3... 2... 1...

The car is packed (and I mean PACKED... not sure yet how I'm going to fit my mom in there), and soon I'll be departing to pickup the kids from summer camp and we'll be on our way. I'm going to end up a little behind the initial 9am departure goal, but hopefully I am rested enough and can still make it to Ohio before the day is out.

The final countdown

Skies aren't clear by a long shot, but the fuse has been lit and the payload bays are filling up. We launch in way too few days from now.

The girls have gone to their mom's for a couple of days and I am trying to finish getting packed up. On the way home from dropping off the girls, I couldn't help but stop to pick up the latest Taking Back Sunday album that was released yesterday. So far it rocks. But apparently, it's so popular they can't keep it in stock... if you order it from Amazon, it will take a while to ship.

On that topic, how's this for tragedy... Taking Back Sunday will be in Philadelphia on August 6th with the 2004 Warped Tour (along with other favorites such as Yellowcard and New Found Glory). Guess where I'll be on August 6th? In Philadephia. But there's just no way I can spend that whole day at a concert. Doors open at 11am and it goes on all day long. Plus they don't even set the band performance times until the morning of the show, so I likely couldn't even time it just to see TBS. ARGH!


(Oh, and contrary to popular belief and demand, I will not be covering the lunchtime dangling bacon incident. I could only do such a story justice with illustrations, and no one had a camera at the time. Sorry folks.)

Vote-ed

Today I exercised my right to exercise my right. That made sense as I was typing it, but re-reading it, not so much. As today was, here in Oklahoma, the primary election for many state and federal offices, I had to make sure I got to the polls, despite the many things I had going on today, and did so in the nick of time. Because I was so late, no one else was at the polling station when I got there (though a couple wandered in shortly thereafter), so there wasn't a line to wait in while the kidos were running around.

I also just made it to even pick up the kids on time as I had an optometrist appointment late this afternoon, where I got the bad news that I'll need slightly stronger glasses. The appointment ran quite late, and I had my pupils dilated, so I was driving around at rush hour all squinty-eyed (beyond their natural squint that is), which just didn't feel all too safe.

Close calls

Today was full of close calls. The most notable involved Shelby's dentist appointment this morning, but that will be a long-winded entry that will have to come a little later.

The most potentially tragic was a near flat-tire for the third time in the last several months. Just after I picked up the girls from summer camp, the weather was nice enough that I happened to be driving with the windows down instead of using the A/C. Subsequently I heard that dreadful metalic tap-tap-tap-tap-tap that speeds up as you accelerate when you have something stuck in your tire. I pulled over to confirm the good news, and though I didn't find a nail in the tire, I DID see that my right-rear tire was noticably less inflated than the rest, which just didn't jive with the fact that I had been to the car dealership only two days ago and I knew that they adjust the air pressure and rotated the tires. So I quickly got back in the car and headed to the nearest tire-fixer-upper place, and the timing could not have been better. Not only did I make it there ten minutes before closing (JUST like the first time I had this problem a few months ago... WTF?), but the suspect tire was REALLY low on air pressure, and when I pulled up I was starting to be able to feel the difference in the way the car drove. Talk about close calls. Had I not noticed the sound and reacted exacted when and how I did I would have certainly ended up with flat on the side of the road somewhere. More specifically, you probably could have seen me changing my flat on the side of the highway as that's where I was headed when I heard that tapping sound.

My whole life, I've had one blow-out three cars ago, and a couple of funky flat situations with a parked car, but this is unprecidented. Three about-to-be-flat tires in the last five or so months in three different tires on the same vehicle, one causing a costly full tire replacement. I'd just like to know if it's where I'm driving, how I'm driving, or if there's just more crap on the road.

In the spirit of tomorrow's primary election, that will be my platform if I ever run for office. I'll vow to fight crap-on-the-road, and will promise to cut the amount of crap-on-the-road by at least ten percent while I'm in office. Sounds more noble than some other political promises that I've heard in recent days as the hype-machine has acheived full-hype status in the run up to the election.

Just imagine if I were to find out that my near-flat-tire was somehow related to someone's campaign sign-hanging. Grrr....


