Man's Laser Show

It's not really a laser show, and it was obscured by God's weather (fog)......here's what the fireworks show looked like this weekend. It was for the festival going on in town here. After about three minutes, they decided not to waste any more money and make next year's fireworks twice as big instead. Good choice in my opinion.




Part of the festival is that they have a concert every day, so I caught a few of those. Check out one of the die-hard hair band fans who showed up at one of the concerts.

Hello, Kitty

I am kitty sitting Tumbleweed again. He did his usual disappearing act the first day. I never did find his hiding place this time, but eventually he showed up. Now he's at the point where he shows himself when he hears me clanging dishes around getting supper ready, and he'll come out of hiding in the morning. I even got a couple seconds of purring out of him tonight. That's all that's new around here (except that I'm actually staying home this weekend).

Speaking of travels, for those curious ones who are wondering, I went back to ND last weekend. There were a multitude of reasons, two of them relating to weddings. One was a cousin's reception, and the other was preparing for my sister's upcoming wedding. It was also time for a class reunion (we won't say how many years for fear of revealing how young I am). I'm not sure how I feel about the class reunion. Some people were doing about what you'd expect, some of them weren't. One guy was barely recognizable with a scraggly goatee and long hair when he used to be very clean cut. Some were married, some brought their boyfriend/girlfriend, some had kids, some didn't have any kids and weren't married. It was kind of fun to see all those people again, but I wouldn't necessarily hang out with many of them in my daily routine I don't think. There was also quite a lot of alcohol consumption involved, which isn't my scene either.

On Saturday my parents were working on a big bridge project in their backyard for the upcoming wedding. I'll wait until it's completely finished to show the sequence of construction and how cool it is. For now, here's a picture of the great ND sky and crops that I always appreciate. Not bad for being taken from a 70 mph moving vehicle.

God's Laser Show

On one of my plane flights over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching a thunderstorm while being above it and many miles away as the sun set. This video doesn't really do it justice, but you kind of get the idea. I think this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen out a plane window. It was good enough for me to put down my book for awhile. Sorry it's so long, but I'm still an amateur at my video editing software and didn't get this edited like I would have liked to.

One Wedding and a Rafting

I suppose that I should post my 4th of July summary. You may not be aware, but this is the summer of weddings - at least in my social sphere. I had the 3rd and 4th of July off from work, so I went to the lovely state of Idaho for the four-day weekend. I went to see my friend from college, Avis, get married. She met her husband as a result of my snowboard trip to Idaho a year and a half ago, so I can claim partial responsibility for that event. In addition to the wedding, I hung out with my cousin Beth (mentioned previously in my Chiner post). We did some sedate white water rafting, shopping (they had an REI store!), saw an outdoor Shakespeare play, watched some fireworks, and just took it easy (not all in the same day). As my trip summary custom is, I present my "list" for Idaho:

1. It's nice and hot. I am not being sarcastic. With the cool summer we've been having here, it was nice to go there and just bake in the sun.
2. It's nice and dry. (Read here: No mosquitoes or other pesky bugs. This allows you to sit on the patio every night and sometimes at lunch time. Watch out for the snakes though.)
3. It's nice and sunny. I've mentioned it before and will mention it again. There's nothing quite like a sunny day regardless of whether it's -20 or +100 degrees F.
4. Cool people. (Especially when I'm there. :-P ) Really this should be #1, but you all know the number in the list does not indicate the order of importance. Not only did I see Avis, but I also saw Mildred.

That's all, folks. I'm a little disappointed in how short and weather focused my list is, but sadly it's all I can think of right now. Nothing all that unusual happened while I was there. I will redeem myself by posting a few pictures below.




But wait, I thought of a better list! Some of my most memorable moments of Avis:

1. Trading shoes with her (on purpose - do not let her tell you differently) when I was leaving her apartment just to see how long it would take her to notice that I did that. I think it was less than 24 hours but more than 8.
2. Trouncing her soundly at Rook (unless she was on my team of course). To be more accurate, I just like playing Rook with her no matter what.
3. Attending "Boot Camp" aerobics with her at the Hyslop.
   
