For the love of ivy....

So after the blessing and the festivities, we went back home to Ray Ray.  It wasn't until he was let outside that the excitement that we'd missed out on became apparent.  Seems like the recent snow and wear and tear had caused the ivy arbor to collapse:

So we spent the morning turning the ivy into a pile of lumber and a giant ivy snowball:

And then my cell phone scrambled its memory (as near as I can tell, while sending this last picture), deleted all the photos, my sent box, phone book, and a number of other settings....

Things you don't want your GPS to be telling you

I-25 runs north and south.  Traveling West on I-25 is not an option... not a safe option, at any rate.

I wish I had a picture...

I just picked up a contractor pack of molding for the basement.  Picture in your mind a tootsie roll: candy on one end and a long stick coming out.   That's kind of what the 12 foot long molding looked like coming out of the back of a Smart car.

In the blink of an eye

Have you ever been tired to the point that you blink & your eyes are a bit slow in opening.... and you see things?

I've had two such experiences in the past week.  #1 was while I was sitting in a session in the Orlando Temple.  I blinked and before my eyes opened, I saw Jack-Jack climbing around the altar.  It was a bit disconcerting.

Not quite as startling as my flight out of Orlando.  I was sitting next to a total stranger.  During an eyeblink, I forgot that Susie wasn't sitting next to me.  As my eyes opened it took a moment or two to figure out what was wrong with my wife... why she was looking so strange.  Fortunately I figured it out before I said (or did) anything embarrassing.  I'm sure the guy sitting next to me appreciated it.

Day 3/4/5

Ok, so it's a bit of a blur... but we've spent more time with a real estate agent than with Mickey.  We've left town with offers on two different homes in FL (with right of refusal at the point where the offer is accepted, which may be 3 months away, as we're looking at a short sale).

We'll be looking for visitors at our Florida home as soon as we close... and it's about 15 minutes away from Disney.

Day 2

We started off our day in the park with a wardrobe malfunction.  I was just buying my ticket and I reached to put my wallet in my pocket and heard a rip.  The pocket ripped.  Not wanting to spend the day walking around the park with my underwear showing, I went to customer service to see if I could get some duct tape or a sewing kit.  Instead, they found a pair of sweat pants... looked a bit like pajama bottoms, but we were able to have a fun day in the park.

Day 1

It's been eventful.

A full flight, so we had to gate check our luggage, with a connection to the final destination.

We collected both our bags... except for one.  It wasn't on the flight.  I've never had the experience of lost baggage before. 

My impression is that the Baggage Service procedures are designed around stonewalling:

1. The notice on the lost baggage report form has a clause, which when translated to English says we're going to wait for several days to see if the bag shows up on its own before we do anything else.
2. Once the bag was found according the airline web site, we were given a 4 hour window during which we would be contacted to arrange delivery. We were finally contacted a half hour after that window, which was the first time we had a clue as to which state / country the bag was in. 
3. When we were contacted, we were given an hour and a half delivery window.
4. Two calls to the baggage service office, and just shy of two hours outside of the delivery window, there was a knock at the door.  The bag had arrived.

So what part of customer service does baggage service not understand?

1. Don't blow smoke. I'm not the center of the universe.  You're not going to do everything humanly possible to resolve my problem.  Give me a reasonable, thoughtful answer that provides reasonable expectations.
2. Don't quote unreasonable times (or times you can't meet). If I'd have been told that the bag would be delivered by 10:30 pm, I may not have been happy, but I wouldn't have wasted brain cells when it wasn't here.
3. Give me details. I've not been given a report as to what happened, but I can read the baggage tag: There's a rush tag with the rebooked flight and a TSA sticker on the luggage tag. The TSA sticker tells me that the bag needed to be rescreened, therefore someone at the hub airport missed the final destination and sent the bag with all the other gate checked bags to the luggage carousel.  Things like that happen.  Let me know what's happened and we can get on with life.

I know... my expectations are unreasonable.Next rant will be the motel room. Or maybe the car rental company...  Ranting aside, it's still good to be here.

So stupid that I couldn't make this up.