Here's a little pre-election treat for you, in case you're confused about yourself: The Political Compass.

I was a little surprised by my results, which I'll not reveal here.

Shelby got a haircut today. Her bangs needed trimming and she wanted the rest shorter, too. Her hair is now barely below her ears.

I.T. guy magnetism

With the conventional IT guy, magnetism does not generally involve girls. That doesn't mean that IT guys don't get girls, it just means they have to work harder at it. Because IT guys and girls have more of that repelling magnets interaction (not generally by the choice of the IT guys I assure you).

Unfortunately, it would seem, IT guys have a different sort of magnetism. We attract non-IT people. In droves. And they want us only for our minds. I know this from empirical observation, and was reminded of it today.

You know how it goes because you've either been there, like me, or you've been opposite me, finding yourself drawn to me only for your own selfish IT interests. Be it at a computer store, the office, or a consumer electronics environment that isn't pure IT, but involves just enough IT interfacing to make your mind go ga-ga.

When an IT guy enters one of these environments, he tries to keep his mouth shut, or at least stay low-key. The moment he unzips his IT fly, he finds himself surrounded by non-IT people that think he works for Radio Shack. They have questions, he has answers.


Today I was assisting a family friend. He wanted to get a laptop for his daughter, a recent high school graduate that will be starting her full-ride scholarship at the University of Oklahoma in about a month. My friend has no IT knowledge, but has never abused his connection with me for his own IT gain. Instead of just thrusting his IT needs upon me, he kindly asked for my assistance, and I was glad to do it (perhaps I'll regret that later).

So we went to the Saturday Computer Sale to pick-up a refurb Dell laptop. We tried this once before unsuccessfully, but today we started earlier. And we knew pretty much exactly what we were looking for, which is eventually what we got.

What I found was that in the process of asking for all the right components for this laptop (i.e. hey, there's no internal modem in this thing, are you also selling PCMCIA modems?), I had a difficult time keeping low-key (it was packed, and VERY noisy), and before I knew it, not only were several people in the near vicinity asking a free question here and there (they were even tag-teaming... person #2, apparently eavesdropping, asking a follow-up question from person #1), but before long it seemed like the sales people saw that I was drawing fire and used the opportunity to take cover themselves (can't say I wouldn't have done the same myself in the reverse scenario). I think people started to "assume" that I worked there (a common IT guy problem in computer environments... the oh, you must work here rouse).

Just when I thought I had escaped, and moved on to another booth that didn't even sell laptops, what do you know, there was a familiar face. One of the people that was getting lots of free IT advice at the other booth was there at that next one, too, and with more questions!

It's not that big a deal in the sense that I don't mind too much answering the occasional IT questions. But in addition to maybe not being as qualified to do so as others might be, sometimes you come to feel like you have little choice. It's not like you can turn around and say, no entiendo tecnología de información, right? And you don't want to hold out your hand, asking for $100/hour before you can begin to advise them, lest you uphold the Nick Burns perception of IT guys. Of course, various moral codes and aspects of technical-pride keep you from giving out intentionally erroneous IT info. I guess you could do the whole fake cell phone call, oh my the servers are down thing, and take off running, but that only works so many times.

But alas this is one big digression...

Analog Superiority?

Just yesterday I was pondering the fact that my VUE was due for routine car maintenance. Not only because it was just that time, but also because I face a looming 3,400 mile road trip. So I looked down at my odometer to see that it read more than 25,000 miles, in fact I think it exceeded the 25,291 miles on the little colorform-type sticker on my windshield that was to remind me of my next service being due.

Fortunately, I had an appointment scheduled for this afternoon, after our fishing adventure. Imagine my surprise as I looked down at my odometer on the way to the Saturn dealership, and it read 694,978.

W-O-W.

For a moment, I thought we must have travelled through a worm-hole (lame pun attempt that might vaguely link back to that earlier bait story), and made really great time at that. Talk about gas mileage!

