Warning - Geeky

1) My new secret project will probably launch next week sometime. What's cool about it is that the content is totally being done by Paul and me, and we're not dependent on anything to make this work - we have a real product, we can make it, and we don't need to hire programmers, nor get startup funding... we're just going to put it out into the world. We're kind of excited. But wait a little longer.

2) I love the Ebay. A million years ago (ok, 1983-85) I would bus downtown and buy british music magazines. One was a technology mag called One Two Testing (which I think I've mentioned before) that I loved beyond all reason. I got one copy on the eBay a few months back, and it brought me right back to programming my DX9 to make analog blippy noises so I could do the riff from Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer or Only You by Yaz, looking at photographs of Simmons electric drums and Jupiter 8s being leaned on by Howard Jones or Thomas Dolby...

I just got a package from England - I won 4 more issues. And they're true gems: Interviews with Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, OMD, Howard Jones, TWO with Thomas Dolby (one is a "primer for synthesizer nuts" before he was famous, the other post-fame with pretention and success all over it. It's just divine. I need to find more.

One of the best parts of the magazine was they'd ask exactly HOW my synth stars did stuff. There are drawings of the settings of Vince Clarke's synths for Only You, and production details for Heaven 17 songs (my god, they used a Synclavier? I swore they were Fairlight Men to the core.)

And that's the nerd report.

Taco Nite

Love the Taco Nite at the house. Usually, we play Kool and the Gang's "Ladie's Night" and sing Taco over the top. Bella, as you know, loves her Chipotle Burrito bowls. What you may not know is she's a taco fiend. She loads up a tortilla with spiced beef, sour cream, and cheese, and wolfs it down. Taco Nite is one of our few reliable ways of getting protein into that girl.

Tonight, as we sat in slack jawed amazement, Bella downed 1 hard shell taco and 3 soft shell ones, all loaded with more meat and cheese than either Pamela or I put on ours. We both had 3 each and were stuffed. Bella kept on going, making growly sounds of food lust. Add to earlier in the week when after a full dinner, she insisted on two yoghurts prior to falling asleep, and I'm afraid I'm looking at a biiiig growth spurt coming ahead.

Papa and Bam are coming to town for the weekend, and I'm playing hooky Friday to go to the Fair. I'm very much looking forward to the delicious fair food. In preparation, I restarted my exercise program after 10 days away (things got... busy). And I'm oh so achey. My quads just feel like I took a ball peen hammer to them for sport. But on balance, I still believe Exercise is a "Good Thing"

Work... Meh. I have good days, and bad days, and lots of ups and downs across those days. We are 42 days from golive, and we still have many issues, PLUS the final planning is kicking into full gear. Today I had non-stop meetings from 8-5:30, with 2 15 minute downtimes. In one of those downtimes I ran to Rainbow to get food. On the other downtime, I ate that food.

Language is going VERY well: I finished Level 1 of Japanese and have started Level 2: So sum total, we're talking I just did Lesson 31 of 90. I still love this language, but man, it has some VERY silly conventions. All of the politeness levels, the couching terms, the word order, the modifiers... and the fact that they use different NUMBER words when referring to Tall thin objects, flat objects, animals, people, round or cup shaped objects... It's like a crazy secret club where to kill the boredom they come up with impossibly obscure distinctions - like Cockney Rhyming Slang or something.

With every little bit I learn, I realize... German's not so tough. Spanish is a breeze. And even though I'm at least 2 months out from finishing Japanese, I think my birthday present to myself MUST be the Mandarin Chinese series of lessons...

And that's my update.

Relaxomatic

First off, let me assure you all - things DID get a touch better for my work by Friday. We had a few more scripts pass through testing, and the emergency scheduling issue may not have been as critical as supposed... There are still substantial hurdles to overcome, but I think that things were better Friday than on Thursday. But I took off early on Friday, and lord knows what could have transpired... I do note that there are over 40 new messages in my inbox from between 1-4pm, my "hooky time" from Friday.