We had a baptism tonight.  Nothing unusual there, except for the time, to accommodate one of the parent's work schedule.  However, the font that we use was not available tonight, so we used one in a different building.  The stopper for the font has an O-ring washer around the stopper to seal the drain.  As the O-ring breaks on a frequent basis, we'd always kept a supply of spare O-rings at the font.

Now someone else has come up with an alternative solution:

That's right... wrap the stopper in a latex glove and stuff it in the drain... which accounts for why the font doesn't drain in a timely manner.  What's the remedy for pieces of latex gloves that are trapped in the drain?

It's NOT ABBA

A quite different take on the song Dancing Queen by ABBA:

http://svtplay.se/v/2161732/doobidoo/per_anderssons_och_annika_anderssons_folkmusik-abba?sb,k104108,1,f,-1

Oh... and if you hadn't guessed it, it's a spoof on Swedish folk music, not to be taken seriously.

Book Report

I've just finished the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's nest).

The first one I check out through the library here on a special order.  It was in Swedish.

The second one I bought at the airport on my way to Minneapolis in English in a paperback format.  I read it on the plane and was done with it by Wednesday.

The third one, I spent a couple of days looking for: it's not out in paperback, and as I don't want to add the book to my library, I didn't want to fork out the extra money for the hardback.  I tried to pick up the paperback in Swedish (42 kr or about 6-7 dollars), but due to arrangements with other book distributors, it couldn't be delivered outside of Scandinavia.  It could be purchased in electronic form, but the price for the electronic version was too steep (in Swedish).  But from Amazon I finally got the English version in Kindle format (with a free PC Kindle reader) for $10.

So, why would I bury myself in a novel that I don't want?  1)where's the suspense when you already know the ending?  2)the translation to English left a bit to be desired in that there was too much swearing and always the f-bomb. 

So why did I read it anyway.  It was well written (otherwise), I wanted to see how it ended, and there were lots of Swedish names and places, a number of which I had been to or was familiar with.  And it beat writing computer programs at night.

Round About... what??

I drive through a new round about that has been installed near our home on a fairly frequent basis. You all know the concept: traffic flows in a circle; if there's someone coming from your left, you wait until the traffic is clear before entering the round about. After you're in, you travel in a counter clockwise direction as long as you want to stay in the round about.  You have the right of way (except for changing lanes within a multiple land round about) until you exit. The ONLY way in is to turn right. The ONLY way out is to turn right. If there are two lanes that enter a two lane round about, the ONLY way in is to still turn right: right turn from the right lane entering into the outer lane of the round about, right turn from the left lane entering into the inner lane of the round about.

So you ask, why am I stating the obvious?? It doesn't take a civil engineering degree to figure this out.  So here's the punch line:
Explain to me what the three headed arrow means at the entry way to this round about:

However,  I'm pretty sure that turning LEFT into a round about is a bad idea, even if the traffic is light.  Going straight doesn't seem like an especially bright idea either, as there's no road in front of me... just the center of the round about.

Please explain what I'm missing.... 

Black Rainbow

So I went to help fix a clogged bathtub... and failed.

But there's a fire in the foothills to the West, and the smoke from the fire runs to the Eastern horizon.  I had to stop and take a picture (or a set of pictures) on the way home.  Photoshop, this isn't;  cell phone camera and paint.  NOTE: This is not a "cloud". It is smoke that runs from the the west to the far east. The left (bottom) end is facing west; the right (top) end if facing east.  If you're farther north, the smoke makes an arc from east to west; this collage is taken from south of the smoke plume.

Water Log: How Dry I Am: A/C Condensate Line

So after coming to the conclusion that the condensate line was clogged, I took a lesson from "There I Fixed It" and took matters into my own hands:

P-Trap before:

I should have taken this picture before I cut the pipe (and without the Walmart bag used to funnel condensate into a bucket) but cutting it gave me the access I needed to flush out the condensate line - and proved by leaking all over the place when I cut it that the drain line was plugged.  I couldn't get access from the far end - it's bolted to the floor with the tube going down the drain as part of another "fix" where the condensate was draining on the floor instead of down the drain.   I couldn't get access from the top end / inside, as one of the screws to open the access panel is inaccessible - hidden behind the ventilation pipe for the furnace.

