday I was headed out to visit mom and to attend the wedding luncheon and reception of TheOrb and Ballerina. On my way to the airport, I drove past the scene of an accident. I didn't think anything of it at the time. When I got off the plane, I had a text message from Samara to call a member of the ward. That in and of itself, is not unusual. It was unusual when the Relief Society President answered the member's phone. The member's husband had been killed in the accident that I passed on the way to the wedding.

The intersection where the accident occurred is on a US highway that carries the traffic of a rush hour freeway at freeway speeds (55-65 mph) - except for the stop lights and the turn lanes, which make it not quite a freeway. The husband was making a left turn across traffic on his way to work and was hit by a truck estimated to be traveling at 60 mph. The witnesses have given conflicting testimony as to whether the light was green, yellow, or red. Police are still investigating, to determine the fault. I'd expect with all the growth that in the next 10 years or so, there will be additional overpasses built turning the highway into a freeway.

I made the whirlwind tour, conducted some church business, visiting mom, siblings, and kids; attended the luncheon, visited with bride and groom & their parents; none for near as long as I'd have liked, then caught the last flight home. In the meantime my counselors and the Relief Society Presidency were on top of EVERYTHING... and not just helping the grieving wife. We also had one of our young women break her leg (both tibia and fibula) playing church basketball.

It was my first funeral as a Bishop; the first death in the Ward in close to 4 years. The ward really rallied to support the young widow and her out of town family. They would have been married for three months this past Sunday. This guy really made an impression with his co-workers - he'd been at the job for only a year, but had really impressed everyone with his cheerful attitude and helpfulness, even dragging the recluses in the IT department into the social structure of the rest of the company.

The work place really rallied too in support of the widow. It was at times almost comical - the ward would think of something to do that work had already done & vice versa.

The memorial service was yesterday, followed by a luncheon. Things went off with only a minor glitch. Some Bishop who was conducting the service (who will remain mostly nameless) got up at the appointed hour and started the service without remembering to invite the family (who had been greeting in the hall) to come in and take their place on the front row. Good thing I had a member of the Stake Presidency with me on the stand to keep me honest.

My next trip out of town is next week.

Here's your four generation family group

From great grandma on down....

Watch me make a lightbulb (not a pencil) disappear

At Sam's Club today I saw some new cool bulbs for the dining room light. LEDs instead of compact florescent. 1.5 watts instead of 40! I didn't have a need to buy, but couldn't resist trying them out. I'm unscrewing the old bulb - Chaelomen is letting the dog in and Jack-Jack is wandering into the dining room... and I drop the bulb!

After sweeping up the mess, I look in the dust pan and there aren't enough parts to convince me that I've found them all. Specifically the base of the bulb (the part that screws in) is not to be found. With assistance, nothing is found! With a flashlight, still nothing!

Then while admiring the new bulb, I suddenly find the missing base, lying on its side, in the light (look at the center of the fixture in the picture taken from inside the fixture).

Time to Get Healthy

Exercise is good... in moderation. I just proved I need a whole lot more. Today I had to head out to the car on an errand, so coming back, I decided to take the stairs to the office, rather than the elevator. Only four flights up and I am huffing and puffing and totally out of breath.

Time to take up biking or jogging or .... losing a few pounds wouldn't hurt a bit either.

Shred THIS!

I went out and bought a new paper shredder for the office about 10 days ago. It's a purchase that the old boss wouldn't approve, but he's gone. We now have a shredder for each side of the office. The new shredder has wheels, but we put it on the same table as the old shredder. I was walking past and heard it beep, so being curious, I stopped to check it out. Turns out there's a warning beep when the shredder is getting full. I pulled out the bin to take a look, packed down the contents and pushed back in the bin.

Did I mention that the new shredder has wheels? The front wheels lock, but not the back. I pushed in the bin, and pushed a little bit more to get the safety sensor to detect the closed bin... and it rolled...

Did I mention that the new shredder was on a table? I watched it roll off the table and crash to the floor. One wheel broke off (serves it right) and the control buttons were knocked out; the housing was cracked. And it didn't work!

Did I mention that my expense check for the new shredder has not yet been processed? Royal claims that abuse is not covered under the warranty, so we started disassembling to see how bad the damage really was and what it would take to fix. The additional damage was that the mother board (a 2.5" X 4" board) was cracked and had one corner broken off, and the mounting brackets broken.

The buttons were easily put back into their sockets. As I didn't really want to submit an expense report for a second shredder, I wanted to see about fixing the mother board. Part of it was the challenge of could I do it. (Part of it was not wanting to deal with the corporate red tape).

I superglued the corner back on the board, along with the missing component. Chaelomen helped solder jumper wires to components to skip over damaged traces on the board and I reassembled the shredder... (using twine and a few boy scout knots to tie the mother board in place)... and it works!!!

And I forgot to take pictures of the finished work to post.

There used to be a month called "December"

I'm not sure where the month went. It was quiet at work - I got a lot done. It was busy at church - mostly 12 hour Sundays at the church. Mondays with the crew. One trip to the Temple on a Tuesday. A New Year's Eve Dance on the Saturday after Christmas (attendance was down by about 200 from the previous year - I was there as a "chaperon", although there wasn't a whole lot of need for supervision, and New Year's Eve doing the First Aid support with the crew. We saw some action this year.

Oh, and there was Christmas, and the related shopping; hoping that my wife and daughter could make it home for Christmas (something about flying standby) - they made it. Hoping that my son could make it back home after Christmas - after a couple of days in Chicago, any available flight to anywhere looked good. Enjoying time with the family (and resisting the temptation to eat even 1 habanero popper - I made that mistake at Thanksgiving).

Life is good - even if I didn't find the time to post for the month. Happy 2009.

And I did some driving during the month, but as it is now almost 1 in the morning, mileage for December can wait...