Villenke

U23D

2008-02-01T21:09:00.001-05:00

Single Dad

2007-11-13T20:33:00.001-05:00

Starting today at 6:30pm I became a single dad.

The Instakater headed off to Cancun (with a night in Detroit first) at that time.

Naturally, CJ is fighting a cough and a very slight ear infection, so she can be unexpectedly crabby and has not had a solid BM in at least a week.

Wish me luck.

China Part IV

2007-11-09T20:49:00.000-05:00

Our flight to Yangshuo was uneventful and once we arrived Karl and I were quite unhappy to find that the temperature was 33C. The end of September is still quite hot in that part of the world. We are talking sweating while doing nothing hot. Thankfully, the van that we took from the airport to our hotel was very air-conditioned and very large (for China).

By this point my cold was getting to the point where I had to blow my nose every other minute. Once we settled into our rooms...sidetrack... we opted for the rooms without air-conditioning although Karl and I thought hard about it. We did have ceiling fans and mosquito nets over the beds so it was real safari life... end sidetrack... we went down to the hotel gazebo for drinks and dinner. As it turns out we never made it out of the gazebo. After many many beers and a very nice dinner we once again got into a political/economic discussion. Once again Lynn and I started off together, but quickly diverged. Then it turned into 3 on 1 for the next 3 hours. I felt bad for Lynn but there was nothing mean spirited about it.

Yangshuo has some of the most interesting "mountains" that I have ever seen. They are called Karst and are limestone projections that are nearly completely individual and separate from each other. Paul lead us out on a walk/hike thru the area. We got to see some very poor Chinese people and got a real feel for how the people in China outside of the big cities live. Our hike took us thru actual Chinese rice patties, we saw water buffaloes, and a super old Chinese man sitting in a pass between two Karst mountains smoking down on something.

One of the best parts of the trip came near the end of this hike. We came to this river that had a very small damn. While we were not very confident in the cleanliness of the river we still got in for some swimming and cooling down. I found that if you sat on the damn just right then the water would pour over you shoulders and down your back and act as a cool and refreshing message. I think we spent nearly an hour in the river, before hiking back to the hotel.

Upon on return Karl and I had a beer and a coke, and then Paul ordered a banana shake for all of us. After a shower we got a taxi to downtown Yangshuo. There we had dinner, bought gifts (and really tested Paul's haggling skills again), had many beers and generally finished out the Yangshou experience.

The next day we played it cool again before catching the van back to the airport. Once we were 40 minutes out of the hotel we realized that one of us had forgotten our passport. After a 20 minute return, during which someone from the hotel drove to meet us, we were back on our way to the airport. It seemed to take forever, at least to me. The flight to Beijing was a rare one-stop trip. So we flew for about 90 minutes and then landed again before continuing on to Beijing. We didn't do all that much once we got back to Beijing. After getting back to the hotel (the same one from the start of the trip) we went out for dinner (and beers, of course). After eating dinner in a small, hot, smokey restaurant where the food was great we found a "bar" that was staffed by the original Chinese beatnik.

Paul and Karl rode with me to the airport and it was sad to leave but I was glad to be getting back to Kate and Charlotte. Once I got to Japan I was able to catch most of the Japanese Grand Prix (the third different time I have been able to see an F1 race in the country that it was being run in) and chatted with a British guy who was living in Singapore.

On my flight back to Detroit I was able to sleep quite well and had a nice little conversation with a guy who has been working in Shanghai for years.

That is the short four-part version of my Chinese experience.

Politics Update

2007-10-17T22:16:00.000-04:00

Just an update on the Politics Poll that Roland posted back on 4 November 2005.

Seems I still come up Democrat.

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(33% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat (33e/63s)

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

China Part III

2007-10-14T18:15:00.000-04:00

After two days of early starts we got a bit of a break on the first morning in Xi'an. The plan was to take in the terracotta warriors. As with everything in China they are not really in Xi'an but about 70km away. Instead of taking a rented car we went with the more tourist bus. It was slower but less expensive (which really isn't an issue in China) but the really nice thing was that we all had leg room to relax.

The terracotta warriors were built about 2200 years ago and lost shortly thereafter. They were discovered by some peasents digging a well in 1974. Since then they have built some impressive building around the dig sites but have not really unearthed all that many of the over 6000 warriors. Sure the major part of the work is putting the pieces of the warriors back together (they were broken when an invading army trashed it shortly after they were sealed in.)

Karl and I took a break around lunch for some beers (a re-creation of the Forbidden City beer-amid) and Paul and Lynn joined us shortly after. Once we were done Karl had to return his audio tour so Paul went with him. Lynn and I did not see them again until we were back to the parking lot. At that point Paul and acquired us a car for the ride home and some beers.

On the ride home we negotiated they cabby to be our rented man for our ride out the Hua Shan (one of the 5 sacred Taoist mountains). We walked out to the Muslim district where we had a great dinner (very spicy) and then did a bit of haggling for goods. Paul is quite good at this by now and was able to get some great deals for us.

Since the mountain was to be another "active" day we had to get an early start. I think we met the cabby at 8am for our 2 hour drive. Paul insisted that we take the most demanding way up the mountain (which we all later appreciated) which was called the "soldier's way". This path was the shortest way up the mountain which also means that it is the steepest. There were two sections of the climb that involved us going up a "staircase" which was near vertical with a large loop chain to help pull yourself up.

It took us a mere two hours to get to the top and meet up with all of the tourists that had taken the gondola up (10 minute ride). Once up there we had a bit of lunch (a couple of bananas and some beer) and then walked around the peaks. Just as we started our descent (down the longer path) it began to sprinkle. The 1st part of the descent was nearly as steep and any part of the "soldier's way" but after the first 30minutes it became much easier and was a pleasant walk back to the parking lot. We had a nice dinner at the town at the bottom and then had our man drive us back into town.

We had little to do the next day before we got on our plane to Yangshou so we took it nice and easy.

China Part II

2007-10-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

So we felt off on the first night.

Due in part to the disastrous bike adventure the others had on the day I arrived Karl had demanded that days begin earlier so that more could be done. So we woke up at 6:30am the next day (that's right 4 hours of sleep on top of many beers and a trans-pacific flight) to catch our rented man and car (that's something you can do in China) that was to take us out to the Great Wall.

I got put into the front seat for the drive out there. As my first real experience with Chinese driving this was interesting. The speed was not really the thing... it was more the complete lack of regard for lanes and traffic control. This applies to all driving in China. The horn lets people know you are muscling your way in, you intend to pass, you are passing, you would like to pass, or that you would like people to get a move on. You can pass in the right lane, the left lane, the right shoulder, the left shoulder, across the middle so you are heading into traffic. You stop and red lights, but you can make a right hand turn from the left lane, you never stop at an intersection that does not have a traffic light, and while you don't hit pedestrians, you do get as close as you can. As Paul said, "In China there are millions driving, but they all have been driving for only two years. It is a country of 17 year olds."

The Great Wall is called the Long Wall in China. Long Wall is probably a better name for it now. The portion that we walked/climbed was nice in places but quite run down in others. The most striking thing is that the wall is built on top of a mountain ridge and is at the end of a mountain range. So as a barbarian you would have to get all the way thru many mountains and then at the end scale a wall. We walked about 10km or 30 towers. We were on the wall for nearly 6 hours. The other amazing thing is that at every tower there we locals selling water, cola, and beer. Which usually sounded like watercolabeer.

When we finished the wall our man drove us back (2.5hour drive) to Beijing. We figured that it was our duty to have Peking Duck while in Beijing (nee Peking) so after a shower (each) we headed back out. We ended up at the swankiest place we would eat at the whole trip (our bill came to 481RMB) and had too much food to finish, but sadly not as much duck as we would have enjoyed. Naturally, we finished with some beer in a local bar.

The next day we were to catch our flight to Xi'an (say it like she ann) but we had enough time to take in the Forbidden City. Before you can enter the City you must pass thru the main gate with the large portrait of Mao (this is where he proclaimed the PRC in 1949). They are working very hard to get everything repainted and polished up before the Olympic games in '08. And it is a good thing too because a lot of the painted wood is quite faded and many things are quite discolored due to the pollution. (China has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.) The FC is very nice and to make it a bit nicer we pulled into a cafe and had a couple of beers and constructed a (what may be considered the FC's first) beer-amid (a beer pyramid).

After we left the Forbidden City we found a little hole in the wall restuarant (a place I would have never have gone into) and had meat filled dough balls and dumplings. After 5 plates of food and 4 beers we walked out of there with 30RMB less in our pocket. That makes $4 for 4 people for lunch.

We caught a cab back to the hotel and then off to the airport. When we got to Xi'an we caught a cab to the hostel. This must have been the worst cab in the city because I believe they were pumping the exhaust directly into the passenger compartment. Naturally we headed out after we got there for some beers.

More to come.

China, Part I

2007-10-03T18:44:00.000-04:00

As Roland said, "Only Henry can go to China." So as a public service I will attempt to relate part of the history of our trip to China.

As the story starts I catch a flight out of GR for Detroit. Somehow they have a bunch of planes in GR that could not get into Detroit earlier due to weather. So they have me board an earlier flight to help me out. The funny part is that we don't board thru a jetway but thru the rear door of the plane.

Then while I am sitting in Detroit I look on my boarding pass for my flight from D-town to Tokyo. At the bottom it says "Visa Required." Now I kinda freaked out because, while I do have a Visa for China, I never even thought about needed a Visa for Japan. Would I get to Tokyo and then be denied access to my flight to China because I cannot walk thru the airport? Maybe foolishly I decided to go ahead and board the plane and take my chances.

The flight was a mere 13 hours, and our great circle path took us over Hudson Bay and northern Alaska before coming down the coast of Russia and then over Japan. Thankfully, on my arrival in Japan I was granted access to their airport and allowed to get onto my flight to China. Surprisingly, that flight is over 3 hours (not allowed to fly over North Korea).

My first impression on China is that labor is so cheap that they have people doing all kinds of jobs that would never happen in a developed country. They had four guys organizing the bags at the baggage carousel. I couldn't believe how easy it was to pass thru customs... much easier than the US.

In the Lonely Planet they say that the best thing to do to avoid jet lag is to get plenty of water (not alcohol) and to get to bed at the appropriate local time. So naturally, the four of us (Paul, Karl, Lynn and I) went directly out to the bars, had many beers, and didn't get to bed until 2am.

By the way, Tsingtao is pronounced ching-dow.

Stay posted for Part II.

China

2007-09-13T19:59:00.001-04:00

There has been some discussion in the blog-tet about this whole China thing. You would think that it had come out of nowhere, but in actuality this has been going on now for about four months. While I was at the job in Columbus in mentioned that I would still like to go to China and visit Paul. In a magical moment of love she said that it would be OK if I went. So I fired an email off to my friend Karl (strangely, also with a K but not Ann's). He mentioned that he and Paul (the one in China) had been looking into putting together a trip to China.

As we worked out the plans it seemed like the best time would be before the crazy Chinese holidays in early October. So it will be Karl, me, and Paul's sister heading off to Red China. I leave on the 21st and arrive in China around 10pm on the 22nd. Yep, that is a solid 34hrs of travel to get to China. (on the other hand when I fly home I will leave Tokyo and arrive in Detroit and hour BEFORE I left...the date line is a crazy thing.)

So, while in China I will be completely unable to blog (China is scared of our freedom of speech) but I will be sure to have plenty to report when I get back.

Also, I was compliment earlier for not mentioning the losses that UoM has suffered. Sure, I don't want Michigan to beat Ohio State, but when it comes down to it their losses have made the whole Big Ten look bad and that is more important at this point in the session then who is winning and who is losing.

