Thursday - What's on tap

Today I was happy to wake up. (In FL I'm happy to wake up everyday) I'm looking forward to spending the evening hanging out with my wife, Jen. We'll do our usual Thursday night routine. Maybe order a pizza and watch OC and then the Apprentice. Being a person who can't stand reality TV, I don't know why I like The Apprentice. I think its fun to sit back and analyze each teams move and to guess how I'd handle the situation. Of course I always think I could be a better project manager. I have the sales experience from working at Sears (don't laugh selling computers at Sears is tough work with Best Buy across the street) and I have the managerial experience from Jenny-O. And how hard could it be to be a PM on the Apprentice after experiencing the chaotic situations I experienced at Jennie-O. In fact one of my favorite lines at Jennie-O was "We're managing chaos, not people". Maybe at a later time I'll blog about some of those experiences, but for some reason I don't think J-O would be too happy with me.

Oh and let me not forget an important event happening today. I'm hoping to smack some golf balls around. You know the after 3 o’clock special for $20 with a cart. And maybe spot a few more gators that seem to rule the waters on the course. hee haw!!

Transparent Background

I thought some of these pics were cool so if you're bored take a look.

http://files.macbidouille.com/transparent/

Response to Jay's comment regarding the T-Wolves

Jay said in an earlier post...
This has nothing to do with the granola squirrel, but I wanted to come back and ask how the T-Wolves are doing this year? They have Troy Hudson don't they, and I seem to remember someone telling me that "if the t-wolves have a healthy T-Hud they would win the championship." What's changed?

To get most of you up to speed, last year during the Conference Championship the T-Wolves didn't have a true point guard. Troy Hudson and Sam Cassel were out with injuries and we tumbled to the Lakers. During this time, after every loss, I'd come to work and grip about the T-Wolves at lunch time. My main point would be that if the T-Wolves had a healthy Troy Hudson we'd win the championship. Well most agreed with me except this New Jersey loven' Lacrosse playen cast out, Jay. He'd ramble on about T-Hud and how he wouldn't make a difference to the team. In turn I'd be spouting my mouth off about how he didn’t have a clue.

If you've made it this far then you really need to read Jay's Blog entry from last year regarding this situation. I guarantee you'll laugh.

Anyway, those of you who keep tabs on the T-Wolves know that they are sucking cow dung this year. What happened? Well I don't know, it's probably a combination of things, age, ego's, injuries, selfish-ness, T-Huds rap career (I hear that's taking off big time). Or better yet, maybe Spreewell is just tired from working so many jobs to feed his family. Who knows but it hasn't been a fun year to be a T-Wolves fan. It's a good thing I'm in Florida or I'd probably be dead from a heart attack from screaming at them.

And as for Jay's comment above, well you were right it doesn't matter if we have T-Hud or not.

I'm a cow now

I got home and my wife said I reminder her of a cow. Maybe it's a sign I need to lose weight.

Joel's Quest

An email sent earlier from Joel - So I’m sure of it this time. Someone is stealing money out of my office drawer. I thought it happened once before, but then considered I might have forgot that I spent it. This time I’m sure. If you see somebody walking around with about $5 in quarters in there pocket, scream my name, I’m throw my cpu over my shoulder and come running, in the mean time, you grab the nearest three hole punch and shove it up their…

Can someone help Joel out? I told him it was probably that squirrel that stole Jen's granola bar.

Oliver responded by telling Joel to lock his desk, but I objected because then I'd be locked out of the animal cracker stash.

Yes these are the issues we face here at work.

Granola Bar Stealing Squirrel

Jen and I went golfing today and we brought along some food. On one of the holes Jen went to the bathroom and I was on the green putting. When I was about to putt I hear this yelling and I look over and Jen is running after a squirrel. I'm like "what the heck is going on?" Turns out that while we had left the cart a squirrel dug into our lunch bag and stole a granola bar. Kind of funny. Here's a pic of the squirrel that got away with Jens granola bar.

