Snow and Ice

When I woke up this morning I could see that we got some snow. There really wasn't that much, so I wasn't that concerned. I didn't see any footprints up to the porch so I was sure that the milk man had not come yet, however, I looked anyway and saw that it was there. It was snowing and all, so I figured that he must have just barely missed the snow. It turns out that while my wife was sleeping on the couch (that's a bit different, eh?) that she heard the milk man at around 12:45. I was kind of shocked that he would come that early. By the way, the reason my wife was on the couch was because she needed to be reclined instead of flat on her back because of breathing type problems. The gunk in the air has really been hard on her. This storm at least cleared all of that out.

Anyway, since the snow was minimal I decided against driving the SUV to work and opted for the Mitsubishi Galant. That was a mistake. I knew it was a mistake when I was turning off of Bangerter onto 90th South. I just kind of slid into there. I guess it was so cold that the snow almost immediately turned into ice. I also was hearing that the freeway was having all kinds of slide offs because of this storm. I stayed on the other roads rather than hopping onto the freeway. I go to work early enough that most roads aren't that crowded. I slipped my way into my parking place at work and started my day. There still isn't a lot going on at work, but I will be getting more to do later. When it rains it pours, but when it is dry there is a draught. I works both ways for me.

I finished up everything at work and headed on home. I had gone to the bank during the day to get a cashiers check for my daughter for her birthday which is coming up soon. It's hard for me to believe that I am old enough to have a 21 year old daughter. I don't feel that old (well, at least most of the time I don't). Besides the grey in my goatee, I don't think I look all that old either. Facts is facts, and I have to go with that. My daughter will be 21, and I will be one fat old man! Ain't life grand.

Of course I arrived home, and then got to get the kids over to piano lessons. I also went to the video store, and then shoveled our walks before I had to get back to pick up the kids. It was cold outside. Of course it is that very reason that we keep on having to get out there and clean up that ice that is coming down our rain spout. It warms up just enough to get some water to freeze where we want to walk. It's a real pain. I guess I'll have to redo the heater I have up there and get a longer one that I can put down the drainpipe all the way so we can get it all out at once. That will be a summer project for me, I'm sure.

Young Men was tonight, and I went there and we discussed a couple of merit badges for the deacons. It is a bit discouraging to see that these boys aren't doing what they need to be doing. That seems to be the way with the kids at times.

Once again at home, I got onto the computer to create a birthday card for my daughter. I will mail out her card tomorrow morning and it should get to her either just before her birthday or on it. I'll have to find out when she gets it. The computer acted up a bit when my son put in a flash drive onto my computer. I looked in the task list and my CPU was at 100% with some spools taking up most of the memory. I wasn't able to shut down because I couldn't save anything so had to wait a whole long time. I cleared up what I could and finally got the card to print (when it printed I screwed up and printed the second time upside down). At least I was able to save the project and reboot the computer. Things went better after that. My wife was a bit frustrated with me because I kinda lost my temper at my son when it really wasn't his fault. I keep on forgetting how tender hearted he is at times. I apologized to him, and hope he is all right with my insensitivity.

Time Keeps on Passing

I'm getting worse at writing here than before. Time seems to be getting away from me. I haven't been terribly busy at work, but there has been at least some things that I have been able to accomplish there. One nice thing that happened last week (Wednesday) was that we had an all employee meeting where we were told that we will all get a 5% bonus. We don't know when it will come, and there has been no further information on this, but that will be nice. We were reminded that the bonus is not an entitlement.

Work had a problem with what people felt they were entitled to this year. The president of the company, told us that he was a bit distressed when people felt that the vacation payout they were allowing was an entitlement. When they tried to put a stop to it this last Christmas, people complained. They allowed it this final year, but we need to realize that a lot of things they currently do are not entitlements, just nice things that they do.

As for the weekly mundane things? There hasn't been too much going on there. For Young Men, I went and they wrote a half page on what the sacrament means to them (part of the Duty to God requirements) and then played dodge ball. I stayed a bit late for that.