Windows

2007-09-08T13:38:00.000-04:00

No, this has nothing to do with Microsoft.

Kate and I have decided to replace the windows in our house.

We had one guy come in and give us a quote for doing everything. For 12 windows it would be something like $8500. Naturally, I totally blanched at that number. Our neighbor, who is president of a remodeling company, said that you should not pay anything more than $350 an opening (a total of about $4200).

After doing a bit of research online I found that the Reliabilt windows from Lowe's are some of the best windows out there for a good price. But since I have 4 openings upstairs I decided to have someone who contracts thru Lowe's do those, while I and some of my friends will put in the 8 windows downstairs. I figure this should cost be about $3400 total. So I save $5000 over the one quote I got and about $800 over what I was told I should pay, but I am sure I could never find.

The windows will not be delivered until after I get back from China, but that is well before winter actually sets in.

If that's what you're into

2007-09-06T20:46:00.000-04:00

While the title is FotC there is no FotC content herein. I will mention though, before we get started, that I am pleased to have stirred up the FotC pot among not only the Blog-tet but also among those whom we vacationed with three weeks ago.

Since we last spoke we have taken on some projects around here.

#1 Kate and I briefly considered moving and started looking at houses and such. Then we realized that the housing market would be terrible for us right now, we don't really have the money (equity) to make it work without dipping into our savings a bit more than we would like, and that we are quite comfortable here for now. It was simply exciting to think about moving.

#2 Since we were thinking about moving we put together a list of things we need to do around the house to get it ready to be sold.

#2a Repaired the fence in the backyard that had started to fall apart in a couple of places. Done.
#2b Bring in some plaster guys to look at the damaged portion of our living room ceiling. Done (not the work part though).
#2c Patch the ruined valley on the front of our house. Done.
#2d Tie up some loose ends in the basement remodeling project. In progress.
#2e Replace the windows. In the research phase.
#2f Trim the bushes and trees around the house.

#3 Get Kate's car in for the 60k service. This lead me to replacing the front brakes and spark plugs.

While this has taken up the majority of our time, we have also found time to watch some movies and TV

Obviously, we have also spent a lot of time simply taking care of Charlotte.

What is quickly becoming the FOTC blog

2007-08-20T18:44:00.001-04:00

Business Time!

2007-08-12T11:03:00.001-04:00

Vacation 2

2007-08-12T08:22:00.000-04:00

Am I really on vacation again already? I would appear so.

We drove up to Sutton's Bay yesterday. The Digennero's and us both were planning on leaving (separetly) around 1pm so that we could have extra time in case the babies needed tending to and to stop for dinner. In a completely unplanned manner we ended up being only 3 miles apart on the road when we were north of Big Rapids. We must have pulled onto the highway very nearly right in front of them.

We stopped for dinner at North Peak. I believe that it is part of the same chain as Grand Rapids Brewing Co. because the menu was quite similar. We all had a nice dinner and a beer (save the babies).

The cabin is qutie nice. Lots of room, a great view of the bay, a nice cable modem with wireless, and about 13 gallons of homebrew.

Milwaukee

2007-08-06T21:37:00.000-04:00

I joined the annual sailing trip to Milwaukee this year. For many years now Chip and his buddies have been sailing from Muskegon to Milwaukee for a weekend of sailing, drinking, and companionship (not in the whore type way).

We left on Thursday night so that we could get there earlier. With a 9pm departure from Great Lakes Marina we were on our way. Sadly, once we got on the big lake I picked up a touch of seasickness. It wasn't really enough to make me lose the beers that I had already consumed, but it was enough to keep me from wanting any more. Around 1am I decided to turn in and try and get some sleep. We were supposed to take shifts and the wheel, but no one got me up and I didn't wake until nearly 6:30.

We finally got into McKinley Marina in Milwaukee at 11am. Considering that we had to use the engine for about a third of the trip we made pretty good time.

We rested for the rest of the afternoon before heading out. We started with a 1/2 liter and the Old German Beer Hall and then it was on to Lakefront Brewery. We continued with a couple of pints before beginning the tour. It was totally a novice tour but we got a couple of pints out of the deal and we got $5 off our fish fry dinner. Then it was on to Water Street Brewery. I thought they had a good Weisse, but it didn't work out all that well for the rest of the guys.

Sadly, then we went into Rosie's. This was just a regular bar, but some of the others were quite taken with a few of the waitresses. We split up and some of us headed out to a really nice bar called Roman's. It was pretty much an old house that had a terrific selection of beers and a wonderful porch for handing out and drinking.

After all of that we had a really low key Saturday morning. We were joined by a couple of girls in the early afternoon and then headed out for a quite sail. This turned out to be a mistake and the water was a bit rough and many ended up a bit green. After that we headed out for dinner. While many of us had willing hearts the bodies were not. Only Frank was able to turn on the drinking machine again.

When it came time to leave on Sunday we heard on the marine radio that they were seeing 2-4 foot waves. Another guys and I decided to take the Lake Express back to save time and hopefully avoid some more seasickness. We got back to Muskegon at 4:30pm. (Chip and the guys got back at 11pm - reports are the the water was quite rough for the 1st half but then much better for the rest.)

It was a terrific weekend. I am totally infatuated with Milwaukee. It was such a lovely city and their embrace of their German heritage is fantastic. Visit if you can.

What are you into?

2007-07-25T21:26:00.000-04:00

Robots Rule the World!

2007-07-25T21:23:00.000-04:00

Flight of the Conchords - Robot Future

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Thought I was worth more than this

2007-07-23T22:14:00.000-04:00

$4325.00

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Vacation

2007-07-02T14:24:00.000-04:00

So at the end of my fifth week of my new job I had to go out of town again. Sure it was only for two days (really only 1 1/2 days) due to the lack of available engineers because they are all at the place I was stuck at for 9 weeks. It could have been much worse...I could be at the other place this week. Instead I am burning some vacation and loving it. Kate is in Muskegon with Charlotte and I am home alone. I really need the break.

After driving to and from Indianapolis (for work..as above) I then drove to Chicago for our 5 year anniversary. Everything would have been fine had in also not been "taste of Chicago" weekend and had Chicago not decided to rebuild every highway. It took us 5 hours to get from Kzoo to our hotel in downtown Chicago.

We had a late lunch at Maggiono's which was quite nice. We had beers, a full order of the stuffed mushrooms, and then split a full order of gnocchi. Other than my surprising inability to keep glasses upright everything was great.

After a brief rest at the hotel (thank you priority club points) we taxi'd over to the theatre to see 'Wicked'. While the first act was much longer than I expected (1.5 hours) it was excellent. The best part was that Kate and I had a great time. The next best part was that we didn't fight. {I would like to add that Kate looked amazing in her dress.}

We had to get out of Chicago early to pick up Charlotte from Beth's so our trip was short but nice.

Today I bought some things to finish the 10gal mash tun with the bottom drain and a Japanese Beetle trap for the buggers that have been eating my hop plants.

So far a great vacation.

New Life

2007-06-20T18:30:00.000-04:00

I realized today that I had been home for over three weeks now. The time as really gone by quite quickly. The primary mover here I think is the work. It has been far too long since I have been this busy at work. Funny how being busy makes the time go by. What I really like is that I have a chance to learn new things while working in a team that really seems to like having me around. That doesn't mean that I was not liked before but I did not necessarily feel needed.

In addition there was the weekend of Charlotte's baptism and then last weekend the F1 race. Seems like there hasn't really been a slow moment since I got back from my travels.

Wonder why these never aired?

2007-06-06T22:35:00.001-04:00

Damn

2007-05-12T21:56:00.000-04:00

Has it really been over three weeks since my last post. Holy crap. You would think I didn't care about this.

Truth is I was in Columbus for 2 weeks, then home for a long weekend (which included Kate's surgery) and then back in Columbus of another week (short that is).

The nice thing is that at the end of my two weeks I found out that I have a transition date. I will be moving to development on the 19th of May. That means the more money...but mostly it means that the travel will no longer dominate my destiny.

There is a part of me that will me the travel. Heck, who wouldn't want to see new places, stay in hotels, eat out for free, and work ungodly hours and never actually see the places that you go. Wait, did that whole last sentence not seem like positives. Must be because traveling for work is not.

Over the past seven years I have had some really great times on the road. I have also had some really rotten ones. They are not always because the job is bad...sometimes it is because I am not at home.

I will probably always remember the time in Reno, NV as the best. The job went really well, the location was awesome, and I was 100% in tune with the customer. The worst was only 3 months later in Torrence, CA. The job went really badly, the location was great, and I had 0% desire to be out of town. That job was the first time that I thought that I no longer wanted to do what I do. I didn't really think that I would change my career at the time but when my next review came around suddenly I did not want what was going to be next for me.

I am excited for the change. There must be something to the 7 year thing. When I hit 7 years in my current job suddenly my desire to do it was gone. I also think that the change will challenge me in a way that I have not been in a while. It is a little scary but as with all things I must trust the skills that got me this far.

Weekly Update

2007-04-22T20:11:00.000-04:00

Amazingly another week as ripped by and it barely seems like last weekend finished. I cannot believe that I was in Columbus last week, worked 5 13 hour days and now it is Sunday night. What I really can't believe is that tomorrow I have to go back and stay over the weekend.

And what is simply unbelievable is that after two weeks my company's management has yet to set a date for my transition.

BTW check out Villenke 2.0 for some awesome beer updates!

Columbus redux

2007-04-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

Some asked what makes Ohio different from Michigan or what is the appeal.

I think that in many ways northern Ohio and the lower part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan are the same. The same values, the same interests, the same economy, the same weather and the same landscapes. The only real division is a little collage football rivalry.

I think that for me it is what makes a place home. Sure my time away has allowed me to see the faults in Ohio but home will always be home. There will always be something that makes me think of what my life was and, in some ways, could/would have been had I stayed.

Columbus is not Cleveland, but it is similar enough in size, people, and culture to feel like home. I am not sure if I would feel the same about Cincinnati. It is further south and has, from the couple of brief time I was there, a different feel.

Imagine growing up in North Muskegon and then moving to Florida. Then for work you have to spend a couple of weeks in Lansing. Sure, not exactly the same, but you get the taste of home. I think that is what it is for me.

It really has nothing to do with Ohio/Michigan. It is all about feeling home.

I know that GR is my home now. It is where I work, where a lot of my friends are, where my family is. But there should be more than one definition of home. This is my adult home. Ohio (Cleveland) is my childhood home. It will always feel that way.

When will the madness end

2007-04-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

As you may know from the Instakatier's recent post I am good to go with my new position...as soon as I am released from my current on.

Since I am suddenly so valuable to my current department they do not want me to leave. This is all because of the "high visibility/priority" project down in Columbus. This kind of s#@t just makes me less inclined to want to do the work for them. They are all, "we need you" and "if you work hard and and we catch up then you may be able to transfer sooner." That sounds so much like, "look donkey, if you walk faster you might get this carrot." Then they get all upset because I don't want to spend everyother weekend down there. Like I am not being a team player. I have asked off the team and you won't let me off. What do they expect?

At least I know that I will be free of all of that (and into other office crap) by the summer.

Next weekend is the annual Siciliano's homebrew party and competition. Press your thumbs for me.

I wish I were a Knight

2007-04-15T21:43:00.000-04:00

ABC has pretty much already cancelled this show and I admit that I did not watch it while it was on TV but you can go over to ABC.com and watch all of the episodes of "The Knights of Prosperity" on their streaming player.

Does it take a couple of episodes to really hit its stride...yes.