Check The Ticket Next Time

Yesterday we went to a Blue Jays game against the Philly's. While heading to the game I get a call letting me know that the directions to the stadium were wrong. Why were they wrong? Well Pardeep didn't check the ticket to see who the home team was. Neither of us new the way to the stadium and we were driving around searching for a stadium that could've been a hour away for all we knew. So now I'm mad at myself for not checking the ticket and I'm also stuck in all the traffic trying to get to Clearwater Beach. After about 15 minutes Pardeep calls back and gives me some directions. We finally found it and by the time we got to our seat the game was in the bottom of the fourth inning. But it was still fun to get a hot dog and ice cream. One positive is that we found a parking spot a block from the stadium while the others stuggled to find parking and they ended up parking about a mile away.

So to all, make sure you check your ticket and know who the home team is before accepting directions.

Here's some pics from the game.
Crazy Joel




The Clearwater OLDP's - Pardeep, Jen, and Joel




The View From Our Seats

Terri Schiavo - the media's lopsided account

I don't know about the rest of the nation, but living next to St. Petersburg the Terry Schiavo story is front, center, and back of every news paper and it's the top story every night on TV. There are two sides to every story and for obvious reasons this is a case where the media has picked the parents side. So most of the news that comes out somehow mentions from a source, which sides with the family, that there are signs that she's aware and that's she's alive. Click me for an explanation of her condition Then there's talk that the husband is greedy and that he wants the settlement money she was awarded. Well I found an interesting article today. Click here to read

I'll some it up quick if you don't want to read the entire thing.
- The parents and Michael got along at one time and they took care of Terry together, they even encourage Michael to date other women (which they later claim was an attempt to get custody of Terry)
- The parents had to file bankruptcy because of some bad investments
- The parents claim Michael said he'll give money to the family if he wins a settlement
- The settlement is way less then expected and Michael isn't going to give up any money
- The parents get cheesed off about not receiving any money from the settlement and confront Michael about the money and the relationship goes sour

Now Michael is accused of being greedy and he wants the money to Terry's estate, well if the facts of this article are true there is only $50,000 left in the estate. Hardly worth the fight. Michael has also offered to donate the money to charity if the parents would go along with removing the feeding tube. To sum this post up here's a paragraph from the article.

Court guardians concluded that Terri was cared for extremely well, but her condition still led to numerous complications and hospitalizations. She suffered from bile stones and kidney stones, according to court papers, and had to have her gallbladder removed. She has ''drop foot,'' where her foot twists downward, and the ensuing pressure resulted in the amputation of her left little toe. She frequently developed urinary tract infections, diarrhea and vaginitis. Several cysts were removed from her neck. Several times, her feeding tube got infected.

You make the call, would you want to live like this? If not then get a lawyer and document it.

This post got way to long. I apologize.

User Interfaces

I need to step back and take a breath. I'm currently using a tool we use to write build processes. It has one of the worst user interfaces ever! Being a programmer myself I know it can be a pain in the arse to develop an easy to use interface, especially when you don't have direct contact with your end user. But there are some basic rules to follow and this software doesn't even come close. I had a one line email ready to send to the company's support department that read "Worst User Interface Ever" but I chickened out at the last minute. I figured they'd have my email and I didn't want them responding to my boss or something. So to all the developers of Solumina you should really read this book! Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows.

Golfen With The Gators

The typical golf course has a varity of hazards, sand, water, OB, etc. Well here in Florida there's an added hazard.




I also got Jen to cadie for me. I'm such a nice guy.

Sunny and 87

Yeah baby. After a dreary morning, it's great out and it's time to get my game on. I'm taking some floating holiday and I'm heading to the course to shoot a round of golf. After 3 that is. Rates go down to $20 with a cart.

Repair the repairable

Jen and I got a totaled truck last December and had her brother fix the body damage. The truck cost us $9000 after taxes and about $2000 more for the repairs. It was a pretty good deal for a top of the line 2000 F-150 with low miles. I love the power of the 5.4L motor even though I paid $50 to fill the tank on Sunday (ouch). Anyway, the truck had its first hiccup on Friday. The engine started shaking and the truck had lost some power. (Puddle jumping is not a good idea)

After the Kennedy Transmission guy tried to bend me over last December, telling me my trany was out on my Explorer and it would cost $2000 to fix it, but not to worry cuz he'd give me $300 dollars for it. Well after having my trany oil and filter changed the Explorer ran just fine.

