The girls had a girl scout BBQ that the entire families went to on tuesday. All I did was watch them run and scream, eat, and talk to the other dads. One of them, I had met before, but never really talked to. Turned out that he was a civil engineer, and we both went to UNL around the same time. So we chatted about the people that we both knew, one of whom was a guy I knew in high school, but hadn't seen since. Turns out, this guy was still in touch with him.
He said "yeah, actually, Sean just had a pretty bad thing happen to him. He was engaged, and his fiancee was on a trip to vegas, and she was staying on her own in one of the high rise hotels. Her room was one of the upper floors, and Sean was still in Omaha, and talking to her on the phone while she was in her room. Then in the middle of the conversation, she says "oh no... oh no.." and the phone goes dead. He has no idea what happened at the time, but shortly thereafter found out that while talking, had walked out on the balcony, and somehow fallen over the edge."

Holy crap. That sounds like an urban legend, but I couldn't find it, and although 2nd hand information, it seemed like he believed it.
What a horrible thing to experience.
Live life to the fullest today people, God only knows what can happen to you tomorrow.

Posted by Aaron at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, Ally seems to be getting along pretty good with her broken arm. She's got a half cast, and while not pleasant, is tolerating it well.

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This is lifted directly from a joke website, but I still thought it was good.
A manager at a General Store is teaching a young, newly hired boy how to sell people more than they really want. Suddenly, a man walks in asking for a bag of lawn seed. The manager walks up to him and says, "Of course. But you will be wanting a lawn mower, too, right?"

The man asks, "Why would I be?"

The manager replies, "Because when the lawn seed grows, you'll need something to cut the grass with."

Surprisingly, the man buys a lawn mower. Then another man walks in and asks for a box of Tampax. The manager nudges the newly hired boy. The boy walks up to the man and says, "Right away, Sir. But, of course, you will be wanting a lawn mower with that, right?"

The shocked man asks, "Why?!"

The young man then replies, "Well, your weekend's screwed, so you might as well mow the lawn."

Posted by Aaron at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The girls had a music program this week. It went pretty well, and was impressive because it was very long, and all memorized.


Friday, I ran 5 miles. 5 freaking miles!  I haven't run over 2 miles in well over 10 years. This week, I run 4 and then 5 miles. I'm hopefully getting in better shape, but I'm not enjoying running any more than I ever have.

The 'c' key on this keyboard is dying. I suspect that will be the impetuous to force me to get a new laptop at home.
I managed to download a virus on my work machine, and killed that machine dead. I am now running knoppix on it exclusively, because windows won' t even boot anymore.

Saturday we went to Sheltons for a potluck party. We played the usual polish horseshoes game,

which is always fun. As usual, we got plenty of good pictures of Chad.

The Frisbees constantly were going over the fence, so we would send kids over the fence to get them. This was all a lot of fun until Ally managed to fall while going over the fence, and complained that her arm hurt real bad. It didn't really swell up, so we decided to be optimistic.
We then bought the fight, UFC 71. Many good fights, including a guy from omaha kicking the holy crap out of a veteran he was supposed to lose to. And most notably, Chuck getting spanked in 50 seconds by jackson. We were debating who would win, and my comment was
"I do think Chuck will win, but I also believe the Jackson is the most likely guy to beat him."
Chad and I debated this for a while, and finally agreed on a $10 bet based on the vegas odds, which turned out to be 17-10. So I made $17 to boot.

Today, we woke up late, and I was interested to see how Ally was. She seemed to get along pretty good after we pumped her full of Tylenol, so I was optimistic. She couldn't do much. She wasn't in constant pain, and there was no swelling, so I thought we were good.
I decided to take her to the urgent care clinic and get her x-rayed.
Sure enough, hairline fracture in the radius. My first kid with a broken bone. It's as good as a situation if someone tells you your kid has to have a broken bone.
The biggest bummer is that it's her right arm, her dominant arm. So it will be a pretty major inconvenience, what with softball just starting, piano lessons, and getting through the last few weeks of school.

Posted by Aaron at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh sweet agony. I was excited to see Auggie Smith in omaha at the end of the month.
But now I've discovered that Brian Regan is also going to be in omaha the same weekend.
It's a tough choice, because I much prefer Brian, but I've seen him so many times already. But then, you usually go with friends, and none my friends here have seen him, so...

Oh cruel fate..

UPDATE:
never mind. I'm an idiot, and read the dates wrong. They are one month apart, so all is well. Except it's just one more thing to add to my schedule.

Posted by Aaron at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Holy crap, I just ran 4 miles at lunch today. I thought I was gonna die. My right thigh was cramping and my left knee was nearly giving out, good times.
Then I went and ate a 2lb burrito, so 20 minutes of running all wiped away in 5 minutes of eating.