On Friday, I was able to send my daughter some money to help her out with her school books. Saturday, my wife got up to go to JC Penney's to get an outfit or two for a baby shower she had. She spent a few hours there and came home having spent about $180. As it turned out there was a 75% off sale. She got a lot of clothes for everybody. She told me that I probably should go there and see what I could get.

My son and I took off to RC Willey because I had a $50 gift card to spend there. I had decided upon a cordless phone that was about $60. When I went to pay for it, I found that I had mistakenly grabbed the RC Willey credit card rather than the gift card, so my son and I drove home to get the new card. This was one of the few weeks that RC Willey didn't have hot dogs and soft drinks. We grabbed a hamburger on the way home. Of course, we went back. I made the purchase (we had some more money in an old advantage plan that payed for the rest of the phone), and we then went to gamestop. My son had a couple of games that he wanted to purchase.

We did go to JC Penney's. I picked up a white shirt (at $20) and two other shirts at $5 each. I was told that white shirts won't go on clearance sales because there's no reason too. They sell quite well.

We finally got home, and my wife and daughter were there. My son went to play the new (used) games and one of them did not work. He didn't like it much anyway, and we went back to exchange it for another game.

Sunday came along, and we actually had two speakers that I enjoyed what they had to say. We thoroughly enjoyed their talks. They were full of information and gave it all in an interesting way. It was on how to build your testimonies.

Later on Sunday, I had to go out and get some salt to put in an area of our sidewalk that is just getting runoff coming out of the spout coming off the house. It goes under the sidewalk and out into the lawn, so there isn't a good release. Ice has built up in it to the point that when it melts, it comes out through the joints and refreezes on the walkway. I did get it cleared. I also had to do some more yesterday and today. I poured some salt down the spout and a little bit later had water coming out like crazy just to refreeze. I don't think I'll do that again.

Well, that's about it.

In Laws

Not a lot went on today at work. It was kind of boring, but I did talk about some of the up and coming changes with Paul. Hopefully, we'll get there sooner than later.

My wife called me at work and told me that nobody would be home, so I may as well just go over to my in-laws home because after the dentist appointment for my son, she would be doing her mothers hair. I stayed at work a little longer than was necessary and finally went on over to my in-laws house. My daughter had gone to the store with Grandpa, and Margaret came out to talk with me. There was some general chit-chat, and she told me about Brandon losing his job at overstock.com. Of course, it seems that when it rains it pours. I mean, the poor kid is going through a divorce and then this happens.

My daughter came home with Grandpa and told me that they had run into Grandma Rose. She said that there were so many old people at the store that when she yelled Grandma nobody turned around to look. She had to yell her first name. It seems they ran into Grandma Rose more than once, and one of the times quite literally. Around the dinner table tonight (we had pizza and funeral potatoes) we all kind of joked about Grandpa doing this.

After dinner, my kids just played for a bit, and my wife started to cut her moms hair. After awhile, I took the kids and headed home so they could finish up some homework as well as get their showers to be ready for school tomorrow. Dee Anne came home soon after that, and we pretty much relaxed the rest of the evening.

Hearing Test

Well, it's been another week again. I'm just not all that good at taking care to write here. Once again, I find myself trying to go back and remember what has been going on all week. Once again, I find myself kind of blank as to all the things that have happened. I'll try to figure out a little bit of it, and am certain I'll miss quite a bit.

The first thing that I can recall was Wednesday. Tuesday evening, my wife was saying that she had nothing going on for Wednesday so I made the decision to stay home and make it a day for the two of us. We really didn't go out and do too much, but did have a nice lunch together at the Olive Garden. We also decided to go to the South Jordan City Hall to find out about the inspections that were done on our home while it was being built. Because of the GRAMMA act we had to sign certain papers so we could get access to the rest of the information. This was suggested to us by some people at the Home Depot where we had gone for advice on all the nail pops that have been happening at our place.