By the last one is it quite funny...yep.

Spend some time watching TV on your computer and check it out.

Columbus

2007-03-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

I have been all over the US working for my company and even had the luck to be sent to Germany twice. I have been to places that were beautiful and the job was horrid, places that were scary but the location was wonderful, places were both the job and the location were great, and naturally places were the job and the place was something I'd rather not remember.

I cannot say that Columbus, OH is the best place I have ever been and this job is far from the best...but there is something about being back in your home state. Sure, Columbus is not Cleveland but I have never been lucky enough to commission where I grew up. The nice thing is that Ohio is Ohio and there is something about being in the home state.

It is been quite common in the last couple of years to be quite nostalgic about the big O and my desire to maybe someday live here again.

Ch ch ch changes

2007-03-25T21:23:00.000-04:00

Well, shortly after I made my last post things got moving. They called me into a meeting with pretty much all of the managers of my department to find out the real scoop on what I wanted. Thankfully, they were all a bit more realistic about the whole thing than I thought they would be. They even said that they were unhappy to lose me but glad that I was not leaving the company. Real nice words.

I figure that once I get the offer thru HR it will be about 6 weeks before I get to start my new job. If that were to happen on Monday then I would have three more weeks after I finish the three weeks of travel.

Then I was able to get my "interview" in with the development guys the same day. That was good because on Wednesday after work I had to drive down to Columbus, OH. I was back home for the weekend but I am going back Monday morning and won't be back home again until Good Friday. Then I am scheduled to be out to Edison, NJ for a week. The very reason that I no longer want to be in Application Engineering is what they are currently doing. Four weeks out will push me up to 44% for the current year.

Action by Inaction

2007-03-20T08:13:00.000-04:00

Last Monday the requisition for the position in the Development Engineering group was finally posted. Not that I was super eager, but by the end of the day I had done my part and applied to the position on our online system. HR told me that I had to get my manager's permission in order to interview. So on Tuesday I told my manager that I was interested in a position in DevEng and that I would like his permission to interview.

I have yet to get that permission.

They claim everyone is too busy and the Engineering Director is out of town.

That is fine and all, but if I had walked into my manager's office and told him this was my two weeks notice they would have to let me go.

It seems to me like they are thinking that if they procrastinate long enough they can keep me around and continue to make me do their bidding. I am getting to the point where it is time to get HR involved again and push this along.

I also think that they are going to try and offer my something to make me stay. Unless that something is a guarantee of 5% or less travel then I doubt they will be successful. No amount of money will make me miss my wife and child less.

Get Ready to be Distubed

2007-02-20T20:18:00.000-05:00

Trust me on this one...

You will be disturbed...

but you will also be amused.

TheToddTime.com

Planes, Automobiles, and Bad Weather

2007-02-13T21:23:00.000-05:00

The weather this morning in Kansas City was horrible. The amount of snow was not Michigan great but created wicked bad roads. The drive from my hotel to the airport (about 40mi) was mostly on highways where I could not see the lane markers. There were a couple of times that I saw the traction control light kick on while traveling in a straight line.

Strangely, it was the only time all week that I was happy about having a Jeep Liberty as my rental. It had used nearly 5/8 of a tank of gas moving me about 100 miles, was less than thrilling on the inside, had annoying large keys, honked when I hit the lock button, and was generally loud. But today I appreciated the 4 wheel drive.

I feared that the flight would be delayed or cancelled due to the weather. Amazingly, they boarded us only 10 minutes late and things looked great. Until the FA came onto the PA and said that we had a small "mechanical." That took them over 40 minutes to repair. I thought that if we made good time in the air I could still make my connection.

When we landed in Detroit it was pretty much on time with my other flight's departure time. When I got into the terminal I saw that my flight had been delayed 10 minutes. I began to run. Since I had to go from Terminal C to Terminal A it would be a long run with no guarantee. Inspiration stuck. I swung by a gate lady and asked her to call ahead to my gate and let them know that I was on my way. Surprisingly, she was quite accommodating and helped me.

It was a long run and by the end of it I was totally gassed (I had my backpack on) and my mouth was totally dry. Just as I was getting to the gate I realized that there was a young woman running behind me. It turns out that she had been on my flight from KC and had followed me the whole way. She asked me if I had been on the KC flight. Then she thanked me for clearing the way.

And they held the flight for us! They reopened the gate door and I did not have to wait or anything unpleasant.

Michigan is just as crappy as I was when I left last Wednesday but the roads are mostly clear now. The temperature must have gotten high enough sometime in there to get the salt down to melt the ice.

I am just thankful that I did not have to go thru the whole Neal Page experience.

SuperDave

2007-02-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

What's it like to the the best at something?

It means that whenever there is a problem they call you.

This time it meant that I got an all expense paid trip to Kansas City (which is in both Missouri and Kansas). The regional office controls engineer (whom I trained last fall) was unable to get a single motor turning in the two weeks that he had been on-site. So the project manager calls the home office and off I go.

After being there for 2 hours I had many rollers turning and by the time I left that first day I had nearly everything running. By the end of the second day it was all running...we only needed the weekend so that we could install the remainder of the conveyor.

Now, since I have been doing this for over 2 years and the other guy had never done it before at all is no reason belittle his skills.

The long and short of it is that I am getting paid a bunch of extra hours for doing someone else's job.

Smell like a Cowboy from Brisco Co.

2007-01-22T21:55:00.001-05:00

Back or just Random

2007-01-22T20:54:00.001-05:00

Yeah, there have been no posts since 8 Dec. Which means that there is no excuse for not posting. Something must have happened.

During the week off between Christmas and New Year's I (with DiGennero's help) filled my attic with blown insulation. I cannot say that I have noticed a change in the temperature upstairs but Kate says that she has....which is really the 2nd most important thing. The most important, of course, is that the heating bill goes down. I have not seen the next bill yet so we have yet to find out.

I had to go out of town to Atlanta (Buford really) a couple of weeks ago. They claimed that it was because they need the product expert but all they really needed was someone who was experienced with systems and could focus them. After a short week I was able to get the project back on track. Not thru some amazing skills but simply by managing the people there.

Next week I may have to go out to Kansas City, MO to do kind of the same thing again.

I am also pursuing a new job within the company. Hopefully, it will require a lot less travel which will be good for me and my family.

There is also new beer information over at Villenke 2.0.

Squirrel Away

2006-12-08T19:43:00.000-05:00

The Squirrel is gone!

I had to get another cage that was larger. After seeing the squirrel in the attic last Sunday I realized that the squirrel cage was just not going to do it. I returned that cage and got one for cats and raccoons.

Last night I found that the bait had been eaten but the cage had not closed. After re-baiting the trap I set the trigger a bit more sensitive.

Today after work I checked the trap and...viola!!!

As you can see he is quite good and climbing around on the cage.

And now he has been released into the wild again.

Hopefully he has not made a new passage into our home.

Squirrel Net Redux

2006-11-29T14:55:00.000-05:00

Turns out I did "capture" a squirrel in the attic. I can hear him up there but he cannot get out...which probably means that none of his buddies can get in...which was the point.

Now, I just have to wait for him to die...not a happy thought but it would be the nature of the thing.

Hopefully, he has not stored a bazillion nuts in my attic and can wait out the siege.

I would like to get the extra insulation in this winter.

Squirrel Net

2006-11-26T10:59:00.000-05:00

For a while now Kate and I have heard squirrels in our attic. At least I assumed they were squirrels. I had seen at least one go into the attic through one of the exhaust vents on the roof. While a bit annoying while trying to sleep, I really did not have any real grips about them living there.

But then I was talking with Chip and he mentioned that they could chew through some of my electrical lines in the attic and since I do not want to have to replace any of those I had better take care of this problem.

So yesterday after I ran Charlotte over to the doctor's for a weighing (she now is 4.2kg) I made a quick trip over to Lowe's to pick up a little wire mesh to cover the vents.

After about an hour on the roof and quite a few cuts on my hands I got all three of the vents covered. Hopefully they are well enough covered that those clever squirrels cannot get in again.

The biggest issue is if I happened to trap any squirrels in the attic, but dead squirrels in the attic are better then damaged wiring.

And once I am sure that I no longer have animals in my attic I am planning on blowing another 30cm of insulation up there. Now that we have the baby and the house really should be a bit warmer it would be nice not to lose quite as much heat out of the roof.

Adidas Jose +10

2006-11-19T20:49:00.001-05:00

Last week I watched the movie "Once In A Lifetime" about the New York Cosmos of the defunct NASL. It was interesting to see who soccer almost become the national pastime in the USA in the late 1970s. A lot of great European players came to play in the NASL at that time. One of them was Franz Beckenbauer of Germany.

This past summer Adidas ran ads of Jose+10 in conjuction with the World Cup and in that ad then took video footage of Beckenbauer from 1974 and digitally added him to the modern players that the kids pick for their teams. As an American I did not pick up on this over the summer but as I was reading about the players on Wikipedia I came across that bit of trivia.

So here is the ad. As you can see the current German players are rather astonished to see Beckenbauer.

Beat Michigan Week 2006

2006-11-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

Home with Baby

2006-11-14T20:57:00.000-05:00

So I have now been off work for over a week. It is so nice. I have barely even contemplated the idea of work or all that it entails. Considering that I do not have to go back until...well, my birthday I am pretty happy. The last time I had three weeks off Kate and I spent that time in Europe. Sure that was also great, but I was not quite so unhappy with work at that time and I did not have a new baby to hang out with.

So I have been thinking about things to get Kate for Christmas...and while I have a list of ideas I also have been thinking about maybe something grand. I am not sure which way to go.

I have also been thinking that since I have so much time at home I could do some reading. Any suggestions from those of you out there?

I hope that now that I have picked up all of the leaves and there are no more on the trees that I am done for the season.

I think that my Mom is going to come up for Thanksgiving and we will celebrate at Kate's Mom's house. When my Mom comes up over the holiday she will get 4 days to hang out with Charlotte.

I have also been reading a lot of wikipedia. Kate doesn't like it because it is editable by anyone, while I love it because there really has never been more info so readily available.

Got Other Plans?

2006-11-10T19:34:00.000-05:00

So what happens when you've got other plans? Usually something unexpected. In this case though it was bound to happen someday, Kate and I just did not know when. So after having a grand old time at NTAFTHBD we came back to GR. Dinner did not seem like a something we wanted to cook ourselves so we had dinner at GRBC. We came home and started to watch the movie "American Dreamz" (which was not very good). After deciding that it was too bad and we were too tired we went to bed. You can read Kate's account of the rest of the events here. I would make a couple of corrections for accuracy but it is 97% accurate and therefore I will not take anything away from her account.

She is super cute and in general so far has been rather well behaved.

Kate, of course, has the majority of the work but I have been busy also. I cannot do anything about the feeding, but I have been taking care of the things that here not quite ready when she suprised us. Sure, when I say I feel tired it is nothing like the tired that Kate is...but I am still tired.

You can check out pictures of Charlotte here.

NTAFTHBD

2006-11-04T09:19:00.000-05:00

I am sure that you all are aware that that stands for:

National Teach A Friend To HomeBrew Day.

I am also sure that you all are aware that NTAFTHBD is today!

Chip has organized quite a to do out at PJ Hoffmaster Park in Spring Lake, MI. There will be several award winning brewers and even a professional. There will be over 10 different styles of beer on tap for sampling.

This is the link to the event.

Chips is running Site 20 which can be found under the other catagory.

In addition to the event today I am planning on a brew day tomorrow. I will save the detail of that for a seperate post.

