Euro Trip Part 1

I recently had the opportunity to travel to the U.K., England specifically, for work. The work, explicitly, was done in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England while we stayed at a hotel in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire. Sadly, I can comment very little from a tourist perspective as I spent the bulk of the time either working or attempting to adjust to the time change. I was there for more-or-less 4 full days. I arrived on a Sunday morning at 9am their time and departed on a Thursday morning at 11am their time. I actually flew into Manchester, England and we drove from there to Boroughbridge.

Things that I learned/experienced as a result:

• Adjusting to a 5-hour time change forward is difficult. It took me a full 3 days to start to feel fairly in sync. Adjusting to the 5-hour change back in also tough, but not quite as much.
• As U.S. residents, we are currently comparably poor in England. At the time of my travel, my U.S. dollar was worth the equivalent of about 45 cents to me there.
• Traditional food there is very bland. I sampled quite a few different items and was overall unimpressed. I'm sure that they have delicious dishes, but I stuck to some of the standards. One surprise side dish was "mushed" peas. Why anyone would take an only moderately tasty vegetable to start with and then make it almost inedible my mashing it to a pulp is beyond me unless it is for the sake of feeding it to an infant. Also present at many meals was black pudding. I steered well clear of that having received fair warning before embarking.
• In the rural town in which we stayed, *nothing* is open beyond 10pm. While attempting to adjust to the time change, I ended up having to nap the first few days after working and by the time I was waking, all was closed. Any form of shopping was unavailable after about 5:30pm as all of the local shops closed at that time. Very bizarre. We didn't really get to spend anytime in actual Ripon or Manchester, but I'm sure that one or the other would have offered at least a little wider time frame for touristy things.
• I did get to visit at least one local pub which was kind of quaint and neat. There were 10 of us travelling together and we pretty much filled the place when we walked in.
• You must order "still" water if you want a standard glass of water. Otherwise, you get carbonated water. Yuck.
• If you wish ice in your beverage, you must specify. Otherwise, prepare for room temperature.
• For the most part, all of the English folk that I encountered were particularly courteous, even to include airport personnel. Go figure.
• A Best Western hotel there does not necessarily mirror that of your typical Best Western stay here. We stayed at two of them, one in Boroughbridge and one in Manchester, and they were both especially old buildings with a Best Western name stamped on the sign out front. My primary room had no form of air conditioning and heating was done with a radiator. In addition, I had bunk beds in addition to my "king sized" bed. The king sized bed was technically two doubles pushed together. As a bonus, one of them was obviously more used than the other, creating a healthy physical divider in the center. Oh yeah, that made for comfortable sleeping. The sides of the mattresses were freaky stiff giving you the pleasure of feeling like you are sleeping in a wooden box. Also, the English are apparently freakishly short as the beds weren't of any length that I am used to. Not like midget short, but definitely shorter than average.
• Driving on the other side of the car and road is bizarre. I was only the passenger throughout, but it was a very strange experience to be on that side of the car without a steering wheel. Almost every time that we went to get into the car, the front seat crew went to the wrong side by habit. Also, roundabouts make for some daredevil driving adventures. That could be a posting all to itself sometime.
• Possibly even more strange than driving on the wrong side of the road was being a pedestrian at an intersection and having to figure out which way to look for what oncoming traffic. It sounds really simple, but it is surreal to experience.
• I still don't like flying. Throw in the fact that it took us 7 hours to get there and 8 hours to get back and I *really* don't like flying for that long. If I have to do it over again, I am willing to pay whatever the difference between coach and business or first class to fly. Wow, those coach seats are pretty frickin' small for that duration. We flew on an Airbus (3 seats on each side with 4 across the middle for a total of 10 across).They served a meal in-flight, but it was very shortly after we took off. Whod've thunk it? I, of course, ate at the airport prior to departure so I wasn't anywhere close to hungry when they served the meal. Fortunately, they served drinks a couple of times and a snack a few hours later so I didn't go to starving partway through the flight.
• There is a duty-free shop *on* the plane. They literally walked around and started selling stuff during the flight. This is something else that I didn't expect. Literally anything from Toblerone chocolate bars to iPod docking stations. You didn't just pay for them from a catalog for pickup later, they literally had the items on the flight to sell to you on the spot. This occurred both on the way to and from the U.K.. Don't think I've mentioned it yet, but we flew USair.

OK, enough for this round. Until Part 2...

That Awkward Time

Yeah, if I remember correctly. It definitely went a little something like this:

http://www.fonztv.nl/fastsite/qt/nemo-teens.htm

Shadows Over CAMELot

Here is a shot from National Geographic. Very cool. It's a top-down shot of some camels with a clever view of the shadows. Click on it for a larger version.

Ten Thoughts to Ponder

As I play catch-up on my email, I run across a few decent "jokes" now and then. Here is one that I just got around to reading that isn't bad. I generally prefer to post these rather than forward them to potentially appreciative or irritated readers. So, here goes. A few of these are comical. Others not so much, but in any case...

Ten Thoughts to Ponder

1. Life is sexually transmitted.
2. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
3. Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
4. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
5. Some people are like a Slinky.....not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.
6. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
7. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
8. Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?
9. In the 60s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
10. We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America, but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.

Target acquired

Thanks to Penny Arcade, I am now aware of something almost sinister. Remember when Nerf just made softer versions of sporting goods?

A frickin' sniper rifle?!?