But then, annoyance set it. Is this thing really broke? Well, crap! I'm about to go on a road trip! No guy can go on a road trip without being able to brag about just how many miles had been traveled on the trip, whether it be to settle the fighting kids down ("we may have driven a thousand miles, but don't think I won't turn this car around"), or to negotiate a room from that hotel that is full because of a bird convention (don't laugh, this really happened to me... "look, I've driven nine hundred miles and I'm REALLY tired with two cranky kids in the back seat and nothing ahead of me but desert, you really don't have ANY rooms left?" Well, I got a room... they had a couple suites left).

Well, at the Saturn dealership (which we got stuck at for two hours) they informed me that a computer module had died and was replaced, and that though they could get an approximate mileage reading from a backup unit, it probably wouldn't be the exact correct mileage pre-computer breakdown.

Holy smokes, I thought. This is one of those few times that a good old fashion analog instrument would have out-performed it's digital counterpart. That's difficult for me to say, being the digital junkie that I am. Now I feel like my odometer is forever tainted. How can I possibly sign the odometer certification in good conscience when I trade-in this vehicle?

Hooked on fishing, worked for me

This morning we took advantage of the Free Fishing Clinic for kids that is offered throughout the summer by the city of Oklahoma City. While Shelby got tired of it early on, I think the girls liked the experience overall. But we didn't catch any fish (many kids didn't... I think there just too many poles in the water... there were A LOT of kids), and Shelby doesn't buy into things well without results. She's the instant gratification type, in contrast to Darby, who will persist at something that you just told her wouldn't work, until she has proven for herself that it in fact doesn't work.

I think it's great that OKC does this, especially for free, but there was one perk I wasn't expecting... free fishing poles. First time clinic attendees (the OCPD sponsor referred to the program as "Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs", which is apparently a national type of program) got to keep the fishing poles they used during the clinic. And these were brand new poles! The police officer said the poles were bought with seized drug-money, which is very cool. I'm glad the funds go back to the community, and the children in particular, via a very positive program.

The best part of the morning was watching Darby bait both hers and Shelby's hooks (Shelby about freaked at the prospect of having to touch an earth worm). The worms were longer than necessary, so the instructor told her to break it in half. Can you imaging the look on her face? She didn't really have a problem picking the thing up, but it was still alive and she was expected to tear it in half? She had trouble with that one...

All-in

Just got in from handily losing two poker games. You won't be seeing me in ESPN's coverage of the world series of poker any time soon.

Not such a bad deal afterall

I've been making more hotel arrangements and other travel plans. Turns out that while my NYC rates are pricey, I got a fairly decent deal afterall. Pretty much no matter what online travel tool I used, the rates were at or above what I will be paying.

Fry thrusting

My stupid act of the day was thrusting a freedom fry at my friend Vicki during lunch. I'm a hand-talker, for those that don't know, which can apparently be dangerous when holding a fry.

I was gabbing on about something probably meaningless, whilst holding a fry of freedom, when I made a quick-stop type of hand gesture, only to then see the fry fling in V's general direction. As though I had planned it, it went right into her food basket, though fortunately I had not yet taken a bite of it.

She promptly thanked me for the fry and ate it. Hmmm...

Icebergs

That whole you only see the 10% on the surface thing is really starting to hit me. In just over a week I'm supposed to be on the road for a very long and distant road trip, and I only tonight made hotel reservations for the main leg (across the street from the Empire State Building -- NOT CHEAP!). I'm so behind on much, though that's pretty typical for me in recent years. But even this late in the game I'm still thinking about tacking on some last minute pieces to this trip... ugh.

I'm not sure what's worse... the fact that I'm so behind on trip preparations or the fact that the week after we get back school starts already, and I'm not ready for that either. Then there's fall baseball and soccer. And let's not forget Shelby's birthday party. Where did the summer go?

One small step...

On this anniversary of mankind's first steps on the moon, I so wish we hadn't stopped taking those steps. Where could we be now had we continued?

What if Columbus returned to Spain, said hey that new world was pretty cool, here's some swell rocks we collected, but let's not bother with that place, as there's no value in going back... or staying?