Leave...Get Out

2006-10-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was looking forward (in time, not in anticipation) to when I would have to rake the leaves. Nice Kate is very much in a family way at this point I knew I would be out there alone this year. So what to do?

Last year I semi-cheated by raking a large portion of my front yard leaves out into the street and letting the winds take them from my yard. Seeing how so many of my neighbor's leaves end up in mine I thought it not to unfair. That would help again but is not very neighborly year over year.

So I decided that I would get a bagger for my mower and see if I could leverage my current equipment. This would allow me to compact the leaves some before putting them in bags or the bin.

Kate was very pooh-pooh on the idea. She did that think that it would work very well.

I have here today to tell you that it works quite well. Sure there are some leaf particles that do not go into the bag and fall down into the lawn, but that is not too bad. If one wanted a second or third pass can be done and a lot of those bits get sucked up into the bag.

I may be spending more time but I am not working as hard. Now if I could only get both....

No Excuses that I Know

2006-10-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

Since the last time I posted (still inside of the last time Jason posted) lots and nothing have happened.

1. Caught a cold.

2. My friend Paul, now of Red China, was back in the USA and drove up to GR for a visit.

3. I got sent out of town to CA for a couple of days to help the site that we commissioned in June fix a couple of problems. Cold got so bad that I could barely talk.

4. Went home to Cleveland to have a baby shower for Kate and I from my mother. Cold continued to be really bad but started to clear up by Sunday.

5. I got sent to Indianapolis for 4 days so that I could baby sit a system. Seems like we were having some trouble there but the only thing that they wanted me to do was clear jams and then press the reset button. Sure, I could have done more but all they wanted was a baby sitter for the week. Cold was nearly gone.

6. I got sent to Louisville for a week to finish an installation. This was not so bad considering that in general the job was already a success so all we had to do was add a little more equipment and make a couple of adjustments. Cold was gone.

7. Kate went to Sarah Wiles' baby shower and I hung out with Chip. Then we went over to the chili cook-off that Jim V was having. Halfway thru the party the cold was back.

8. Got back to the office and had to do another week of regional office training. By Tuesday the cold was so bad that I nearly went thru a whole box of kleenex. But then by Thursday it was gone again.

9. So far this week we had to do 2 days of home office training and the cold has been only an occasional sneeze and a slightly runny nose.

Sure this does not make up for nearly 4 weeks of no posts, but this is all you get for now.

Beginning of Something New

2006-09-22T17:03:00.000-04:00

This past week kind of officially transitioned my work partner and I from one role to another. Funny, we really did not now it while we were doing it. I suppose that is generally how life is. You only realize the milestones of you life after you pass them.

As you know for the past 2 years I have been working on the application side of bringing my companies new product line to market. It has been filled with ups and downs. I have been quire proud when we were able to deliver for the company and for the customer and have felt quite down when people expect us to be able to work miracles simply because it is the new stuff.

After nearly a year of the product line being commercialized it was time to start spreading the wealth and letting all of the rest of the company to quote, engineer, and commission the new stuff. So this week we brought in a representative from each discipline from three of the regional offices. Adam and I spent the week trying to educate them with all of the things that we have learned about quoting, engineering and commissioning with the line. Needless to say they were at the same time both eager and enthusiastic and dismayed and nervous.

It was quite a different thing to spend the whole week training people to do things instead of doing them. Sure it really made the work week go by fast but it is not really my cup of tea. I have no problem trying to teach people the things that I know but I do not like having to run the room all day. There is this feeling like they not only need to be taught but also entertained.

At the end of the week our manager let us know that pretty much for the remainder of the year we are going to be in training mode. We already have another week of this scheduled for the week of 16 Oct.

Also, we are going to be asked to pick up the application engineering ball for the revision of the product line that is scheduled to have a demo site install early next year. That would mean some commissioning but there should not be much between now and then. I only have 1 week scheduled at this point and possibly a couple of trips to kick off our installation teams.

How About Just 50 Meme

2006-09-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

1. First Name? Henry

2. Are you named after anyone? Yes, my great great grandfather who emigrated from Germany.

3. When did you last cry? Probably when my uncle died back in 2002. Anything else would have just been a little of a tear up.

4. Do you like your handwriting? Not really. I work on it a little from time to time but mostly it is a very fast scrawl that has no real style. I know others that have what I find interesting, therefor cool, but I do not want to copy theirs.

5. What is my favorite lunch meat? If I am buying for daily lunches then it is chopped ham. If I am making a nice sandwich then I love corned beef...thinking Reuben. Want one right now.

6. Kids? 8/9ths.

7. If you were another person would you be friends with you? Sometimes I really do not think so. I often pick on my friends a little more than is nice and I definetely do not like it when others do it to me. I am not always an ass, but I do it more than is really friendly.

8. Do you have a journal? Just this blog. During my Senior year in high school I kept a bit of journal, and when I read it now it is quite embarassing. I have a feeling that this will feel embarassing in a couple of years.

9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No, nearly never. See, right there.

10. Do you still have your tonsils? Except for a bit of toe bone I am complete.

11. Would you bungee jump? Yes...as I sit here in a basement on a couch. I would also jump out of a plane. I think it would be quite a rush.

12. What is my favorite cereal? Don't really eat cereal. I do love breakfasts in Germany. Rolls, meats, cheeses, jellys and such, yogurt. I was never dissapointed with German fruestuck.

13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Almost never.

14. Do you think you are strong? No. I alos do not think that I am hansome and often think that other give me more credits for smarts than I really do have.

15. What is your favorite ice cream? I like the chocolate but really a good vanilla is best.

16. Shoe size? 10.

17. Red or pink? Always Ferrari Red.

18. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? I have a hard time finishing things. Once I get to 90% I would rather that someone else finish so that I can get on to something more interesting.

19. What do you miss the most? I miss those that are far away. I miss Cleveland and the friends I had there. I miss...San Dimas.

20. Do you want everyone to do this also? I would be interesting but not required to maintain my friendship.

21. What colour of pants and shoes are you wearing? Jeans and bare feet.

22. Who is your favorite writer/book/movie?
King, Steven
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Raiders of the Lost Ark

23. What are you listening to right now? I have "How to dismantle an atomic bomb" in the car CD player right now.

24. If you were a crayon what colour would you be? Gold baby! Gold!

25. What are your favorite smells? Autumn, hops, auto racing, spring.

26. Who was the last person you spoke with on the phone? Some crappy work phone call.

27. The first thing that you notice about people that you are attracted to? Sadly, (in terms of stereotypes) breasts.

28. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I really like the person whom I am responding to...thur the blog-tet.

29. Favorite drink? German Hefeweizen...especially my nearlly award winning homebrew version. BTW, props to Chip for winning the ESB catagory at the Great Lakes Beer Festival over the weekend.

30. Favorite sport? I like to watch soccer (european) and auto racing (F1). I watch football in the fall/winter because it is good to occupy of Sunday when you don't want to go outside and the sun goes down at 5pm. I really love going to baseball games...even the 2006 Midwest League champion White Caps, who are Class A.

31. Hair colour? Brown.

32. Eye colour? Brown.

33. Do you wear contacts? No, but I would love to. Last time I tried they did not make my astigmatisms as sharp as glasses.

34. Favorite food? I like lots of things but never really could identify a favorite.

35. Scary movie or happy endings? I really am not a fan of either. Life is not as scary as the movies nor often has happy endings.

36. Last movie you watched? That would be, "She's the Man." I fine take on "Twelth Night". Although nowhere near as good as "10 Things I Hate About You."

37. Colour of the shirt you are wearing? Black.

38. Winter of summer? Summer.

39. Hugs or kisses? From my love, kisses. From others, hugs.

40. What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream if you please.

41. Who is most likely to respond? Only KzooJason has yet to do this and I suppose he will not.

42. Who is least likely to respond? See 41.

43. What books are you reading? I am still trying to finish "The World According to Garp." I hope to soon so that I can read something good.

44. What is on your mouse pad? I do not have one. The optical mice of today no longer require one.

45. Favorite sounds? Naughty ones.

46. What's that on the telly? After answering the sports question I had TIVO que up a little UEFA Champions League. Sorry, no penguins.

47. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? The Beatles.

48. The furthest you've been from home? I have not done the math but Rome may be farther than Vienna. Those would be the canidates though.

49. Do you have a special talent? Kate helped me learn about my special talent.

50. When and where were you born? I am told I am from Jersey (New) in the year of 1975. I am not almost 500 years old.

What Happend?

2006-09-11T22:14:00.000-04:00

Sorry friends...not that things have not been going on but I have not been posting. I have also not been commenting.

Tonight reminded me that this begins the second NFL season that Roland and I have not been watching MNF together...and now with me having the sweet basement TV room. Sadly, though the MNF is now on ESPN and I do not have ESPN HD so now MNF is again in SD while I have this expensive HD TV.

I do have a couple of things to celebrate. First, the OSU Buckeyes beat the Texas Longhorns on Saturday night. This is super for Mr. Tressel and his amazing career and legacy at OSU. Second, Schumacher won the Italian GP and Sunday and then annouced his retirement at the end of this F1 season. The win, and Alonso's retirement, pulled Schumacher within 2 points of the Driver's Championship. If he manages to win the championship that would be his 8th.

Kate has passed into her 31st week of pregnancy. I have got to say that now things are getting much more real for me. Sure, Kate has been noticably pregnant for many weeks now but when you hit the final 25% things begin to get real for the man.

Work is not really all that much better, but I have started to take a more, "it is what it is," attitude toward work. I still want to do a good job, but if I do not then I will not take it home.

Quick beer note...Brain D and I made beer on Sunday. Brian made 10 gallons of American Amber and I made 5 gallons of Dunkelweizen...because fall is coming on.

Pine Sol

2006-08-28T23:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry, nothing about cleaning here... this is all about Kayaking on the Pine River and enjoying some sun.

First, here is a link to the pictures that I took during our (mostly) annual trip down the Pine River.

LINK

We went up Saturday after Kate's baby shower. Since Laura was at the shower she went up with Kate and I. The drive was thru a heavy rain, so as you can imagine I was not thinking that this was going to be an awesome weekend.

As we pulled into our regular, but very much overpriced, campground/outfitter (Sportsman's Port) Ryan and Nathan we just checking in.

We waited out the rain and then set up our tents. Thankfuly this was only about 15 minutes. Then as Ryan was quite hungry we set Nathan about cooking our meal in his Dutch oven. This not only went very quickly - goodbye cooking with aluminium foil - it also was really tasty. We had kibasa, potatoes, green peppers, and zuchini.

About 10pm Jason and Jocelin showed up. That is another story which Jason should blog about on his blog.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful. The weather cleared up and the sun came out. The temperature was warm but not hot. The water was cold but only Jason went for an unscheduled swim.

We missed having Dave on the river and would have liked to have had Susan for the first time.

Here's hoping that sometime in the future we can all be on the river again.

Hopdate

2006-08-17T17:23:00.000-04:00

Here are the most recent photos of the hops:

On the right are the Hallertauer and on the left are the Tettnang.

On the left here we have some Tettnag hop flowers and on the right we have some Hallertaur hop flowers. Not bad for the first year. Surely not enough to use in a batch of bier but surely a good sign for next year.

All in? I think not.

2006-08-17T17:12:00.000-04:00

The guy I threw under the bus, or out to California, called last night. Things were not 100%. So after a couple of calls last night we left it to today.

Instead of going right to my desk I went right over to our test loop and setup the system to exactly the same thing as what is going on in CA. Then I was able to exactly recreate the problem.