But Hooky was worth taking because it was a great weekend. Here's how it went: We had a quick sammich at Potbelly in Maple Grove, then up to Ruttger's in Garrison, just off of MilleLacs. 120 short miles (measured by one-Pooh Heffalump Movie and one-Dora episode). We got a nice small cabin right on the lakefront - clean, not musty, and cozy.

And then we relaxed. And ate very good food. And relaxed. Bella was unstoppable with the swimming action. Friday Night, Saturday morning, noon, and night we swam. Sunday morning we swam. Thank you to Grampette and the Foss swim school, Bella is VERY comfortable in the water, and boy, Pamela and I sure got our share of swimming in too. I do want to say the food at Ruttger's was very good - I had a fantastic pan fried walleye last night that I'm dreaming about now.

Bella loved the lake, and we came home with a full bucket of rocks and shells she collected. And she loved looking for bugs, peering at them from a safe distance with her hands on her hips, pitched forward, with her nose crinkled up.

I re-read an old favorite book, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. What was interesting was that when I FIRST read it, I had read very little by either man, and since I've read LOTs by both, so I was expecting to be able tell who wrote what, but boy, that book was a real synthesis. And still VERY funny. But other than that I can't say that I did anything productive - my language books and tapes sat unread/unlistened. My computer stayed at home. This was all about play.

We got home around 4, after checking out and chilling out for a few extra hours up there. Bella went STRAIGHT over to Jenny's, where they just giggled and laughed with eachother for hours. So us adults got to thinking about having dinner together. But after all of the great food we'd eaten (and recently), I couldn't think of anyting to eat.

So I ran home, made up a plate of peanut butter and jelly sammiches, grabbed a bag of pretzels, and we had a great little picnic in the warm summer evening.

Prepping for the Weekend

This weekend, we're off for a SHORT 3-day getaway to a lake place up north. Water park, lake, meals included, the air of the north woods... it'll be a wonderful recharge.

Sadly, Pamela seems to be on the ill side (she started a Z-Pack, so I don't think she's messing around). So Bella and I had an evening together - burrito store, Guitar Center, and a drive home in a flash flood which was quite gripping. The mini handled well, however.

Once home, Bella took off to do more Packing. Pamela weakly pleaded with me to distract her, because everything she packs, Pamela must unpack. When I made it upstairs, Bella proudly showed her handiwork: Every pair of glasses and sunglasses in the house was put into individual ziplock baggies, and laid out in a row. "Now you're ready for your trip!" she exclaimed.

This vacation will be very needed for me: It's been a rough week at work - things started well, but by the end, if I'm reading this right:

- I was asked for the same information for the 5th time from a co-worker, who already had the info (I've sent it twice!), and implied his work couldn't be done without it. I snapped and yelled at him in the meeting.

- Our vendor JUST figured out that we MIGHT not actually have a legally compliant billing system built. And they might not have a fix for me.

- My interfaces team JUST figured out that oh, they didn't actually test anything back in May like they said they did, and we're back at square one, and they might not be ready for live.

- All of the test scripts we started this week might not pass because of the way they entered them ("old" versus "new as of 4 days ago" thanks to the vendor again)

- And we're going live in 49 days.

I need a break. Thank goodness for the lake!

Also, I promised Pamela I'd be "unplugged" this vacation, so mister laptop stays at home, and you'll just have to read about this when I get back!

So much better.

The cold was miserable, but by spending the entire day asleep, I wound up scaring it away - I can only imagine it's little virus thoughts "I wanted to see the world and meet new people, but this host just lies around? I'm finished!"

So I was back to work on Friday, and again today, with no ill effects, though the allergens flying around are making me feel a bit woozy whenever I'm between climate controlled zones. Come ON, future, where are my underground cities of steel? I'll take it!

Over the weekend we did many fun things - Bella was on an overnight to Jenny's so Pamela and I did things like have a long breakfast at the Original Pancake House, and dinner out with friends Rita and Jeff, and a movie....

Taladega Nights. I blew it. When a guy picks a movie, it's always a risk. And as we walked out, Pamela said "I'm picking the next one". Our reviews:

Jim: "It was a parade of buffoonery, with largely unsympathetic characters but some exhilirating moments of slapstick. Funny at times, but ultimately not as satisfying as Anchorman."