It's Elemental, my dear Watson

On Friday, I traded in my 2003 Toyota Corolla S for a 2007 Honda Element EX. It's not the exact color that I would have chosen given the full range (Honda calls this one Arctic Blue), but of the affordable ones on the lot, it's the one that I picked. Those that know me will recognize the irony of me obtaining a vehicle of which the looks I have been criticizing since its initial release in 2001(?). Here are a couple of pictures of my new one (click on them to see larger versions).

I also learned a little something about taking a 2-year old to the dealership with you when trying to negotiate a purchase -- NOT a clever plan. However, on day 3 I will say that it's a pretty neat vehicle. I was flip-flopping between it and the Toyota RAV 4, but decided on the Element due to larger cargo space primarily. They were both really nice, affordable, economical (from a fuel perspective) SUV type vehicles. And, since the driving factor (inadvertent pun) was needing more space for Killian and his associated stuff, this seemed like the logical choice. The easy clean flooring of the Element isn't a bad idea on the Killian note either.

Lots of neat little gadgety items in this vehicle. Some I dig, some don't make a difference to me. It has a line-in jack for audio devices, which will be nice for the iPod or for the portable DVD player should I choose to watch a movie in the vehicle for some reason. The only features that I really asked for are included - power windows & locks and cruise control. It's an automatic transmission, which suits me just fine. It's 2WD which, for my city travel, is again just fine. It comes with a 6-disc changer which will play MP3 and WMA CDs as well and XM satellite radio with a 3-month free trial (going to be hard to give it up after that). It has a tire pressure sensor (as did the RAV 4) which is nice because I'm bad about checking tire pressure unless they are blatantly looking low. It also has side curtain airbags in addition to the standard driver and passenger side ones. A little extra comfort on the safety side of things - along with side impact beams and front and rear crumple zones. Hopefully I'll never get to see any of those features in action.

It has a power outlet (cigarette lighter plug) in the rear near the tailgate as well as the one in front. If you are an outdoorsy/camping type, I suppose this could come in handy for several things. There are a few other things here and there, but that's about all of the nifty things I can think of. The back seats fold down, up and away or can be completely removed - that's kind of neat. Oh, and the front seats can lay down completely flat for the narcoleptics among us.

When I drove it off the lot, it only had 14 miles on it. I've only managed to tag on 35 since then, but I'm sure the coming weeks will see quite a few more.

Links to the entertaining

Here are a few links that I have encountered over the past few weeks that I found to be entertaining:

• A conversation at the suburban neighborhood pool... (not work friendly)
• One sheet of paper (art - wow)
• How Hot (relative heat ratings for common items)
• Balancing Point (nifty rock "stacking" video)
• "The Robot" done right
• Crazy Ladybugs (fun little internet time waster game)

Battle of the Bands

For those about to rock...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6bUD9PJ6i8&eurl

Ants Schmantz

A few things going on of late, but nothing super spectacular.

First, a couple of quick entertaining links:
- weird Al's "White and Nerdy"
- A freakish cure for hiccups
- Frightful political news
- A comical Google Earth bug

Life remains fairly hectic. Bobbie continues her at home treatment which remains challenging but she's hanging in there. The most recent hurdle is that she started to lose her hair (approximately 1/500 chance of that happening with this treatment) which resulted in her getting it cut fairly short (to a bob) to slow down the loss. The haircut seems to have been effective so far in reducing the amount of daily loss. It's not obvious that she's losing it yet other than finding it everywhere. However, as I've said throughout the treatment thus far, it's all to ensure that she's around for many more years to see her son grow and mature. The side effects are of no concern to me if they are not health threatening.

I recently went on another business trip to Newport News and managed to be sick the entire time (sinus infection or something of the like) and am just starting to feel better today (5 days later). That sucked. I actually missed work on Friday as a result, but got some much needed sleep to help knock it out. Killian is just starting to get a runny nose today, so it's probably his turn. Bobbie was sick simultaneously with me, but she was a day ahead. Other than that, the trip was pretty fruitful from a business perspective. However, I was surprised by having to stay an extra day so I had to go on a shopping adventure to pick up an extra day's worth of clothing.

My little free time continues to be occupied by World of Warcraft and Mythos. If you didn't see the season opener for South Park and know anything about World of Warcraft, you should try to catch it in a rerun or on the internet. Pretty funny stuff (as South Park *always* is in my opinion).

I can't remember if I posted it before or not, but I've added my Amazon.com wishlist and my DVD Collection back to the blog page (see upper right corner).

Nothing especially new to report on the Killian front other than that he continues to change and learn more everyday. He now knows please pretty well and is picking up new words all of the time. Shamu is finally starting to play with him a bit, but she's still a pain in the butt about it for some reason. He's generally pretty gentle with her, but she flees whenever he gets near.

Alright, I'm off to snag some lunch while he's napping. Until next time...

Guts & Balls

Props to my sista' for this one for it made me for to laugh...

We've all heard about people having guts or balls. But do you really know the difference between them? In an effort to keep you informed, the definition for each is listed below ...

GUTS - is arriving home late after a night out with the guys, being met by your wife with a broom, and having the guts to ask: "Are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?"

BALLS - is coming home late after a night out with the guys, smelling of perfume and beer, lipstick on your collar, slapping your wife on the ass and having the balls to say: "You're next."

Sunday Times

OK, so the business trip turned out to be a little busier than expected and I didn't have an opportunity to formulate a post.

