White Lightning Axiom: Redux

WOOT! Made it in before 0630 today. And I only hit the snooze bar once at 0515. As I was telling CharliePATpk at the 'ass-crack' of dawn, I used to do this sort of thing when I was younger and not a Father. I would get up around 0430, get out of the Haupertonian Keep (apartment) at 0455 and drive a bazillion miles to Wilmington (DE) or King of Prussia (PA) to work out at 0600 for an hour or so. Of course, I would not leave work till 1900 hours or so ... spirited youth - wasted in a sensory deprivation cube. Alas, my motivation now is not to dedicate my waking hours to a career in technology. Now, it is so I can LEAVE work to be with my loved ones as they are released from their mandated institutionalized education ... so I can continue with the education that they really need. Music lessons and fire-arms education are still on the back-burner.

Nothing else is noteworthy. Swimming, TSD, Adult TDS all went fairly well. The Smith Quints were at the pool today and we said hello to them. Cute kids, but their mother looked a bit harried ... go figure. Oh, and gas prices went down 1 cent. WOOT! HUGE GASOLINE MARKET CRASH!!! Yeah, right. Upside of getting on the road early is that I can hit all the lights and not spend so much time idling at red signal lights ... and avoid all the typical fender benders as well. BTW: That photo is of me and a small harem of my cousins on the Fraternal side of the Clan.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Swimming | Karate | Children | Work

Labels: Banalities Work, Children, Gas, Swimming, Tang So Doo

Another day zipped by and I barely appreciated it. I did decide to take it a bit easier today. You know, give my body a few moments to heal itself so I no longer have to deal with the odd pains or recalcitrant joints. We have that TSD test this weekend and I would like to be able to get through it with a MILD concussion and minor contusions. I left work a bit earlier after hours of back-to-back meetings so with all that extra time, I dropped off the enrollment forms at the New Advanced School for Tyrant Transformation of Warmongering Itinerate Turpitudic Siblings (NASTy TWITS). While in the neighborhood, I stopped by the location where I was going to rent a Tux, only to find that they were open Tues-Sat and not available on Mondays. Gha, same thing with my barber and I dearly need a haircut! Alas, I spent my last $20 on a second responsibility chart for the Tryants. Apparently, one was just not enough for the both of them. I can still see them now, facing off at high noon on a dusty street as the tumble-weeds roll by. Attila, flexing her 'shootin hand' as Ghengis spits out of the side of his mouth, squarely pegging a beetle scurrying over the parched planking of the nearby saloon. She calls out; "Gou-Gou! This responsibility board ain't big 'nough for the both of us. That means someone is out of luck. I'm figger'n it's gonna be you." He retorts; "I dun' think so Moi-Moi, see'n that Daddy just went and shelled out a share-cropper's budget for a second board. It's a looking like both of us are gunna be on the short end of this here stick." And so comes the realization that these gifts were actually a Trojan Horse by which the Peloponnesian Parents War will be won.

The rest of Monday was mostly a hard stinging rain. Like a cow piss'n on a flat rock, no less. I was ahead of the game this time and picked a bowl full of greens from the Agricultural Sector so that there will be enough salad for the next 2-3 days. The Lettuce, Arugula and Spinach are coming in nicely. And so are the peas, tomatoes and beans (both soy and string). In fact, nearly everything is coming up like gang-busters ... including the volunteers! A lot of pumpkin and lettuce is popping up in places I did not expect ... along with some survivors of the 'Great Carrot Massacre'. So, even though temperatures dropped precipitously over the last few days, I believe that we will do just fine in the organic 'delicate green delectables' department this year.