(lots of phone calls and false starts and working go here)

When I left today at 5pm they had run over 400 packages without an error or anomoly. So that implies that things are finally on the right track. If we do not hear from him again tonight and things are still OK tomorrow morning then we might be out of the woods.

I will not be betting any farms on this though.

Saved!

2006-08-15T20:45:00.000-04:00

but what about my soul.

While it is nice to not have to go out of town at the same time I feel like I have thrown another under the bus. Why am I more important...or more accurately why is my time more important.

After all of the work that we put in over the past two days getting the software in much better shape I feel like there probably will not be any problems. But that does not stop me from not wanting to go. Also, every time I think about the project my stomach knots up and my brain goes into overdrive fretting over all of the potential problems that could happen. Now that I am not going back, at least this week, I still get worked up. I suppose that I feel bad that I think there could still be problems. And I am scared that I could still end up out there next week or later.

Funny, I used to like traveling. Now, I would do almost anything to not have to. It may just be with Kate being pregnant or it may be that I am experiencing burn out.

As the product line has picked up speed and the projects have increased in complexity the cracks in the product have begun to show. I am nervous about rolling it out to the rest of engineering and the revolt that could be on our hands. Sure it is not my product line, but I have been the application engineering liason and there is the possibility that if things are not acceptable they may ask why I did not raise a warning. The simple answer is that our group was tasked with both critiquing the product line so that development knew where to improve and also putting a positive spin on the product line so that application engineering would not be down on it.

Being pretty much the only controls engineer involved from the application side anything what is not fixed or identified could be seen as my deficiency. Recently I have been thinking about how I could temporarily get out of this, but then there would be nothing gained from the last 18 months. Hopefully, after I get through the next 9 weeks and then after the respit after the baby is born things will be better and I will feel recharged.

Saved! (?)

2006-08-14T20:51:00.000-04:00

So I spent last week in Torrance, CA. It was amazingly different than Moreno Valley, CA. I consider them both LA but they really are about 85miles apart. The difference between the two could not be more apparent. Torrance is near the ocean and keeps a near constant 85F while Moreno Valley is nearly in the desert and stays nearly 110F.

It would have been much nicer had the job gone a lot better. First, the parts that were supposed to be on-site the Friday before were not there on Monday (they would eventually show up on Wednesday). Second, the special code that development was to write for me was not complete on Monday when I got there. Third, because the parts were not there we could not apply power to the system so we really could not do any serious work. Tuesday afternoon, I got some of my "spare" parts that allowed me to apply power. Then I realized how not ready the code from development was. I spent nearly 400 minutes on the phone over the next three days getting the code to a place where I could leave.

So what happened today. I got a call at 2pm saying that everything was no longer working and that they could not get it going again. So As you can imagine after spending that much time on the phone I was not really confident that when I got back out there I would be able to make it any better. I suggested that the "master" developer go with me. Instead, his manager suggested that instead of me and the master we send out one of his development guys. This is music to my ears. Since I began the phone calls last week I was thinking that one of their guys should be out there trying to get their questionable code working...in addition to realizing how not ready it is. Now instead of me paying the price it looks like they will.

We will see what happens tomorrow. If he somehow cannot go then I guess I will be back on the hook and not saved.

Wish me luck.

Here Comes Baby Baker

2006-08-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

In case most of the Blog-tet missed the link that I posted in the comment on the most recent hops post I thought that I should try again.

If you are grossed out by pregnant women do not click here.

Kate's Pregnancy: Here comes baby Baker.

Synch-o-pation

2006-08-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

Kate and I just switched mobile phone carriers. We had absolutely no problems with T-mobile and actually did not want to leave. In June I was in CA and we had an overage on our shared minutes. When we signed up we got 400 anytime minutes. It was always more than enough but now that I am having to make more phone calls back to the office while doing these projects with our new product line we have been getting closer to the limit.

Through work I have the opportunity to take advantage of employee discounts through Verizon Wireless. This would give us 300 more minutes per month for $10 more per month. In addition we are able to waive one activation fee and have a reduced one on the second line. Finally, we could get the swell new Razr phones. The biggest advantage though is that nearly everyone at work is also with Verizon so that would mean that we are all IN and therefore there would be no charges for calls I make to other guys at work.

So we did it. We got the Razrs. One thing that I was really looking forward to was that the phones are Bluetooth enabled and my new iMac is also. I figured that instead of punching in the contacts thru my phone I could get them through the Address Book on the Mac. The only issue is that all of my contact info was currently up to date only on gmail. So I had to export it out of gmail, fiddle with the data in a text editor, and then import it into Address Book. This worked fine except that some of the fields did not come into the right spot....work email, was home email and other such things.

After this I made sure that the Bluetooth was on the Mac was turned on. Then I turned on the Bluetooth on the phone. It was detected by the Mac, gave the pass key that the phone was looking for, and then proceeded to put all of the contacts on the Mac into the phone. Just like that. It just worked.

So I continue to be exceedingly happy with the Mac and so far the phone and Verizon are pretty good too.

Hoptasktic

2006-07-24T19:23:00.000-04:00

I was looking at the hops today and realized that they have gone from a pretty decent first year height to something completely gnarly.

As you can see they Tettnag veriatel has surpassed the string that was attached to the garage roof. As I did not expect any of them to get that high in the first year the twine up the side of the garage was going to work just fine. The hops that we planted at the DiGennero's place last year barely made it up 3 feet and most of them died. So to have five bines all going rather successfully is quite unexpected.

I am already thinking about what to do next year. The one bine that survived at the DiGennero's is completely out of control this year. This website has some ideas. This guy has a different approach but it seems that he only has them 3m tall. Most of the books I have read indicate that they will easily go 6 to 8m after the first year...and based on mine in the first year that should not be a problem. Maybe this is the way to go.

What does the blog-tet think?

Banging it Out

2006-07-18T13:05:00.000-04:00

I just busted Kzoo Jason on not posting in the last 9 days and then realized that I too have not posted in the last 9 days. So in order to avoid blogger hipocrisy I must post.

Since last you read I had to return to daily beatings (also called work). I was unpleasently suprised to find out last Monday that I would be traveling to Parsippany, NJ the following Monday (yesterday). I simply have no desire to be out of town right now. I don't know if it the summer or the coming baby, or the fact that over the past two years I have not had to do nearly as much traveling as I had in the past but I have very little desire to do it anymore. In addition, it seems that wherever I go recently I do not have final responsibility or say so I have very little control over what happens. I just try my best to do my thing the best that I can and hope that everyone else is doing the same (they rarely are.)

So here I sit in a warehouse in Parsippany, NJ with an unexpected wireless conection so that I can blog...and get company emails.

These guys from the Eastern Field Office are known for really "banging it out." Bang it out must be east coast for working at a very moderate pace and not trying to get off site quickly. This customer is a little strange in that they only have the building open from 7am to 4:45pm (which is less than that 10hrs that we typically work). I figured we are trying to get this thing done this week so we want to maximize our time. They rolled in about 8:20am today. That is banging it out. I was here at a little after 7. BTW: all of my stuff already works so I am waiting on them.

My mother visited last weekend and we had a pretty good time. She came up Friday afternoon and after unloading some hand-me-down baby stuff (from my sister) we went out to eat at Pietros. It was nice, but neither Kate nor I realized how little my mom likes Italian food. For Kate and I it is easy to order there, but my mom had trouble finding something that appealed to her. In the end she got the lasanga and she liked it. I had their Fettucini Michael which is OK, but I really do prefer their Shrimp Risotto.

Saturday we went to the beach in NM. We were there from about 1 to 4. We used the new spray on lotion with some mixed results. While the lotion does work and does not leave me with lotion on every hair on my arms legs and chest it does have a "greasy" feel and look to it. Plus, I managed to miss about 2 square inches on the front of my right shoulder. It is quite burned, but there is next to zero contact with anything with that part of my body so I have not really noticed.

Later that night we went out for a sail with Kate's cousin Frank. We probably got on the water about 8pm sailed for about 3 hours. Mom loved it and we all had a good time.

Sunday was a quiet day at home before she took off for Ohio.

Then Kate, Beth, and I went out to register for the baby showers. Mostly I did not care, but there were somethings that I had a particular opinion on that I wanted to make sure did not simply get the full girl opinion. That took forever though. I think we started at 3:30 and we go kicked out of Babies R Us at 7pm. Way too much time dealing with girls trying to make decisions.

Salzburg redux

2006-07-09T12:11:00.000-04:00

I was looking at Anne's pictures of Europe and was suddenly hit with a case of daja ju. I didn't know which cities in Europe that Anne and Karl had gone to but the moment I saw two of their pictures I knew that I had been there before.

Kate and I took these pictures of Salzburg during our European Vacation 2004.

Now these are probably two of the most touristy photos that can be taken in Salzburg...but in this case I would like to think that great minds...take the same touristy pictures.

Plus, she is also living the vida Mac(a).

It is always nice to have a roof over your head

2006-07-07T19:52:00.000-04:00

As some know we have been finishing the basement for nearly a year now. Things started off real quick. We started the last week of June last year and by the beginning of August we had the drywall installed and ready to paint.

Then came fall and winter and spring. We did get carpet installed, a new couch, cut the TV in half and moved it downstairs, put in insulation, and generally enjoyed the livable-ness of it.

In the last 5 weeks we have finally re-motivated and have moved the project to the 98% done stage.

Here are some photos of the recent progress:
Kate stained and polyurathaned all of the doors. Here are the French (are we still doing the Freedom thing?) doors. They look super.

You can also see all of the trim work around the doors and the floorboards that Kate did.

The workout room with installed ceiling tiles and trim around the doors.

Here I am enjoying the fruit of my work. As you can see the ceiling tiles have also been installed in here.

The remaining items:

Replace shower clean-out so that it is above the as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tile.
Rework one outlet/j-box so that it fits under the as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tile.
Rework the vents in both room so that the vent fits on as-of-yet uninstalled ceiling tiles.
Install all of the suspended ceiling in the Anthony Micheal Hall.
Get memorial plaque for the AMH.

Check out my....Hops

2006-07-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

Recently (or not so) Kzoo Jason asked how the hops were doing.

Here is visual proof that I have yet to kill them. In fact the Tettnang vine is now taller than I am.

A pulled back view of the Tettnang vines.

A look at the Hallertau vines.

Wednesday Already

2006-07-05T08:23:00.002-04:00

The worst thing about having an extended vacation is how quickly it seems to run away from you.

Here it is Wednesday already and what do I have to show for my first 4 days of vacation? I went down to Indianapolis for the 7th running of the USGP, went to Lowe's and picked up all of the materials to finish finishing the basement (all of the suspended ceiling bits), and had one heck of a nice 4th of July with Kate's family out of Muskegon Lake (plus a little sunburn...but not as much as Kate.)

I suppose with 5 days still to go things are not going all that bad.

I don't think that I will have another vacation until the baby arrives and that may not be all that much of a vacation so I need to relax and enjoy every moment of this one. (that does not sound very relaxing)

time for another post

2006-07-03T12:17:00.000-04:00

Previously I blamed a virus that Kzoo Jason infected me with for my general slowdown in posting.

Now I am ready to let him off the hook and blame summer. With the nice weather and outside projects it is so hard to find the time to sit here and try and entertain you.

Maybe that is not it either, maybe I can blame it on work. I was out of town for the past two weeks in CA (ELay as Roland's law school friend would say). It is funny that some people want to live in the desert...without casinos.

I suppose that the real blame lies with me and a general lack of something interesting to post.

Mac

2006-06-20T02:44:00.000-04:00

So the blog-tet has asked, "why Mac."

I do not know if that is as easy to answer as some of life's other questions, i.e. why do men like breasts.