4. Going to her family's lake cabin for the weekend with Melanie the summer I lived in Wahpeton.
5. Hanging out with her and a bunch of other people at her apartment the night before I graduated from college. It was kind of a partial impromptu bachelorette party for Melanie too. I distinctly remember the wicker chair/love seat with the blue seat pad and showing off my Bob the Builder walkie talkies.
6. Eating at the dining center (usually Wilkerson, but sometimes Squires or Swanson). Yes, I ate slow then too.
   
7. Going to "visit" so we could use the pool at the apartment complex.
8. Getting a great picture of Avis with her safety glasses from her job sorting sugar beets.
9. How she got the nickname Avis.
10. Of course, the infamous snowboarding trip where she met Blair. I think it might have been the skirt she bought at Target the night before Sunday AM meeting that did the trick.
11. Always getting a different perspective on the world from her - whether in person or from her blog.
    

Well, Duh.....

A few weeks ago this sign showed up on each end of the row of cubes that my cubicle is along. Not only did they feel the need to state the obvious, they're not so good with their homophones, so I had to correct them.



It is a bit of a narrow aisle where two skinny people could pass uncomfortably or else only one larger individual could walk through. But I have been walking up and down it for five years successfully without the aid of a sign (and without any major mishaps). It's probably one of those silly OSHA rules or something. It has provided some entertainment for us at least.

Wii!

This post is one of those soul searching kind of ones. Have you heard of the Wii video game system? It's that one from Nintendo where the game controllers and such make you move while you play the video games. One of the programs on the Wii is called Wii Fit, and basically you can use the controller to do exercises or play balancing games, yoga, practice your ski jumping, etc. I've tried it once and it's pretty cool. One of the exercise activities is to do the hula hoop. This video is a picture a guy took of his girlfriend doing the Wii Fit hula hoop game in her underwear unbeknownst to her until she heard the Wii Fit music playing at work and saw somebody (her boss) watching HER on YouTube at work. The video now has more than four million hits.

That's the history. The question is, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most steaming mad you could be, what would you rate your anger level if this happened to you? And would this end your relationship with the person who posted it? The bonus question is - would you ever think about doing something like this to someone else?

P.S. The one time I played on the Wii Fit, I did NOT do the hula hoop, but I did see someone try it. If you want to try, maybe check out your local Best Buy and see if they have a demo system.

Creepy

In the last four months, I've received the newspaper article below in the mail. Twice. Postmarked from Gary, IN. Twice (once in March, once in May). No return address. Twice. Post-it note saying "Look at this!". Twice. Handwriting vaguely familiar, but not enough to know who sent them to me. Twice. Cryptic signature that looks like a J maybe (why can't they sign their whole name?). Twice. Nice thick, white envelope that's the size of a half sheet of paper like greeting cards come in (not one of those privacy envelopes like I have at my desk at home). Twice. Same fancy loop on the capital M. Twice.


Needless to say, it's a bit creepy. I have several theories on who it could be, but none of them are good theories:

1. I'm thinking maybe it's someone who reads my blog? If not, it's even creepier that they knew I was looking at cars during that time frame.
2. I only know a few people who live even remotely close to Gary. A couple of them are guys from work, and they don't strike me as the type to mail it to me, they'd just give it to me at work.
3. The only other people I know near there I only know from GM, and they don't seem like they would send snail mail without a properly signed letter.
   
4. One of the guys from work is playing a practical joke on me. Maybe the J-Kac (secret valentine guy)? I can't see him having such loopy handwriting, and it's a little elaborate to send those from Gary, even for him.
5. Would a car salesman do something like that? They would have my address because they make a copy of your license when you do a test drive. That seems outlandish too.

Hmm......the mystery is not solved. Next time, I may have to get out the fingerprint duster kit, but I'm sure hoping there isn't a next time. If you have any good theories, let me know. Or if it was YOU, stand up and be counted. Twice.