P-Trap after:

The problem in just gluing the old cut line together was that I was going to have to likely blow out the line again.  So we now have a condensate drain line with features - not as fancy as the solution I found on the web, but close to it, considering that the solution found on the web was not available at the local big box store.  Note the options:
1)An access port, currently with a cap on it, but with a separate attachment (out in the garage) so that I can hook up a hose and clear out the line.
2)A valve at the top, so that I can block the clearing out of the line from backing up into the A/C coils and flooding.
3)The p-trap is lower.  If you want to know whether the P-Trap is blocked (I wish someone would make some clear PVC pipe...) open the access port.  If water runs out, the P-Trap is blocked and water is backing up.  If water doesn't run out, but is found on the floor, then I've wasted a perfectly good Saturday playing with the plumbing.

Good news is, when the A/C is running, you can hear the sound of water running down the drain.  So, it looks like I've "done good".

And here's the complement to the June 8th post showing the after of draining into the drain and not on the floor:

I had to bend the drain pan a bit to get access to the drain (the new water heater was bigger than the old.  The water heater drains into the condensate line, but just a little bit off the floor so that the condensate line drains into the drain.  I used a T rather than an elbow 1)because I had a T, and 2)so that if I ever want to drain the water heater, I can run the output right into the drain.

Help... We're taking on water!!!

This one has me stumped:

T

1. There is no water in the drip pan under the water heater.
2. The pipe draining the air conditioner condensate and the water heater drip pan is dry.
3. There was a half inch of standing water in the bottom of the furnace (about 2 gallons)
4. Water had seeped out from the furnace and was under the furnace, under the drain pan, and had dripped down into the crawl space, running down a drain pipe to the right of the water heater (not shown in this picture).
5. There was an additional 2 1/2 gallons puddled in the crawl space (fortunately none of the boxes in the crawl space got wet.
6. None of the pipes from the bathroom above the furnace room were wet; there are no signs of
So... where does 5 gallons of water come from that it ends up in the bottom of the furnace?

Anyone for a game of go-phish?

So after having my email account hijacked, and in the process of preparing a lesson on internet safety for church on Sunday, one of my coworkers came up to me today to ask about an email she'd received, with an executable attachment and the instructions that the IT department was updating some software and needed her to run the attachment.  (My first thoughts were "yeah, right... what's the scam?")

Looking at it, the message appeared to be from "someone" in the IT department, granted someone that I've never heard of, and considering that we have a standing policy that only IT is allowed to install software on anyone's computer, I didn't have any reason to be concerned.

Here's where it gets stoopid: it was not a phishing expedition, no email was being spoofed.  It was a legitimate request from the IT department!!!  Needless to say, I called the help desk to see what they could tell me; I then sent back a few comments about how inappropriate the email was, and received a response DEFENDING the practice! 

Fortunately, our CIO backed me up.

And to get really stooopid: our office manager clicked on the emailed application without even considering that the message should be investigated.

Sciatica

That's what the doctor calls it.  I think it's a royal pain in the butt... or maybe lower back & left leg.

I'm told that time, stretching, and nyproxen will solve my woes.

CHOCOLATE

We received a package from our German exchange student:

The best was either the strawberry filled chocolate or the marsipan filled chocolate.

One more reason not to clean...

A coworker's son had a computer that died.  He was hoping that maybe I could salvage the data for him.  I determined that the power supply was most likely bad.

Plan "A": It's a power supply with a few cables that and that it was of a newer variety that I don't have a spare for.

Plan "B": Swap the hard drive into another machine.  Turns out the hard drive has a cable that I don't recognize.  A little research and I am now introduced to SATA hard drives, but none of the spare part machines are new enough to accept a SATA drive.

Plan "C": Swap the hard drive into the family machine; after all we can always use an extra 250 GB.  So, it's time to open up the family computer and see if there's a SATA port on that mother board... and here's where I make the mistake... as long as I've got the case open (and yes the power's off), I decide I ought to clean out the dust bunnies.