As you know from my previous few posts, life has been a bit hectic of late. On Bobbie's treatment side, we have now begun the "shots at home" portion of her treatment. The bad news is that she has to get 2 shots/day three days/week of Interferon. The good news is that the dosage is 1/2 that of what she was getting at the hospital, she's getting it 3x/week rather than 5x/week and there is a day or two break between each pair of shots. The side effects are similar but much reduced in that she still runs a small fever a couple of hours after the shot, experiences lesser nausea and, though frequently fatigued, is not knocked out for 18 hours/day. The better news that keeps the silver lining for us is that this is all preventative treatment in an effort to keep the cancer from coming back. Technically, the full run of the at home treatment is 11 months, but only about 30% of the people are apparently able to make it through the whole treatment, so we'll have to see how Bobbie does. They say it tends to wear on your mental state with the constant fatigue and general feeling of "blah", so most people have to stop before the full treatment is complete. However, apparently that first month at the hospital is the really important part and we are through that.

At work I have been very busy preparing for a global implementation of HP OpenView. It's a very customizable and sizeable deal, so it has occupied much of my time and will likely continue to do so for the near future. I've just requested formal training for HP Systems Insight Manager and it has been approved, so I'm pretty excited about that. To date, I have just been trying to wing it without significant success. I am also involved in trying to implement a pair of proxy servers running Microsoft ISA and Websense behind a pair of F5 network load balancing devices which has also met with mixed success thus far. On the business trip that I mentioned, some of my team had the opportunity to meet with many of our peers from a sister company. It was nice to finally put some faces to some names.

On the entertainment front, we hosted the 3rd annual That Boardgaming Thing last weekend with much success. We had over 80 attendees which is a healthy increase from last year's attendance and everyone seemed to have a fantastic time, including myself of course. Beyond that, I play World of Warcraft whenever I get a chance, I have been playing a free web-based game, Mythos, and play boardgames every Thursday night up at the store. Not much new to report there.

Killian continues to learn something new everyday, which is expected at his age. Lots of new words starting to enter his vocabulary so we're soon going to have to start watching what we say in his company. It is truly amazing to watch a kid develop, I must admit. A combination of rewarding and frustrating. "Mine" is very key to him now and that's a bit of a challenge. We are looking to soon enroll him in a pre-school for 2 days/week 3 hours/day. There are a few affordable ones nearby. It's just a matter of research and application now. I really miss him when I can't see him for a day or two now. OK, I'll admit that has always been the case, but it seems to be more significant as he grows.

Contrary to my previous claim that I refuse to watch more than one season of Prison Break, I have seen the first 3 episodes of season two and it continues to be a good show. I am worried, however, that it is soon to become cheesy. We'll just have to wait and see. I am reading (listening to) the final (7th) book in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King and it has come to a point in the last two books that I didn't expect. An excellent series of books thus far. I'm praying for a decent ending. My next actual read in queue is Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which I received from my sister for my birthday. I've been wanting to read that one ever since I heard about it a year or so ago. Speaking of which, my sister is pregnant again so I have another niece or nephew (and Killian has another cousin) on the way. I haven't heard which it will be yet. I think she's still to early to tell.

Alright, I'm off to enjoy my Sunday as best I can. Until next time...

Checking in...

Just checking in to let everyone know that I am alive and well. I hope to post a meaningful entry rather than this quickie over the next day or two while I am travelling on business. Stay tuned.

Yawny McYawnsalot

Here we are at the beginning of week 4 of treatment. The *last* of the hospital weeks, thank goodness. It's been a fairly rough ride thus far, but not unbearable thanks to luck and lots of support from many friends and family. Bobbie maintains 18 hour sleep days and is pretty much entirely out of energy when she is awake. Mornings are best for her, but even her energy then is quickly spent. I'm not quite sure how she is going to magically shift back into regular life next week, but we'll have to see how it all works out when that time comes. No doubt it will be tough at first as Killian is quite the ball of energy these days and requires a lot of it to keep up with him. Hopefully the reduced at home dosage of the Interferon in conjunction with the prescription speed that they have her on (Ritalin) will leave her with more pep to get through it.

My birthday last Monday was the worst in my 36 years here thus far thanks to a myriad of things. The two primary: Bobbie's illness and Killian's decision to wake up at 2:30am on my birthday when I had just crawled into bed at 1:30am. He decided to stay awake until 5:30am when I had to get up (having not gone to bed) for work. Youch. Ugly day that was. However, if I only have a bad one every 36 years, then I'm good to go for quite sometime. And thanks to all who sent cards and gifts. They were appreciated bad day aside. :)

The past few weeks have been very hectic for me even if life were normal outside of the workplace, but I'm making it. However, I really need to get to bed now to try to keep up my beauty sleep so I'll keep this post a short one. I'll add an entertaining email that I received from a friend for your reading pleasure. You've seen some like it before, no doubt, but it rings true in any case...

----------------------------

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and

NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.

And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We r ode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had try-outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

If YOU are one of us . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

Corn can be tasty

OK, two weeks down and still going. It was rough beginning to the second week of treatment with the nausea increasing, but it appeared to level off a bit as the week went on. Still a lot of sleeping, but lesser fevers it seems.

The workplace continued to bring dinner to us daily up until Tuesday. On that day, they provided us with a 12 meal program from Super Suppers. Basically it's 12 six portion meals prepared and packaged individually for easy cooking with a set of quick instructions. So far I've tried the spiced meatballs. Very tasty. The challenge: making room in the freezer for all of it. Apparently, I gots the skillz though as I made them all fit. As stated before, a HUGE pile of thanks to those involved in coordinating that effort.

I just started goofing around with a free online MMORPG today, Mythos. Looks like it's a well though out, well put together game. Give it a glance if you're interested. It is all online, so that is nice. No software to install or game system needed. It runs similar to a MUD, but with a GUI interface and teams in the form of kingdoms.