Now for the Gas Report. I did not eat any beans or cabbage, so gas is still up at $3.60USD/g in these parts. The Stimulus Check will not make that an easier pill to swallow (hello, supply and demand?), but at 5 gallons a week, I'll manage. It's the Mrs who is driving the Family Tank V2.0 who is paying the price for what speculators and politicians are doing. Biofuels are making things a mess and they only create more problems the closer we look at them! Of course, they are being blamed for the increased cost of food ... but read this article and tell my why food prices are going up when we are producing more food (minus the slice taken out for ethanol) than ever before!? SPECULATORS and POLITICIANS! Gha ... those two groups vex me daily.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Swimming | Karate | Children | School | Work

Labels: Banalities Work, Children, Gas, Plumbing, School, Swimming

Well, that weekend went FAST! I got a bit of the mulching done on Saturday before the In-Laws (Mrs MDMHVONPA's Pregnant Cousin and her Husband) arrived. Good thing, I stunk like a barn animal. The two Appointments I had scheduled for the morning were a mixed bag. The AC guy did manage to show up before 1400 hours ... good thing. Cost me 110$ for a recharge for R22 though. At least the manor will be sufficiently chilled this summer should we need it. Yeah, who am I kidding, it's going to be roasting by the end of next month. Then there was the sprinkler guy. He just did not show up. I called and got the answering service who would be happy to relay a message. No thanx. I called this morning and was told that the service guys just did not work on weekends. Hrmmm, then why did we have an appointment scheduled. No matter. I surveyed the situation on Saturday and went down into the meter hole to turn on the system myself. It worked just fine after I managed to get the ball-joint open. All this with a maelstrom of main roiling under my left side ribs. Not sure where it came from, but it has been bugging me for a week and just finally subsided. Perhaps I should not block all those flying round-house kicks with my body. Finally, with the confluence of events this weekend, I attended an early Mass sans Sunday School and stopped off at the local St Judes shop to pick up some gifts for a 1st communion celebration we will be attending this next Saturday. Same day as the TSD test no less. I'll have little time to dicker around with my water barrels as I had hoped and there is still a mount of mulch in the Mile Long Drive that I need to deal with. I may have to take some time off to catch up on all this. I still need to pick up several diverters, spigots, overflow valves and, of course, the actual barrels themselves. With all the rain of late, the Car Wash has not had any surplus to had off. I'll have to ask next weekend in my 'spare time'.

Oh, yes. Speaking of the car-wash, their gasoline is now $3.60USD/g. I heard there is going to be a trucker convoy from NYC to DC today. I hope they can get some attention over the primaries about this.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Karate | Children | Plumbing | Gardening | Plumbing | Family

Labels: AC, Family, Gardening, Gas, Water, Weekend

Plans of men and mice I tell ya. Today is just packed full of deconstructed plans. I usually do not post on Fridays ... mostly because I'm lazy and I'm gearing up to remedy that for the weekend. This weekend, it will rain and my plans to do some gardening and spread out the mulch will most likely not be in the cards.

Now, for my other little wiggly bit of frustration. I was demonstrating to the Tyrants and Mrs the quality of my Top Shelf Grousing when Attila piped up and asked "What are Boxers?". Perplexed for a moment, I went to the closet and retrieved one of the limited pair I had in stock. I'm a tighty-whitey sort of guy so I typically reserve these for use as shorts. Now, having shown her a physical representation of the inquiry, The Mrs was curious as to where she had heard this term. Typically, we refer to such garments as 'underwear' or 'undies' in these parts. Apparently, one of her class mates conferred this knowledge to her. A young man named Sean, and his co-conspirator, Christian. And why did he bring this information to the table, you may ask. This was part of his mode of operations when SHOWING her his apparel of choice. Given how clothing hangs on the gangly frame of a 5yr old, the boxers went southward towards his ankles along with his pants when he dropped trou'. When his brother-in-arms(legs?) saw this, he also demonstrated that he too could participate in the peep-show. So, Attila made a mental note of the 'back of their privates' and informed the Teacher of their exhibitionist ways. Of course, she (Attila) is rather precocious and found that this demonstrations was neither shocking nor some sort of epiphany regarding the physiology of boys. My first thought was something along these lines. It's a little early for me to have to worry about this kind of interference in my parenting plans, don't you think?

Oh, and gasoline is now $3.52USD/g around these parts.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Gardening | Parenting | Sex

Labels: Gardening, Gas, Parenting, Sex

Floating about like bubbles on the fickle winds of fate. Yes, yesterday was ok, more or less. Since the pool was occupied by the class, we did skip the swimming and went straight back to the Manor. I had a string of chores that I wanted to complete but did not get to them. Worst of all, I did not get around to watering the garden or the newly planted grass. BAD GARDNER, BAD! Even more so, I have not managed to slice out any time to set up the chore list/reward chart for the unusually winsome Tyrants. Perhaps I'll get my legs underneath me by this weekend and pull off a major work-load coup. I had better since the following weekend is already completely booked (1st communion, TSD Test).