Bathroom Behavior Observation #5

I bet you thought you'd never get another bathroom post, huh? Well, here it is! Yesterday I went into the bathroom, and there was someone in one of the stalls. As I was walking towards the stalls, I could hear her talking. I thought maybe she was talking to herself (there is one lady at work who does that in the bathroom), but it wasn't her. It was someone on their cell phone. I didn't realize that fact until I was already in the stall doing my business. At that point it was too late to hold back too. I felt it was an invasion of my privacy for other people to be listening in on the phone like that. But really, why would you answer your phone while in the bathroom stall in the first place? I think that's one occasion when it's OK for it to go to voice mail. If it's important, they'll leave a message. If she was trying to be discrete to the person on the phone about where she was, I totally blew her cover when I flushed the toilet in the middle of her conversation. The lady was Brazilian and the conversation was in Portuguese or possibly Spanish, so maybe people down there do that kind of thing normally. I couldn't tell if her conversation was work or personal (I did hear a lot of "No funciona", so possibly work?), but either way it was a bit strange.

Surreal Stuff

As I alluded in my last post, I did make it to Dagmar convention last week (with the help of some friends). It was halfway spur of the moment. When I was in Wyoming a few weeks ago, Mo twisted my arm really hard and made me agree to meet her and and Jen at Dagmar. So, I made a spontaneous airline ticket purchase to Minot, ND. My friends Alli, Suz, and Nancy picked me up at the airport and gave me a ride to and from Dagmar. As usual, convention itself was great, and it was further enhanced by hanging out with the above-mentioned friends, meeting some new people, and greeting some not-so-new people. Also thanks to Willie and Tania for the hospitality at their house. There were just so many good things about this trip I can't list them all. Good convention, good friends, good scenery.

That's the boring synopsis of my travels plus a picture below of, as one person called it, "The Great Gathering of Single Women". Or maybe it was the gathering of great single women? ;-)


Now for the really surreal part. There are some things you can't really imagine in your wildest dreams, and several of them happened on my trip.

1. Between Dagmar and Minot, the car I was riding in almost simultaneously hit a pheasant and a deer. Luckily, we missed both. The car was packed to the gills, and we didn't really have room for the extra meat.
   
2. Eating sushi in Minot, ND. Granted it's only possible on certain days of the week, but still. Who would have ever thought those NDans would go for that kind of stuff? Hmmm..... actually, some of them probably eat lutefisk, so I guess it's not such a stretch to extend it to eating sushi. If you're interested, it's called the United Pantry.
3. Seeing one of my high school classmate's (there were only 33 of them) parents who live 5 hours from Minot at the airport. They just happened to be there for a few minutes trying to meet up with a cousin who was supposed to be flying out on the same flight as I was.
4. Only being mistaken for my older sister once. Usually that happens a lot more, especially in places where people know her better. (Well, only once within my hearing range - I guess some people maybe did it out of my hearing.) The not-so-surreal part was being told I look/talk/have mannerisms like her. In general she's a good, likable person, so that's not always a bad thing.
   

And, I forgot to mention that I can cross off #79 on my "100 Things To Do Before I Die" list since I have now flown into the four major airports in North Dakota. Just kidding! (About the 100 things list, not the four major airports.)

Back In The Groove

Well, I'm back from my excursion to Dagmar. I have to say it was a most excellent trip. More details to follow in a later post. Right now I'm just posting to say I'm alive, I love the open prairie, raccoons are patrolling my lawn at night, I thought I lived in the U.S. (not Europe) but with the rising gas prices that might change, and check out this huge turtle I saw today. Any questions?

It's a Real Self Esteem Booster When.....

.....One of your male co-workers comes by your cube and says that you look like you didn't do your hair that morning and that you look kind of tired. When, in fact, I actually did pretty well last night and made it to bed by 11:00 PM (I did get up a little earlier than usual though), and yes, I did my hair. I guess that's what taking a walk to the lake at lunchtime does to you. I took comfort by telling myself there's a reason his nickname is "Wacky". :-)

Today at the Y, on one of the TV shows a guy was eating pig testicles and a frog's beating heart somewhere in a restaurant in Japan. This is the same TV channel that does all those native tribe documentaries where all you see are naked people for an hour. Instead of the Travel Channel, it should probably be called the Grotesque Channel. Who in their right mind wants to see any of the stuff I just talked about? However, I stayed transfixed on the gross stuff since I didn't want to watch more painful pre-election CNN coverage of Barack Obama.