There IS a SATA port, so before installing the new drive, I power back on the computer, and it doesn't boot.  Evidently dust bunnies are critical equipment.

We did have a system crash a couple of months ago, and I had to reinstall Windows, however this time the HDD that Windows was installed on is not being found by BIOS.

Bet I know what I'm doing this weekend...

Leslie Gore vs. Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson

I've always been fond of Leslie Gore's music, especially California Nights. However, the most frequently played song, It's My Party, is one that I've never really liked - too whiny. When I heard the Swedish version of the song by Lill-Babs, I found a way to get past listening to the Leslie Gore version. Lill-Babs took an entirely different approach to the situation & I like the positive attitude.

Judge for yourself:

Lill Babs	Translated by me	Leslie Gore
Leva livet, nu ska jag leva livet, ja, leva livet, ja, leva livet. Dom ska få se, vem dom roat sej med	Live life, now I'll live life, yes, live life, yes, live life. They're going to see who they messed with	It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to Cry if I want to, cry if I want to You would cry too if it happened to you
Allt var så festligt med Janne och mej, vi kila stadigt förut, tills Janne mötte Yvonne, då tog det roliga slut.	Everything was so festive with Johnny and me, We were going steady, 'til Johnny met Yvonne, then the fun ended.	Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone Judy left the same time Why was he holding her hand When he's supposed to be mine
Chorus	Chorus	Chorus
Janne och jag såg Yvonne på en dans, och hon gav Janne en blick, dom stod och skratta åt mej, när sista dansen hon fick.	Johnny and I saw Yvonne at a dance; and she gave Johnny a wink they stood there laughing at me, when the last dance was hers.	Play all my records, keep dancin' all night But leave me alone for a while 'Till Johnny's dancin' with me I've got no reason to smile
Chorus	Chorus	Chorus
Kanske att hjärtat mitt värker ännu, men vad bryr jag mej om det, nej, jag ska gömma min sorg, och jag ska skratta och le.	Maybe my heart aches right now, but what do I care about that. No, I will hide my sorrow, and laugh and smile.	Judy and Johnny just walked through the door Like a queen with her king Oh what a birthday surprise Judy's wearin' his ring
Chorus	Chorus	Chorus

Hijacked!!!

My predicament!!!

In case anyone was wondering: I'm not in London; I wasn't held up at gunpoint; I have had not contact with the US embassy in London;  I do not need emergency money sent to me (however, ... nah...);

My gmail account, my facebook account, and my blog (tied to my gmail account) were compromised.  I've been able to recover my gmail account, however, I do not have a contact list at present.  Still working on facebook recovery...

Banks and credit card companies have been put on notice that I am not moving nor anticipating any large transactions.  I've received phone calls from numerous friends, wondering if I really was in London (including my boss).

So... how's everyone else's pioneer day been?

Oh... Item #7 on the gmail security list (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=2eb176f1cbfe50e5&hl=en) has proved to be useful

7. Check your ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ settings for accuracy.
Settings >> Forwarding and POP/IMAP
Make sure you aren’t unexpectedly forwarding or downloading mail from anywhere; spammers frequently change these settings to ensure you continue sending spam even after changing your password.

Here's what I found... needless to say, I've changed my password... again

Construction Update

Cabinetry and plumbing in the main part of the bathroom was installed & connected before I left for girl's camp.  The toilet was hooked up; it leaks, so it's not turned on.

Girl's Camp was fun, but it was full of mosquitoes.  I was eaten alive.

From there, it's been a weekend of demolition and construction on David & Sarah's living room / dining room.  I did take a couple of pictures:

The molding went in a lot easier with the benefit of a miter saw.  I'll never try it again without one.

Fully Functional Bathroom... not!!!

Subtitle:
Stupidity: Parts 1 & 2

Part 1: I finally, last night, (this morning?) got to the point of hooking of the drain to the sink and the water lines to the sink & the toilet.  The sink drain is 1 1/4" diameter, and the old fittings were 1 1/2".  Blame that one on stupidity and not checking the parts closely.