So now I got it in my head that I'm done with these ma pa shops until I can find a trusted mechanic so I brought it in to the local Ford dealer. I figured it was a bad spark plug or the timing was off a little. After waiting a few minutes the guy came back to give me the assessment. First he said a coil was bad, and that fouled a spark plug. Then he gave me some mumbo jumbo about how it needed the injectors cleaned. I'm like OK. And BAM $525 LATER I'M ON THE ROAD AGAIN. hmmmm I maybe should've thought about that a little more before I gave the go ahead. But the truck is running better then it has since I got it.

Well on an upbeat note, the dealer did have 4 brand spanken new Ford GT's ($155,000 a piece) in the show room. I'm going to get some pics of them and I'll post them later. They also had a lot of 2005 Mustangs, some those were Saleens so that was cool.

Rain Rain Rain

It's been raining all week. Up to this point I've been really lucky with the weather down here. It's been chilly some days but for the most part it hasn't rained that much. A few more days of this weather and I'll be swimming to work.

On a side note: The T-Wolves should lose out the rest of the season to get a high draft pick because even if we make the playoffs we don't stand a chance at winning one game against the Spurs. Man they suck!!!!

Happy B-Day Mom

Today would've been my moms 70th B-Day. I have many memories of my mom and I thought I'd share one that is kind of funny. She was a huge cheerleader at any event us kids played at, even if it was rec softball she'd be out whistling her trademark whistle that was so loud it would probably pop an ear-drum if you sat to close to her. Anyway, way back when I used to wrestle she went to one of my events. (She didn’t miss many events) Well if you were on my team she was going to root for you. So when I was waiting for my match another teammate was wrestling. My mom took interest and got right up to the mat and started screaming and whistling. It was a close match but our guy, Matt, was taken down. While he was struggling to get up he said he heard the yelling and looked over to see what it was and before he new it the ref slapped his hand on the mat and Matt was pinned. Afterward he told me the story and I really don't think he was making excuses, I think he was shocked at my mom cheering for him. I got the biggest laugh out of it.

So I just like to say, thanks for cheering for us all these years mom. Even if I was embarrassed sometimes I appreciated it. And I'd just like to say all us kids miss you.

Fart Fan

I'm back in FL after my Baltimore excursion. Besides the training sucking ass, everything else was good. The only complaint I have with the hotel was the lack of a fart fan. This was a fairly new hotel we stayed at and I just don't understand why a fart fan wasn't included. The last thing I want to do is smell a super digger 2 hours after the fact. Or worse yet, smell someone elses digger. Closing the door only makes the smell last longer. So this is a note I'd like to pass on to all hotel builders: Include a fart fan in your design.

Whoops, that was reverse

Driving to lunch today we came across a Mustang that was cruising through traffic. Seeing this I got some of my younger juices flowing I and caught up to him at a traffic light and pulled along side of him. Trying to get his attention I put the car into neutral and hammered on the gas. Instead of revving the engine, the car started squawking the tires... in reverse. I failed to realize that I put the car into reverse instead of neutral. I was really lucky because there were no cars behind me but there was a line of cars in the lane next to me. Talk about being embarrassed, this was a major blow to my ego. I think this may have been a message from some greater power letting me know that I'm thirty and it's time to grow up.

Missing FL

I'm confused right now. See I'm a huge gamer but I don't get to game that much because the wife gets really upset if I game to much. So these trips turn into a big gaming fest for me. I don't really care that I'm going to the hotel after class to game instead of visiting the sites or trying to network with fellow co-workers out here. Maybe the 5 degree weather out here has something to do with it. Or the wife must have put something in my water before I left. I miss FL but I'm missing my wife more.