That's all for today folks. And I really don't have a point here, I'm just procrastinating doing other things.

It's A Jungle Out There

The last two weeks have been the weeks of wildlife around here (reference sightings from last week). On Saturday I saw a fox (no picture because he was running across the yard), and on Wednesday my old buddy the groundhog/woodchuck showed up again. If he wasn't so destructive to cement and foundations, we could be good friends. Oh yeah, and I saw a couple cardinals this week too. That's probably not as amazing, but I still count it as wildlife. If it weren't for the baseball team, I would hardly be able to recognize one.

Chiner. Warning: Lengthy Post!

I hope none of you have held your breath or even waited with baited breath to hear about my vacation in February. Finally, four months later I get around to telling about it. Likely I've forgotten many of the nuances of it and all the good jokes I thought of originally for this post.

Person I traveled with: Beth (my cousin)
People we stayed with: Dean (Beth's brother) & Erin and their three kids Devin, Dara, and Erik
Other travelers who made cameo appearances: Walt & Pearl (Beth's parents)
City we were visiting: Shanghai, China

An interesting fact about Shanghai is that it's actually a city-state, and Shanghai is divided into two parts. Puxi, which is the older part of Shanghai, is located on the west side of the river that flows through Shanghai. The other half of Shanghai is called Pudong, which is on the east side of the river. Pudong was basically a huge marsh until the Chinese government decided around 1990 that they were going to make it a big development area. Dean & Erin live in Pudong.

Here's the short summary. My top 10 favorite/memorable things about China:

1. A culture so different it's hard to imagine before you get there, but it's still fun to experience and see new things. Plus, we got to see and experience it from a halfway "local" point of view since we didn't have to stay in a hotel.
   
2. The tea. I didn't get to try or buy ALL the tea in China, but I had fun sampling a bunch of different kinds and brought a few varieties home. At the tea stores, they always try to sell the "round eyes" Jasmine tea first because it comes in a cool ball that opens up into a flower, and according to them it's good for your complexion.
3. Hot Pot. Delicious.
4. Massages. CHEAP! I didn't think the massage hurt too much, but some people do recommend you learn how to say "softer" in Chinese before going just in case you get a zealous masseuse.
5. The negotiating game. I wasn't a fan at first, but once you get the hang of it it's kind of fun.
6. Learning what it felt like to be a minority and get started at. A lot. And pointed at by little kids.
7. Chinese acrobats. Amazing - I have no idea how those people can do some of that weird contortionist stuff.
8. Seeing my uncle excited about taking pictures of everything new and different he saw in China.
9. Little fried dumpling things that were vegetables in the middle with a rice paper outside. Yummy.
10. Public toilets: Sometimes it was just a trough, and always bring your own toilet paper if you plan to be using any toilet paper.
11. Some good looking skirts in some fabrics you don't usually see in the U.S. All at good prices.
12. Erik's tricky pig latin: Iblebay Agbay.

Oops, I guess that was a Top Dozen. That was the short version. Below is the long version to help you understand all the various pictures I posted. If you're going to look at the pictures, I would recommend allowing about 30 minutes or so - I managed to pare the collection down to about 250 from the 600 or 700 that I had.

Enough facts and such. Here's the long summary of the trip:

1. Saturday & Sunday: Spent the days(s) flying to Shanghai, China. I managed to read the whole Shanghai "Lonely Planet" guide book on the way there, which I found surprisingly interesting and helpful despite me not being a non-fiction reader. I also spent some time kicking the back of Beth's seat. ;-) There were a whole bunch of Chinese middle school kids on the plane that were on their way home to China, apparently after taking a tour of America. They ran around in the aisles a lot. Luckily the seat next to mine (in coach) was empty, so I can't really complain too much about the flight. When we got into China, we managed to communicate with a cab driver enough to show him the address where we wanted to go, and we made it to Dean and Erin's. They weren't back from their weekend excursion, so we let ourselves in and hit the hay not too long after - at about 8:00 PM. The lull of Chinese New Year fireworks put us to sleep (it's the year of the rat you know).
2. Monday: Woke up at around 7:00 AM - the jet lag wasn't too bad. After eating breakfast and stuff, we traveled down to this big fabric market, but unfortunately it was closed (stupid Chinese New Year). No getting a good start for us on the clothes we wanted made by the ladies in the sewing sweatshops. :-( So, we walked around some looking at the Old Town part of Puxi and watching a guy make popcorn. The place was pretty dead because of Chinese New Year, which is kind of like Christmas in the U.S. We also made a stop at a local market, which was not very lively either, and the fresh food wasn't so fresh because of CNY. It had a bonus of a 2 year old pointing to us and saying "foreigner" in Chinese. When the kids got home from school, we went out to eat at an Indian restaurant. Jet lag was setting in hard, so we were dead by the time supper was done. Fireworks were going on again that night.
3. Tuesday: Ah yes, the day of the paparazzi. We went to the YuYuan Gardens, which is a famous tourist attraction, apparently for foreigners and natives. There were lots of pagodas, little shops, and, as the name implies, a garden. Just like the U.S., some people don't get out as much as others, and we had at least three incidents where Chinese people very obviously took our picture (without our permission I might add). One guy even followed us for a few blocks as we looked at different shops. Erin was the most popular with her reddish blond hair. That afternoon we went to the Jin Mao tower, which is currently the tallest building in Shanghai, but there is another one under construction in the city that will be taller I think. Anyway, we did the usual gawking at the city and picked up our free (fresh) pearl that came with our entrace ticket, and then left. That night we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. It's amazing how cheap most food is there.
4. Wednesday: This was a lazy day. We went to the grocery store with Dean and Erin, ate at a noodle place (possibly Japanese, it was hard to tell) for lunch, and then Beth and I went and got a traditional Chinese massage. It was great, but sometimes not clear what was expected since the masseuse didn't know much English. We only paid like $7.00 for 45 minutes. Thank you Chinese economy. My guide book said that being a massage person is often the job of a blind person in China (ours were able to see though). That evening we had "class" with some of Dean and Erin's friends. That afternoon I also listened to a brief tutorial on learning and pronouncing basic Chinese, and I learned enough that I can better pronounce the words on the back of fortunes from fortune cookies now. Wednesday evening was kind of the last hurrah of the CNY, so there were some major fireworks going on that night too. The Chinese actually invented fireworks according to the guide book.
   
5. Thursday: Dean, Beth, and I took a taxi to Suzhou (said Sue-Joe), which is another city about an hour away. It's famous for its gardens, and it was one of the places where silk was made/harvested in large quantities back in the Marco Polo days. The guide book had been very trustworthy most of the time, but one time it failed us. The book had directions on how to get to this really old bridge (like hundreds of years old), but apparently it wasn't clear enough because we drove around for an hour looking for it. We finally gave up and went back home and just looked at a picture of it on the internet. That night Walt and Pearl came in for a couple days' stay too.
6. Friday: Walt, Dean, Beth, and I went on a quest to find the cheap eyeglasses place that a coworker had told Dean about. First we found the "rich people's" eyeglass store, but after some wandering we finally found the genuine "cheap" place. It was really amazing. There were probably more than 100 eyeglass stores all crowded around the entrance of this one Subway platform. I was able to get a pair of prescription sunglasses there for $30, I kid you not. They weren't name brand, but who cares? After having lunch and getting our glasses, we went to the People's Square and looked around for awhile, then we headed back to Dean & Erin's. That night some people came over for supper and visited.
7. Saturday: The fabric market was finally open! We headed there posthaste and spent several hours negotiating prices and looking for the best fabric deals. This is also one of the better deals in Shanghai: relatively cheap fabrics (cashmere, silk, cotton were the favorites), and they'll make you pretty much any article of clothing you want. All at discount prices, especially if you're a good negotiator. After we got home, Beth, Erik, and I went to what they call the "Fake Market" at the entrance to a different subway station. Lots of stuff, all "very good quality, for you they make special deal" - we bought some souveniors there and had fun negotiating. "Pretty lady, you want to buy watch? Purse? Shoes?" That evening some of us went to see the Chinese acrobats. They're amazing and a must-see if you go to China. At the end of the show, they did the stunt of putting 6 motorcycles (count them: 6) in a metal cage, and then they all drove around inside the cage simultaneously.
8. Sunday: We had "class" again (even though we always have class :-P ), and some of Dean and Erin's friends stayed for lunch. That evening Beth and I went down by the river and took some awesome pictures of "The Bund", which is all these fancy buildings down there that are lit up. Being the veteran taxi cab users we were by this time, we managed to get there and back using sign language and the 5 Chinese words I knew by then. For supper, we went to have some renowned Chinese "Hot Pot". It's just like it sounds - a big hot pot in the middle of the table. You dip/throw your veggies and meat into the pot with the flavored broth, then fish them out when they're done cooking and enjoy. In my opinion, it was delicious and probably some of the best Chinese food I had while I was there.
9. Monday: I went to the fabric market to pick up the clothes I had commissioned to be made. Being a full taxi expert, I went there and back by myself. Then, I headed to the airport. I took the MagLev to the airport, which is a magnetically levitated train that goes 431 km/h. Beth had caught an earlier flight, so I had to make the return trip alone, and the seat beside me was full on the airplane. :-( Needless to say, it wasn't as much fun going that direction, and the jet lag was worse. I went to bed at 11:00 PM that night and woke up at 4:00 AM the next morning wide awake.