On a freaky note, the town of Cary, NC discovered e-coli in the water supply so restaurants around the city are closed today and possibly through the weekend. That has to hurt financially. How much would that suck? You're not allowed to open even if you promise to use only bottled water, etc. I guess it's really virtually impossible to operate an eatery without running tap water, but it still has to suck for them. Sucks for the residents of the town as well, of course, but at least they are allowed to go to their homes.

Admitted with slight embarrassment, I watched the majority of America's Got Talent this season. I have to say that I think the correct winner was chosen and was the one that I had picked after her first performance. That girl can sing. I don't dig any of the songs or style that she chose, but have to credit her spectacular voice. For entertainment value, however, I think that The Passing Zone (jugglers) was the best show in the house. How in Hell Rappin' Granny made it to the finals is beyond my ability to understand. Not only was she painfully bad to suffer through, but other quality acts lost out as a result. On a side note with which many will disagree, apparently Piers is the only judge worth listening to. I don't agree with everything he says always or his opinions on every act, but he offers the most useful criticism of the three by far. Apparently the rule for Brandy is "if you are a singer, you're in". OK, enough chatter about America's Got Talent. It's not good enough to spend anymore words on.

Week 2, Day 2

First, thank you to all who have offered words, thoughts and prayers of kindness throughout this ordeal so far. It's wonderful to know that I have so many caring friends and family out there.

We are wrapping up the 2nd day of the 2nd week of treatment. The first week went by fairly uneventfully. Well, at least as uneventfully as one can hope during this experience. At the end of the first week, nausea starting a bit in Bobbie and the docs say that is normal as the medication begins to accumulate in your system, but otherwise she basically just slept most of that first week and had a fever from time to time that Tylenol seemed to have knocked out on all occasions.

As of tonight, the nausea was apparently pretty bad though her fever didn't spike up too high (not above 100 degrees) so far. The medications that they gave her for nausea appear to be helping. I'm sure it would be awful without them. They have prescribed Kytril, Prochlorperazine (though oral and not rectal as the link indicates) and Ativan for nausea. The Ativan is the scary one as it is a narcotic for anxiety relief and they said to take that only in addition to the Prochlorperazine if the nausea doesn't subside. We ended up having to go to Ativan tonight, but it seems to have done the trick to get her through the most recent bout of nausea. Here's hoping that it doesn't get worse throughout the week.

Killian gave me my first "he's a boy" scare today. I got a call from the babysitter at about 3:30pm telling me that Killian, while playing with his 2-year old and 4-year old, had taken a group spill with them and started crying. Apparently he got up with a bit of a limp on his left and when trying to run would fall as a result of his left leg/ankle/foot giving way. Of course, the standard reaction to illness/injury to an immediate family member is for me to basically panic so I left work and headed over to get him. When I got there, he was sitting in a chair eating Cheerios and watching television with the other two boys. His foot/ankle *looked* to be OK (no bruising/swelling/bones sticking out) and though he appeared to be walking on it a bit gingerly, he didn't appear to be in any real pain. I did see him start to run a couple of times only to fall and start crawling, it being obvious a result of his sore foot/ankle. So, to give myself some peace of mind, I took him in to see the doctor and have them give him the thumbs up. Of course, while there, he would demonstrate no symptoms and went so far as to jump around a bit just to let the doctor know that I am truly the baby between the two of us. So, she twisted his leg and foot around and gave his foot, ankle, knee and hip all the doctoral approval. So, hopefully all is well and he will be back to fully functional in no time. At the end of it all, I felt bad mostly for the babysitter. It's scary enough when your own kid hurts himself, but it's got to be a whole different level of scary when one that you are watching does so. Andy, if you're reading this, it's all good. :)

Otherwise, work is really hectic of course as it has been over the past several weeks. I am working on HP OpenView installation, configuration and training over the next few weeks which is pretty interesting but I have a million other things going on at the same time, so I'm also quite distracted from it.

Many of you ask about how I am doing and I keep writing about things going on around me instead. I am tired, but in good spirits. Between watching the little guy all of the time while Bobbie is out of it, waking up to make sure she gets her medicine on time, going in to work earlier than normal to try to make up for time missed both on my week out and trying to get out at a decent time to relieve those watching the wife & kid when I am working and the general stress of it all, I am a little worn but I will make it. The naive glee of the little guy every day wipes it all away when I see him and he exclaims whatever form of "dad" that he chooses at the time and runs over to me. And having the week to spend with both he and Bobbie even though she slept through most of it was wonderful as well. Finally, having a loving wife and knowing that this is all to improve the chances that she will be around for a long time to come tops it all off. So, overall I guess I'm not to shabby.

Updates and How do you do's

I've been accused of many things, but not often enough a poor blogger apparently. Sorry for the lack of posting of late, but life has been a little hectic as many of you know.

By far, the most involved task has been the coordination of Bobbie's cancer treatment. She started the initial 4-week stint on Monday and has reacted fairly well (as far as I know of possible reactions) thus far. Mostly she has been tired, sleeping up to 14 hours per day. In addition a fever peaking at about 101 degrees and holding around the 99 mark most of the time. She has to take Tylenol every 4 hours throughout the treatment to help keep the fever down. She also has to take Benadryll and some powerful (and expensive) anti-nausea drug 1/2 hour before her treatments. They double the dosage of the Interferon in the 2nd week of treatment and then double it again in the 3rd week, so we're not really sure what to expect, but hopefully her reaction will be similarly mild throughout.