Monopoly Anyone

Ever play Monopoly? If so try it on the X-Box. We played last night until 2:30am. (Getting up for class was tough, not to mention we were an hour late) Anyway, we thought the rules of Monopoly were all about chance so we wanted to mix some strategy into the game. So we took advantage of the bidding feature that the X-Box version has and when one of us would land on a property we'd select the option to put it up for auction. So now the game has chance and major resource management built in. You also need to try and guess what your opponents max price on a property is and bid him up to that price while risking biting the bullet yourself. Also, you need to decide how you're going to block your opponent while saving enough money to collect a set of properties yourself. It's fun stuff and maybe I'll get into it in more detail at a different time because it's time to find some supper.

Parking Ticket

I got a parking ticket with my car rental today. Should I pay it or not? I can see it now, some day I'll come back to Baltimore and get arrested for not paying. It's a chance worth taking.

Baltimore Excursion

Everything was going great yesterday until it was time to board my connecting flight. grrrr I've never had to fly when there's a connecting flight, but in this case I had no choice. I even spent an extra $50 to upgrade to first class. (First class rules) So I'm in Detroit and the girl gets on the intercom. "There repairing the plane so it will be just a couple minutes." Then an hour later she said they were ready but give them a minute to fill out some paperwork. Well apparently they did something wrong on the paperwork because someone grounded the plane because of faulty paperwork, go figure. So our flight was canceled and I had to wait for a future flight. The short of it, I got to Baltimore at 7:30 instead of 3:00.

No biggie though. We had a blast out on the town. Well actually our GPS unit went out and we ended up driving around until we found a hick bar out in the sticks. There were 4 people there and Josh tried to pick up the waitress. Funny stuff cuz the waitress wasn't having it. After bar closing, on the way home we stopped by a 7-11 and this black woman was working behind the counter. She was the funniest 7-11 employee I've ever seen. She was so off the wall loud and whooping it up, I've never heard so many F-Bombs in my life. Josh got in the store a little late and he heard this and put his hands up like "What the hey?" She replied in a full out fun yell "White boy get you hands down, some cop will stop by and see I'm black and think I'm robbing you" It was hilarious.

Do Not Feed Or What???????

Do I even dare ask this question.

First Wild Gator Sighting

This is from a pond near our condo. Jen and I went for a walk to take a picture of a sign, which will be posted after this, and we saw our first aligator in the wild. When I ran up to the shore to take this pictures a flock of bird flew out from behind some bushes and scared the crap out of me. I thought another aligator was attacking me for a split second.

After Friends

TV after Friends just isn't the same. Kicking back, ordering pizza and watching the Thursday night lineup was the best night of the week for TV. I never really watched anything else. I remember watching the first episode, I got off from work after a 14 hour day and I had close to 50 hours in for the week at Jennie-O. Friends ushered in a new era in my life, no more High School, no more free food, no more cruising First Street for girls, and no more hanging out with the old high school buddies. Nothing was routine from then on except for Friends. I never would've guessed that after Friends was done I would've worked my knees into the ground at Jennie-O, I'd finished college, I'd be married, and worst of all I'd be a 100lbs heavier then when I graduated from high school. With Friends over another era in my life is over and now with kids just around the corner life is going to get really crazy. It's time to sit back and smell the roses and stop time from flying by.

Spring Training

The Yankees and Blue Jays play with-in 30 minutes of here.

The Twins are about 1.5 hours from here.

I’m going to try and catch all three before the end of spring training. And no they don't pay me too much to work here. It's just a once in a life-time opportunity since the wife would never let me move down here.

Baltimore here I come

One of the best parts of being in the EDLP program at Lockheed is the traveling for training courses and the TDC events. I haven't been out of Minnesota much so traveling is a blast for me. Next week I'll be in Baltimore for a Systems Engineering course. Now normally I'd be super stoked to travel, but I just realized that it's only getting into the 40's in Baltimore. I'm going to freeze my butt off. I've been super spoiled with this 70 degree weather here in FL. But of all cities on the East Coast that I've been to, Baltimore is by far my favorite.