Human greatness and acheivement, with regard to the exploration of our existence, can be somewhat defined by the difference between how far we are willing to look ahead in contrast to how far we are willing to go. The smaller the difference (and the elapsed time) the more magnificent that greatness appears in retrospect. Add a touch of sacrifice and that greatness becomes the stuff of legend and history.

Let's get back to making some history, darn it. We were pretty good at it once.

Higher ground

One of the gyms I workout at has been partially closed for a few months while they've added a second story to the workout room. The second story opened recently and this evening I got to experience it for the first time.

It's not like it was a conventional one-story building that had another story added to the top of it, but rather it's a large gymnasium-sized room with very high ceilings, and they stuck another floor in the middle. Difficult to describe. The second floor only covers half the room, so when on the second floor you can look down on the first. Originally, half the room was free weights, and the other half was split between weight machines and running/bicycling type machines. Now, all of the running/bicycling machines are upstairs, and the downstairs is split between free weights and weight machines.

Sorry to go into all of that otherwise useless detail, but how else do I explain that as I'm running, if I look straight ahead and zone out, I feel like I'm running on air? The treadmills are right up against the railing, and I'm thinking the new floor is like 12-15 feet from the ground floor. Add to that the people you see with your peripheral vision walking below, and you've got that air-walking feeling. Weird stuff. Or maybe it's just me.

Punch Buggy or Slug Bug?

On the east coast, we called it Punch Buggy. Apparently here in the middle non-coast, they call it Slug Bug. So which is it? And why not Slug Buggy or Punch Bug?

The guys at work have delved into this not-exactly-mature quest to be the supreme overlord of slug bugdom. I have refused to partake. But it is amusing to watch. I should bring the camcorder to lunch tomorrow.

Bloody Braves

The Braves knocked the Phillies out of first place tonight. Dammit. They were having a non-Bravish season all year long, and then what... the Phillies finally crawl into first place, which the Braves just can't have (they didn't seem to mind Florida being in first most of the first half), so they wake-up and say, "WHOA! Hold on to your horses, Phillies!" (what a lame pun) "Just where do you think you're going?"

They just can't keep playing like they were, huh? They had to win eight of their last ten and kill the Phillies' momentum. Darn it, I'm supposed to be there in a few weeks and I want to see a first place team take the field.

Serenity now! Serenity NOW!

Shelby lost another tooth yesterday. It's only a matter of time now before that adorable baby-tooth smile is completely gone. :(

Yo, Robot

The kids left for one last summer visit to their grandmother's for a few days this afternoon, so I went to see I, Robot with my dad and brother. Pretty good movie, though I think some things were a little out of place for the year 2035. I think some things will take longer to occur than 30 years from now, but others I think would have been far surpassed by then. I mean, I'm 30 years old, and when I was born I think everyone on the planet would have predicted that cars would no longer be running on fossil fuels by now -- which in the movie they give the impression that cars don't run on gas anymore -- so that just one example. And while I think robotics has come a long way, and will be quite advanced in 2035, I'm not sure it will be quite up to the level of the movie. Maybe they should have made it 2055.

Shelby's Birthday Heads-Up

Part of my busy-ness yesterday was arranging Shelby's birthday party plans, one of those fun parental duties. So this is a heads-up to local family and friends to check-out the full calendar (flip to August) to see what's going on with that. Give us an email for details if you're coming so we can put you on the list for eVites that will go out soon.

Who's the Cheesiest?

From the wedding this past evening... Shawn (left) and friend Rob (right) with their respective cheesy grins. We were pondering which was cheesiest, and thought we'd enlist some help. Please vote.

In your voting, please keep in mind that Shawn's grin is an actual candid grin, whereas Rob's grin was posed while he was teaching his son how to properly execute the cheesy grin. Ironically, Rob's son (age 5) caught Shawn in the act with his own digital camera.

Who has the cheesiest grin? Cheesy Shawn Cheesy Rob    Free polls from Pollhost.com

So... very... tired...

I don't think I got to bed until like four yesterday/this morning. Not even for a good reason. And today was a long day. I spent more than half of it preparing for meeting that never occurred.

I stupidly overlooked paying my electric bill online as I usually do, and it was due today, so I went to the nearest "authorized payment agent" after lunch today to get that taken care of. It was an interesting experience to say the least. There seemed to be way too many people in line getting their power reinstated.