I am staying home with her for this first week and from an entertaining a 2-year old while looking after the wife perspective, I have to tell you that a day at work is far easier. Some of the challenge comes in the fact that her treatments are scheduled mid-afternoon which would typically be nap time for Killian, so we're having to try to cram his nap in early each day. Hopefully he'll be happy to move back to longer naps when it's all said and done. Also, there is not much in the way of 2-year old entertainment anywhere near the hospital, so it's tough to keep him occupied for 1.5 hours while she's getting the IV. In addition, I'm trying to do a little work throughout the day and then after I put him to bed, so that adds a little burden to it all. I don't want a big pile of work waiting for me when I get back next week. As a bonus feature, Killian has thrown in an unprecedented 2am-ish wake-up over the past 2 nights. He's been pretty easy to get back to sleep with a short back rub, but I still have to wake up and walk my way into his room and then proceed to get myself back to sleep only to fall victim to his 6:30am daily wake-up call. Anyone who knows me knows that I am in no way a morning person, so this is probably the toughest on me overall.

On an awesome note, people from the IT department at work have been bringing dinner by each night and are apparently going to continue for at least the course of this first week. I can't tell you how much this means to not only me in terms of not having to prepare dinner for the family each night, but to us overall as a humanitarian gesture. It is truly very touching.

On other notes of potential interest, Killian is now sleeping in a toddler bed and has been for a couple of weeks. He loves it, but still won't climb out of it until one of us is in the room with him in the mornings. Not sure what that's all about, but I'm guessing habit from the crib which he fortunately never tried to climb out of to our knowledge. It's a Spider-man bed with Spider-man linens, so it's extra cool. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to climb out of it. :) He is also starting to roll of more words each week. I've lost count of how many, but he's definitely on the verge of forming some sentences. He has done at least one simple one, "Want go pool." when he wanted to go to the pool the other day. He was handing Bobbie his life jacket when he said it. He's a fanatic for the pool. Can't get enough of it. We have a speech therapist that comes once per week on Thursdays to help Killian along. I'll be meeting her tomorrow for the first time.

Speaking of first times, I went to Gymboree with him for the first time this week. Gaaaaaaaay. He had a fun time though and it is a nice layout for little kids to wildly run about and play. It's just the organized stuff that's gay. However, since the kids seems to enjoy it, I can live with it for now. I might add that I was the only dad present among the 12 or so attendees.

Well, it's late and I have to get up with said kiddo early tomorrow, but I will try to post more sooner than later. Many of you have asked me for updates on Bobbie so I figured I owed you one at the very least. Until next time...

Thank you and have a pleasant tomorrow

This pains me as she was actually quite good in the spot. In her absence during her pregnancy, they filled her spot with Tubsy McTubsalot who, on the other hand, was quite poor in the role.

Fey will leave SNL's 'Weekend Update' - Yahoo! News

House of Dominos

I have forever been a fan of watching dominoes topple and this is an impressive construction:

Scaryideas.com: Videos - House of Dominos

Grape Ape

Apparently that goes for grape juice as well.

Painted Jezabel

I have been reminded by the roomie to keep all paint out of the reach of Killian.

Endless Zoom

Wow, pretty neat stuff:
Endless Art

[Edit:  Oh well, looks like this link is currently busted.  - 12/17/2010]

Blog repair

OK, I've fixed a few of the links to the right, but will need to add some more (such as my DVD collection, etc.).

Oops...

I made a change to the template of my blog and it screwed something up. As a result, all of my customized stuff on the right is now busted and back to "default". I will fix this asap. Just wanted to throw out a heads-up in case anybody actually used the links that I had posted there regularly.

Killian is soon to be Two

So we got some professional pics done and, I must say, they came out very well. Here is a sample. My favorites are the one in the "Newsies" hat and the one where he is either taking off or putting on his blue shirt. I'm not sure what is going on in his spastic Joe Cocker impersonation shot, but the ladies seem to like it.

Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard

Oh how beautiful it is:
Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard

Ack!

Here is a comical disclaimer from a website for a password cracking utility. Count the number of times "ack" appears in it:

"Important note. This is not a cracking or hacking site. We do not offer software 'cracks', cracking programs or other hacking tools. Instead, we offer password recovery software and password recovery services. Password recovery software is also known as 'password crackers' (or 'password breakers'). Note that 'password crackers' are not 'software crackers'. Software crackers are produced by hackers and are used to run illegal software copies. Password crackers are used to 'crack' lost or forgotten passwords. "

All Fun & Games - Photos

Here are a couple of shots from our grand opening.

Oh and bonus news...

Bobbie's CT scans came out negative across the board and radiation therapy is not recommended, though she will likely have to undergo treatment with Interferon. Still no word on the final suggested treatment, though it will likely take place in July/August. I will post more as we know more, but for now hopefully all is well.

Go Canes!

Woohoo! Go Canes! An excellent game 7 following a miserable game 6. Imagine a Stanley Cup win in 75% temperatures at midnight. Strange but true.

Cartoon Skeletal Systems

Kinds of bizarre/interesting. Here are some of you favorite cartoon skeletons.

Bagel Bitching

Every Friday at the work they provide us with free bagels for breakfast. This is a good thing, but it has allowed me to confirm one of my suspicions about the universe. Any bagel with a form of onion in it should not be allowed to touch or be in the same container with a non-onion driven bagel. It is simply ruinous.

If aereolas has wings, that would be strange

In an effort not to depress myself or you tiny clan o' readers, I have been dodging blogging much about the day to day of my current affairs. I shall continue to do so until there is more pertinent information on that front, but as a tidbit I will tell you that we are currently investigating follow-up/preventive treatment options for Bobbie.

