Hi

I haven't posted much lately. Blogger has been giving me fits with my password and I have to have it reset nearly every time I log in for some reason. I've also been using Facebook more for posting photos and little updates for what I'm doing. So if you really care you can get a facebook account and add me as a friend to see what I'm doing. With a blog it seems like I should have something substantive to say, when I don't always. I'll still update this when I have something to say that's more than a few words, but it won't be as often.

Have a Merry Fesivus all.

A Couple of Unimportant Things

I took the Cutlass to a storage facility in Fremont two weeks ago. It's about 40 miles from Omaha. It's less than half the price of any place that I could find in Omaha, though. So we're essentially back down to a two car family. The reason to store the Cutlass was so that the Benz could be in the garage during for winter. I didn't plan on doing that when I first bought the Benz, but become so smitten with the car that I really didn't' want it to expose it to the elements full time. I've given thoughts of selling the Cutlass. The Mercedes is faster, handles better, more comfortable, more economical and safer. Plus it has a back seat that is usable for the boys. The only thing that the Cutlass has over the Mercedes is swankiness. Which isn't to be sneezed at. The Mercedes does have a cool factor to it, but it isn't the same. The layman can't tell a lot of difference between an AMG Mercedes vs. an average Mercedes. But with the Cutlass you have kids giving you the thumbs up when you pass them on the interstate. And really, who doesn't want to look cool to seven year old boys? In the end, I'll probably keep. I just need a bigger garage.

Brainwashing a 3 year old is really easy. Without much effort I've convinced Corwin that the Broncos are the only good football team on the planet. Last week the Broncos were on the TV, and I told Corwin that they were on. He got so excited and came to sit down and watch the game with me. For about 10 minutes, then he had to run circles around the couch. Now every time a football game is on TV, college or pro, he'll watch the TV to determine if either team has blue helmets with a horse on the side. If not, he'll ask who is playing. I'll say, "Oh, that's the Chiefs and Chargers." He'll say something like, "They're not the Broncos. They're bad." I'm a proud father.

Halloween at the Daycare

TV

Do yourself a favor. If you watch TV, try and catch Life on Mars. ABC at 9. It's the best show on TV in my opinion. Granted I don't have cable nor watch much TV, but it's bloody good.

Specialization is for Insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein

Is Scotty a human or an insect?

I can change a diaper. I have a lot more experience at that than I’d prefer.
I think I could plan an invasion, but I suspect I’d do better if all participants involved were fighting with swords, crossbows and catapults.
I can butcher a hog. My 1.5 years working at Excel- a hog packing plant- in college finally pays off in a philosophical way.
I had to look up what conn means. To direct the course or steering of a ship or plane. I can’t actually conn a ship, but I can launch and dock a ski boat. Learning how to sail a boat is on my to-do list.
I could perhaps design a shed.
Writing a sonnet is right out.
I can balance accounts, but I generally don’t.
I’ve never built a wall, but Anke has. Perhaps she could help me.
I don’t think I could set a bone.
I’ve thankfully never had to comfort the dying.
I take orders daily.
I give orders daily.
I can both cooperate and act alone.
I can solve simple equations.
I analyze new problems regularly. The Analyst portion of my Programmer/Analyst title.
I can pitch manure, but I’m not volunteering for that job.
I write computer programs on a daily basis. The Programmer portion of my Programmer/Analyst title.
I can definitely cook a tasty meal.
I don’t know how efficient a fighter I am.
I’m hoping to live long enough for technology to make me immortal.

Family Pictures

I'm finally getting around to uploading some photos from the past month. Here is Corwin with Sparky the fire dog at Pancake Day.

Tony is kind enough to give Corwin a better view of the Parade.

Corwin and Conrad enjoyed playing with some the toys from the youth of Maurice and myself.

The Crane that Corwin plays with was Maurices. You can tell this due to it's less battered nature as compared to the dump truck which was mine.

Last weekend we went down to the Gifford Farm Fall Festival. Conrad watches the ponies while Corwin is waiting his turn to ride.

Corwin gets his turn riding the Pony. Corwin likes Ponies.

Conrad and I watch Corwin riding. Conrad will get to ride next year.

Corwin and a bushel basket.

The boys play at a water pump.

Corwin and Anke.

Giant tree.