Then I blew my post-work plans all to heck by working late. I was supposed to get a haircut, jog a mile, eat, shower/change, and go to a wedding.

Instead, I worked late, booked-it home, changed in a hurry, and made it to the wedding with about five (ten at most) minutes to spare.

The wedding was good, but a little long for a non-Catholic wedding. Actually, correction, the wedding itself was quite short. But there were SO many people there that everything else just seemed to take so long, and I'm pretty sure there weren't enough seats for everyone in the reception hall. It took quite a while to get through the food lines, but the food was tasty, particularly considering that I was dinnerless.

The wedding started at seven and it was after nine before I left. Still nothing compared to the all-out Catholic weddings back east, but on top of the long day on low rest, I was adequately zonked.

After the wedding I was torn between going to a friend's for a pool party or back to work to pick up where I left off. But I had to stop by my father's first, and I ended up passing out in a recliner. So I decided that home and a little sleep were probably the better destination. (sorry V!)

It's all so clear now...

This is stupid, but I dig those Roaming Gnome commercials from Travelocity. I REALLY dig them. They make me laugh out loud. Yes, yes, I know... twisted.

Well, I've learned from jobpredictor.com that being a garden gnome is in fact my ideal job, so now it all makes sense.

Oh crap, where's my hat?

Active Non-participation

That was my catch-phrase of the day. Most of said day was blah-full, with the exception of free pizza for lunch. The value of such unexpected phenomena has always been certain and immutable. If only, like Dominos, every day was truly free pizza day.

Wet fun

The girls had an absolute blast at the pool party today, contrary to my own experience. We were about fifteen minutes late due to various factors, not the least of which was getting the girls fed before the party. Imagine the look on my face when we got there and they were grilling hot dogs. I'm sure that was on the invitation somewhere. If only Shelby hadn't lost it the day she got it last week. But that's okay, the girls just didn't re-eat dinner, rather they had chips and fruit and cookies that were also available.

Darby had a completely good time. No incidents. She loves to swim, and didn't want to get out at all upon the party's conclusion. You'd think almost three hours of it would be enough.

Shelby had two incidents that provided temporary discomfort. First, right when we got there she broke the invariable "do not run" rule that all pools have. And she paid the price. Though she had been warned instantly by the lifeguards to walk, she behaved in typical Shelby style and ignored the authority figure, only to take an immediate plunged to the concrete. She received minor scrapes to the knee, ankle, elbow, and psyche. Bawling incessantly about how much it hurt until I suggested we head home to tend to her wounds instead of remaining at the pool. Didn't hear much about that the rest of the evening (though I'm sure I will in the days to come -- Shelby never lets you forget anything that ever happens to her, good or bad).

But then there was the slide incident. Shelby isn't exactly the bravest of creatures in some regards, and as she watched several younger, life-jacket-clad kids take adventurous trips down the water slides and off the diving board, she made several attempts to do the same but backed out at the last minute (when the "move it" roar of the kids behind her got bothersome enough). Until finally she tried to ease her way down the slide spidey-style, only to reach the water jet, which provided additional lubrication and forced her (apparently unexpectedly) out of the slide and into the 11-foot deep water. As she was caught off-guard by the slippery slide, she forgot to take and breath and hold it as she hit the water, so she got a nice gulp of pool water, and wasn't real happy (or calm) about it. It doesn't help that she has this unrealistic expectation that a life-jacket is this magical device that makes your head impervious to water-submergence or lack of air, no matter how many times I explained otherwise.

Despite the two incidents, I think Shelby had an overall good time, as she plodded on the rest of the evening unrelented. She bounced back and forth between the kiddie pool and the big pool, and had all but forgotten about her double run-in with gravity (until tomorrow).

Will the real NL please step forward?

I'm so glad I missed the all-star game tonight, if you can believe that. The NL forgot that they were not only playing for home field advantage in the fall classic, but that in the mid-Summer classic they already had home field advantage. Not just home field in the symbolic sense, but THE home field for their all-star starting pitcher. I mean, who would have imagined for a moment that the rocket would fail them so? Any other given year and Mr. K is in the AL thoroughly trouncing the opposition, so WTF?