The post got a little long, but hopefully you enjoyed the travelogue!

Farewell

Well, today I sold Reggie. I only felt a little bit guilty selling him. And no, I didn't cry. I think he's going to a pretty good home. He'll be driven by a 16 year old boy now instead of by me, which may be a bit harder life than he had with me seeing how I babied him all the time with a nice garage, oil change every 3,000 (well, at least 5,000) miles, and a car wash at least once every 6 months whether he needed it or not. He might even get "tricked out" now that a male teenager owns him. I was actually pretty amazed at how quickly he sold (the car, not the kid). I put the ad up on work's want ads last night, and by 10:00 AM this morning a lady had already called about it. By 7:00 PM this evening he was gone from the driveway. Maybe that means I sold him for too little? If so, I don't really care. It's more than I would have gotten trading him in, and it's not like I was expecting to make a heap of money off him anyway.

In other news, Saturday was wildlife day in my front yard. I swear robins must have a special sensor that can tell when there's fresh-turned earth around, because any time I start working on my flower garden a robin shows up about five minutes later looking for bugs and earthworms.



Also, as I was minding my own business, suddenly these three baby racoons show up about 15 or 20 feet away. I ran into the house and got my camera, and they were still hanging around when I got back. What was interesting was that they make kind of a high-pitched purring sound - not sure if that's how they talk to eachother or if that's their "stay back, human" warning tone. I was tempted to take my shovel and whack them on the head because you know in a few months when they're adults they're going to be nuisance varmints. But, after I thought about it, I decided I wanted to keep my good rabies-free health record. With three of them, they could have ganged up on me faster than I could swing my shovel, and I was wearing shorts too. Here's one of them posing for the camera ("I think I'll just stand here, lean against the tree, and be cool").


"OK, being cool isn't working, let's scram and bug the people across the road. Farm out, gravy, right arm - see you later flower bed lady."

Happy Trails

I took a "2nd Annual" Memorial Day trip out to Wyoming over the weekend. Like always, it was a good time, and I appreciated many of the same things as last time. Not everything was the same of course, but it's good to have variety. I actually didn't take many pictures, and I didn't take any "people" pictures. I had to borrow one from my sister to get the one below (me and a FEW of the cool people I hung out with this weekend).


I did get a scenery picture I thought was good enough to put on the title bar of my blog. Normally I like to reserve it for a good lake or sunset picture, but I thought I'd mix it up a little. I didn't take any pictures of the best scenery I saw because we were driving in the car and I decided to just enjoy the view instead of trying to fruitlessly take pictures that wouldn't show the true beauty of the road we were on anyway.