Oh, and gas is $3.47USD/g here now. No good reason for that, you know. I want my nukes, I want my wind-turbines, I want my solar. I want my ANWAR drilling, I want my ND drilling, I want my 50mpg diesel engines.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Swimming | Karate | Children | Plumbing

Okay ... kind of bland today. Yesterday, we had to get the tyrants up extra early since we forgot to MAKE them do their ubiquitous homework the night before. My bad, I was not on top of my game Monday afternoon so matters that I typically tend to were left to fester. Not much else to add to that other than the usual work fluff and the horrible state that the commute had descended to. There had been some sort of accident or fender-bender nearly every day (both morning and evening) this week. Tomorrow (4/24) is 'Take your Future Rulers of the Planet' to work day. I'm seriously considering brining in the Tyrants ... but I am having difficulty balancing the Pros and Cons here. Either way, it should provide a bevy of potential blogging topics. The only thing I have now is that I'm going to skip swimming today since the 'therapeutic' pool is closed due to an extra-ordinarily large swim class from 1630 till 1715 ... prime time for the Tyrants to swim. The alternative is the 33F degree lap lanes and I'm just not that interested in freezing my twig-n-berries off. I'll water the garden and move some much around instead.

Technorati Tags:Work | Swimming | Gardening | Children | Traffic

Well, yesterday went from morose to a livid nightmare. Later in the afternoon, I was feeling a bit off. The odd stuff that should have tipped me off was the cold/numb fingertips and the peculiar feeling that all was not right within my skin. Fortunately, I made the command decision early on to bad TSD and swimming with the Tyrants. It was 'Book Sale' day at the Day Care/ReEducation Facility so I begged out of the usual activities by giving them an option of receiving a book as a consolation prize. They never pass on the opportunity to expand their personal libraries. So, with that, we headed home and practiced our forms on the mile long driveway for a bit so that they would not be too rusty when we returned on Tuesday night. That is, provided that my growing migraine subsides by then. I had to work with Jake a bit to get him to stop twisting his ankle when he does a inside-outside block in fighting stance. I told him to close his eyes, move into position and fix his foot without looking at it. It is going to be wrong so looking at a foot that you KNOW is in the wrong position is just silly. He closed his eyes, did the Pyon-Cho Don form and on the last 4 positions he closed his eyes and moved his foot to the place it's supposed to be and VOLIA! It was straight as an arrow. On the last move, I asked him to open his eyes and he damn near split his head in half with the smile that rocketed over his cherub face. He just might be able to get it right for the test. Maybe I need to spend a bit more time with them. I'm thinking about letting the swim club membership lapse, there is just too much to do during the summer months and there might be a 1700 class starting at our TSD school ... that would work out nicely actually. We'll have to have a family meeting and go over the pros and cons.

After I was done grilling the Tyrants, I set about to digging about in the 100 meter tall pile of mulch on the mile long drive. Of course, by then, the migraine was in full effect and all sorts of H.P. Lovecraftian netherworld daemons were clawing their way out through my eyes. It was the bad eye so I did not mind as much. It's always the left eye, wouldn't you know. I managed to get one of the islands of greenery in the front pastoral expanse covered before I gave up and wandered back into the manor. Of course, I took a fist-full of various pharmaceuticals to buttress my sanity against the crashing breakers of pain ... but what was needed was the strongest medicine I could find ... sweet, DEEP sleep. The problem with that is should I indulge my desire to avoid the pain, I would certainly pay the price of staring at the ceiling for hours after midnight when I should be sleeping. So be it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

While languishing in my tomb of anguish, I tried to distract myself with plans for the future. Mostly, parenting. We need to set up a task/reward board for the little ones so they start to understand how to plan and what to expect when it comes to 'consequences'. I'm thinking of stuff like; put out trash, tended to cybernetic hound programming (feed, water, wash - I'll deal with the poo), set table, bus dishes, irrigate the Haupertonian Agricultural Sector, finish Homework before asked, good grades, laundry, earn belt promotion, conquer continent, and other simple tasks. Rewards will be tricky but I'm going with a point system so they could bank up the points to earn bigger rewards. Perhaps 1pt = 15 min of television, 15 min of computer time or (for future activities, Wii Time), a snack, 10pt for a small toy, play time outside is free as is story time and other developmental activities. Of course, much like greater rewards require greater quantities of points, they'll receive greater points for harder tasks. Any suggestions?