On a slightly related but lighter note, Killian is saying a few words now. The ones that I can claim to have heard clearly enough to count are "Bye, bye", "momma", "dad", "Bob and Spongebob", "ball (specifically when pointing to a ball)", "cool" and "discombobulate (though I can't really be too sure about that one)". He's definitely coming along. Should be one heck of an adventure.

He's definitely getting more hyper and energetic as we enter the "terrible twos" and bringing the first remnants of tantrums with it. We have introduced the Penalty Box in lieu of Time Out for punishment and it seems to be pretty effective some of the time. For me, the biggest challenge right now is his kicking during diaper changes, mostly because it hurts and makes the diaper change itself next to impossible. However, the threat of a penalty (2 minute minor for testicular endangerment) seems to be slowly influencing his decision to continue kicking. Additionally, he has discovered that he thoroughly enjoys a high pitch scream battle regardless of whether there is an opponent involved or not. This can make for an embarrassing time in public since you can't really try the "just ignore him" technique while others suffer the consequences.

Error... Error...

Ahh yes, classic error messages at The Daily WTF - Pop-up Potpourri: June Bugs.

That Crazy Earth from Above

Check out these very cool Satellite pics.

Hush Little Baby

Thank you Timothy McSweeney for Investment Advice for My Son.

He's baaaaaaaaaaack....

Check it: The Internet Gets Green - Yahoo! News.

New Gaming Home

The Grand Re-opening of All Fun & Games at the new spot was a resounding success yesterday. Seriously, it vastly surpassed any expectation that I had for the event. We had an estimated 500+ customers pass through the doors throughout the day. Additionally, we had our largest sales day in store history (that's 8 years for those counting) to include our best Christmas season to date. Granted, the 25% special that we were running for the event likely contributed significantly to that, but still. Wow! Thanks to everyone that made the effort to come out and see the new place on our big day!

I have to give *ALL* of the credit to Bobbie and Vivian, though. They busted their butts to make this happen and they deserve all of the congratulations. Thanks, for that matter, go to the horde of volunteers that helped us with the move and setup. That effort was almost just as amazing as we learned how many true friends we have made over the years. You guys were an amazing help. Without you, it could not have been possible.

Speaking of volunteers, we have a new store website thanks to one. Check it out at http://www.AllFunNGames.com. It is *vastly* superior to that piece of crap I had built in a matter of minutes with FrontPage just so we'd have an internet presence. Mad props to Christi.

So, if you live in the area and are insterested in boardgaming, join us on Thursday nights for our boardgame night. We have about 30 regular attendees and are typically there until about midnight. The new gaming space is a little more than twice the size of the old. Good times all around.

GREAT news

I went with Bobbie to her doctor appointment today to review the results of her biopsy tests on the lymphnodes that she had removed last Tuesday. Of the 23 nodes removed in the surgery, all 23 came back negative - aka free o' cancer! What a HUGE relief! I could have fallen asleep immediately afterward as it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from me and I was just exhausted from the stressful waiting over the last few weeks.

We're not *completely* in the clear yet, but this was a BIG bump to get over. She has an appointment on Friday to find out what the next steps are, but I think that they are more maintenance and prevention than aggressive treatment that may have followed if these came back positive. We will just have to wait and see.

As for the store move, thanks to our group of volunteers, we got everything moved over to the new location and now it is just a matter of putting it where we want it there. Not that that is a simple task, but it is much less in size and scope than the overall moving of the stuff from point A to point B and all the painting and preparation work beforehand. So, we're off and running there. We're set to open in the new place tomorrow with out grand opening on Saturday, June 3rd. So, come and check it out if you can.

The new address is:
All Fun & Games
205D Colonades Place
Cary, NC 27511
919.233.7727
In Waverly Place Shopping Center right across from Rudino's and Red Hot & Blue

Days Passing

Sorry about the gap between entries. The last few weeks have been occupied by a drama about which I have been compelled to write, but reluctant. I maintain that reluctance as it is not a pleasant topic and I shall merely mention it in passing here so that those readers that are unaware will hopefully understand my lack of posting.

My wife was diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer) several weeks ago following the removal of a small mole near her jawline and ear. Since then, she has had 2 outpatient procedures and an operation to have the surrounding tissue and all of the lymphnodes in the right side of her neck removed. We are still awaiting the biopsy of the most recent operation and won't know anything more until Wednesday of this week at the earliest. So, I will not go into anymore detail than that for now. Suffice it to say, that it has been a mental and emotional burden for both of us. However, she has maintained a very positive outlook through everything thus far and that has helped me to stay positive as well. We will simply have to wait and see what hand fate deals us.

On a more positive note, we received the keys to the new retail space last Wednesday. Can't remember if I've blogged about our store moving or not, but we will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week getting stuff (fixtures & product) moved over to open on Thursday. Our grand opening is on Saturday, June 3rd with game demos, face painters and all kinds of stuff. Should be a good time. The new space is huge. Almost twice the size of our current spot. We have spent the bulk of the last few days painting and scraping up carpet glue. OK, to be fair, Bobbie and a set of volunteers have been doing all of that work while I have been doing some odds and ends around the house. As far as I'm concenred, this is her and Vivian's (business partner) show so I'm letting them direct it. It's looking really nice, plus it is helping Bobbie stay focused on something other than the issue mentioned earlier.