I think the short of it is: I have always thought of myself as an individual and this supports that. Now, one may ask, "does going with the current trend make one an individual?" I do not know if Apple and Mac can be considered a trend. While some market research has indicated that Apple's market share is on the rise, and that public trust of MS is on the decline I do not know if this implies that Macs are trendy whith the general public or is it just the iPod.

Another reason is the robust nature of OS X. Built on the solid foundation of UNIX makes me feel really secure, while the XP, and Vista, foundation make me think of Windows 3.1.

Maybe I have put a foot wrong, but I am pretty sure (and so are my dollars - following the put your money where your mouth is slogan) that have not. I admit that is have a bit of a learning curve, a safety net in my work laptop, and a software deficet but in the 36 hours that I had the iMac before I left for LA I was quite please with what I have.

Plus, it was quite gratifying to see Brian D. look at the iMac and be amazed that the whole computer was only the screen.

the Revolution is Upon Us

2006-06-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today as I watched the USA play to a draw with the Italians my new iMac arrived.

The Incredible Dissapearing Henry

2006-06-10T18:16:00.000-04:00

Where has Henry been and why is he not posting?

Good questions with few satisfiying answers.

Seems like when J-dawg came to Memeaster he must have infected me with a bit of his non-posting virus.

I have been incredibly busy at work for the past couple of weeks. Seems like all of the sudden everyone want some of our new product or the current projects that I have going on are turning into complete disasters. Seems like ordering parts months ahead of time does not allow purchasing or our vendors to deliver on time. Makes my life real nice.

Last weekend Kate and I, along with the DiGenneros, had a fine dinner at the Melting Pot here in GR. We had a fine dinner and also 3 fine hours of togetherness. Everything that J-dawg and Roland (and Susan) said is completely true. Our only complaint was that there was a bit of a let down in the service.

I suppose that the best thing about the last two weeks is that I have been riding my bike to work regularly. Good for me, my wallet, and the environment.

Eclectically, Kate and I are pretty sure that we want to do cloth diapers and from our friends the Karnes (Josh and Simone) we heard about a nice little system that comes out of Germany. Here it is and you can read it in German or English. Look under products and then diaper systems.

I hope to have more to post soon....so stay tuned.

My Taxes Dollars Not at Work

2006-05-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

In my usual surfing of the interweb I came across a link to an interesting, and disturbing, site. Here it is.

The sad facts are:
If the money spent on the Iraq war had been spent on programs, Democrat lingo for helping people, here in the USA then the tax payers of Grand Rapids, MI would have been able to insured 94k children for one year. Or to look at it another way the entire US tax payer base could have insured 170 million children for one year. Instead we have a war that has made the most dangerous terrorists angrier and has cost 2400 families a loved one.

I sure am glad there were WMDs in Iraq to make this all worth it.

Me if for a couple of decisions

2006-05-26T18:02:00.000-04:00

This is not me but my friend Paul Keller. He has been living in China for the past 3 years working for Moan.

Enjoy.

Back from the mountain. Still have all ten fingers and toes, even.

Maybe a good thing you didn’t travel the 9,000 miles for the climb-- we were turned back by ice at about 17,000 feet and couldn’t summit. Sure, still a spectacular experience, but I’ve got to admit it’s a little disheartening to train for months, travel all that way to Tibet, then only make it about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. I was definitely feeling the altitude and exertion when the guides told us we had to go back down, so it wasn’t like I argued a whole lot. The head Sherpa pokes his head in our tent a little after dawn and he’s like: “well, two of our guys made it to the top yesterday… but they don’t think you will.”

“Eh… OK… “

I guess the recent snow and high daytime temperatures turned the last portion of the climb into a treacherous 3-hour hike along an exposed ridge… followed by a 300-meter vertical ice climb. I was a little puzzled because we had all the gear-- crampons, ice screws, axes, full harness. When I asked about it, the one sherpa just kind of smiled and said something like… “rookie”. I never realized that there were differences between crampons and ICE crampons… ice axes and ice CLIMBING axes.

After we came back down, though, the guide school did set us up with a Land Cruiser and this Joe-Cool-Tibetan driver-dude to tour around Tibet. We went quite a ways down the “Friendship Highway” that joins Tibet and Nepal. Everything involving Nepal seems to have “Friendship” in the title somewhere, like China is hyper-sensitive to point out that they’re not at war with the Nepalese.

So my friend Chris and I went through some Tibetan towns, saw the home of the Dali Lama and the home of the Penchant Lama, lot’s of monasteries… and in general tried to avoid any Public Security Bureau checkpoints. Which was actually pretty easy-- I guess Tibet has really opened up in recent years. The worst trouble we had came from a stodgy old lady at the desk of a government-run hotel. It’s kind of funny that their such sticklers about all these arcane document and authorization laws… yet they run a blatantly illegal whorehouse in the hotel “sauna”. Ahh, China.

What’s up back home? How’s Kate’s gestation coming along? Is she craving pickles?

Well, I’m off to India tomorrow. I’ve been delaying this as long as possible, but now it’s D-day. Or, “I”-Day, as it were. My intestinal track is already a little tore up from something I ate in Guangzhou yesterday… doesn’t bode well for a week in India.

Well the Singaporean lady who’s managing the Irish (!) bar I’m in just walked through and told everyone to “F*ck Off!”. Looks like my free wireless has come to an end.

Lemme know what’s up…

Paul K.

Hefeweizen IV

2006-05-21T12:39:00.000-04:00

This is a follow up to the Hefeweizen IV 10 gallon post.

Follow this link over to video.google.com to hear the fermentors at work.

Just my way of bringing homebrewing to the interweb.

Mash Paddle

2006-05-17T20:20:00.000-04:00

The nice thing about a hobby is that it gives one the opportunity to be creative and also do something with your brain and hands.

After brewing on Friday night and mashing in the keg it became obvious that the "big spoon" was not sturdy enough to handle the mass of the mash anymore. The Hefe IV 10gal required 24lbs of grains and over 10gals of water in the mash tun. That makes for over 100lbs of "weight" in the mash tun and only the plastic of the big spoon to mix it with.

I had seen online people selling mash paddles. Until I moved to the 10gal batch I saw no need for these, but after the last two I started to look at these a little closer. Most want over $25 for one and then of course shipping. There are two prevailing designs: one that is made of wood and doweled together and the other made of wood and looks like a large needle eye with a handle. After looking for a while I realized that it would not be hard to make the dowel shape out of a single piece of wood like the needle design. This would give all of the advantages of the dowel shape without the disadvantage of being doweled together.

So here it is:

Rain Rain Go Away

2006-05-13T14:04:00.000-04:00

So the rain began here in GR on Thursday and it has not stopped yet. Thursday brought some crazy wind which brought down quite a bit of tree matter and gnereally made a mess of the yard. Thankfully we had no damage, like KzooJason.

But a nice thing to do while it rains and rains and rains is make some more tasty beer. I was able to persuade Digennero to join me again in brewing so I did not have to do it alone or drive out to Muskegon just to make beer.

After the fantastic results of the Hefeweizen IV back in January and the fact that the keg is now nearly empty I decided that 10 gallons of this recipe would be a great way to start the summer. This would be the first time that I would be attempting 10 gallons here at home. The last 10 gallon batch was at Chip's, where he is fully equiped to handle the size of the kegs.

This got off to a fine start. I had cracked the grains the night before and started the yeast. I once again did a step mash to help convert the 6-row malt. I hit all of the temp marks thru the mash and as I was sparging I took a pre-boil gravity measurement. Good news...I was on target to have plenty of alcohol. After the boil and the chilling it was apparent that I had either lost more water during the boil than I had expected or I had not pulled as much wort from the mash tun as I should have. Thankfully, I sitll had the gravity. So while only 8.5 gallons came out of the boil kettel I was able to add 1.5 gallons of cold water to bring the volume up to the expected level and maintain the gravity that is required.

Now, 16 hours later the two fermentors are bubbling away and everything looks like it is going swimmingly.

By the way....sorry for the long delay in posting.

RENO

2006-05-02T00:04:00.000-04:00

.....Not Vegas.

But the hills, mountains, and views are spectacular.

If you have been to Vegas and are looking for the Vegas experience, do not go to Reno.

If you are looking for skiing and some gambling...Reno may be right for you.

Big Trouble

2006-04-15T15:02:00.000-04:00

No little China.

Last Wednesday was the last day for this girl in our office. A going away party was organized on Tuesday and, since I had been on-site with her a couple of times, I thought that I would go. This would be my first going away party for someone - up to now everyone has either stayed or left because of downsizing. There are not a lot of parties for people who do not want to leave and do not have another job already lined up. Also, this was to be my first time at the bar with my manager and his infamous buddies. I was quite curious to see exactly what their nights out looked like.

On Wednesday I head over to the bar where the going away is taking place. I have order a beer and start enjoying the time. After I finish my 3rd beer I decide that I should call it an evening and head home. I tell the girl to bring me my bill and off I go. But I don't. I have paid but there I sit. And I sit. And I sit.

So after a hour and a half of sitting it is now 7:45 and I am still there but I am paid and can go whenever I like. Well, the others had continued to drink - they were not intending to go home like me - and so at that point I get another beer. What am I doing? I am going home. So I drink my beer and then get another. Now I am really confused. I was going to go home.

About this time the barkeep says that there is a call for me. I answer and it is Kate. Did I forget to mention that Kate has no idea where I am. She is crying and angry and tells me to come home now and then hangs up.

I am in big trouble.

(I will not go into the rest of then evening - as it is personal - but I did have to make this great mistake up to her and I have and everything is now OK again.)

I have learned my lesson. I am now a better trained husband.

One Week

2006-04-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

I have a history of losing my jacket.

Last night was the 3rd annual Siciliano's Homebrew party. Even in Kat's delicate condition she decided to go, which is quite amazing considering that it is a party that celebrates beer (she cannot drink) and generally has a lot of smoking (both cigarettes and cigars - which we both hate). The nice thing is that once she gets out and starts doing something the sickness generally disappears.

Chip came, barely, and we met some other guys that we have brewed with before. I say that Chip barely came because this party is a sellout every year and in typical Chip fashion he only called Steve (the owner and operator of Siciliano's) Friday and asked if there was any chance that we could get a spot. Now, Steve has known Chip for years and is quite aware of Chip and how he is. I suspect that Steve holds 1 ticket for Chip every year knowing that he will do this.

This year was the 1st annual homebrew competition...which I failed to enter. My failure to enter turned out to be my biggest mistake. After sharing my Germen Wheat with Steve he concluded that mine could easily have been in the top 2 and quite possibly the winner. I confirmed this when I tasted the winner's beer. Too bad for me but you cannot win if you do not compete.

Well, the other guys that we sat with won the IPA catagory and then ended up winning the Best In Show. For the rest of the evening we hung out with the Siciliano's Cup and drank from it. Even not being the winner it was something to stand with the trophy and drink from it. Reflected greatness is better than no greatness at all.

Kate left early and then Chip and I stayed and partied on. There was even one interesting moment when two guys got in a shoving match and that was definetly a first for the homebrew party. Homebrewers are not generally the types to get upset. Hey, the slogan for homebrewers is, "Relax, have a homebrew." When the evening was over Chip drove me home with the door prizes we had accumulated and the remainderes of the beer we brought.

When I got home I realized that I had forgotten my jacket. This same thing happened the last time I was alone with Chip (see Catchup).

So...

I have a history of losing my jacket.