I think I would have cried had I watched. More than 1000 homeruns lifetime between the NL outfielders and none to show for in this game.

A slow day at work, with another one of those one-hour lunches that really mostly involved me driving a lot, being stuck in traffic and lines, only to be back at my desk with food after that hour was done. Somewhere in there I did manage to lose a couple of games of pool.

When I picked up the kids it was last minute gift getting time. Man do I hate getting gifts for kids when I have no basis for the decision. The girls were no help as they could do nothing but argue about who was right about what gift would be better. We have a birthday pool party tomorrow that I borderline dread because, aside from the issues already noted, it involves me doing a whole lot of back and forth in order to get the kids picked up, fed, and changed in time to be back near work where the pool is. Plus I think the party is 6-9pm (guess I should get that figured out soon for sure), which has all kinds of bath/bed time implications.

Barely

It's the all-star break. And the Phils are still in first. Barely. They dropped the last two games to make me freak out, but at least time was on their side when they went on their little losing streak that will hopefully cut short by the break.

God's Country

In the early afternoon I took the kids to see Godspell Junior at the Oklahoma Children's Theatre. Those were some talented kids. And that's exactly what I'm trying to get Shelby into since she is such a character, but when I had her in acting class earlier in the year she didn't seem to take to it like I thought she would. Anyway, the kids really liked the show, and afterwards I let them play with the interactive exhibits presently on display at the City Arts Center.

By the late afternoon we were picking up where we left off on Monday, visiting the Martin Park Nature Center. The kids had a great time walking one of the nature trails, feeding the fish and turtles, and observing the prarie dog city. We'll have to do that more often. There are four trails, though we only had time for one of them (but it was the longest -- 1.25 miles). There's also a pretty cool interactive museum that the girls found fun. But there was so much that we didn't do for lack of time, so we'll be making more trips up that way.

I had planned to take them to the playground at Lake Hefner for a little as it was in between Martin Park and our evening destination, but they wanted to walk the trail there instead. We didn't walk all that far, and we did a lot of sitting, but when you count the two trail experiences of the day, I'm pretty certain we walked more than two miles today.

Our evening destiation was a friend's house for a small birthday gathering, followed by a couple hours of the game "Catch Phrase", while all the kids (6 in all) ran around playing dress-up and the like.

So it was a pretty full day all in all, meaning I should probably nap more tomorrow. I'm pretty tired.

Mud bath

At summer camp today they setup a mud pit for which the kids could tug-of-war over, but afterwards they let all of the kids play in the mud. Darby refrained, though still came home with some mud on her that someone threw on her. Shelby apparently (and in character) got pretty into it. She says she acted like a pig in the mud, which kind of makes me wish I left work to take pictures of that scene. When I picked them up this afternoon, Shelby was largely cleaned up but still had chunks of mud in her hair, and after her bath the water was the clay-red color of lake Thunderbird.

Kids say the darndest things

A very abbreviated version of the story, as I was not there...

After picking the kids up from summer camp, the ex was having a discussion with the children about the show "Fear Factor", and asked them if they would eat bugs for money, to which they replied NO. Cow brains? NO. Cow tongue? Yes said Darby, but no said Shelby. What would you eat Shelby? Cow butt! She says.

By this time they are in the drive through line for dinner and their mother asks what they would like to eat, to which Shelby loudly (as if she's capable of quietness) replies "COW BUTT!"

The drive through order taker people probably heard that and I'm sure got a good laugh out of it. If nothing else, Shelby sure is an entertainer. Now if only she could fund her college educaton with those skills, we'd be in good shape.

Note for my congresspeople

Constitutional enthusiasts like myself know that there is no specific right to privacy codified in the U.S. Constitution.

