Random and Mostly Serious Stuff

Work has been a humbling experience the last couple of weeks.  For the last year and a half or so, I've kind of been the "big dog" teaching some of the newer engineers the stuff I know.  But, with my new project at work I'm the really little dog learning from all the big dogs.  It's a good thing.  It keeps me humble, and it's exciting to learn new things.

Tonight Gerry and Babs officially and graciously gave their flock over to the care of D-White and Miss Brady.  I'm sure that's hard to do after 20+ years of caring for people.  That explains some of the tears on Sunday.

Maybe I should donate Billy to the landscapers at work since it looks like they need a replacement.

 

Did I mention I went kayaking this past Sunday?  The view was great.  I came close to overdoing it on the paddling.  My back and neck muscles were sore the next day.  But, I think weight lifting class helped loosen them up.  See the lovely view below.

I went to the end-of-year robotics party last night.  It was good.  One of the kids I worked closely with this year gave me sincere thanks and said he mentioned me in his presentation to the school board.  Plus, he's coming back next year for more, which is awesome.

The opportunity to give a proper "burial" to my holey underwear (and socks....and maybe other stuff) will be arriving next week.

That's all for now.  Time to tidy up some stuff, get stuff ready for the upcoming weekend, and try to get to bed at a decent hour.

Near The Zoo

In three places at once.

This past Saturday involved an excursion to "the Zoo" so to speak.  Krix wanted to go to the humane society near there, so we did and looked at a couple dogs.  I stayed wise and didn't bring a cat or dog home, although there were a couple dogs that I really liked and was tempted to try to bring home.  One of the dogs I liked Krix thought would have been a perfect match.  She thought our personalities matched and that we were both in the "gentle" category.  That was interesting since I don't often think of myself as being gentle.

For fun, we also stopped at a fish hatchery to hike around and see nature.  See some pictures below.  I kinda need some help identifying some of these guys.

Steelhead/Rainbow Trout or Chinook Salmon?

Steelhead, Chinook Salmon, plus some other kinds of fish.  The big guy near the bottom is a Lake Sturgeon, not a shark.

Sorta looks like a Tree Swallow except that the legs aren't black.  The bird website I consulted also said it could be a Common House-Martin.  The only problem with that is I don't live in Africa.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #20

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Morning bike to work

2.  Playing janitor - I still have my day job, it was only a temporary reassignment for some fun and games on Friday night with friends.

3.  Beautiful hiking weather

Front Step Greeting

This guy greeted me on my front step one day last week.  He was just as leery of me as I was of him. He manage to squeeze into the crack between the stone and my vinyl siding far enough that I couldn't see him anymore.  I haven't seen him since.  He may:

1. be running laps around the house beneath the vinyl siding
2. be making a nice den behind my siding
3. be trying to find another crack that allows him into the main living room
4. have decided the place wasn't as hospitable as he thought and moved on

I'll probably never really know the truth unless #3 comes to fruition.

Afternoon visitor and greeter.

Randomness

Random mundane thoughts for the day:

• May must be a dying month.  A week or two ago a special lady two states over finished her battle with cancer from what I see on facebook (I didn't know her).  On Saturday, a guy from work did the same after several different treatments for colon, liver, and throat cancer.  His funeral is tomorrow.  I had lunch with him a few times with other people over the years, but I never worked directly with him and we weren't BFFs.  So I'm not going to the funeral, but my heart does go out to his family.  He has a couple kids in high school I think.
• The guy who just died at work was the same guy who helped make me thankful in Week #1 of this year.
• We won our softball game today.  Woo-hoo!
• I went kayaking on Sunday for the first time this year.  Pictures are included at the bottom.  If you're on facebook you probably already saw them, but oh well.
• I was thinking the other day that I might get off easy and not have many weddings to go to this summer.  The wedding invitation count so far is at two.  I guess that's not too bad.  It's maybe dropping off a little because all my friends are married now, and most of them are starting to have kids.  OK, not all my friends are married.  My newer friends aren't married, but most of my "old" friends are.
• Travel for work is looking imminent again since they've added a second reason for me to go because I'm the one in the group who has my visa to travel there.  Apparently I'm supposed to help with a "deep dive" on some other project in addition to doing some work on my own project.  That's exciting stuff.
• You know what's good to listen to on a Sunday evening?  Some good waltz music.  Strauss is the best if you can get it.  I recommend a little "Blue Danube."  I always think style and grace when I hear that.
•  I went to weight lifting class yesterday, and today my arms don't hurt all that bad.  They must be getting used to it.
• The only trouble with purchasing quite a bit of music on iTunes is that you never reach a good stopping point.  When you listen to the radio or Pandora you reach a point where you get kind of tired of the music they're playing or they start playing stuff you don't like as much.  With all the music I've purchased, I'm always telling myself "I'll shut down after this good song."  But then the next song is good too!  It's hard to quit.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #19

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Love of Little Girls - After Onion Meeting, one of the little girls there ran over and gave me a hug and wanted to tell me about going to see some kitties.  And, my niece on the phone told me she loved me.  Few things melt your heart faster than that.