Pamela: "It was dreadful".

In truth, I found around 15 minutes of GOOD laughing in it, but was disturbed by the rampant product placement (even if it was "meta"), the homophobic bits, the strangely alien and awful performance by Sasha Baron Cohen (who seemed to be fighting a battle the entire movie with his tongue, which would NOT behave and allow him to form words in a comprehensible manner). Plus, it was NASCAR, which was horrid in it's own way.

So next time, we'll be doing some sort of period piece about people who are afraid their emotions might spill out and they might accidentally use the wrong fork for salad and be shamed out of Whillfordlainesshire Manor House, where their servants have a rich, yet bittersweet existance right under their noses that they're sadly oblivious to....

Moving on.

I'm happy because I'm cooking up a fresh scheme with my buddy Paul out in Seattle - the invention train is rolling again... and this one is pretty different. It's actually a podcast and I think within a week I can share it. Until then, mum is the word, see? But unlike the previous ideas which were largely paper, this one actually has a first revision, and it's GOOD. It's a frothy cocktail of quest for knowledge geekiness, with some science and high production values. No more. I've said too much.

And that's it for the night... keep those cards and letters coming!

Cold. I have one.

Last night, as Pamela was out with friends and I was watching Bella, I grew aware of a weariness in my bones... All of our games had to involve Daddy lying down somewhere (hence, I was a restaurant patron AND a medical patient as the evening went on). I chalked it up to just my standard "extreme" lifestyle, and went to bed by 10.

This morning, I realized this was no mere fatigue, I had a full on COLD. Sniffles, coughing, aching, classic NyQuil ad fodder. I tried to deny it - I showered, dressed, had breakfast, fed Bella jelly toast....

But in the end, it was futile: I would not have been able to point the car towards work without winding up in a ditch, my asleep forehead comically "laying on the horn". So I sent out some notes and set myself up on the 3rd floor for "sickland" - I got books, puzzles, everything for a sick day.

And promptly slept the entire day, save for a few minutes to eat and drink at two hour intervals. My "sick kit" went unused. I did get a good picture of how things go here when I'm not around: At one point, I came downstairs, and there was an art gallery throughout the house of playing cards and flash cards taped to every surface at Bella height... It sure sounds like Bella amd Mommy have fun, and I understand why Pamela can look sooo tired at the end of the day!

Pamela has another evening out, and I'm now watching both Jenny AND Bella for a few minutes until Randy comes home to relieve me... And I am hopefully feeling better. I had better be better: I have over 100 "urgent" emails in my "Client" email box, seems there are decisions and issues and all the other great stuff I do and it piles up surprisingly quickly.

Go Go Gadget GREEN TEA!

Current Statistics

Lessons in Japanese completed: 23
I can talk about family (wife - Kanai, daughter - on'na no ko), size (Oh-ki = big, chi-sai = small), ask to fill up (Man Tan) my car (watashino kuruma) with a litre (lee-tah) of gas (ga-so-reen - yes really). I can count just up to 100 (99 = ku juu ku), then jump to 1000 and up. I can ask where things are, say where they are, ask if they're far away or not, express a desire for food, drink, or shopping in two levels of politeness... and so much more.

Days till my project goes live: 58.
Successful system tests so far: 0.
Yes, this is a bit nerve wracking, but we are waiting on some KEY fixes from our vendor, and we can get pretty far in the process. My current headache was that the big issue I chased last week where we escalated to all levels of management, was revealed to have impact to.... wait for it:

Cases a month affected by this bug: 3.
This is so far beyond the 80/20 rule, or even the 98/2 rule. When that little tidbit was revealed, I almost lept across the table. 3 cases a month, I don't care if the system handles it elegantly. I'll personally engrave those cases onto granite tablets.