Soon after arriving home from all of that and just watching a little bit of TV (cuddled up), we got a call from Bob Wright at Perry Homes. He asked if it would be OK to come out and look at our nail pops tomorrow (Thursday) at 11:00. We said that would be great. My wife and I started to look around for some of the nailpops and mark them. Most of the pops can be seen in shadows at night, so we wanted the evening to look at them as well. Of course, we had to get the kids to and from piano lessons, and also Young Men/Young Women. We stayed home from this so we could look at all the nail pops to the best of our ability. After about 6 hours of marking them (we have a ton), we gave up. It's difficult. We looked by flashlight because the shadows show them up better. I had some asthma, so my wife did more work on it than I did.

I made it so I could work from home on Thursday so I could be there when Bob Wright and another guy came to look. When they were in the den, the other guy says "Wow!, that's a lot." We told him that he was seeing one of the areas that had less than others. Bob says, "I don't see any, do you?", at which point my wife felt like strangling him. I told him I could get the ladder so he could get up on it and feel the pops. Of course there is also problems with the perfa tape. The other guy felt some of the problems. We also told them that we had marked some of the areas that they had come and fixed (at the year end mark) that were done badly as well.

After spending some time in our home they decided on who would be the best person to come and fix what they could. They said something about 50/50, and I wasn't clear as to what they were talking about. Bob also asked us why we had an inspector come look at our house previous to the year end mark. As if that was any of his business. Well, we felt good that at least they are going to come out and do something (how much we have as yet to see).

Friday was my day off (as I do every other week). My wife and I just had a nice time spending the day together. We did go to a hearing test for me though. My wife has been complaining that I don't always hear her. I have told her that I hear fine, but she needs to make sure I'm focused on her. Anyway, the test kind of proved this out. The audiologist (Garth Adams - a previous neighbor of ours) told me that I was reading his lips. I didn't agree with this, but just thought I was focusing on what he was saying. He finally put in the earplugs and put me in the room. There was a test on various words and I would repeat what I heard the computer say. He also tested tones. Then he tested what my brain was hearing (with the assumption I had a brain). Also, he found out what was uncomfortable for me to listen too as well as what was comfortable. After all of this, I was brought back out. My hearing seems just fine. I have a hard time with the sound that comes from 'th' and other soft sounds, but other than that my hearing is just fine. He diagnosed me with "Selective Hearing". Oh boy, now what? My wife took that pretty well. However, he told me that despite my hearing being fine I seem to like a louder voice (75 db). This doesn't make a lot of sense to him, and he said that is different from most people. He told us that I may have had better hearing than most in my earlier life, and now since I am more normal, I still like the louder sounds. My wife took the "Selective Hearing" in stride and doesn't seem upset at me. Whew!

Since we were in Walmart, we did some shopping for fun (didn't spend too much), and then went out to eat at Gandolf's. We picked up our inspection papers from the city and then went home.

When the kids came home, we got my son over to Lances house so he could go to the Winter Camp up at Tracy. I stayed there for awhile and then came on home. Brandon is going which made me a bit nervous for the leaders that were going to be up there. I guess all went well as far as that goes though. My daughter went to stay with her friend, leaving my wife and I home alone again (naturally)... Oh wait, that's an old song. We watched a movie and just enjoyed our time alone together.

Saturday morning, my daughter called us and asked if she could go ice skating. We told her that was fine, and my son finally came home around 1:30. He had a lot of fun at the scout camp, and nobody really got into any real trouble, although they were boys. They stayed out late going down the tubing hill (about 1:30) which is against the rules there, but some of the staff were out with them. He got some good use out of a plastic sled that we have, and that was good to get some use out of it.

My wife and I went out to Walmart to get some items for dinner, and while we were there, they announced that they had the roasted chicken(s) for $1.00. We got two of those and decided that was our dinner for the evening. Really, not too much else happened.

Today came and went. My wife and I went to the marriage class (it is the first one again) and thoroughly enjoyed that. Later, I finally talked to my daughter on the phone (it has been a few weeks). Of course, she needs some money to help her out with books for school, so I guess I'll be putting a couple of bucks there. I need to get that sent out to her. Well, that's the week in a nutshell.