Technorati Tags:Parenting | Swimming | Karate | Children | Chores | Fatigue | Migraine

Labels: Chores, Fatigue, Migraine, Parenting, Swimming, Tang So Doo

So, now that the weekend is over, I must walk the chimera of work through the week till I am free again to loll in fields of grasses and sweet alyssum with my children and wife. Gosh, I do detest Mondays. Sunday went as it usually does. It was the last day of Sunday School so we all said our tear sodden good-byes before skipping off home. Next year, the Tyrants will be too old to attend and they'll begin their journey through 1st grade. Time is starting to speed up now. Grams, Jake and I spent the rest of the day putting mulch down on the garden beds. Jakers was extremely interested int scaling the mountain of triple ground mulch and planting his shovel so as to declare 'I claim this peak in the Name of the Haupertonian Empire!'. That, and he was the tallest person on the driveway too. As the day ground on, Amish Dad and I managed to reduce the pile by half, covering the flower beds in the back and half of one in the front before darkened clouds provided a portent of a violent spring shower. It never did rain very hard, but it was sufficient excuse for us to abandon our efforts and sit down for a hearty late afternoon/early evening meal. It was a good weekend, hopefully I'll be able to finish the work by this next weekend.

Technorati Tags:Weekend | Gardening | Sunday School | Children

Labels: Children, Gardening, Sunday School, Weekend

'Nuff said.

Technorati Tags:Terror | Children

Labels: Children, Terror

Quickie for a day that I usually do not post. The Grandparents of Insatiable Love will be down this Friday Evening. Gramps thought he was going to help me do some lawn work, but we are going to go out fishing Saturday morning instead. This is in addition to Dodge Ball Friday and the last Sunday School Class before the summer break starts up. And, of course, there is the usual set of weekend chores (Laundry, lawn mowing, fertilizer, garden tending) and that Mountain of Mulch sitting on the drive that needs to be dealt with. So, given all that, I'll probably be much to busy to sit at the keyboard and spew forth the usual plate of tripe and trifles for the chattering masses.

Technorati Tags:Fishing | Family | Karate | Children | Church

Labels: Children, Church, Family, Fishing, Karate

Traffic has been a real bear of late. My fellow travelers on the by-ways and back-roads have all lost their minds. Knowledge of what a turn signal is for has been lost. Smoking with one hand, phone in the other and fumbling with the radio, it's no wonder I've had to crawl through no less than 4 accident scenes this week. Laws won't stop this behavior either ... jeeze.

Now children, it is time for me to dive into my usual antediluvian litany of sorrowful tales regarding my general health. I seem to find some bizarre calling that brings me to TSD practice every night. And with that, my body issues out a trill cacophony of creaking joints and singing tendons and I try to muscle my recidivist body into stances that even the Circ De Sola aficionados cringe at. Other than the usual staccato clicking of abused bones, I buckled my big-toe under last night while kicking a 'heavy-bag'. Yeah, it still hurts and it looks more like an egg-plant with a toe-nail painted across it. Oh, and my back aches so much now that I think I seriously need to look into seeing a chiropractor. I even have a coupon for free bone-snapping for one that is near-by. End of whine.

Oh, and gas prices. Over in Jersey it's $3.11USD/g ... around the Manor $3.30USD/g. Gha, good thing I only burn 5g per week. Instead of a new diesel TDI VW stationwagon next year, I should look into a vespa with 2 side-cars.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Injury | Karate | traffic

Labels: Gas, Injury, Karate, Traffic

POW! WHAM! SPLAT! And all that other good stuff. The last few hours have been rather mundane. Work has been a real bugger. I though I had messed up a bug fix but after several hours of tinkering around, I deduced that the fix was working as advertised and was failing a validation of frequency comparisons because the Encryption Modulator was set up to use a different set of QPSK/QAM settings. It worked on the dev platform where things were set up properly, the test platform was mis-configured and the code detected it. DUH! The System Integration Tester was absent once I learned of the deception ... I'll have to explain this to her at the SCRUM meeting the following morning. Fun.