Part 2: However, the one that caused me to laugh, was hooking up the old water line to the toilet.   After installing the new backer board for the tile, and the tile, I hadn't even contemplated that the supply hose from the floor to the toilet would now be 3/4" too short!!!  After all, all I did was raise the floor by 3/4".

I have one last chance for redemption (tonight) before I'm off to Girl's Camp & Bishop's night.

Pretty Floor....

All the tile for the floor is now installed. Grouting tomorrow and we can reinstall the toilet by the weekend... maybe....

Pretty picture is forth coming...  I had a problem sending pictures from my cell phone to gmail.  Finally got around to calling t-Mobile tech support: the solution - remove the battery from the phone.  Phone now sends pictures fine again.   The tech said to remove the battery for a few minutes 3 times a week!  I guess rebooting isn't enough anymore.

Watering Grandson

The flowers aren't the only thing that need water:

Mirrors

Yesterday, I got the mirrors installed and the electrical alterations finished.  For those that were wondering about holes cut for the mirrors, each of the two new mirrors is a medicine cabinet.  I also got about half to 2/3's of the tile laid.

911 Superhero

Today was a 100 mile bike rally.  Our crew ran the medical support.  Part of the problem with medical support is having a large enough crew to be able to handle the need, and staying occupied.  Sometimes crew members get bored.  And bored people frequently find something to do.  One of our older members had wandered by the face painting booth and gotten a batman mask.  It was not a far jump until the EMS flag became a cape. 

 

As for me, I played cribbage and took a nap - maybe not as much fun as dressing up like a superhero, but a bit more dignified..

Wiring

I hate snaking wire.  I guess I'd like it better if I used something other than a coat hanger.  Here's the view of the spaghetti in the wall, before Chaelomen came and helped pull it through.

That's a flash light hanging in the 2" X 3" hole for the wiring box with a cosmetic mirror in the hole at an angle so I could see whether I was pulling the right wire or had some other problem.

Buzz Light Year

So, Squirt and company came to visit the office. As we're on the way up in the elevator (the freight elevator was the one working that day), Grandma took a look at the construction cone in the corner and asked Squirt "Do you think Buzz Lightyear is under there?"

And then Grandma looked... just to be sure.

There's a Floor

I got the hard board installed Tuesday night... finally. The first piece was a pain to cut. I measured & cut, then recut, because it was too big to fit, and cut some more (you get the idea). The second piece had many more corners, but I got a bit smarter. I took one of the cardboard boxes (which weighs quite a bit less then the hardiboard, cut it down to a 3' by 5' piece, then further cut it down for water pipes and doorways. Once the cardboard fit, it was an easy job to transfer to the hardiboard, then cut & it fit the first time!

Tonight, I cut the holes for the mirrors; tomorrow, I need to reposition some wiring... seems the light switch for the adjacent room is in the wrong place.

Squirt on the slide

New home; different toys.  Here's Squirt going down the slide backwards:

No More Mildew

The good news is that there's no more mildew in the corner by the bathtub.  

However, on the other hand, there's no more floor...  We'll see what trouble I can get into tomorrow.  There has not been a great deal of time to work on the bathroom since Monday - Tuesday was our Ward's night at the Temple; tonight was the youth activity night; tomorrow there's a moving project; Friday, a Ward dinner / talent show.

Friday the new mirror arrives, so hopefully we'll find a way to be ready to paint by then...

The deconstruction of the bathroom

The reconstruction of the bathroom is underway.  We ordered new cabinets & counter top a month ago, but didn't want to get serious until after the new parts had arrived, which they did while David & Sarah were here.  Today I was off work for my annual physical & for an eye exam, so in between trips to the doctors, the deconstruction of the bathroom was mostly completed.  Pictures before & during demolition:

 

Removing the mirror was a bit tricky, but a trip to the internet advised us to cover the mirror in duct tape (to make cleanup easier when it breaks), wear safety glasses & long sleeves, and to pry carefully, using shims to slowly pry it from the wall.  Turns out the advise worked & we didn't break the mirror, although the sheet rock got a bit ripped up.