Tomatoes in our house: 100000000000 (or so)
Our vines are bursting with maters of all sizes. AND our veggie co-op appears to be running over too, because we have more tomatoes than I can shake a stick at (and I wouldn't shake that stick, they clearly outnumber me. I'm no fool). So last night was a big tomato salad. Tonight was roast beef sammiches with big slabs of tomato. TOMORROW will be gazpacho, which done well is maybe my favorite soup (not to be confused with Minestrone, which is the devil's own soup. It took me several years of practice before I was able to differentiate those on a menu).

Little Binxes in my house: 1.
She met me as I came home tonight - late after working out too. She was on the front step wearing a duck towel and nothing else. She was very excited to see me, and I got lots of hugs and smooches. I put her to bed, and she took a looong time to wind down, but in the end, a back scratch and some stories got her to rest.... and I loved ending the day with that.

And now, full stomach, exercised bones, and full brain, I'm off to an early bedtime!

Dancing FOOL

Yesterday, Bella was definitely under the weather, the poor thing. But today she got up a the crack of 6 with me and we had breakfast together and cuddles. She insisted on Pancakes for breakfast, and I made enough to surprise Pamela with breakfast in bed... a wonderful start to the week I hope!

At work, I had heard from some of my team leads that they're not feeling terribly appreciated, so I decided to help out. I found out who has been working lots of hours (over 50 a week) and gave them thank you cards with Superman stickers in them. A couple of them were too cool for school to mention it, but I got teary-eyed smiles of appreciation from the ones that I think mattered.

I'm going to keep the good feeling going at work somehow. It certainly made the day fly by!

When I got home, there was a package for me: One of the songs in Dance Dance Revolution is "Butterfly" by Smile.DK. It's sooo catchy, and it's classic late 90's swedish dance pop with crazy fake Japanese lyrics. And of course it's not for sale in the US for love nor money (see: Mr Timothy).

I found the CD on E-Bay, and won the auction. I popped the CD on here at 7pm, and Bella and I danced straight through the first 6 tracks - a good 20 minutes of hoofing it. This is just perfect pop stuff, and Bella loved it! I think I'll be hearing a bit more of it.

And of course my own D.A. Pennebaker (Pamela) filmed 12 minutes of it... so we have important stuff to store in the nation's Strategic Cuteness Reserve (fear not, Daddy was only dancing for part of it - there's plenty of solo material there. There's no need to call the police).

Bella's having a nice long shower now, and I'm hoping for a good night's sleep for my little girl.

Living SO large

Last night, Bella was with the grandparents and we set out for a massive night on the town with 4 friends. We went to Campiello, which is a nice northern italian sort of place, and had cocktails, appetizers, salads, mains, and dessert... and after a good 3.5 hours of feasting, we started talking about "what next?"

Perhaps bowling? Perhaps a movie? Or another bar?

Or maybe we will all just go home and go to SLEEP. Which is what we decided upon by unanimous decree. We're all so OLD... ;->

And our ambition to have a big breakfast out with out Bella still at Grandma's was foiled by our default Sunday behavior - Jim up at 7 and started on the puzzles, Pamela up at 9 and sleeeepy.

Bella went to Jenny's for her 5th birthday party, but she was sufficiently tired that she was more of a spectator. Upon returning, she had a short nap and is now lolling around in pajamas. And Pamela's back up for a nap.

All this is fine - I needed to do some prep work to get some equipment ready for sale. Always fun deleting emails, pictures, and other personal info!

Hey, it's a VERY lazy Sunday, so this is a lazy post. No deep thoughts, no crises... just... relaxing.... ZZzzzzzzzzz.

Scotch Night

Nick and Rich and I had another "Scotch Night" last night: We all bring a bottle or two of something interesting, and we set up small tasting glasses of each and have a discussion of each fine spirit, followed by a movie. As before, the quantity is small, the quality is high, and we approach it with a scientific spirit.

Last night we enjoyed some Lagavulin (from Islay), Talisker (from Sky), Oban (West highlands), Scapa (from the north Orkneys), and my new Suntory Hibiki (from, well, JAPAN). What was amazing was that as we went around, we had tasted some of these before, but in comparison and contrast, new flavors were brought out: For instance, while we love the Suntory for it's smoothness, after some Talisker and Lagavulin, it's almost criminally bland... though still respectable.