Taking bribes

2006-03-31T10:44:00.000-05:00

According to the Nigerian Football Association it is OK for a referee to take a bribe as long as it does not influence the decisions on the field. This is a fine policy. This sound like it is OK to cheat as long as you do not get caught or it is OK to rob from the rich if you give to the poor.

If there is going to be game fixing or officials on the field who are biased at least let the paying customer think that the game is not pre-decided. How many people want to pay their hard earned bucks to watch something that will not be decided on the field of play. We could just post the results and declare a Champion.

Fanny Amun, acting Secretary-General of the Nigerian Football Association, said at a soccer seminar earlier this week, “Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn’t favor those offering the bribe.”

Maybe this explains why the policy was stated:

"Despite a high-profile campaign to stamp out graft in the impoverished African country, Nigeria consistently ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world -- and soccer is no exception."

Go here for the article.

Visit from Apple

2006-03-31T07:24:00.000-05:00

I mean Apple Computer and not Apple records. I mention this only because the two are currently in court fighting over whether Apple has the right to be in the music business.

But here is the proof of the vist:

Sadly the picture looks great in Photobucket but it is too big and Blogger is shrinking it some even at the "large" setting.

New Courville

2006-03-29T20:11:00.000-05:00

Just to let those who know the Courvilles know, last Thursday they welcomed Luke Mausethe Courville into this messed up world. He is perfectly healthy and so is mother - even though Luke needed a C-section.

Britney Spears Naked

2006-03-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

Yep, I am going for huge hits.

Here is a link to the hottest news on the interweb. Ms. Spears, in statue form, naked - and pregnant - on a bear skin rug ready to give birth.

If this is not the strangest sculpture I have ever seen then I simply cannot remember the one that is stanger.

Here is the Pic too:

Col BB

2006-03-28T18:47:00.000-05:00

So the gambling world has eliminated 61 teams from the year's biggest gambling tournement. From the reactions at the water cooler at work the Final Four teams seem to be a bit of a shock. Now, there are 4 groups of 16 teams seeded as such. In the history of this tourney there has only been one time when there has not be a single #1 seed in the Final Four teams. This year makes the second time.

I can only imagine that the bookies around the world are just so happy. Sure there are a 2, 3, and 4 seed remaining but the dark horse is the 11 seed who knocked out a 1 seed. To be fair all of the remaining teams knocked out the 1 seed so they are all deserving, but the only winners this year, other than the kids playing, the schools, the conferences, and CBS are the bookies.

Before the tourney started I read an article that theorized that if there were no gambling the annual tourney would be only middling interest in the games. Based on what I experienced last year in Vegas this may no longer be a theory.

Good night, and good luck.

Baby Baker

2006-03-20T07:22:00.000-05:00

It seems like you can add the Bakers to the ever growing list of people who will come late, bring way too much stuff, always talk about the baby, leave early, and generally be no fun at all.

OK, that is just the down side.

I am actually quite happy and, other than being incredibly tired, Kate is doing very well also.

It would seem that the Martin's, Digennero's, and Baker's will all have kids about the same age.

23/5 part duex

2006-03-16T20:21:00.000-05:00

As posted on 8-Jan-06:

"start and stop often, so with gas prices at their current level it is so progressive of the city to make us use more gas."

This remains true to this day. The speed humps remain on the streets that I would drive daily if I did not have an alternate route. But the last part of the post leads me to another thought.

There are some in this country that follow the racing series Formula 1. In F1 this year they have institued a next qualification process. I could expound on it here but other already have and you can read about it here if your fancy runs that way. The crux of the matter is that the final stint of qualifying is an exercise in fuel wasting.

The ten fastest cars from the previous round of qualifying have 20mins to set the fast time. The rub is that they must start the 20mins with the amount of fuel that they want to start the race with. So in order to get the fastest time you want the smallest amount of fuel in the car as possible. For example, each lap of Bahrain requires 2.75kg of fuel. If you put enough fuel in your car to run 15 laps then you have 41.25kgs of fuel on board. So you run around the track burning off fuel to get to next to nothing so that you can have the lightest car possible and therefor go as fast as possible. Needless to say this wastes fuel like no one's business. But then again auto (Kate says that I pronounce it otto) racing is essentially a waste of all kinds of resources for the sake of entertainment.

Oh well, I suppose all the speed humps in the world would not equal the amount of fuel wasted in auto racing.

Remote Blogging

2006-03-16T20:04:00.000-05:00

This is a first for the Villenke blog...we are coming to you live from a remote location.

Today's post comes to you from Mezze Cafe & Cabaret as we wait for the weekly belly dancing. I must agree with Kzoo J-dawgs long ago post of truly enjoying the idea of being out on the town, immersed in the local culture and feeling like I am not some old codger. I've got my glass of Edmund Fitzgerald, my Harry Potter un der Gefangene von Askaban, and my fake Apple computer and I'm listening to some live acoustic guitar.

There are some couples out on dates, there are some friends meeting for a drink, there are people bellied up to the bar, there are some friends of the guitar player, and there is me.

Here at Mezze we have caberet seating...which means that they will seat strangers at the same table. If you have ever been to Europe this is the norm and not the exception. Every time I come here, since I am alone, they warn me that they may seat others with me and I must assure them that it is quite OK with me.

Next week Kate's mother and step father are supposed to come and watch the belly dancing. The following week, which may be the last if the contract is not renewed, a bunch of people from Kate's fraternal side are supposed to come. That should be a great time and if it ends up being the finale then at least it will go out on a high note.

Cheers from Mezze.

PS.
Now down under the Mac(e) XP into OS X you will find my Adsense. I plan on making enough money from this to retire in a 4th world country very uncomfortably.

Southpark Avatars

2006-03-10T22:32:00.000-05:00

Just for fun Kate and I did these.

Here is what Kate wanted to look like:

And here is a fantasy Kate.

And here is what Kate was happy with for me.

More Flight Woes

2006-03-10T18:11:00.000-05:00

I was out of town a few days this week. I had to go down to Scotsville, KY for Dollar General and the new conveyor line I work with. The work went very well and we were all set to come home Thursday. We boarded the plane to come home at 8am in Nashville. After closing the door and pushing off from the gate we got word that we had a mechanical. This turns out to be the hydraulic pump for one of the engines. This apparently is not an item that they stock in Nashville so we had to wait for a replacement.

I could make this very long. Needless to say they said that we would leave at 11:30. After that time passed we got no further updates. I attempted to rebook on other flights but everything out of Nashville was booked. So I finally get back on my fixed plane at 3:30pm....7 hours later.

When we get out onto to runway the wind has kicked up and they will not take off until the crosswinds get under specified levels. Then when we get to Detroit we have to wait 10 minutes before someone can get the jetway to the plane. Naturally, to make my connection I had to go all the way across the terminal. Then I am not actually booked on my connection, which I was assured that I was. Finally, my luck broke and I was able to get the last seat, due to someone else's bad luck - dentained in customes coming back from Nasau, and made it into GR at 8pm.

The worst part was that I was too tired to make it to Kate's weekly belly dancing.

The Screw

2006-03-07T10:04:00.000-05:00

I thought that you all might like to see the screw that was previously inside me. You cannot tell from this particular angle but it is a stainless steel self tapping screw.

From this angle you can see that the screw is a hex drive. I can just imagine the surgeon in the OR with a cordless Bosch drill and a rack of hardware to choose from.

I'm still amazed that this thing was inside me.

BYBO

2006-03-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Here are the pics of the BYBO. I do not have any from the brewing but here is how it looks in the workout room in the basement.
This the the 5-7 gallon plastic conical fermentor and the 5.5 gallon glass carboy. Both are filled with BYBO.
The conical is nice because it has a wide mouth for yeast harvesting, a valve on the side of the cone for samples and keg filling, and a dump valve on the bottom to remove trub and to, yes, dump the mess when it is done.

Here is a closeup of the carboy and head that is thrown up from the yeast.

Here is a closeup of the carboy and the mess that is made from the hops. All of this is filtered out before it goes into the keg. It just goes to show that, like most foods, you do not want to know what goes into them to make them taste good.

Worst Blog Ever

2006-03-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

I do not intend this to mean, because I truly do value the J-dawg, but in the paraphrase of Comic Book Guy....

Jason's blog is the, "worst blog ever!"

C'mon man....post something.

Surgery

2006-03-03T17:58:00.000-05:00

I was scheduled for a 1:10pm surgery. The hospital called at 10am saying that if I could get there soon they might be able to fit me in sooner.

I was already showered and preped so I was off immediatly and was in the prep room at the hospital by 10:30. Then I wait for 5 1/2 hours before the surgery.

Thankfully it was a local anesthetic so I did not have such a long post-op recovery. Unfortunatly, I was completely asleep and do not remember much past them pushing the drugs into the IV. I have a brand new screw and another piece of footware. Already, and surely I am still under pain medicine, but I know that things are better.

OK, it is now many hours past surgery and I am still quite fine. I have not taken any medication and the foot feels fantastic. I can even roll my foot to the big toe side with no pain. This is wonderful. Three cheers for screw removal technology.

Confirmed...I am Screwed

2006-03-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

But I am soon to be un-screwed. (un-screwed...is that a word?)

Today at the doctor (surgeon) we took some more Röntgenbilds. She was quite happy with how everything looks and said that the bones look well healed.

Then she asked me to walk for her and I immediatly said that I could not. It hurts too much. So she looked at my foot and was pressing around. When she got to the area described in the previous post I did the "don't touch me there it hurts" flinch. She said that is not right. She admitted that the screw was long but did not think that it would bother me. She said that we could take it out if I wanted. Of course I do.

So she left the room. When she returned I was set up for screw remove tomorrow at a little past 1pm. I will be bandaged up until Sunday and then I should be able to start walking on it and wearing normal (if very loose) shoes.

Plus I get to keep the screw.

Maybe I'm Screwed

2006-02-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

Kate mentioned yesterday that there is a screw in my foot, which I had forgotten about, and maybe that is why the bottom of my foot hurts. I am torn about this. On one hand it explains why my foot hurts and that is reassuring. On the other I do not relish the idea of having them remove the screw. Does that mean that they have to cut me open again? I would think that they would have to cut open something and give at least a local.
The surgeon had said that they could remove the screw in like six months if it was bothering me. I do not like the idea of having to limp around for the next six months.
I guess I will find out Thursday.

Brewday Set

2006-02-27T19:52:00.000-05:00

Chip and I have set up another brew day. The day is Saturday and the point, of course, is beer. Chip has listed either a Porter or the old IPA standby. For me it will be the long talked about but never brewed, "Bock Your Brains Out." Sure there have been beers with higher gravities and there have been beers with more hops but this will be a first of a different sort. This Saturday I will be using the new kegs that Kate got me, and Chip made, to brew...

10 Gallons!!!!

That is right, you read it here first there will be 10 gallons of BYBO. I will have to transport the kegs, the mashtun, and the carboys to Chip's for the occasion. We will drink lots of beer, make 20 gallons in 1 day and generally have a fine, no make that great, time.

I decided the other day that if someone would pay me my current wage to make beer I would leave engineering immediately. Beer is so much more fun and rewarding. Too bad.

Frankenfoot

2006-02-26T08:49:00.000-05:00

This is the most recent picture of my surgerized foot. Things are going well. I have been working on the flexibility and trying to get movement back.

Beware....this is not for the faint of heart.