The other day, Jake did WELL in TSD and swimming. I believe it was because Stephanie was present as the pool so Jake had to show off. Then, on Wednesday he was all played out so he did not do so well. We need to focus on his forms for the test that is coming up at the end of the month or he may not make the test list. Either way, he is the toughest little 5yr old Martial Arts Practitioner next to his sister. Master Smith is giving them a little more constructive criticism of late ... and they tend to listen to him a bit more so than me. If they pick up the next two forms as well as they have with the others, they should have little difficulty making their red belt. (Insert Image of Proud Daddy puffing up his chest)

A few nits and ends: Scheduled the water company to insert a water meter for the sprinkler system on Friday ... I'll wager they will not do it since I'm not going to be there. I should put a sign up were the meter should be installed out near the curb. They will probably assume they need access to the basement ... not true. Mental note; make sign. Odd thing, they did not mention that there will be a $50 surcharge for installing the meter for the summer. I think the woman who threatened me last time was bluffing to get me to go away. Grrr. I've also scheduled the sprinkler guys to come out and give the system a once over. On the same day, the AC guy is supposed to show up some time between 0900 and 1400 hours. When I asked about the wide range of time, they insisted that they might get emergency calls on Saturday and there is only one technician on call. Umm, I'm pretty sure that I'm the ONLY guy even trying to turn on the AC at this early date so their hedging is just a clumsy attempt at expectation management. Fair enough, but I'll be calling the Friday before to firm up the time. 0900 would be a much better time for me ... free up my day so I'm not sitting there, pining away for some fellow to show up like a teen-age girl waiting for her prom date. Of course, if it's some hottie in string bikini and daisy-duke cutoffs ....

Technorati Tags:Work | Swimming | Karate | Children | AC

Labels: AC, Banalities Work, Chores, Tang So Doo, Traffic

Sorry I missed posting yesterday (and by proxy, over the weekend). We have had a bit of pressure at work to actually get some issues resolved. Go figure. The weekend was just as busy. The Mrs had to be out of the house early for one thing or another on Saturday morning so it was me against them for a few hours. I chose poorly and tried to sleep through the event. I bear the scars that remind me of my folly. Genghis and Attila pounded me like a lump of raw hamburger till I submitted to their demands that I rise from the tomb and make them something to eat. 'Little round things' was the first thing on their list. Next, was publishing their manifesto in all leading news-outlets, but I figured I would appease them with English-Muffin Pizzas first. Just as I was getting ready to pop them into the toaster oven, the door-bell rang. I'm skipping over the multiple phone calls regarding the political aspirations of candidates bopping about PA right now. When polled, I tend to let them know that I disagree with the idea of public opinion polls. Back to the door bell. It was the Jehova's Witnesses and their unending speel about the end of times and not taking up arms against another country. Okay, fine. Here I am in my sweat pants and a camo Marine Cap and they are bending my ear about converting. I let them know that I appreciate their concern for my immortal soul, but I've got children to feed and a lesson plan for Sunday School to complete. And, by a matter of necessity, the Tyrants made dramatic entrances by which their grumbly tumies provoked them into ferreting out daddy to see why he had abandoned the task at hand. This complicated matters ... you know ... small children coming out and assaulting the people who were trying to preach about non-aggression. Ah, yes. Good times. After Alexis bestowed a parting raspberry and disappeared indoors, I excused myself from the dogmatic exchange and wished them the best. They were likely to have a rather abrupt day since the neighborhood ins 99% Jewish. They will find very few open ears. Speaking of the Sabbath Day, once the Mrs returned home, we had two trips planned. The first was to go stop at this new children's center near-by. It had various activities of which the Tyrants participated in nearly all of them Favorites: Rock-climbing, Karate and 'Dance-Dance Revolution ... OF DOOOM!'. Jake actually worked up a sweat. The Mrs and I have been toying with the idea of buying a Wii for them, but I need to get the chore/reward board up so they can start earning points that they can turn in for time at the computer or Wii. Only ONE console game in the house ... this will be problematic. The other trip was to Wallmart. Two of the regional stores will be closing up and a new 'Super-Colossal-Death-Star-Wallmart' will be opening up. So, the other two subordinate centers are having incremental clearing sales. It was the perfect opportunity for me to pick up fishing supplies. I had purchased a fishing license on Friday and I was planning on picking up a Tourist License for Amish Dad so that we can take the Tyrants out on a fishing expedition the following weekend. So, the two budding outdoors men both have rods, tackle boxes and all the assorted accouterments. We'll be looking to go to a few places: Loch Alsh, Lorimer and Springfield Lake/Churchville Reservoirs.