Our palates are developing as well, and things that just didn't work earlier this year (Lagavulin again) now are tasty and actually preferred.

We agreed that this is absolutely the best way to develop our knowledge, and want to do this monthly... Last night's movie was V for Vendetta, which even on the 4th viewing for me was amazing. Such a powerful movie!

And I discovered anew that Rick and I are kindred spirits in another way: He's a language junkie like me: He currenly has Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish in his repetoire. I have French, German, Spanish, and a little Japanese and Russian... But listening to him speaking Mandarin Chinese really made me realize I NEED to know this language - it's just so cool sounding.

Rich and I have been FRIENDS for just over a year, and acquaintances for over 10 years, and it's so cool to discover new things about people.

In the meantime, Pamela was busy doing completely unique flower arrangements for Jeff and Rita's home tour - They're opening their house to visitors for a designer's showcase (in this case, they're the homeowners AND the designers), and Pamela dressed the place up with some truly artistic arrangements using unique ingredients... Let's just say she bought out Byerly's entire stock of Radishes last night. Yep.

It's a gorgeous day... time to go see what's up out there.

Much better!

So my little stress post yesterday... I want to report that I did take my own advice, and I had a better day. I was smiling, I had a spring in my step, and even though I had my share of issues and crises to deal with (which IS of course my JOB), I didn't get worn down. I hope it'll last...

This evening, we had indian takeout and started watching The Libertine with Johnny Depp, but it was just too horrible for words. It was dreadful. It was fun watching Johnny Depp leer and roll his eyes and scowl of course, but that out of the way, it was just a tiresome exercise. We gave it 45 minutes of our life, then said NO MORE.

We refreshed our souls with an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, and had great belly laughs at Sigfried's antics, and the strangeness of Yorkshire.

And that's the update.

Comments and my Rules...

Just some quick notes to both of my readers: You can leave comments on any post by clicking on the "comments" at the bottom of each post. You need to type in the answer to a little optical puzzle to post (to prove you're not a mindless robot), but you don't need to register - just select "Anonymous" or "Other", not "Blogger".

And I am growing curious as to how many people actually DO read this - comments will help. I think I might actually have as many as TEN actual humans... but maybe that's just my crazy champagne dream. No way would I have that many.

Secondly - I promise to keep this blog readable by anyone over 12 years old.... and ALL that entails.

Thirdly - I try to keep things somewhat anonymous - no last names, no actual place or client names. I realize it makes me sound a bit like a 1920's Russian short story writer at times, but I think that by keeping specifics out of it, I get to talk about what is really HAPPENING without people feeling like I'm airing laundry. I could NOT tell much about my work if it wasn't anonymized.

My pledge - if you do feel I've revealed something I shouldn't have (as I did a few weeks back when I used a last name), please let me know and I'll modify it. We're friends, right?

Secrets and Me

Oh I hate being the keeper of a secret. Especially the kind I had to have since Friday when our Gang of Four conspired to change the project. It really wears on me to interact with people who will know in a few days or minutes that I have kept things from them. It makes me feel like they have reason to suspect my truthfulness in non-secret-keeping intervals.

In short, when there's stuff like this, it affects me, which I really try not to have my work do as a rule. I am usually very good at leaving work there, and coming home, but at times with this big project, it has been stowing away in my trunk and sneaking in, waking me up at 4am with ridiculous worries about project plan updates. And this restructuring was a big stresser.

The good news is that the project WAS restructured, but that we were able to reasonably salvage and re-order things to the point that really nobody is out of work, and nobody has wasted their time... and the clients are supportive. It all went public today, and I wound up almost collapsing once I got home, the air let out of the bubble.

I promised myself that the stress of the past week will not hold, that I am allowed to recover, and that from tomorrow on, my shields are back up and this is just work again.

And let's admit it - that whole reunion thing - that was a bit of an emotional trip too, and that's probably been a contributing factor for stress and exhaustion. I might also be a bit tired in that I did work out for the first time in a week, and it was at a 6am class... Nah, that's probably not it.