I've been griping for months about needing to hire more people in our office, not so much because we have so much work, but because i want to add "mass" to our office so that we don't feel like an external appendix, just waiting to be quickly and easily cut off.
So now, we have created a large office in India, (like the rest of the engineering world) and now I've been given 3 new guys to allocate tasks to. Which means now I have to actually come up with tasks for these guys.
This will go badly if I cannot come up with a lot of stuff for these guys to do...

Posted by Aaron at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Busy weekend, but good, overall.
The girls' 7th birthday as Friday, so we went to HuHot for dinner, which is their favorite place to eat. I love it, but I overeat there, and it consistently acts as a super-strength laxative on me. I many times have to speed home to make to the toilet in time. The worst time I didn't even make it out of the restaurant.
Friday, I didn't make it out of th restaurant twice, and they were closing. There was a girl trying to clean up the bathroom for the nite, and I couldn't get out of there.
Good times.

Saturday, the girls had their last soccer game, and then I played cards with friends at my place all nite.

Today, the girls had their birthday party with their friends at the YMCA, where they just swam with
everyone. They all seemed to have a good time, and as usual, they got way too much stuff.

---

I just finished watching smokin aces, which I had high hopes for, and I ended up thinking it was terrible. I highly do not recommend it.

Now I have the GS all fixed up, my class is over, so it's time to move on to the next project.
I think it will be the kegbot project, and getting a new trampoline.

Posted by Aaron at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am planning a trip to Fort Collins this summer. With gas the prices they are, it's going to be like going to disneyland last year in terms of cost. The only saving grace is that I am taking advantage of our friend's good nature and forcing them to house us while we're there, so that's nicer than a hotel anyway, and now, cheaper.

In the phone conversation I had with David about the details of this trip, he mentioned that the people living in my old house had recently told him that the roof was leaking, and the insurance wouldn't cover it because it had been repaired incorrectly.
So the original thought is that I did that bad repair. I mean, I would think that too.
But I told him that there was no way it was me, I never had any roof problems there, all my roof problems have been here.

Then after the discussion, he should have realized that too, since I had to recruit him to get on my roof the only time I needed anything done to it! All he did was wrap some chicken wire around my chimney to keep the birds out, but I was too chicken to even get on the roof, let alone get up there and try to fix anything myself.
It's my one true flaw. I hate heights severely, and roofs are almost the worst for me, even more than tall buildings or other tall structures where at least I'm inside, or behind a railing.
Walking around on a roof just looks like a recipe for disaster for me.

So the morale of the story is, I am bad luck for any house I live in apparently.

Posted by Aaron at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Out of only mild interest, I'm trying to read L. Ron Hubbard's 'Scientology', in an effort to get some of the details of what it is all about.
I'm interested in how religions differ, since I find it quite entertaining how so many different people can be convinced their wildly different views are 'right'. Especially when at the end of the day, everyone has to admit that their views are based on faith alone.

So I thought I'd try to find out some details on Scientology.
Well I'm not going to find anything out from this book.

Here's a typical paragraph

Know and Not-Know
It is a mechanism of thinkingness, whether one is postulating or receiving information, that one retain one's ability to know. It is equally important that one retain one's ability to not-know. Thought consists entirely of knowing and not-knowing and the shades of gray between.
You will discover that most people are trying not to remember. In other words, they are trying to not-know. Education can only become burdensome when one is unable to not-know it. It is necessary that one be able to create, to receive, to know and to not-know information, data and thoughts. Lacking any one of these skills, for they are skills, no matter how native they are to the individual,, one is apt to get into a chaos of thinkingness or creatingness or livingness.
That make any sense to you? Me either.
The whole book is like that. I cannot read it.
Sigh.
I guess I will never know (or not-know) the grand mysteries of Scientology.

Posted by Aaron at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The song of the moment is:
hang me out to dry - the cold war kids
Followed closely by
oh gravity - switchfoot
I cannot get enough of these songs.

---

I got a little good news today,

Course Title	Course	Grade Type	Grade	Earned Hours	Quality Hours	Quality Points
Adapt Signal Processing	ELEC996	-	A-	3.00	3.00	11.01

I can live with that.

Posted by Aaron at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The weekend was pretty good. No poker, no major activities.
I did a lot of work/swearing at the GS, as I'm trying to fix a broken taillight/license plate bracket.
My uncle welded it back together for me, but I have been having a terrible time trying to get it all assembled again. My big fat hands are not conducive to working in tight places.
Plus I lost some screws, so I've been replacing with whatever I've got on hand, which is always a recipe for disaster.
i'm gluing screws in places where other screws are supposed to go, grinding and cutting off old screws. Yeah, this is going well.
My truck has no AC, it turns out, and the refill kit I bought doesn't seem to attach to the right port. I need help there.
So I'm working at home today, because all my vehicles have problems today.

Posted by Aaron at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is something I'd like to see some video for.