 

This project got started because there was a soft spot in the floor.  I went downstairs to the furnace room so I could view the damage to the floor from the bottom side.  The view was obstructed by heater ducts, but I got a different view... a puddle by the water heater...  CHANGE PROJECTS!!!  The condensation drain pipe from the A/C was not draining in the drain, but next to it.... and leaking through the floor to the crawl space / storage area.  Some PVC fittings were required to add a leg to the drain to make it drain three inches into the floor drain.  While I was at it, I also modified the drain for the water heater catch pan so that it would drain into the same drain... rather than next to it.  The picture, worthy of "there I fixed it" is forth coming.

Still to do: repair the weak spot in the floor and treat the mildew by the tub; patch sheet rock, paint, ...  not tonight.

Miscellaneous Picture Updates...

One picture is worth 1000 words. This post is worth 8000 words.

Graduation:

Funeral:

The Help Button is located WHERE?... not the upper right corner of the keypad!!!

Pearl at WDW/Japan:

Off Kilter - the best (only?) Celtic Rock Band I've seen:

All caught up

Or at least more so than I've been in a long time.  Normally I just skip over all the emails that look interesting or that can be dealt with later... the google alerts, group messages, etc.  and then catch up on them when I have time. 

When the Inbox has 743 unread messages, it's time to catch up.  Now, not only am I down to 10 unread messages, but I've caught up on blog reading AND anything I'd care to look at on Facebook.

I need to leave town a bit more often; however, this "funeral trip" has been a lot more like a family reunion and a vacation than a funeral... at least thus far.

And the rental car company didn't have the "economy car" that we rented available, so we got "stuck" with a VW Beetle.  Kind of fun to drive!!!

Rental Car

While in Boston I rented a Yaris... not that I'll ever rent one again.  I kind of like a car with the instrument cluster IN FRONT of the driver... not off to the right.  Some designer doesn't have a driver's license.

Scout show - First Aid

So we went to scout show to provide first aid, and where do I find my daughter?  At the COPE ropes activity (She can provide the details as to how & why):

Chipotle

I have eaten a Chipotle a number of times in the past, and ordered a quesadilla (which is off the menu), but it usually comes cut and in a basket.  Not so in Westborough, MA.  Here it is, almost as served (I did have them cut it) on the same aluminum foil that they heated it on.  At least the taste was what it should have been.

Baseball - Exciting???

There has been some discussion in our home lately about baseball not being exciting. I would suggest that it is (or can be) exciting. Take for instance the Red Sox game last night. It's the first time I've been to Fenway Park, a classic park. The outfield scoreboard that shows other games in progress is updated inbetween innings by a man on a ladder.

Our seats were directly behind home plate and close to the field (picture is forthcoming).

The game had the excitement of bases being stolen, the Red Sox being down 6-2, men being left on base. Opportunities to catch up fell apart, leaving the bases loaded. Then in the bottom of the eighth inning, a home run tied the score.... and with the bases loaded, two outs, the 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the ninth was hit out to the left field wall. Not over the fence, but enough to drive in the winning run.

As the hitter rounded first, the Red Sox bench emptied and chased down the runner, rather excited about the win.

Top 10 Reasons BYU grads make good soldiers

I just had to share this one:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700019691/General-Petraeus-Top-10-reasons-BYU-grads-make-great-soldiers.html

SMART II

I've been looking for a replacement for the Festiva. Something about wanting a car that is warm, has a radio, and doesn't rattle. I walked away from two deals on Prius's yesterday. As cool as a Prius is, by the time the dealers added tax, and handling charges, the price always ended up $5,000 to $10,000 more than I wanted to spend. I was about ready to settle for an older Prius with 80,000 to 100,000 miles on it when I found a 2008 Smart Passion on craigslist with only 17,000 miles... and in my price range.

So, we just picked up another Smart car... and Susie has claimed it has her own. Something about heated seats and air conditioning. I got to drive it home. It has paddles on the steering wheel to shift with, a moon roof, and a number of other bells and whistle (as noted).

At least this time I get a newer car out of the deal. I get the "old" Smart car. Complete with tachometer & GPS.