"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long... and you have shone so very bright, Roy" - Eldon Tyrell

On a Monday

1) When Bella woke up, she grabbed her coin can and came downstairs, and laid out coins in the shape of a "humpback whale" on the whole kitchen floor. She must have been planning this one.

2) The "Big Plans" I helped concoct at work are now fully underway, but it has not been communicated with the team yet. But at least today I'm not only one of four people who know it - there'a a good two dozen of us in management, and it will be announced on Wednesday. My biggest concern is that one part of my project will be delayed a year, and the person doing it is probably going to take it pretty hard. So my guts have been a little knotted up.

3) Geek Fest: Got more textbooks today: Some short story collections in German and Spanish, where the language is on one page, and the english translation is on the facing page, so you can just look across to translate. Also, a remedial algebra/trig book, because I was disturbed about my inability to remember equations for compound interest, and that opened a whole world of math insecurity for me. So I want to relearn it.

4) Tonight Bella and I had a date... NOT at the burrito store, but at Punch Pizza. She ate her whole cheese pizza. What an appetite! As we sat there, a man walked by with two high tech false legs (shiny aluminum ankles). I watched Bella. She was very casual as she leaned over to take a better look as he walked by, then went right back to Pizza - no explanation asked for, no shock and amazement. Not even the Reay raised eyebrows. Though I suspect this will be a time release event... Out of the blue she'll ask something about getting new body parts or something.

Reunion Part Two

Some general impressions:
1) People are still looking great. I've hear people say that at the 20, the ladies look good, but the men are looking middle aged. I'd say that at Washburn, we beat the curve pretty well - people were in general looking fit.

2) Only two people from class were known to have passed away in the intervening years. One was a friend back then... We were doubledates at Prom, and we did an interesting piece for AP English where we read poetry in a graveyard, sitting on tombstones with our names on them. I think that would be a hard picture to see now.

3) We have people from all walks of life: My friends are photographers, drummers, firemen, Navy officers, lawyers, substitute teachers, professors, IT professionals, house painters, day laborers, flight attendants, investment bankers, moms, dads, line cooks, restaurant owners, artists, molecular biologists... It was amazing to sit with people and realize the multitude of paths we all took out of school. Strangely, nobody batted an eye when I said I was an IT Project Manager. Sort of like when the class closet case comes out, everybody says "no big surprise there, guy". I was always meant to be a geek.

4) A LOT of us took the later paths in life: Most were talking about being married in the last 10 years, and a LARGE number had kids under 5... I guess people really are getting started a little later. IT'S NOT JUST ME.

5) There are still some cliques - and some people who didn't make an effort to socialize outside of that... I kept my eye on a few. But they were the exceptions. And actually, I felt kind of bad for them. But it's their life.

6) There was rekindling of friendship from much further back than High School - there were friends I went to elementary with who had falled into different groups by HS and I never spoke with, and at the reunion, we were all geeking out about the comic books I used to draw in 5th and 6th grades... many people want scans of that old artwork - I only hope that some faithful reader might remember where those old "Cyclone Seven" comics are....

And that's the writeup on the 20-year. I may think of a few more tidbits, but that pretty well covers it.

About being President

First, a note about being class president. Really, when I got into it, it was just as a lark: Senior year started, and the morning announcements were done by one of the secretaries, and were very dry, but I remembered the year before (which I entered 1/4 of the way through) a student got to do them. So I inquired about who gets to do this, and found out it's a duty of the Senior Prez. Oh, I wanted to do those announcements.

The campaign was wild - I took marketing to a whole new level - posters everywhere, my name in the cafeteria on 3 foot high letters, bedsheet-sized signs hung out windows. Pure insanity, and somehow I got people to notice enough that the voter turnout went WAY up and I got into a runoff with Jeaner - my old best friend.

I don't really remember the runoff very well - It was an assembly and I had a few minutes to speak. I don't remember the speech, but it was probably a "vote for me because I'm NOT cool" sort of "revenge of the nerds" screed. And it worked. When I won, I lept up and yelled "This is the happiest day of my life", and it was, actually.