Armless, One-Legged Driver Leads Florida Police On A High Speed Chase

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla., May. 10, 2007

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(AP) Authorities were led on a high speed vehicle chase by an armless, one-legged man, and they said this wasn't the first time the 40-year-old eluded police.

Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.

On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.

Wiley was arrested the next day on charges of fleeing from police and habitually driving without a license. He also is awaiting trial on separate drug charges and traffic violations. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Defense attorney John Hooker said his client has paid off previous traffic fines that got his license suspended and tried to get a new driver's license, but he was rebuffed by state officials. Wiley's license has been revoked so many times it is now a felony to drive.

"What makes him do it?" Hooker said when asked why Wiley keeps getting behind the wheel. "I think it's an urge he has that makes him feel as important and as good as anyone. It gives him a sense of self-esteem."

Hooker said he had not had a chance to talk to Wiley about the most recent charges.

Even before Wednesday's arrest, prosecutors were seeking to send Wiley to prison for at least five years for felony drug and traffic charges.

"He has a hideous record," Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis said after an August 2006 arrest. "It's just got to end."

Wiley was being held in the Pasco County jail on $500,000 bond.

___

Information from: St. Petersburg Times, http://www.sptimes.com

Posted by Aaron at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm back home now, got back in the lat afternoon. I have tonite been able to make serious progress in the mythtv machine that I'm rebuilding, only because the kernel seemed to become corrupted, and it couldn't talk ethernet anymore. This has turned out to be a lot of effort to bring this machine back to life, but I have a lot of movies to watch, so I'm motivated.
Tomorrow I have to go back to work in the office, and I'm not looking forward to it.
I think I will recharge my truck's AC before I go in tomorrow, just to put it off.

I shudder just thinking of the day I have to get a real job.

Posted by Aaron at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, we got a lot of details from the oncologist this morning, and the news was mostly positive.
He has been rated stage 3 of 4 potential stages, but by getting the section of his colon cut out, it's possible that even right now he's cured. But because some amount of cancerous cells were found in his lymph nodes, he needs to go through chemo to cover all the bases.
The chemo should last right around six months, and won't start until he fully  recovers from his current surgery. Then he needs another surgery, but at that point, should be theoretically all good. Hopefully.

He is very much not excited about chemo, as no rationale person should be. But I told him, it like he's going to prison for a year. He needs to go serve his sentence of chemo, then he can return to a normal, full life, when he gets out of jail.

It's a dose of reality. I mean, you find cancer, you have to expect some chemo.
Beyond that, it's the best possible news we could have expected.

So we're all pretty upbeat here.

My brother and I will go home tomorrow, and see what our families are up to.

---

The worst news of the day, I was called the second we walked in the door by Ann, asking where the keys to the truck were (not at home) and what could be wrong the garage door, as she needed to take the girls to school.
it's fun trying to diagnose these types of problems over the phone. Of course, in the end, it was going to cost me. The garage door spring had broke, so there was going to be no garage door action until someone could get there to fix it. So I called around and had a guy get there, and $200 later, I have a new spring, which I guess I feel better about.

But why does this kind of thing happen when I'm gone? I serve little useful function around the house except to pay for it, and fix it. Then the second I walk away for more than the daily trip to work, a show stopper that only I can fix comes up.
Murpheys law, I guess.

Posted by Aaron at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, we got to Bloomington in very good time, and didn't get pulled over, even though there was legitimate risk of that.
Saw dad, who is now as bald as I am, so he's much cooler now.
We see the oncologist tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed...

Posted by Aaron at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Holy crap!
Joe is driving, and we're currently in DEs Moines, traveling east. I'm surfing and reading, and the next time I look up, the sign says "I235 west"
West??
We're supposed to going east....
So I say "why are you going west?"
Joe says "I don't know. I need to turn around"

How do you suddenly find yourself travelling in the opposite direction?
We laughed about that for awhile.

Posted by Aaron at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am right now riding in my brother's car, using his cool sprint cell ethernet card.
We're traveling to Bloomington, IL, to see my dad. He just had another surgery, but not specific to the cancer, he wasn't healing right from the first one, so thay had to go back in and fix him up.
So we're going to talk with his doctor's about the current state, and what's next.
I'm still optomistic that he can get through this, it's going to be a pain in the ass, but I'm hoping they discovered all this with plenty of time to get better.
So we're going to see what's up, and I thought it was pretty cool that I could answer email on the road, so now I'm "at work". A nice free vacation.

Posted by Aaron at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I did a great big update to this server recently, that seemed to make everything worse before I was finally able to reap all the benefits. Now everything seems good. (fingers crossed)
I was very busy last week getting my class final project finished, so I had no time to post.
Now that it's over, I expect to be posting a lot, as there is much for me to gripe about.
For now, I need sleep....

Posted by Aaron at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)