I thought I would share some things that totally cracked me up while I was there (which is a good thing).

1. Apparently there are things more dangerous than drugs and alcohol in Wyoming. I saw a lady wearing a T-shirt with a picture of an upside down cow that said "Cow Tipping Anonymous". True story, no joke - I actually saw this.
2. Jen. 'Nuff said.
3. Uncle John. I think the only things he likes more than teasing are God, Aunt Esther, and bugs. ;-) Maybe his kids and grandkids too.
   
4. Being at a nursing home and overhearing a CNA ask two roommates whether they wanted the fried egg sandwich or the tomato soup with tuna fish sandwich for supper. One of the ladies then replied that she wanted vegetable soup with her usual bologna sandwich, and the other lady said she also wanted vegetable soup with a PB&J sandwich. I don't know why, but that totally tickled my funny bone. I think you had to be there though.
   

Second Fiddle

Well, Reggie officially became second fiddle, I mean car, today when I bought my new car. It pained me to do it, but it seemed like it was time. I do still own Reggie and am now looking for a good home for him, so let me know if you know someone who would want him.


The bigger question now is, what is this new car's name? I think it's a guy car, so leave me a comment with your proposed name. If you think it looks like a girl, submit a girl name, but it better be good if you're attempting to change his gender!


P.S. Yes, I did end up buying a Mazda6 Hatchback/5-Door.

Stumped

Well, I can't say I've felt very creative this past week. I've had a few mediocre blog post ideas, but none of them very stellar. I thought about posting a picture of the bird who flew too close to the ground and died hitting my dining room window. Or, I could talk about work, but how boring is that? I could post a picture of the flower beds I'm working on planting, but they're not very remarkable either, and I've barely just started that project. So, there's not much going on here folks. However, I think there will be more excitement coming in the next week or so. You few readers that I have left will just need to be patient. I have managed to sort through all my China pictures, labeled them, and am working on uploading them to the web for your viewing pleasure. Once again, patience required until I'm done. The new car is more and more imminent, but not here yet either......same with the long weekend. Patience is the word of the day. ;-)

Taste of Spring

Everything is much greener now than when this picture was taken, I'm just a little slow on the post. I can't complain about this backyard view.

Lean On Me

Here are my new digs after I moved everything into the cube but before I had a chance to get it all organized.


Here they are after about 3S's. My (former) cube mate gave me one of her extra monitors, so notice my sweet monitor setup now. Yeah baby! You can also see part of my desk. I always wondered what color it was.














An interesting thing to note is that I no longer have a cube mate. I'm not sure yet if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I also now sit across the aisle from the department secretary and my General Manager. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing either, but I'm pretty sure I'll know a lot more about the department goings on now as I eavesdrop over the cube wall. Does anybody need me to verify any rumors for them?

5S - A LEAN Machine

Due to changes in personnel and a manager's desire for his new hire to be mentored by my (former) cubicle mate, I was asked to change cubicles at work. You faithful readers know from past experience what an organizational wizard I am. But, I guess the managers thought I still had a few things to learn about organizing because they presented this move as an opportunity to 5S my cubicle. 5S is a popular phrase for people who are familiar with LEAN manufacturing. If you don't know what LEAN manufacturing is, then go google it. So anyway, I thought I would show you how successful I was.

Before 5S
Although not all that much different from 18 months ago, this picture was actually taken right before I moved. Pre-LEAN 5S's, and I do sort of resent the implications here:

• Scrounge
• Steal
• Stash
• Scramble
• Search

After 5S
I guess I may have gotten a little bit extreme. The "real" 5S's are:

• Sort (check)
  
• Set In Order (check)
  
• Shine (check)
  
• Standardize (Huh? Not sure this is necessary in a cube...)
  
• Sustain (Yeah.....pretty sure I'm not going to be able to maintain this standard of cleanliness.)
  

Rejected

Some survey person called me this evening, but after finding out how much money I make and my ethnicity, they said they didn't need my opinion after all. Discrimination! I wonder what economic bracket and ethnicity they were really looking for? Based on my address, I can take a pretty good guess.