It's been awhile

Well, it's been awhile since I last put something in here. I need to be better at keeping this thing going.

I have been really busy at work trying to get the new test environment things done. There have been a few differences that I have had to account for, and there are still things that I need to change to keep moving forward. Issues have cropped up that we have tried to get the company that owns the software to fix (or at least give us a viable solution).

A few things have happened that I guess I should put here. A week ago, Sunday, we went over to my wife's Aunt Gladys house. She had everybody over to tell us about Cosy getting engaged. Cosy is from Italy and has been in Utah going to LDS Business College. She has met a guy from Brazil, and they will be getting married sometime in the summer. It sounds like it will be in July. I may have to skip Scout Camp to be with my wife at the time they get married.

For Young Men/Young Women (last Wednesday) we went to the Happy Factory (again). I worked on a router all night in the creation of those cars. Most people had a good time. My car was filled up with a bunch of the Young Women. On the way home I was able to get my son to come with us so I could take them all home rather than being alone with any one of them. My son told me that one of our Young Men (Brandon) was causing problems and doing all that he could to be a problem. I really don't know what to do about that guy. He has been a problem child from the get-go, and will soon be out of our hands to be a problem to the next group. Part of the problem is that we can't get his parents to see that he is a problem.

My son started to take care of a dog last Friday. His last day was today. With it being so cold outside for the last few nights, we decided that we had to bring that Lab into our home. We felt bad about tying it up in the basement, but we really don't have a place for an outside dog in our home. The first night we brought it into our home, our dog sniffed around and went downstairs by the door and marked her territory there. It upset us, but what can you do when an animal is just following its instincts. We brought Jett into our home tonight as well, but the Mordens did come home about 10:00 PM and we were able to take their dog to them tonight.

Speaking of the weather, we have been getting into the negative numbers on the Fahrenheit scale. It has just been bitter cold outside, and there is snow on the ground. We have been setting records as to the cold in Utah.

One discouraging thing that has happened (or hasn't) is that I have not talked to my daughter in Florida for a couple of weeks. I have always talked with her on Sunday. Well, a week ago, I didn't call her at all. I was hoping that she would call me. Yesterday, I decided that I had better call and talk to her. I got her voice mail, but she never called me back (she almost always calls back when I leave her a voice mail). It would be nice to know what is going on in her life.

In the meantime, I got to help my wife with some of her young woman secretary duties. She needed to come up with a list of girls and when they are to meet the bishopric as well as the Young Women leaders. The list they used the previous year was completely messed up, so I changed it from Word to Excel, and then made all kinds of corrections as well as adding girls that needed to be added, and taking out those who needed to be taken out. That was a relief to get done. I knew it would take awhile to fix it, and I was right.

Work gave me a computer that it no longer needs, so after it had sat there for awhile (about a week) I finally got to it tonight. My wife was gone, and my son was home. We grabbed a few files off the old computer that I needed, and then we took apart the old PC so we could get the DVD RW drive out of it and place it into the one my work gave me. That didn't take too long, but then, I had to get the new machine set up the way I want it. There are still a couple of things I want to get added to it, but it is mostly there. That was a heck of a way to spend the evening. We also loaded on Flight Simulator X (a sample of) for my son to play with. He likes it, so we may have to go out and get it.

Well, I can't think of anything more to write. It's probably good when I don't come in here for more than a week to post. Not as much of the little stuff.

Nothing Much

I actually got the new tool set up on my computer at work today so I can start to work on my jobs and make sure they will all work under the new data structures. I do have to change the front part of names on all the tables, so I have to look at each job and each set of meta data to do that. So far, I am not finding a lot. I did find that everything I need is not on the new system, so I had them fix that as best they could. I will continue working on this tomorrow. The tool crashed on my once today, and that isn't a good omen.

After arriving home, I got the kids over to their piano lessons. When I got home my wife asked me if I thought they were ready for their recital later this month. We feel they both need a bit more work to be as ready as they have been in the past. When I picked them up, they told me that the recital has been pushed to April. We need to pick one of two days for their recital. This is probably good to get them the practice that they need.