2.  Sunset Time - The sun left in a puddle of fire the one evening this week when I watched it.

3.  Friday Lunch Walk - Sunshine, a nice walk, and hot dogs from the Hog Dog Kart on the bluff - nice!

Bonus thankfulness item:  A lesson in forgiveness.  It was a small thing I asked another person forgiveness for, but the lesson was big about how thankful we can be that God forgives big and little things.  Also, I'm thankful to be thankful this week!

Evergreen Replacement

I spent about five hours on Saturday working on a little side yard project.  If you remember a while back (like a year ago), I was contemplating taking out a mess of evergreen bushes.  Last fall I got ambitious and cut them off near the ground without telling you guys, and then on Saturday I dug out the stumps and replanted with some flowers.  I replanted with one iris plant and daffodils I got for free from D-White.

You'll notice a dead space in the row of flowers - that's where I decided I needed to try my hand at a garden again (and I ran out of flower).  I planted leftover seeds from about two years ago, so we'll see what happens there.  I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce.  It's one of the places that gets the most sunlight in my yard, so I'm hoping for better results than last time.

You will also notice that I'm working on reclaiming some land from the ivy.  Part of that I replanted to grass.  I might still have a little bit of farmer blood left in me.  Also, correction on my previous post.  The tree is a white spruce, not a blue spruce.  This could make a difference because based on the pictures online, I think I might like the look of a white spruce better than a blue spruce (although they both need full sun, which I'm not sure I can provide).  Now I'll see if Billy's adoptive parents still want him since his predicted skin color has changed.

Below are some pictures of the yard progress.

Billy in infancy and a mess of evergreen bushes a year ago.

The ivy partially cut back and stumps dug out.

Flowers, garden, and grass planted.

Plant Maturity

• Order has been restored to the world.  #504 in the vending machine is Snickers again.
• My blog location tracker thing tells me I am getting hits from Russia now.  I believe I know who that reader is - a cuz's cuz.  Greetings young reader!
• While doing yard work on Saturday, I found the bottle of Pepsi shown below.  Do you think it's still good enough to drink?  How long has it been since they made 20 oz. pop bottles in that shape?
• If you're on facebook, you probably already saw this, but I will repeat myself.  You see, a year ago (maybe even two, I can't really remember) I went to Lowe's on or around Arbor Day, and they were giving away a free blue spruce tree to any customer who wanted one.  Who can turn down a free tree?  Not me.  Per the instructions he came with, I planted him in a pot for his first year (or two).  Now he (let's call him Billy the blue spruce) needs a permanent home, but I'm not sure I'm responsible enough or have the resources to give him what he needs, so I'm doing the mature thing and adopting him out to a more permanent home.  Let this be a lesson to you on why I should never be allowed to go to the humane society and why you should never offer me a free kitten or puppy.
• Speaking of Arbor Day, my track record isn't very good in that department.  When I was in elementary school, we got free ash trees one year, so I took it home and planted it.  However, over the course of my junior high and high school years, I believe I ran that guy over with the mower at least once, and I think I accidentally weed wacked him once too.  He was a hardy little thing and recovered from both.  When I'm home to ND in a few weeks, I'll have to check and see if he's still alive.  I'm guessing he's not.

You got the right one baby - uh huh!

 

Billy - Free to a good home.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #18

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Morning Bird Songs - cardinal, robin, crow, sparrow, mourning dove, and red winged blackbird just to name the ones I recognize.

2.  After Dusk Basketball - It's hard to get a picture in the dark while playing basketball, so I stole this picture off facebook.  I played with this guy here, his brother, and three of his teenaged sons.  Even more than the basketball, I'm thankful for him and his wife being gracious hosts and organizing some volleyball, basketball, and fellowship.

3.  Friends From Work (and their families) - we had some good burgers, brats, beans, guacamole, grape salad, birthday cake, Rock Band sessions, and games of Dominion.

Short Blurb

To answer a question asked on the previous post:  no, last week was not a bad week.  It was just kind of an "ordinary" week.  This one is shaping up to be similar so far.  Except.....

I put my dollar in the vending machine today planning on getting the usual #504 (Snickers) for my afternoon snack.  The dollar was already sucked in, and then I noticed *horrors* that #504 was full of watchamacallit candy bars.  There were no Snickers in sight.  I had to settle for a "Fast Break", although next time I may do Peanut M&Ms.  Or, next time I might have to go down to the third floor and see if they have Snickers in their vending machines.

Meeting Man missed his appearance this evening for the car pool.  I called to make sure he was OK, and it turns out he just lost track of time.  Whoops - that happens to the best of us.