Conrad and Corwin play one of the Xylaphones at Acorn Acres. When I showed Corwin this picture, the first thing he says is, "Conrad's not sharing."

Broken Hearted

Love is a fickle thing.

We went to Acorn Acres at Fontenelle Forest this evening with the boys. It just opened last month and is a sort of nature playground with a tree house, outdoor xylophones, digging areas and other things. Corwin met a 7 year old named Maddy and fell for her head over Chuck Taylor All Stars. They played together for a while. She showed him a cool acorn that was connected to two other sibling acorns. She went to play with her sister at the tree house and Corwin was yelling at the top of his voice, "Maddy! Maddy where are you?! Maddy!" He went off to find her and they played some more. 1/2 an hour later her family wanted to take a walk so she went with them. Corwin really wanted to go to, but it was time for us to head home as Conrad was hungry and it was nearing his bed time. Lots of tears and crying.

Frusterations with the Post Office

I'm mailing a couple of books to Tony, so he doesn't have to buy them to read them. Why have a tiny libary if you can't share it? So I pack them in a priority mail box that I had lying in my basement from something that I bought off of Ebay. At the mail counter the mail lady says that I can't mail them via media mail in a priority box. It just seems so damn stupid that I can't recycle this box to get more use out of it. I'll have to find a different box now that'll work and repack. This is one of the things that drove me to near madness that I used to be able to brush off.

Little Feet

Conrad took three steps this morning. The past couple of days he's taken great strides towards being a more verticle human as aposed to his mainly horizontalness up till now. He's so different that Corwin in this way. Corwin has always been all about trying new things as soon as it pops into his head and/or he is physically capable. Conrad is more contemplative, calm and careful. Conrad really does things at his own pace and won't be rushed. It seems that he feels ready to start walking.

Cope

I've always been a fairly patient person. I can put up with quite a bit before I really get upset. That doesn't seem to be the case so much anymore. Recently my patience just seems a bit worn and frayed. I can be having a normal fine day, and a small thing will convert my mood to dark and foul. I try not to externalize it, because rarely does ranting and raving accomplish anything except put others in a corresponding state of mind. And in my case misery really doesn't want company. I'll just have to adjust, cope and hope it isn't permanent.

First of Fall

Today is the first day of Fall. By default that makes today the End of Summer. At 11:43 today to be precise. And again I didn't do any waterskiing or camping. That saddens me. Hopefully next summer.

The summer still contained quite a bit of hiking through the local woods. Quality time spent with my family. It sounds so cliched when I say it, but the boys are growing so fast. Corwin does and says so many funny things. A couple of weeks ago we took a long walk, so Corwin got to ride in the backpack for part of it. He had a feather that he was playing with. We stopped so Anke could photo some flower and Corwin started drawing on my neck with the quill. When we got going again Corwin started yelling, "Papa! You're paper! Paper doesn't walk! Don't walk, Papa! Paper doesn't walk!" Moments like that do make up a bit for the lack of boating.

IBM and the Desert

The IBM Conference was pretty good. It seemed more geared towards systems programmers than application programmers. But still got some useful stuff out of it. I know a bit more about SOA than I did before and I can talk about Virtualization now if I have to. I found out that COBOL 4 has some built in XML tools which are potentially useful. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Jon and we found my new favorite bar. An Irish place called O'Flaherty's. It's a really friendly place with a cool racecar driving Irish bartender named Antoine. They also had the dishiest waitresses.

I started back for Omaha on Friday morning at 7. Driving through California wasn't a lot of fun. I got a bit lost at first and ended up going through San Francisco instead of around it. But I only lost maybe an hour.

I really enjoyed the drive through the desert of Nevada. I just like deserts. It would have been nice to have had Anke with me so I could have slowed down to look at some the interesting places. But I was really in a hurry to get home.

Tunnel

This photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of a full moon rising above the mountains of Salt Lake City. Cut me some slack though. It's taken through the windshield at 80 mph after 13 hours of driving.

Big sky country of Wyoming.

The C36 in front of what I believe is Elk Mountain in Wyoming. I don't have any photos of Nebraska as it really isn't extremely interesting. I did make it back to my own bed at 10:30 Nebraska time. That's around 1700 miles in 37 hours total travel time.