The only ugly part of that effort thus far has been that we discovered that the AC units are not working on the new place on Friday. A repair guy came out at the landlord's calling, but couldn't fix it and, thanks to the holiday weekend, nobody is available to even consider doing so until Tuesday at the earliest. Has it been ludicrous hot this weekend? Of course it has! Are they doing manual labor during the heat? Of course they are! We're under a time constraint, so there is no getting around it. However, everyone (our volunteer help) has been very good about it and stuff is still getting done. Now we're just hoping that they can actually fix the AC units on Tuesday (of which there are 2 and neither is working) - fingers crossed.

The Top Ten Weirdest, Creepiest, Freakiest Children's Television Shows

I watch a pretty decent chunk of TV with Killian. As he is not yet two, the particular group of shows that grab his attention is pretty limited. As a result, seeing the same episodes time after time is painful to me. So, I try to get him some variety where I can. I've seen the majority of the shows on this list, and I'd have to say that this guy does a pretty good job of pegging them all for the oddities. Number three is the one I find most painful from personal experience and absolutely cannot watch. I haven't pained myself with numbers two and nine and I haven't yet given number seven a viewing, though it has potential. Of those listed, numbers one, eight and five (five is just strange) are my favorites. Killian's favorites are apparently eight and ten.

Fry Daddy

Fried foods. The virtual elimination of them from my diet thereof. This shall be the key to weight loss and cholesterol control for me.

At least I'm hoping so. In addition, the doc is suggesting fish oil (which I am taking, but blech!) and exercise (this I *need* to invoke in some fashion as well).

Contextual Harrassment

There is just something contextually distrubing about this t-shirt design.

Surprises

This officially makes for one very unpleasant surprise.

And to offset that unpleasantry, here is a pleasant surprise.

Tech Pranks

I have actually performed the Freeze Frame prank and it was well worth the effort. Good stuff and a good way to take advantage of an employee failing to secure their workstation.

Comments welcome

I just had a reader mention that comments required blogger.com membership. I forgot that I had enabled that and have now changed it so that anyone can comment on blog entries, so feel free to do so if inspired.

If I start getting a bunch of spam comments, I'll have to switch it back, but for now, enjoy.

Fear of Girls

Yes, yes, yes. Give it a watch: Fear of Girls. I'd love to say that this isn't representative of at least one segment of our customer base, but I'd be a lying bastard if I did.

A la peanut butter sandwiches

A quick recap of what I've been up to lately: Evolution.

Actually, it has been a fairly hectic week. Many of them are these days from a work standpoint. I can't pin it to one particular thing, it's just a busy time for IT in the company's history and I have the opportunity to play a reasonably involved part. Hectic, but rewarding in the end with both knowledge and recognition.

After tonight's migration of our Blackberry server, I will have begun, continued work on or finished:

• configuration of an ISA integrated pair of load balanced Websense proxy servers
• build and migration to a new SQL 2005 connected Blackberry Enterprise Server v4.1
• build of a DHCP failover configuration of an Infoblox set of appliances with our sister company
• build an image for new tablet PC hardware
• upgrade software on our Symantec Mail Security gateway appliances
• create a stable wormhole connecting the Milky Way galaxy to Betelegeuse (okay, maybe that one not so much)

In any case, a fairly busy work week when you combine all of that with other standard day-to-day stuff that pops up along the way.

On the personal side of the week, I had a terrible performance at Tuesday night World Tavern Poker, but I'm still ranked 9th overall in the tavern at which I play so that can only get better if I do manage good finishes during the rest of the season.

QuickBooks annoyed me quite a bit this month by announcing the cessation of payroll support for QuickBooks 2003 and forcing us to upgrade to QuickBooks 2006 (or choose another product/company), pretty much a $200 venture that our store didn't really need to encounter right before a move (check our coverage in The News & Observer).

Today at lunch I picked up a new front pocket wallet by Fossil. That will help thwart those pesky pickpockets plaguing my playground. Ok, more importantly it will help rid me of that unsightly bulge on my left buttock. Ok, even *more* importantly, it will help keep my pants from wearing at exactly the point that a corner of my previous wallet met my office chair. Very annoying.

For those that don't already know or know and don't read Wil Wheaton's blog (the kid from Stand By Me, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: TNG), it's surprisingly entertaining and/or interesting and very regularly updated. As a bonus, it has an RSS feed (remember my last post?).

RSS and Feedemon

For those not already familiar with RSS feeds, they're worth looking into. They'll change the way you surf the web. The tool that I use to view them is FeedDemon and I'd give it a "two thumbs up" rating. Good stuff. In fact, you can view this very blog in RSS feed format.

Evolution of an envelope

Minorly interesting for those of us fairly long term Netflix customers: Netflix Mailers

Jumpin' Beans

I took Killian to Jumpin' Beans in Cary yesterday. He met his buddy Mason there for some playtime. Wow, talk about cool! Imagine a giant moonwalk. Now multiply that by 10 or so and throw in a bunch of inflatable landscape and a slide. Talk about kid heaven! As a bonus, parents are actually allowed to go in with the kids. Now talk about big kid heaven and take out the opportunity to really bounce around and go really crazy so it reduces the fun factory for the parents considerably, but still very cool. Killian had a blast and this was the first time I've ever had to take him out of a place crying because he didn't want to leave even though he was completely worn out after over an hour of engery burning bouncing. Cute and sad. It was an effort to keep him awake on the trip home to ensure him a good night's sleep.

It cost $8 on Saturdays and $7 on all other days - parents free. It was a good time and I'd suggest it to anyone with kids in the right age range.

one red paperclip

After being told specifically of this last night, it occurs to me that I had heard bits and pieces about it over the past several months. If you're not already familiar with it, check out one red paperclip.

Pretty amazing overall.