Answers to Question No One Asked

2006-02-25T20:47:00.000-05:00

What time did you get up this morning? 07:17 (which is way too early for a Saturday but that is when the body said it was time to get going)
Diamonds or Pearls? I say diamonds because pearly a icky gross things that oysters grow when their guts get irritated. But then diamonds are a racket and they would cost a 100th of what they do if there was not a cartel.
What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Like Roland I believe it was HP and the Cup of Burny.
What are your favorite TV shows? Scrubs, The OC, House, How I Met Your Mother, and I am sure there are many more I watch only because a lot of people worked real hard on them.
Favorite wine. That would be a big bold dry red. But my favorite wine is beer. And my favorite beer is the one that is currently in my homebrew keg.
Favorite cheese. Cheese is like pearls. It is gross. But I do like cheese but I am not picky.
What is your middle name? Mátyás
What is your favorite cuisine? Not that pretentious. Lets say I enjoy great food but I am not a fanatic.
What foods do you dislike? Anything too spicy. If it is too hot I cannot enjoy the flavor and texture.
Your favorite Potato chip? mmmm....potatos. I like the sour cream and onion.
What is your favorite CD at the moment? Don't do the CD anymore. Everything is iPod or iTunes.
What kind of car do you drive? Henry Bierman drives a 575M Marenello.
Favorite sandwich? Reuben.
What characteristics do you despise? Ugliness.
What are your favorite clothes? Suit up!!
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Right now I want to go to China.
What color is your bathroom? I think it is painted.
Favorite brand of clothing? When it comes to work clothes I dig the Polo.
Where would you want to retire to? Some place where my $$$ go farther.
Favorite time of day? The part where I am not slaving away for the Man.
Where were you born? München, Deutschland.
Favorite sport to watch? Fußball.
Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi. Underdogs rule.
Are you a morning person or night owl? Check this out. Both.
Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? The yellow sun of this world gives me super powers.
What did you want to be when you were little? Astronaut, architect, beastmaster.
What is your best childhood memory? When I led the armies of France against the armies of Britian to free my country. Or it was the day I met my friend PK. Two dorky kids (6 years old) standing at the bus stop. One dork says to the other, "Want to shoot cars," which is pointing at passing cars a "shooting". The other says, "sure," and a likelong friendship was born.
What are the different jobs you have had in your life? Lawn mower, part time paper boy, Wendys, Dairy Queen, co-op, Automation Controls Engineer.
Nickname? The Lizard King.
Piercings? Eyes.
Eye Colour? Chocolate.
Ever been to Africa? I have not visited the Dark Continent.
What is the best thing that you can cook? Oatmeal.
What is the best art you can make? Beer.
Ever been toilet papering? Nope.
Been in a car accident? Just with a deer.
Favorite day of the week? I like the one they call weekend.
Favorite restaurant?
Favorite flower? Purple Clamatis
Favorite ice cream? Chocolate.
Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell.
How many times did you fail your driver's test? One.
From whom did you get your last e-mail? Bryan Carlson.
At what store would you choose to have $20,000 shopping spree (no serious stuff)? The Apple Store.
Bedtime? Not since I was a kid.
If you had a million dollars to donate to the charity or charities of your choice where would it go? Something that helps kids.
Last person you went out to dinner with? Kate.
What are you listening to right now? Last song stuck in my head...Every Rose has a Thorn.
What is your favorite colour? Red.
How many tattoos do you have? Eins.

First Date

2006-02-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

Last night Kate danced with the At-Neemrah dancers at Mezze. And I do not mean that they came up to her and asked her to dance with them. Laura Armenta recently lost one of her dancers and asked Kate to join the troupe. She did one dance with Laura, which she did really well, and then the end of performance group dance.

There is another girl that Laura has picked to sometimes fill this vacancy. She is completely new to belly dancing but is studying dance at GVSU. She was there alone and I was there with no one to sit with so we sat together. It was like a first date without any of the ackwardness. I asked all of the getting to know you questions and had to answer the same. It was not wierd at all for me but the situation was wierd.

Cast Off!

2006-02-17T07:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday they removed my splint, I call it that because that is what they called it, and get a look at my foot for the first time. The split is more like a clam shell then an actual cast. It totally protected my big toe but the pinky was not enclosed.

Once the splint was off and they had cut away all of the other badaging and such I got a to see what had been done. It turns out they replaced my foot with Frankenstein's Monster's foot. My big toe, and surrounding area, is swollen like I have a fat person's foot. The girl doing the work said it looked like a pregnant woman's foot, and she should know since she looks like she could have given birth right then. But back to the foot. It is swollen, covered in the yellow goo of surgery, has stiches, and purple marker lines from where they made the cuts. Not a pretty thing to be sure. And to top it all off...Stinky. Yes Virginia, after two weeks of no soap or water a foot is a stinky thing.

So they took some Röntgenbilds of the monster to check and make sure everything is OK. While it still looks like a foot to me the surgeon said that everything looked fine and that we would see her again in two weeks and then the physical therapy.

Neat thing about Röntgenbilds is that you get to see the screw that they installed in you. It looks like they swung by Lowe's on the way and picked up any ol' screw. On the other hand I am one step closer to being a cyborg.

As an interesting note: without the splint and it's confining nature (now I just have a compression bandage) the things seems to hurt more. And it hurts like crazy when I elavate it. That makes no sense at all. I also discovered that when I am experiencing significant throbbing pain I do not cry or scream but laugh...and nearly uncontrollably. Katie says this is wierd. I agree but am not bothered by it.

Brewboard

2006-02-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

Well, by the world's reaction it seems like everyone else is not as outraged over our changing the names of other countries and cities. C'est la vie.

So my brother-in-law, or should it just be brother, got me hooked on the Brewboard. This is a place, like OOTS, where like minded people can get together and post their comments on their shared love. And like any other board in the world there is a lot of non-related converstations and there are "fights". I found myself in one on my third day. I could not imagine that someone would have such a strong and unmovable opionion on the topic of "Whole vs. Pellet Hops". I figured there would be some opinions and the sharing of knowledge. Yes, that was true, but some posters were so adament about whole hops that anything else was unthinkable and therefor wrong.

For a hobby about beer some people really are....not beerlike.

A Rose by any other name

2006-02-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

********Warning*********
******Rant Ahead********

So I am watching the Olyimpics and the commentators (ever the most clever people around) are calling these the Turin games. But everywhere I look on the screen it is the Torino 2006 games. So what the F*$k is going on here? Why the ____ can't we agree on what the name of this place is? Is it too much to ask the Americans to learn the name of the place? Can we not be bothered to call their city by the name that they have given it? What if they decided that New York should be called, hell I don't know, Stupid City that Got Attacked.

The same crap happens all over the place. München is Munich? Deutschland is Germany? Guangzhou (廣州) is Canton? Zhōngguó (中国) is China? España is Spain?

Of course, France is France. strange.

I once learned that a person's name is the most beautiful sound in the world to that person. Should not we all learn to say the names of the places of the world by the names that were given by the people who live there?

St. Valentine's Day

2006-02-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

OK, technically this is not until Tuesday but Kate and I often like to avoid the actual holidays (be they real or Halmark) by celebrating near them but not on them. It hepls to avoid the busy times at restraunts and helps to get better deals on goods.

As I was wrapping the presents for today I was listening to the iPod and the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" came on. Made me so nastolgic for Wayne's World that I just had to pop it into the DVD player. Absolutlely classic.

But since that is what we are doing tonight I do not really have all that much to talk about in regards to the stated title of this posting.

As could be read on Roland St. Jude's blog avatars are the newest thing. I have requested Roland to procure me an avatar and have left it up to him to dictate what it would look like. As Susan stated, half the fun is finding out what Roland thinks of you and what he would commission.

On the foot side of things everything is going well. I manage to walk around the house without too much difficulty and I'm enjoying the return of mobility and the ability to carry things. Based on how it feels and it being only 10 days from the surgery I am hopeful that I will be fully recovered soon.

PS: does the spell checking on this thing work for anyone else?

Wiki-Hochuli

2006-02-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

Here is the Wikipedia link to everyone's favorite NFL referee. This man needs no introduction for he is, inexplicably, the most recognizable ref in the game today.

Give it up for........

Ed Hochulie

Home

2006-02-04T13:34:00.000-05:00

This is now day 3 of being laid up at home. Thank God we finished the basement and bought the sectional couch with the hide-a-bed. I spent all of the first two days on the bed watching TV, reading, and sleeping. This always sounds so great when you are trapped in the daily work grind. Day after day of waking up and going to the same place, doing the same things, talking with the same people, and tackling the same problems. Then you spend two days trapped at home and you almost want to go back to work.

My biggest issue now is that I cannot walk. I can get around with crutches but I cannot put enough weight on my left foot to actually walk, or even limp. I think that I could go back to work but I do not know how I could do it. The doctor said that after Sunday I do not have to keep my foot over my heart any more, but she did advice keeping it elevated some every hour. Plus, if I cannot get around at work without crutches it could be quite difficult. I guess I'll have to see how I feel tommorrow night or Monday morning.

Thankfully, there is the Super Bowl tommorrow and there have been plenty of movies on TV.

Surgerized

2006-02-02T08:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the big day. For the first time I went under the proverbial knife. Everything went just fine and I was back home by 6pm.

My surgeon fixed my bunion by cutting a chevron in my big toe and shaving off the lump at my toe knuckle.

After getting registered and checked in they take you into a prep room. Here they do the regular things like taking your temperature and blood pressure. They got me hooked up to an IV and then it was the waiting. The surgeon was running behind so I had to wait an extra 30 mins. The anesthesiologist came in and described what he was going to do and then the surgeon came in and answered all of my wife's questions. Then it was time and they wheeled me into the OR. The drug man hooks me up with the sleepy time drugs and shortly thereafter things begin to fade away. There was no count backwards stuff.

Next I wake up while be wheeled to the recovery room. I am surprisingly aware. The strangest thing was that I was lying there trying to rest and the nurse keeps telling me that I have to remember to breathe. How do you remember to breathe?

The Vicadin has kept me asleep mostly since then and that has been nice. I have been popping two at a time and it has kept the pain quite manageable. Now I have to start eating because the Vicadin is making me nauseous with nothing in my stomach.

This summer my Birckenstocks will fit properly on my feet.

Hefe IV

2006-01-27T22:43:00.000-05:00

Forgot to post this earlier...

On the14th of this month I tried another Hefeweizen homebrew. I got some advice from the Head brewer up at the Travers Brewing Company (which may be under new managment very soon). With his advice and a little luck I was able to brew a super good Hefe. This is not just a daddy who is proud of his baby. This one really is good. I would take the F-ing Pepsi Challange with this stuff.

I gave it a name that is totally...lame.
Hefeweizen IV.

Have a good weekend.

Emulation

2006-01-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

You may have seen the link on the side of my blog that points toward a website that will re-skin your Windows XP to look like OS X. It works pretty well and your computer will look a lot like a Mac, but it still really is not a Mac. If you are crazy, which I did say I am prone to in my first post, then this will satisfy for a while. But, as with all crazyness, eventually the monster will get hungry again.

Now, before I go totally Captain Cuckoo Bananas, I found out about PearPC. This is an emulation, see how it ties into the title of today's entry, program that emulates a PowerPC chip on your x86 chip (which pretty much all of you have). All you need after that are some OS X installation iso files and you are ready to make a tiny portion of your harddrive pretend to be a Mac.

I was able to aquire iso files to install OS X 10.3 Panther. While Panther does not have all of the latest wiz bang features of Tiger it is still a quite serviceable version of OS X. I was able to do a full install and then get all of the online updates to bring me up to 10.3.9. I can even map my windows harddrive onto my Mac and access all of my files.

Yes, it is quite slow, due to the emulation but it is a fine way to get familiar with how to get around in OS X before I really go Captain Cuckoo Bananas.

...and Kzoo Jason, I was able to find the terminal in under 10 minutes.