Test Drive

We went out and test drove a Prius tonight. There was one moment where I was at a stop sign and the car would NOT start. Turns out that (as you well know), Susie is a "hands on" type of person & has to check out every button to see what it does. Including the one labeled "P" above the joystick used to shift between Drive / Reverse / Neutral. Turns out the "P" stands for "Park"... she (unknowingly) shifted into Park while I was at a stop sign.

March - Winter in the Rockies

Spring snow... It was in the 50's the day before.


Likewise warm today with another 8 inches of snow due tomorrow.

Mary Poppins

Carebear, Frik, & Squirt came to town for a visit. They arrived on the heels of major winter storm and left being chased out of town by another storm. The roads were closed behind them as they left.

So what does that have to do with Mary Poppins? Nothing, except for the weather. We bought tickets months ago and tonight the major storm that chased CF&S out, almost kept us from being at the theatre on time. I left the office at 4:30 to go home & pick up Susie (she doesn't like to drive in bad weather), borrowed Samara's car (it does great in snow), and made it back downtown and to the theater with 5 minutes to spare (including twice around the block looking for the theater's parking garage. The signs on the freeway were caked in snow, so if you didn't KNOW where you were going, there were no signs you could read to tell you where you were.

The trip home was uneventful, except for the driver in front of us that decided to spin out and do a 180, ending next to the median, facing the wrong way... not something you want to do on the freeway. It made for a bit of excitement.

And the play was wonderful. A different story from the Disney movie from the 1965, but with a number of the same songs... and a more sympathetic tone for George Banks. I recommend it.

Not too disappointed...

I just got an email from Sam's Club, offering the computer that I just bought for only $100 more than I paid.

I suppose I'll survive.

In other matters, the search for a replacement for Fester & Steve or is it Frankenstiva goes on. I've narrowed it down to a 2010 Honda Insight, a 2007 Toyota Prius, or another Smart Fortwo. The Prius did not demo well... it was at a used car lot and wouldn't start... the battery was dead, but once it was jump started it ran nicely; mostly on the electric engine, because I didn't want to leave the dealer's lot.

The Insight, an update on mine, seats 5 and has a CVT transmission. I could get used to it, but it was a strange experience - the car never shifted or is that continually shifted.

The Smart is just a cool car, but that leaves us with only Samara's car if we need to seat more than two bodies at a time. It does come with a 1.9% interest rate for "qualified" buyers.

Revenge of MN/Mex

So I was at the office, drinking the rest of a diet Pepsi... my attempt to eliminate some sugar from my diet... when BLAM!!! that same bloated feeling that I had from the MN/Mex food plus stomach pain (not the I'm going to die kind of pain, but still somewhat severe).

Then it dawned on me that not only did I have the "Nachos" in MN, but also my fair share of diet Coke to wash it down. So, anyone else have bad reactions to diet drinks?

For the moment, I'm swearing off of aspartame; I've generally tried to avoid it, but not zealously. I think I may have a reason to get serious about it. Also, it seems to leave me thirsty & with a dry mouth.

MRE

It's not a meal; it's not ready to eat; and it's not edible. Or so I've been told. I was putting away some groceries in the basement storage room, when I came across a cache of a dozen or so MREs. They have a copyright date on the box of 1986.

Anybody want dinner? Or maybe a science project?

MN/Mex

Definitely not Tex/Mex. So, it was too early to eat dinner, especially after lunch. Call it jet lag. I finally went out looking for a restaurant that was open on the Skyway (I wasn't going outside for ANYTHING - it was 16 degrees at lunch time). There is NOTHING in this town that is open after 6 pm. I walked a couple of miles through the Skyway proving that statement. So, I ended up in the hotel bar/grill... sandwiches / snacks ... and "nachos".

That's "nachos" definitely in quotes. Chips & chicken, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, sliced olives, and sliced jalapeno peppers. Guac, sour cream, and salsa on the side. There was cheese... about as much cheese as we'd put on one chip, spread out on the bottom layer of chips, and mostly melted in the bowl.

However, I'm not hungry.