My suggestion, dear makers of laws, would be to stop worrying about constitutionalizing marriage (of any variety... heck, abolish it for everyone for all I care), and please instead get to work on a brand new constitutional amendment that would SPECIFICALLY codify our rights, at the federal level, with regard to our personal privacy. This way, there would be no further question at any level about such things, and we could all stop worrying about what is or isn't our own private business. Plus, such an ammendment would be passed by the necessary 2/3rds of congress and 3/4ths of state legislatures EASILY, making you all look like heroes. In contrast, a marriage amendment of any kind, right or wrong, will just never jump through all the hoops necessary, so please stop wasting your time and our tax dollars, and instead get some (hopefully additional) real work done. Thank you very much for hearing me out.

But in case you don't know who you are, let me clarrify...
My senators: James Inhoffe and Don Nickels
My representative: Earnest Istook


(sorry for the pseudo-political rant, but this just got me boiling, because it could EASILY happen to me, being a non-white photo-junkie)

OPP

The name of the game today was "Other People's Problems".

Yes, these were my problems, too, but OPP sounds better than MPT (my problems too). And of course there are those that would say such things as "it's about time" with regard to me solving problems. Not that I don't ever solve problems so much as my solutions generally seem less useful or less impactful to those that think less of me.

Anyway... aparently, a short while before I arrived this morning, a server of non-trivial importance went down. Most mornings, such a thing is no big deal, as the resident masters of our IT universe would swoop in, save the day, and have a smoke. But on this day, oh wary citizens of netropolis, the primary administrator of said server was in the emergency room with his own non-trivial problem, and the alternate was on vacation, not long from being out of state. All of this is aside from the essential fact that the backup system designed to trivialize such monumental failures had itself recently failed and had not yet been restored. So where did that leave us?

All alone. In the dark. Without service. With only Shawn to save us. If only we could find him.

(pause for cringe effect)

Fortunately Shawn (once found) did have help from the rest of the capable IT staff, though you'll never hear me say it was pretty. Our solution, while functional, was largely without grace, and almost completely lacking in (fault) tolerance. Though the other team members did later rectify that last problem somewhat.


And THEN, not to be outdone... Shawn had to go troubleshooting problems on other people's networks because he was loosely involved with a peripheral issue, and those in better positions to assist refused or neglected to do so. Fortunately he was able to identify a workaround, recommend a solution, and get people in trouble for "going outside the network for help".


Not bad for a day's work. Too bad I don't make the big bucks like our real men of (genius) IT.

Perhaps I spoke too soon

The Phils are down from an excellent three game lead to a one game lead and several more days to play before the all-star break. I should have kept my mouth shut and not added further tenuousness to situation.

Even worse, now they've got me standings-watching. I'd much rather peek in from time to time to check the progress of their season, rather than stare down a website, hitting refresh every ten minutes, saying "did they win yet?" when I know they're losing 10-1.

No, it really isn't that bad, but it feels like it.

A hunting we will go

I have a wedding to go to next week. My pal Berto came up with a cool idea for a previous wedding a couple of years ago, of putting together a "Can O' Goods" as the wedding present. The idea is you go to the super-discount retail chain of your choice, pick up a 30-gallon platic trash can, fill it up with mostly useful stuff, and that's your multi-purpose gift. Five of us chipped in some cash, and today a couple of us went to Walmart and filled up a can quite nicely. We found some REALLY neat stuff to put in there (switch-blade potato peeler), along with a few silly things here and there ("Charmin to Go", bubble wrap [hereby known as "fun in a bag"]), and some practical things as well (asprin for the big night, no excuses K!). Whether or not the bride and groom appreciate our efforts, we sure had a lot of fun hunting down cool stuff to load up the can. They should in the very least have fun going through the thing, or perhaps in taking it back and exchanging everything for the cash...

Bloody

Got a call from Shelby's school today. She had a nose bleed. Turns out it was rather significant, as when I picked her up her shirt was bloodier than expected. So after dinner we took a trip to my dad's. He's a better stain fighter than myself, and has much more experience with clothing de-bloodification (thanks to my little brother's various sporting activities). By the time we left there, you wouldn't think it had ever been bled upon.


Shelby Side Note: She got second place in a talent show at school today for doing some song and dance (sorry, don't remember the song).