Sunday, well, was Sunday. Sunday school, mucking about in the garden (planting leeks and celery), mowing the lawn and generally puttering about in the Haupertonian Agricultural Sector or the Back-50. No Witnesses stopped by as they intimated. Huh, go figure.

Technorati Tags:Gardening | Children | Sunday School | Fishing

Labels: Children, Fishing, Gardening, Sunday School

Okay, today is a meeting day. The day when all the work on everyone's plate gets cleaned off by pushing it into the salad bowl of the person to the left of you in the meeting room. Of course, while you are busily offloading your gristle to the poor soul to the left of you, the dude on the right is dumping a load of tripe into your domain. I damn near cooked myself when I left the Manor this morning by leaving my laptop sitting outside when I left. I was busy loading empty propane cylinders (gotta have them ready for all that steak I'm going to grill) into the POS SuperSaturn and set it on the plant stand ... and zipped off. The Mrs spotted it when she was leaving and brought it to the DayCare/ReEducation Facility where she arrived just as I was leaving. Good thing, I would have missed all the meetings and would not be able to defend my 'in-bowl' from tripe attacks. I might have remembered that I forgot it as I proceeded down the Mile-Long Driveway, but I spotted SeaBee Chuck, our neighbor, as I was rolling down the access road. I honked at him and waved ... and saw a small package in the center of the road as I slowed down. So, I stopped and had a short conversation with him. He was heading off to go watch the 'Masters' golf tournament with his children and asked if I could watch after his home while he was away. His Mrs was going down to the Jersey Shore that weekend so there would be nobody to note if a moving truck rolled up and emptied their home. While talking, we wandered over to where the phone was laying on the ground, turned it on and called the number in the address book listed under the 'Home' heading. There was also a letter on street addressed from Stan F******n to another person. It was Stan's phone. I let the woman (presumably his wife) know that I had found his phone, a letter and some other assorted items. They would be waiting on the front step of an address (Chucks's) that I gave to her. Lucky I spotted Charles or that phone would be a flattened mess.

Technorati Tags:Gas | Work

Labels: Banalities Work, Propane

Real quick now ... busy day. First off, there was nothing extraordinary to report yesterday (read: mundane) except for one of the younger children in TSD had a bit of a bladder control problem. It happens, and for some reason, I'm always the one to spot it first and 'leap into action'. I shovel worse on a daily basis. The hardest part is trying to make sure that the perpetrator is not ridiculed by the class. I have to remind some of them that they were in that situation not too long ago and I'm sure they did not appreciate the scorn of their peers. Helping them develop a little empathy is an eternal Sisyphian task. They can be pugnacious little buggers, but when that light-bulb goes off they tend to become quite introspective.

Now, for the memes. First off, you see my desk-top there, right? NervusRex did not tag me, but I hijacked it anyways. Like my icons? So pretty ... Ahem, yes. And then there is Blinders Off with her 'Real Age' test. I took the test, and it seems to me that it is rather insensitive to the MS question, but I'll take the results any day. Apparently, I've got another 60 years to climb through. Not too shabby I suppose, but it did not seem to ask the 'cancer' question.