But getting back, I didn't really know what the job WAS, either. I was only in it for the announcements. Turns out there were a few more duties. I knew about the duty of making and showing a Senior Movie. Check. But apparently this also put my parents on the hook for running the Senior Night Party. AND it put me up to organizing reunions - which was something I didn't learn until much later.

Fortunately, my parents were able to corral their friends and put together maybe one of the greatest senior night parties ever - dinner at the Freight house in Stillwater, then all night bowling and dancing at the Diamond Lake Lanes with giveaways... I'm still amazed at what they pulled together, and because they knew I was such a blabbermouth, I was not involved in the least lest I give it all away.

Reunions... I totally whiffed on that. At five, I was a nervous wreck of a being, dancing at First Ave nightly, being in a band, and being dumped by a girl I was sort of engaged to. Thankfully Pamela came along the next year and we started straightening eachother out.

At 10, I just completely missed the concept. So when 20 came along, the reunion committee contacted ME, and by the time I got involved, they had it all planned. So I have made a vow that for the next one (be it 25 or 30) I'll be in the lead, and they can count on me to take them on out to 50.

So that's the President story: And let it be a lesson to others - read the fine print. On the other hand, I had a GREAT time doing those morning announcements. I bought a xylophone and did little 80's synthpop melodies (I just can't get enough, Nobody's diary) to start them. Then a fake announcement, then the real ones. So every day I came up with my melody and my joke.

Fortunately, i have totally outgrown my need to express myself in such a manner. HA!!!!

The Reunion part one

This will need to be a few posts... as I process the whole 20-year highschool reunion thing. It was last night at the Depot in downtown, a nice hotel-ish space. I took the bus down (so that drinking wouldn't be an issue). I also bussed back, though mostly because a bus came along at just the right time. My feet are killing me: My fashion choice was skinny pants, fitted shirt, and italian boots, which looked the business, but did not offer support for 5 blocks of walking and a full night of standing.

Right off the bat: Saw Jeaner my oldest friend right away. We had been best friends through 8th grade, and drifted from there... culminating in a little bit of a tiff when we were in the runoff for senior class president, and I won. I saw her once 2 years after HS, and not since. We started emailing based on a tip from a mutual friend, and I was very happy to hear she was coming to the reunion!

We were buddies throughout the reunion - we both had so many people to catch up with, but we checked in frequently, and she saved me a spot at her table. She'll be coming back into town occasionally in the future, and I'll be having her over when she comes next.

The President tiff was mentioned by some of Jeaner's best buddies - who flat out said I shouldn't have won... and in the spirit of conciliation, I agreed, and said that in truth, I just ran an outsider campaign to shake things up, and that I was as surprised as anyone that I actually DID. Jeaner looked pained that it was even being brought up... that's really not any blood between us anymore!

The dynamic at the reunion was interesting: There were lots of clumps of people who weren't really cliquish, but they were re-gravitating to their high school buddies. And since I was the outsider back then, I was the butterfly going between the groups, checking in with everyone!

One more little story: I was chatting with a guy who honesty I didn't remember that well, and he mentioned that he runs Zelo, a restaurant in Downtown that I love. So I told him about my love for his place, and he said "I know - you love the Lasagne, you're mostly at lunch, sometimes alone with a book, sometimes with a friend - you're a great customer!" I asked him why he hadn't dropped by to say hi - he said he's usually busy, but next time, he'll definitely say hi! But it's interesting to know when you've been "noticed", eh?

More stories as they come to me.

And into the future!

A busy week at work, that culminated in a couple of closed door meetings where the entire shape of the project for the next few years was dramatically revised. As I drew up new timelines, I paused and said - "I suppose I should clear my calendar for next year then?" "You're not going ANYWHERE for a LOOOONG time" was the answer.

You may recall this was the 3 month vacation gig that turned into the 9 month rescue-the-project gig that is possibly turning into the 20 month design-it-all gig. Sounds a bit like what happened at the previous clients? We'll see.

Last night Bella and I got a burrito for her, and here's a snippet of the conversation:

"When I'm older, can I drive your Mini? I keep having dreams about your Mini, and me driving it. I dreamt about us racing around in a big circle, like in the CARS movie - and we were beating everybody, because your Mini is the FASTEST car out there. You could beat everybody, I just KNOW it!"