One day in San Jose

I left Omaha at around 6:30 this morning. Anke and Corwin took me to the airport. We had been prepping Corwin for my departure for over a week now. When I went back to C'town with Maurice a couple of weeks ago he really freaked out a bit. He really thought I was never coming home. So I told him I was flying to California and driving a new car home. And I would bring him and Conrad presents. I think that helped a bit.

I picked up my car this morning. But once again I don't know where it's at. My hotel only has valet parking so some young kid took my car away again today. Here is the AMG at the valet parking viewed from my room. The internet said that my hotel had a parking garage and wifi access in all rooms. The wifi access is only in the lobby. Luckily my laptop can barely pick up that network with only one bar.

Last night I went to an Share.org reception. It was nice with free food and drinks. And I have never seen so many CICS tee shirts in my life. Let alone in one place. I also met my dopleganger from Wisconsin. He too is a youngish COBOL programmer. Whose dad also is a truck driver. A lot of the conference seems to be directed more towards systems programmers vs. application programming, which is what I do. So it was nice to meet someone with a background similar to mine.

Muskrat update

Corwin now thinks that the muskrat that tried to attack me is Scabbers from Harry Potter. Corwin also wants to be Voldemort for Halloween. I wonder if it's time to be worried that I may be raising a dark wizard.

Nature photos from a Sunday Morning

This morning we got up early- not buy my choice- and decided to go down to the marsh before the day became unbearable. The lotus should be in full bloom by now.

Near the overlook, things aren't in full bloom yet. But there are single flowers here and there.

Across the lake is another story.

All of the photos, excluding one, are taken by Anke. This isn't the one.

I'm generally too busy chasing the hyperactive three year old to stop and watch bees and flowers.



I very much like this picture. Well done, Anke.

I like frogs.

As Corwin and I are walking along the path I notice that there's a beaver looking thing not two feet away from him. Making the rodent about 7ish feet from me. I've glimpsed muskrats down by Hidden Lake before, but generally they take to the water in a jiffy when they notice humans. But this one is just sitting there eating a stick, cool as James Dean. Then he notices there is a tiny human- but still much larger than him- quite near by. And a larger human coming up. So he takes off in the general direction of the water. But more precisely, strait at me! All I can think is that, I just saw his sharp little pointy teeth eating a stick. What will those teeth do to my toes? So as he's coming right for me, I jump and he zooms right underneath me making for the lake. I was inches away from having bloody stumps for toes. I was barely saved by my under appreciated ninja-cat agility. Corwin thought the entire affair entirely too amusing. I'm not sure he comprehends the peril I was in.

Later when Corwin and I were playing else where, the vampire-muscrat came back and Anke was able to shoot a picture of him on the boardwalk.

Corwin hunts for a "giant mouse" with a stick.

The gold finch is the lone photo by your narrator.

A few words after a few beers

I just finished watching The Thirteenth Warrior and noticed for the first time that it's basically a retelling of Grendel and Beowulf. How did I never catch this before? I was inspired to watch The Thirteenth Warrior again by a viking saga that I finished reading about a month ago called The Whale Road. I'm a big fan of viking sagas and have read several. I need to do a post in the future strictly about them.

My (and Anke's) Mercedes is paid for. Now all I've got to do is pick it up. It makes me a little bit nervous paying for a car then having to wait 1 1/2 weeks before picking it up. I've still got a week before I get it. I should land in San Jose around 9:30 am CA time. I'm hoping that my hotel will let me check in early. I'll then take the bus from San Jose to Fremont CA. It's like going from Omaha to Bellevue or Des Moines to Altoona. Basically the same city. I'll pick up the car, pay CA sales tax on it. I've then got an appointment with the San Jose Mercedes dealership on Tuesday to have all of the fluids changed. Oil, transmission fluid, new fluid in the differential. It'll probally be an expensive service, but it'll be much cheeper than a new transmission down the road. The Mercedes automatic 5 speed transmission in these cars tend to grenade if they aren't properly maintaned. And I'm afraid that putting a new transmission in this car may be a bit trickier than swapping a new one into the Cutlass.