Technorati Tags:Meme | Karate | Children | Parenting

Labels: Children, Karate, meme, Parenting

Not much to really report. Standard stuff. Work, Swimming, TSD (with tyrants), TSD (sans tyrants). Usual stuff. Our next TSD test is coming up at the end of the month so we are doing a bit of 'refinement'. When I have Jake on the floor alone, he tries a bit harder and does not try to 'cheat'. He has a problem with focus ... kinda like me I suppose. He'll be ok. I just worry about Alexis who still had 'board fright'. She is so certain that she will get slivers from breaking the board. I'll have to get off my but and pick up those plastic 'break-boards' so she can get comfortable (competent, confident) doing this.

Technorati Tags:Swimming | Karate | Children

Well, that was fairly useless. I was going to get some real work done yesterday, but that was ground down to a fine grit of erasure turds and eye boogers as I spent a great portion of my day diddling with paperwork and junk-email. My adventures into ersatz work have left me feeling empty and somewhat guilty. I need a noble (and futile) thrust into the mountain of work laid out like the craggy peaks of the Rockies or Alps to waylay my creeping disharmony. All that will change today I should hope. The sounds of the charge of the Light Brigade (Lord Alfred Tennyson) will echo out through the cavernous cube-farm of sensory deprivation chambers amongst the cacophony of importunate clacking of keyboards and singing telephones. The pleas both professional and romantic will not fall upon exasperated senses! Ummm ... ok. calm down ... whew.

Swimming and TSD with the tyrants went well. I lost my temper a bit on the trip between the two though. I need to remember that I'm a dad first. Poor Jake lost a bit of one of his transformer toys for the ump-teen millionth time and it frustrates me to no end. Not that he looses it or he does not think to watch were it went (he is a 5 year old boy after all ... things don't change much even if you are 40), its the situation that confounds me. I am unable to help him or even help myself help him. I'm on the road, crushed and battered by the lemming hordes who are all rushing to do manage their own myopic interests. Caring about the concerns of a haggard man and his limitations is the furthest thing from their mind. Heh ... displacement. I'll just have to 'redouble my efforts' in daddy-hood. Hugs and sweet words for the Twin Tyrants this afternoon.

After TSD, I dropped off the kids and went right to the back yard to till up some barren soil and plant zoysia grass. I found a lot of tuberous roots from the pachysandras that I'll need to ferret out. I'll probably be tilling again on Friday after I mow the lawn.

Technorati Tags:Work | Swimming | Karate | Children | Lawn

Labels: Banalities Work, Children, Karate, Lawn, Swimming

I got nothing done this weekend. NOTHING! I barely left the Manor. I feel like such a slug. I did manage to get my posterior out of the sack on Sunday and taught the youngsters their lessons. I was taking the 11 4year olds for a few weeks since the regular teacher is out with a broken ankle. There is a set of quints in the class and they are prone ostentation as a matter of gaining some attention. If one ate a bug, the other ate an horse, the next a whale and the last ate the moon. They are fun to have about, but they can be a bit of a challenge to calm down when they get rolling. The rest of the class is fairly easy to work with. I just recycle the lessons learned from the Tyrants (with minor navigational modifications). I do not have to worry much about their combative habits since these younglings seem mostly benign. We shall see how they do next week with the chicks hatching that weekend ... should be enlightening.

Poker night went ok. I got trounced as expected. I suppose if I were really into it I would do more prep (like figure out how to play more seriously) but I'm just there for the comradery. Oh, and beer of course. Oddly enough, I watched a 007 flick the next night ... Casino Royale. Go figure. He is a bit more lucky than I, and my opponents do not bleed from the eyes when they are bluffing.

Technorati Tags:Poker | Weekend | Church | Children | Laggard

Labels: Children, Church, Laggard, Poker, Weekend

Friday friday friday ... what else is there to add. TSD was good last night - I was senior belt and there were no Black Belts to be found prodding me along to greater depths of dysfunction. So, I did actually feel a bit better after, but the following day was a 'movement reduction exercise'. Rough time getting out of bed and getting motivated to do anything other than plodding along in front of the CRT. Well, not really. Who used Cathode Ray Tubes anymore ... it's all LCD. No matter ... tonight is poker night with the team so I should be sufficiently motivated to get some yard work done this weekend ... perhaps even plant all those flowers and mow the lawn while I'm at it. I have a litany of other things to do ... get the AC checked, Tux Rental, etc ... Oh, and I'll be taking the 3/4yr old Sunday School class this weekend since the regular teacher broke her ankle. No rest for me after-all, eh?