Game night at the Apollo

Well, at least a All Fun & Games. We hosted our weekly boardgame night at the store last night with approximately 20 attendees. Lots of games were played, but those with which I was specifically involved were:

- Parlay :: It's a mix between poker and Scrabble. I enjoyed it well enough, but doubt I would choose it over Quiddler or Scrabble given the option.

- Pizza Box Football :: A light football boardgame based on dice rolls. With several levels of play and an expansion pack that includes real world teams, it seems that it might be an enjoyable substitute for Blood*Bowl. I played only the introductory game, so it possibly a little too simple.

- Age of Steam - Italy Expansion :: Having played Age of Steam before, I knew that I would enjoy the base game at the very least. The Italy expansion offered some interesting twists, but it was just too tight of a land mass for my enjoyment with 4 players. Some of that negativity could be stemming from having been beaten about the head and neck by my opponents from a scoring standpoint, but I think I would maintain that opinion even with a win.

Overall, a good time was had as always.

Eat Poop You Cat

How odd that I was not aware of such a thing until now. Eat Poop You Cat (completely work safe).

Props to Nate, Mike & Eric for directing my attention to it.

Latin America

Ok, a quick search of the Wikipedia gives this info about Latin America.

From the Latin word for...

Ever wonder with all the words of Latin origin just where in the heck Latin itself originated? A recent joke I made about some word being Latin for something that was blatantly incorrect made me ponder this very thing. So, check out this Wikipedia entry for some insight. Now if I can just figure out how this pertains to Latin America...

Back on the dietary track

After several months of dietary abuse and following the annual "tell me how bad it is, doc" visit, I am now back on the diet and exercise track. As of yesterday, I again began logging my eating efforts at weightwatchers.com. Some to lose a bit of weight, but mostly to eat healthier in general. My exercise regime thus far consists of 30 minutes of Dance, Dance Revolution, but that's definitely an improvement over the otherwise 18 hours of sitting on my derrier.

I also got back to playing some World Tavern Poker tonight. I didn't do too poorly with a 10th place finish in the 7pm game and a 18th place finish in the 10pm game. That gives me my 4 top 20 finishes (1st, 4th, 10th & 11th) that are needed to qualify for the tavern championship at the end of the season. Woohoo! Now, if I can just win enough for that new lung that I'll need after sitting in a smoke bath for 4 1/2 hours...

The Gathering of Friends 2006

I spent the entirety of last week in Columbus, OH at a boardgaming get together known as The Gathering of Friends. It is an invite only affair hosted by Alan Moon and this was my 4th time attending over the past 6 years. As usual, I had a great time having the chance to play a multitude of games with old friends and many new ones. I played several old standbys and many that were new to me including:

- Thurn and Taxis = I enjoyed this one and played and taught it several times over the course of the week. It is a medium weight route building game which has a meaningless German postal theme, but an entertaining enough set of mechanics to make up for the lacking theme.

- Seerauber = This was fun and light. Slightly reminiscent of Corsairs (which I abhor) but different enough to say that I enjoyed it. I played this one two times over the course of the week and the entire group seemed to enjoy both times.

- Times Square = This is a 2-player game very similar to En Garde, but with a different theme. I gave this one three plays over the course of the week, but it just didn't quite hook me. I doubt that I would buy it, but I would play it again without resistance. It's most entertaining attribute is trying to remember the names of the characters while playing; Dancing Deb, Saucy Sue and her bodyguards, Handsome Hal and Champagne Charlie.

- Shear Panic = This one had some of the most fabulous bits of any game that I have ever played. The sheep were fantastic. Contrarily, the game boards were significantly lacking. However, since the sheep are the focus of the game, they did not detract. This one is slightly difficult to explain, but suffice it to say give it a try if you have an opportunity.

- Breaking Away = I really fought through this game. I had absolutely no interest in the theme whatsoever (oval bike racing), I was hungry and some of the table company left much to be desired. Oh, and the game components were pretty terrible. All said, however, the game mechanics were pretty solid and I would like to give it another try well fed and with a different group of players.

- Railroad Dice 2 = I am a fan of railroad games on the whole and this one did not disappoint. It had the tiniest board of any game that comes to mind and you have to constantly manipulate dice on it, so that can be a bit challenging, but overall it squeezes a good rail game into a comparably fairly short time span.

- Boomtown = Old west themes tend to make for fun play and Boomtown is no exception. It put me into the mood, once again, to play the Doomtown CCG. Fun and fairly light. Definitely worth a purchase.

- Du Balai = A clever memory and pattern recognition game. Take a look at the website for an explanation. Had a great time with this one.

- Kreta = I enjoyed this one well enough, but not enough to own it. I doubt that I would ever suggest it as the game to play given a choice, but would readily play it again if suggested by others. It is a territory control game on the island of Crete.

- Cash 'n Guns = Simple and fun. Think Reservoir Dogs in boardgame form... sort of. Enjoyable, but it takes the right kind of people to have fun with it. AND it comes with foam guns. Can't go wrong there.

- 18FL = My first experience with an 18xx rail game and I'm glad that we had Craig Massey along to guide us through. Lots and lots o' rules, but a great time for a rail and stock game lover like myself.

Thanks to all who attended for aiding in my enjoyment (particularly Frank Wimmer and Mark Edwards) and a special thanks to Alan for hosting it all these years (this marks #17).

Welcome to the new stuff

Hello all. My former host has ceased to exist, so the new home for Paulblog will be http://irritablebunion.blogspot.com. Archives of the old site should come online sometime in the near future.

Until then, hopefully I will be inspired to post more frequently to the new joint. Enjoy!

Paul