On My Way

From the customer service agent:

Passengers _____ and _____. I don't know if you believe in the hereafter, but if you do not get on the plane now you will be here after it departs. The doors are closing.

And then I got stupid

Friday morning was a comedy of errors. I packed my bags and checked out, put my suitcase in the car and was waiting to go to the convention, when it dawned on me that I'd forgotten to pack my scout uniform. I went up to the room (which was being cleaned) and got the uniform and went to the car to put it in the suitcase. Then I noticed that I was missing my hat. I'd had it in my hand before I went looking for the uniform. More backtracking... I finally found my hat on the floor in the hall where my room was. I'd evidently dropped it after I picked up the scout shirt. With all found, I started over to the convention, amused at my stupidity, when I looked down and saw the end of my lanyard had nothing hanging on it. More backtracking, but no success. (I'd noticed earlier that morning that my badge holder was starting to tear, but thought I could wait to replace it when I got to the convention center). I walked past the registration counter on my way to find the registration counter, finally found it, and got a new name badge.

And then I was given a bag of cookies. It made up for all of my stupidity.

TWTWTW

We used to play TV tag - "it" would think of the initials of a TV show and couldn't be chased until someone came up with the name of the show that went with the initials. Although I never saw the show, "That Was The Week That Was" was a favorite TV tag show.

This past week has been a whirlwind tour. I got to go to the Utah Dental Convention. In the process, I got to visit with Carebear's Cub Scout Den about the "good old days" of Cub Scouting... some of the things that have changed (I earned Wolf, Bear, Lion and Webelos, which has as it's badge the Arrow of Light - they earn Wolf, Bear, Webelos and Arrow of Light; Our Cub Scout Promise included "I promise... to be square" - they promise to help other people).

I got to eat dinner at The Roof, a restaurant in the Joseph Smith Building overlooking the Salt Lake Temple (and got to renew friendships with Utah dentists, insurers, and supporting staff).

I was startled to see that the speaker at the Team Recognition Luncheon (the gala affair to recognize dental staff and recognize dental achievements) was the father of a former member of my ward.

I got to see Cindy, who works concessions, and specifically requests this event so that we can have a chance to see each other. And... as a bonus, she had Shelly bake cookies... which were not only delicious, but were lunch. Who says we don't eat well when we're on the road?

And, I got to play "Ticket To Ride" along with a dinner treat of yeeros. (And I got to win, although it was close... I was surprised that Sukie just let me waltz through the board and build the longest train. I guess we need a rematch.

New Festiva Speedometer

As the speedometer cable for the Festiva slowly wears out - after 257,000 miles, I suppose it's allowed to wear a bit, I see some "interesting" speeds. The speedometer needle bounces around the speed that you're going, with occassional bursts of 75 - 85 mph being reported. Needless to say, it's not good to be have to answer the question "How fast were you going?" with "Somewhere between 35 and 60".

A GPS is a wonderful thing. It not only tells you where you are, but how fast you're getting there. So proudly mounted in the instrument panel cluster of the Festiva is the portable Garmin GPS. And yes, some duct tape was required... picture forthcoming...

My First Scoutmaster

One hundred years ago Boy Scouts of America was founded. A number of years later, I went on my first Scout campout. It was June; my parents took "before" and "after" pictures. I was considerably dirtier after. I remember getting the news as soon as I got home to get cleaned up so that we could drive to Utah - my Grandpa H. had died while I was out camping. Shortly after the camp we moved back to Denver, so I only had one campout with Buffalo Boy Canoe as my Scoutmaster. I think I have / had an autographed picture of him somewhere, but here's one that I found online - - - I'm sure it was taken a few years later:

Buffalo Boy Canoe

Motivational Speaker

We had a "mandatory" staff meeting last week, where we had a three hour session with a motivational speaker. All in all, he was pretty good; some good ideas on setting priorities and goals and positive thinking and all that. Some good stuff that I can use as Bishop in some of my counseling (I could even come up with chapter & verse for some of the things that he was "preaching"), although there's a bit of a translation required to get from New Age psychobabble to LDS doctrine.

The thing that I wonder about is what is it about motivational speakers that they have to be not only enthusiastic, but loud?