This AM, she went to play with Jenny in her PJs. It's a busy day ahead - a birthday party later in the morning, the block party this afternoon (with a moonwalk OF COURSE), and my 20 year reunion tonight. Should be a blast! More on that later, I suppose.

Date Night

Pamela got everything ready to have a bunch of mom-friends over tonight, which meant that Bella and I got to have a date night. We started with Burritos at Chipotle, which she always loves. Today her appetite wasn't so great, but that just means more for tomorrow's lunch.

After dinner, it was off to Guitar Center for us. She loves that place. Today we went straight to the Drums room. The young man gave me the sticks and acknowledged that I'm one of the "good parents" who stays with and watches his kid in the store - there are a lot of parents who let the kids run wild, which makes the store guys crazy.

Bella has a natural love for the Roland V-Drums, a very good sounding electronic kit... I may need to get one.... just for her of course (though perhaps I could play it sometimes?). I have tried to interest her in the cheaper models, the yamaha, the ion, but she will have none of it. She knows quality.

Today we also played for a while with Daraboukas, which are middle eastern drums that you can change the sound of by putting your hand up in the back of it.... You make this cool low-to-high sound. Bella thought it was cool at least. She also loves how the congas make different sounds depending on how you play them. She's going to be a drummer, no question.

One of the guitar salesguys hijacked us and tried to get Bella to try a mini Martin acoustic guitar. She was having none of it. But later she thought perhaps she'd like a pink electric guitar. Of course.

Today I couldn't get her to groove on any keyboards - she was very focused on percussion. But there's a new-ish Roland that is sort of cheap, and looks VERY easy to use while sounding good, and it looks spot on like an old Juno 106 I had back in high school. I almost got it for her own good. But I think it would need to be painted pink in any case.

We got home and the party was in full swing so we went upstairs to get ready for bed. At one point I said "it's time to brush teeth and get in your pajamas..." to which she responded while running back and forth "I can't hear what you just said, I'm doing KID STUFF!!!!"

It was a pretty good comeback, actually.

I'm not the only busy one....

Pamela had a little project she had to whip together: She did some creative table layouts for a photo spread in a magazine! They're photographing it all today, and she had spent all of yesterday pulling it all together. It's very cool work, but exhausting, I can imagine.

Last night, it was Pamela's turn to put Bella to bed. I helped with the prep work and even read the stories, while Pamela took "cuddling duties". The lights went out at 8. Pamela never came back downstairs... she was out COLD!

When I skulked out of the house this morning at 6:45 for a dentist appt (yeah, I need to replace a filling, but all else if good in Jim-MouthLand), she was still out, which means she got over 10 hours sleep... that should recharge her batteries!

And to respond to those who say I'm a busybody: I did not do any language lessons, nor did I build any robots. I did watch some TV, and I did a few sudoku, but that's not work, is it? The way I see it, I've got so much to pay attention to at work that it's the equivalent of a roaring fire. So I've got to keep that fire stoked - I can't just extinguish it at the end of the day, or it'll take to long to rekindle the next day.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Major Seventh

I work in a 2-story converted department store with nice high ceilings. It has been refitted to house a data center as well as our offices, and as a result there is a massive cooling unit parked right on the roof. I heard that they decided against the cost of rubber footings, so there are some areas in the office that have an oppressive "thummmmmmmmmm" that gets right into your bones. Fortunately, my office is not near it.

The AC unit can be heard in full roar as you approach the building from the employee parking lot. It's loud, but not unpleasant as you walk up. The other day I figured out why it's not so bad.

It's playing a Major Seventh chord - C, E, G, B (though I don't have perfect pitch, so I don't know the exact key it's in). This lush open stack of triads was a big part of my favorite 80's music - think of some of the open chords in Kajagoogoo "Hang on Now", or Prefab Sprout's "When Love Breaks Down"...

Anyway, it was a fun discovery. And now I hum up and down the chord every morning as I walk in.