P.S. Someone e-mailed me this picture today, and I thought it was funny. It's irrelevant if you do since this is my blog. I post what I want. I think it's funny the guy used the word capacitor on his sign. For future reference, do NOT give this guy money! There is no such thing as a flux capacitor.

Bird's Eye View

I realized the other day that within the space of two months, I was in two of the tallest buildings in the world. One was the Jin Mao tower in Shanghai, China, and the other was the good old Sears Tower in Chicago. So here's a little "contrast" of the two buildings and their views.

From my brief research on the internet, it appears as though Shanghai (the urban area) has a population of about 14. 5 million people and is one of the 10 largest cities in the world. Chicago (the urban area) has somewhere between 7 and 9 million people and is somewhere between #25-#30 in world city populations. Enjoy the view....

Shanghai, China







































Chicago, IL, USA

It's All In the Eye of the Beholder....

....Or at least the marketing person. I saw this a long time ago and finally remembered to post it. Sometimes it's a good thing, right? That's how we got post-it notes, which is one of the greatest inventions ever.

Travels of Recent Weeks

Let's see.....in the last couple couple of weeks I went to Mexico, flew in and out of Chicago twice (this included some flight rerouting due to the AA flight cancellations), went to ND/MN, and took a day trip to Chicago with some people from work. That's pretty much what kept me busy and why there was a gap in my blogging that Melanaway scolded me for promptly. ;-) I applaud her for helping me to keep up to my own blogging standards.

My trip to Mexico was a whirlwind one. Although it was 99 degrees there during the day, there was no suntanning involved unless you count the fluorescent one I got in the manufacturing plant. The only interesting picture I took while I was there (that's G rated and/or not company confidential of course) was this one. I didn't know sharks had started to evolve enough that they come on land and disguise themselves as buses, but apparently they have.


My picture taking ability wasn't much better in MN. I didn't even get a picture of my newly engaged sister and her fiance. How stupid is that? Congratulations to them by the way. This is one of the few good pictures I took. I didn't know you could go down to the local market and pick up cute little kids like that. I bet Jess sand Lana wish they would have known that before they went the traditional route. Or maybe only 3 year olds have access to that special market?


Here's a few pictures from the day trip to Chicago.

John (the guy whose quote I have posted right now) - walking on water. At least he has a good name already for doing that kind of thing.


We visited "the bean" - for fun, or if you're bored, you could count the number of times you can find Mel in this picture. Here's a hint: Mel is wearing a bright yellow coat, she is not wearing a white and red striped shirt.


I've heard a lot about Jim Jardine, but I didn't know Chicago had named a water treatment plant after him....


In case of fire, climb 25 flights of metal stairs down to the ground.


I'm not sure if this was related to the wiring inspection flight cancellations, but it was interesting anyway. This was right before they walked into the NBC studio in Chicago.


It's always helpful when people label stuff for you. Just to be clear we did NOT find the chief corner stone here though.

Earthshaking

Early yesterday morning there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois. Some of the people at work were awakened by the small tremors from it way up here and actually felt them. Apparently I sleep more soundly than that because I didn't feel anything. However, many of the people I work with live in southern Indiana, so they were only 45 miles from the epicenter and definitely felt it. Part of our conference call with them yesterday was spent looking at the USGS Google Earth plug-in. Luckily no tsunamis resulted here on the lake. Then I would have been in big trouble.

Video of a local Indiana TV station that was on the air when the earthquake happened

Newspaper article

Random Thoughts (Again)

Whew, it's been awhile. Since I last posted I've traveled this country and another country too. I took a few pictures but haven't had time to download them yet. So, until tomorrow when I can do something more substantial, here's few random thoughts from my travels.

1. There are few things that make you feel more alone than to eat at a fancy restaurant alone in a foreign country.
2. There are few things that can warm your heart more than to have your two nieces come running out of the house excited to see you when you come to visit.
3. Arrachera, flaming cheese, and salsa - what could be better?

I know I had some other random (and profound) thoughts, but they escape me now. More later if they come to mind again.....

Paintball Perils

That's gonna leave a mark.....and to think I paid good money to be abused like this.