Anke was telling me this evening how she never thought that she'd own a Mercedes-Benz. She always pictured them as cars driven by important buisness men. She thought that she could maybe see us in a BMW at some point, but not a Mercedes. The problem with BMW is that they hold thier value too well. The M3 is a highly sought after car. Even old ones. So a comperable M3 to my C36 would be at least half again as much more than what I paid for mine. This despite the fact that when both were new in 1997, the C36 was about $15,000 more than an M3. It's really the same way I ended up with a Cutlass. I started out looking for a Chevelle and realized that they are really expensive. A Cutlass in equivalent shape was about half the price. And I've come around to the opinion that I think Cutlasses look better than Chevelles now.

I'm sure the boys will be up early, so I should get to bed soon.

AMG Mercedes-Benz - The winning edition

So I ended up with a silver one, instead of a red one. The car is still in San Jose as I type this, but I wired the payment for it today.

So what do we have? It's a 1997 Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG. AMG is Mercedes in house tuner division. Basically the same thing as the BMW M division, SVT for Ford or SRT for Chrysler. It's the zoomy one. It has a hand build I6 with 276 horsepower at 5750 rpm and 284 lb-ft of torque at 4000, sport suspension and all the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz. 1997 was also the only year this car was made with the 5 speed automatic transmission. I wish the car had a manual, but AMG products have never used manual transmissions.

My car has ~103,000 miles. And has lived it's entire life not in the Midwest. This was important. If I was going to buy a car older than 10 years that'll be driven on a nearly daily basis and have to live outside, as this one will, I wanted one that hadn't been exposed to Midwestern winters and salt. So basically I was looking for a Florida, Texas, Arizona or California car. According to Carfax this one was sold in Georgia, lived in Florida for two years and then moved to California in 2000 where it has lived since then.

It has black leather interior, a sunroof, Bose sound system, and a worthless built in Mercedes phone that only works on a now non existent network. It has four doors for easy access to kids and car seats. That is important, for it was a big selling getting Anke to agree to this.

The C36 replaces the Alero in our household. It'll be my car while the Vibe will essentially become Anke's. But it still won't get driven most days as Anke and I commute to work together 85% of the time. I'll have to get some snow tires for winter duty, as it's a rear wheel drive car with bloody wide tires. The transmission does have a winter mode though, but I'm not quite sure what that does.

I'll be in San Jose next month for an IBM conference so I may drive the car back then, but we're also thinking about having it shipped back on a truck. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. All in all I pretty pleased with it and very happy with the price that I paid. No reserve auctions on Ebay rule.

DKM

Dropkick Murpheys played at Sokol last night. I had no idea they were in town until about 7:30 last night when I saw a small blurb about it on the Omaha World Hearld web site. So I quickly put Corwin to bed and drove down to Sokol to see if I could still get in. I couldn't, sold out. As I was driving home, it occured to me that I had a rainy day $50 hiding in my wallet. I should have pulled that out and started asking the kids outside if any of them wanted to sell there ticket for double face value. Oh, well.

What really bugs me is that I didn't even know they were playing. I checked their tour schedule on their web site a couple of weeks ago, and Omaha wasn't on it. How did all the punk kids know that they were going to be here and not me? I need to pay more attention.

Initiative

I'm a rather laid back, easy going person for the most part. And this has served me well in many areas of my life including being a father, husband and parts of my job.

It makes me easy to get along with and I can work with most people and don't cause clashes. But there comes a point where if you're only letting the job and work come to you, you sort of plateau. And that's been OK for the last couple of years. I've been preoccupied with having a pregnant wife and raising infants and toddlers. But with Conrad turning one on Friday, life at home is getting a bit easier. I'm truthfully at a better place and happier than I've been for a very long time. Having kids and being a good parent is hard. But it's getting easier now and I can put a bit more focus back being a better employee. And getting that next promotion, which is what this is really about. More money.

I have the skills and ability to do that. My coding skills are good and have served me well the past couple of years, while I've been on auto pilot a bit. But to advance, it means being more proactive and taking initiative with my job and not just letting it come to me. The non-technical aspects. So I've started carrying this little orange dice around with me in my pocket as a reminder. It's a 10 sided die, which is what one rolls for initiative when playing Dungeons and Dragons. I've owned this particular die for somewhere around 20 years now. There is even a chip on it from where it sat in Billy's driveway for a few weeks lost. We found it later, after Bill Sr. had run over it a few times with the Subaru.

It's kind of a corny thing do to, I know. But I'm going against my nature with this and the reminder helps me.