Technorati Tags:Weekend | Karate | Children | Church | Poker | Injury

Labels: Children, Church, Injury, Karate, Poker, Weekend

So, I'm trying to train myself to wake up earlier in the day. You know, so I can shift my schedule a bit so that by the time the Tyrants enter 1st grade, I'll be prepared to pick them up at 1500 hours. If you work backwards ... I'll have to leave work by 1430 to get to their school in time ... which means I'll have to start working at 0630 ... have to leave home by 0600. Yep, should be fun. In other [work] news, the new 'Sprint' is moving along. Within a few hours of starting, we found that the release had failed and we need to have a new build done. One day blown, reset, restart, ipl. I'm really hoping that there will be no other surprises so I can wrap this up quickly and move on to more ... pressing matters.

Environment: It's getting warmer here. A little rain, some sunshine ... yes. Spring IS here. I'm even floating the idea of mowing the lawn on Friday ... mostly to just pick up all the surplus leaves and twigs. There are a few tufts of grass poking up where it survived the onslaught from the Cybernetic Hounds. I'm getting that peculiar itch to do lawn work. Curiouser and Curiouser.

Finally, I'll bring in the deus ex machina to wrap up all this disjointed babbling and red herrings. Last night at swimming Attila leapt from the side of the pool with the expectation of me intercepting her trajectory and facilitating a negative acceleration before her mass/velocity energy struck the liquid inhabiter. Being taken by surprise, I wrenched that durned muscle in my neck (the one daintily attached to the skull and collarbone). TSD practice ensured that I would aggravate it mightily. It is and I'm a bit dismayed at my own lack of cognition about the path I was waltzing down. I would have, could have, should have ... you know.

Oh, and then there is this: Islam vs Catholicism. Don't mess with the XVI.

Technorati Tags:Injury | Swimming | Karate | Children | Spring

Labels: Children, Injury, Karate, Spring, Swimming

Well, if it really means anything at all, I think the results may be a bit skewed ... but for my own jollification I participated and found that my foul-mouthed ways have subsided. So much for my salty language skills! Much hullabaloo was made about my puritan ways when it came to cursing as I entered university so many years ago. Then over the next 10 nears I became quite obsequious observer of using filthy language to show all who was boss in conversations. Little attention did I pay to the axiom that 'Strong language reveals a weak mind.'. Children can drive that point home quite quickly. Now I've got a little 'Thought Police' troupe in the house. I love it when they tell Grandpa that 'hate' and 'stupid' are bad words we do not use in the Manor. Durned Auslander ... bringing his filthy mouth about! The xenophobia is palpable!

Technorati Tags:Parenting | Cursing | Children

Labels: Children, Cursing, Parenting

Something went horribly wrong at the massive Scrum meeting Monday afternoon. You see, I worked VERY hard last month to make the project I was assigned as ScrumMaster a success. So much so that I completed the entire endeavor on time and with enough surplus man-hours that I could help out with other projects. My reward is that my team is disbanded. So, I scurry about to make sure my peers get to move onto other teams (performance improvement, 'TLA' development team, etc...). All juicy projects. So, when I get a chance to tend to my own needs ... all that is left is a slot on the pre-qualification test team. Yeah, I get to make sure that OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK IS GOOD ENOUGH. WHAT!!! I'm not trying to belittle the task of doing 'PreQualification' but this is like using a 50lb Sledge to crack a walnut. I went down this path once before and now I'm going to have a word with my functional manager about withdrawing my services from this sprint. By tomorrow, either I'll have calmed down or I'll go about my business of pissing in everyone else's breakfast cereal. Then, I got home and find my home life much too enjoyable. It's like spending your day shoveling dung only to go home and be carried about on a feather soft pillow and fed sweet grapes like a victorious general. Knowing all to well that I'll have to return to the urine soaked trenches the next day to scrabble about the fetid rancid muck for a footing to resist the onslaught of barbaric louts and cretinous laggards.

Technorati Tags:Work | Scrum | Family

Labels: Agile, Banalities Work, Family, SCRUM