We picked up dinner on the way home, and barely got it eaten up when we had to get over to Young Men/Young Women. We did Duty to God stuff tonight with the Deacons. We went over the Joseph Smith story. The boys were quite unruly and it was hard to keep them under control. We got through it all. Nothing else is really going on. I just thought I would try to keep the writing up a bit.

Happy New Year!

Just like most things in my life, this is a bit late. Oh well, we do what we can and move forward. Always forward.

As I do at times, I am going to have to go back and try to think of the happenings of the week. I'm getting older, so there probably won't be too much that is written here.

Last Wednesday there was a combined activity with the Young Men and Young Women. They decided to have a kind of New Years party. There were a bunch of games (that most did not play) and then there were some games that were played. Two of the favorites were Dance Dance Revolution (a PlayStation 2 game) and dodgeball. I played a little dodgeball. My arm didn't end up hurting too much while I was playing it this time, and that is good. It was a fun evening, and I am glad that we can have the youth come to something like this. It is good for them. We ended the evening playing a game called "Do you Love Your Neighbor"? which is a type of musical chairs game.

I really can't think of anything to say about Thursday and Friday. I simply went to work, and came home. Saturday is the next day of anything eventful.

I did have to wake up early (not too early) Saturday morning to see if some things had come through for us or not at work from Gallagher Bassett. It had all made it, so I went ahead and ran all of that into my databases so we had some end of year stuff for finance to work with. This took up some of the morning. Our kids were not home from Friday evening, as they had stayed with Pam and Anne. We were able to watch a DVD (I can't even remember which one) and just spend time together as husband and wife. I helped Dee Anne take care of some things for her Young Women calling, and we had a good time being together. I felt that we connected pretty well, and this was needed as we haven't been doing that good at connecting lately.

We got ready in the early evening for a party with my brothers and sister, as well as my parents. This was done over at Scotts house. His wife had been busy putting together a nice ham dinner. It was tasty, and the company was good. There was laughing and joking going around the table and just good times. We then played a game of scrabble. It was a game where you take your own letters and make words on your own (rather than with everybody) and you can modify it all you want. It was a bit different from regular scrabble, and some of the words people were coming up with was interesting. We also played Apples to Apples (or something like that).

It was getting late, so we left. We went to Pam and Annes to pick up our kids. They are never happy for us to come and get them, but it's just the way life goes. We talked with them for a little bit and then headed on home. It was late, so we got right to bed.

Sunday came with the usual Sunday activities. We went to church, came home and kind of vegged. However, this Sunday the church was having a fireside for New Years Eve. My kids and I went to this at 6:00 in the evening. The first 40 minutes of this fireside was music. It was quite good. There were three speakers including President Hinckley. The theme seemed to be repentance and forgiveness as well as just keeping yourself out of trouble. I think it was a good meeting for us to have gone too.

Arriving home, we decided that we would play some family games and watch a DVD (National Treasure). We just spent the evening together. My wife was tired and went to bed a little early, but at 12:00 we went out and made a little bit of noise. My kids were embarrassed that they were related to me, but other than that it all went well. Some people were out with their fireworks in the neighborhood. It was kind of fun watching that.

New Years Day (Monday) came all to soon. We had to clean up some of the Christmas decorations. Before I did this, I left home to pick up my daughters MP3 player (Circuit City got them in) and then headed to the University of Utah 7-11 were Pam was working to pick up a report my daughter had started and left in her car. I got home around noon.

The Christmas tree got all packed up and all the decorations. I was glad to get all of that down and now our family room looks bare (except for the stray boxes that we still need to get downstairs).

Not too much happened today. I checked on all the jobs that had run over the long weekend, and saw that they all seemed to go well. Our end of year processes all seemed to go without a hitch as well. This is always good. I was told today that they are ready for me to start testing a new tool as we are going to some new servers at work. Hopefully, that will all go well.

Isn't my life just about as boring as one can get?