AMG Mercedes-Benz

I tried to buy this Mercedes yesterday. It's a 1995 C36 AMG, with 110,000 miles. I've been eyeing these cars for months now, and this one came up on Ebay with no reserve. I was all ready to fly down to Florida ($180 via Southwest) to pick it up and drive home. I tried to swipe it for the low amount of $5000, but it sold for $5100. It's annoying because you might think that for only 1 or 2 hundred more, I could have had it. But you never know how high the other person is willing to go. And you really shouldn't play that game on Ebay. One needs to decide what you are willing to pay, and go no further. And that's what I did, but damn I really wanted that car!

Well I probally won't find one going for this cheep again anytime soon, so I'll have to continue on with the plan to wait two more years for Corwin to get to daycare. By then I'll have more money to spend and can maybe get a C43 with lower miles, which is mostly the same car as the C36 but with a V8 instead of an I6.

Elmo

On Sunday we had my parents give birthday presents to Corwin and Conrad in a small joint birthday ceremony. One of the gifts that Conrad got was a Tickle Me Elmo that Mom had bought a couple of years ago, but didn't give away. Corwin is a big Elmo fan and was very happy to play with Conrad's new toy. When bedtime came around, Corwin was asking where Elmo was. I didn't know off of the top of my head, but I said that he's sleeping in Conrad's room, because Elmo is Conrad's toy and I didn't want Corwin taking too much posetion of him. That's cool with Corwin. OK, off to bed.

Around half and hour after bedtime, I hear desperate crying coming from Corwin's room. I go into check on him. First I ask him if he bonked himself as he does sometimes while playing after bedtime. He tells me, through his tears that no he hasn't bonked himself. He says he's scared of the alligator. Alligators are the only thing at the zoo that sometimes scare him. I tell him it's OK, nothing to worry about, but he is still crying and sobbing in a way I'd never seen him do before. He's really freaked out. Anke thinks that we should take him to the living room where it's brighter to remove him from the traumatic situation. I'm holding him, hugging him in the living room when he says, "Elmo's in Trunki!"

Trunki is a small blue suit case on wheels with a pull strap that can be pulled and is sturdy enough for Corwin to ride around on. Corwin wanted Elmo to ride on Trunki, but Elmo didn't stay on Trunki so well. Anke helped Corwin open Trunki and put Elmo inside. We had forgotten where Elmo was. It seems that Corwin had remembered and was really scared for Elmo. Anke rushed off to Corwin's room to rescue Elmo.

Corwin hugged Elmo and through his tears insisted that we take him to Conrad's room. So we put Elmo in Conrad's crib and Corwin was ready for bed again. It touches and pleases me that Corwin is growing into a loving, caring person.

Hurricane

Friday evening we had a storm come through Omaha that featured Hurricane strength winds. It was a very brief but intense storm. We had leaves and branches and one medium-large size tree limb knocked down in our yard, but nothing severe. Maurice wasn't so lucky.

He had several large tree limbs from his silver maple fall in his yard and a giant one land on his house, putting a hole in the roof. Mom was in town, so she and I went over Saturday morning to help clean up.

When we got there, Maurice was already cutting away with his little chainsaw. He tried to go buy a larger one at Menards that morning, but they were already sold out of all but the professional grade chain saws by 9 am.

Luckily the neighbors son, Bob stopped by and offered to give us a hand. He had a nice Stihl chainsaw that was able to cut up the largest logs for us. We were really lucky that Bob helped out.

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Monday update:

Below are before and after photos of a house from West Omaha owned by the sister of a co-worker of mine. It was only a couple of years old. I don't think they build houses like they used to.

Turkey Fry

Last Sunday Maurice invited the family over to his place to fry a turkey that had been in his freezer for months. It was a really nice Thanksgiving in June. Corwin had a blast playing ball with Bernie, digging under Maurice's tree and petting the cat.

Maurice got some nice pictures of Anke and Conrad while I was taking Corwin to the potty. Although Mo (and everyone else out there) needs to learn, never use the digital zoom on a camera. When using a point and shoot, use the mechanical zoom to your hearts content, but you're better off taking the image with your subject little smaller in the frame than using the digital zoom. Your computer at home can crop and enlarge the pictures better than a little camera. But aside from that, the pictures are rather nice. Thanks Mo.

Corwin plays ball with Maurice too.

Conrad, Uncle Mo with Nicole in the background.