Next time check the schedule

I had intended to take the girls to Martin Park/Nature Center in far NW OKC this afternoon, only to learn at the non-open gates that it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Drat. Guess we should have done that Saturday as originally conceived and then saw Spiderman 2 today with my dad.

We ended up flying kites and playing at another park instead. Took them for ice cream at the Stone Cold Creamery afterwards since they were pretty good and for being out in the heat so much today.

Bought Darby a basketball as she wants to start playing next school year. I figure since my little brother plays and has a goal, he can teach her a thing or two.

Go Phils!

Holy cow. It's been a little more than a week since I've checked the standings. Looks like the Phillies have (at long last) climbed their way into first place! Sure it helps that the Marlins took a big dip, but I'm takin' it. Now if they can hold onto it going into the All-Star break, maybe they can keep the momentum going after the break (and let's just hope the Marlins have flat run out of steam).

Happy 228th

It was a nice day of cooking out and swimming at a family friend's in the country, followed by shooting off of the fireworks that everyone chipped in. I like it better that way in contrast to the very large crowds at the big downtown shows, which is ironic coming from a city boy. But our friends have a nice hilltop piece of land in Luther, OK, which is great because we can see for many miles around and therefore also got to see the big fireworks displays of other small towns around us.

I think we must have swam for four hours. I had to pry the kids out of the pool. I also spent a good hour in the jacuzzi, myself. I nearly needed prying away from that. It was 103 degrees in the jacuzzi and the massager was on full blast. You wouldn't think I'd find it that comfortable considering how hot it got out there this afternoon, but this was after dinner, so it was cooling down quite nicely and we had just enough clouds to keep the sun around only indirectly.

Couldn't have really asked for a better day. That kind of freedom is exactly what makes America so great. Happy Birthday USA. I hope we did you justice in our relaxing celebration.




(Humble Side Ponderance: Shouldn't it be happy 220th? I mean, sure, we declared independence in 1776, but the war started in 1775, ended in 1783, and was made "official" in 1784 with the Treaty of Paris. I've always wondered why we used 1776 to mark Independece Day when, while we were certainly fighting for it, we weren't quite independent yet. Seems like it might be more accurate to celebrate July 4th as "Declaration Day", and then maybe January 14th, 1784 can be celebrated as Independence Day. Well, I guess that would be stupid, who would want to do fireworks in January?)

After A LOT of rain lately, I finally got a chance to do A LOT of mowing. Not that it was fun or anything.

Took the kids to see Spiderman 2 after I picked them up from their mother's. VERY good stuff. Lots of gut-wrenching in various directions. I give it eight legs up. I was actually surprised though that very little of the excellent soundtrack was even in the movie. Though I realize there's the "music from or inspired by" disclaimer on the CD.

Afterwards we were going to go to a ballgame and catch the fireworks afterwards, but it was very near gametime when we got out of the movie and we hadn't even eaten dinner yet. So instead we had a lengthy visit at dad's since they got back from 2 weeks in Arizona today. We had lots of catching up to do and vacation photos to look at. Found out that I have a new cousin that was born six weeks ago, and I'm very appreciative of the family keeping us all in the know about it. We do all have email these days. :)

Bummer

I didn't know him (clipping courtesy my high school alumni newsletter), but it was kinda cool to see him play and say that we roamed the same halls back in the day. And since he was captain of the football team and I was in the band, we shared a stadium on Friday nights as well. For the unfamiliar, he became famous for his "Music City Miracle" pass a few years back. I think he set a club record of some kind (receptions by a TE?) last season.

4 hour swim

I mean playing in the pool. I mean playing pool. At Slick Willie's in OKC.

I lost track of exactly how many games we played, but I think I participated in something like 12. Of my approximately five wins, only one was a quality win, meaning I earned it. The rest were backdoor wins, meaning it was thanks to the screw-up of others.

It was good fun, but wasn't without its weird moments, thanks to the -- per the waitress -- swinger's club that was also making use of the pool hall. I saw some things that I just didn't need to see.

Finally better

Shelby woke up without a fever this morning. She got to go on her field trip. Hopefully that's all over with, though we're still awaiting some test results, I believe.



I CANNOT believe it's July already.