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I have to drop the car off at Pine Banks Auto tonight.  They’re where I go for my auto repairs, while Stephen’s Autobody handles my autobody requirements.  The Pine Banks guys may be a little short in the customer service area, but they’re honest and straight forward.  I feel like I can trust them.

The Sebring is doing this weird thing while its idling where every five seconds or so the engine will kind of cough — as if the flow of fuel had been interrupted.  Its very regular, too.  Someone at work suggested it was just the spark plugs.  Maybe.  My guys will find out.

I mowed the yard and trimmed the grass.  I put up a new thermostat.  I think I need to get two more.  I only bought one because I wanted to see how complicated it was and if the one I got was the right one.

1. It was VERY easy to put up.
2. It was the right one.

Its programable and seems to accomodate a wide range of heating/cooling scenarios and products.  Also the thermostat was on the cheaper end of the scale for programable thermostats at $40.  I only need a programable thermostat for the furnace, as I have no central cooling anyway.  I wrapped two wires around well marked posts and screwed the whole thing to the wall .  It worked out fabulously.

See, one of my thermostats keeps turning the furnace on during the summer and its pissing me off.  I can hear all that oil burning up for no good reason and it gets under my skin.

I’m concerned about people parking across my driveway tomorrow, so I’ve agreed to put up a saw horse with a “No Parking” sign on it when I go to work in the morning.  I hope things aren’t a madhouse at 6:30am when I go to work. 

I’ll let you know.

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The weekend hasn’t gone as I had hoped so far.  I had hoped to get a lot more done than I have.  I wanted to sand the door-frames and paint them white.  That is, the doorframe around the garage door and the front door.  Come to think of it, though, the back door frame needs some sanding and painting, too.

Liz picked up a Black and Decker Mouse in preparation for the chore.  I also wanted to mow the grass in the backyard and the front.  I also wanted to trim the grass in the front.  But it rained.  All day long.

Instead I haven’t gotten anything useful done.  Maybe I can pick up some white paint in preparation for tomorrow, though.

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So this evening I thought I would try playing chess online again.  I used to have some fun at that a year or two ago.  So I was playing this game — a random opponent and they were clearly better than I was but I was determined to take it to the bitter end.  I was thinking about a move and he made a comment that whatever I was using to play was taking too long.

He had implied that I was using some other computer program to play him and wow did that get me mad!  I was so steamed!  Here I was losing and he was rubbing it in with a crack like that.  I don’t like losing in the first place, much less to a prick like that.  I wished I could wipe the floor with him.

And then I made some stupid mistakes and decided to resign the game.  He made me too angry to be noble and give him the win.  Jerk.

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I think I mentioned that while I was out on vacation there was a disaster at work and we’ve been on our disaster-recovery system for a week. Since I was out, I missed all the fun.

Well, I didn’t really miss it. I didn’t miss it at all, to be honest.

In any case, tonight we have fail back to our regular production environment and I have to go in at 12:30am and don’t expect to get out of there until after 4am.

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Things are going fine. I’ve managed to get on the stationary bicycle
three nights in a row now. I’m trying to spend 30 minutes on there
every night. I’ve been enjoying listening to some music while I ride,
but I’d still like to get a TV in there.

We’ve decided to pull the cabinet and sink out of the den. I’ve always
hated it but I need to get a plumber in first to cut off and cap the
water and gas pipes before I start pulling the thing out. I’d like to
practice dry-walling. There’s a whole lot of panelling on the walls
and I’ve been dying to pull it all down.

I did manage to pull down a bunch of ivy over the weekend — that was
my big achievement.

that’s all for now.

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Its been a while since I’ve been fishing. I’d like to go sometime soon. And honestly, I’d like to go alone. Its not that I don’t love the kids or don’t want to spend time with them, but I’d like a chance to actually catch some fish. If I brought one child with me, I bet I wouldn’t have to spend the whole time hovering over them — unless that person is Chloe.

I still have trouble getting out to do things by myself without any of my helpers. Last night I sat down and rode an exercise bike for 30 minutes between 8pm and 8:30pm. Its rare that I can do that but I think I need to make more time to take care of myself. And the weather has been so great I’d like to go for a bike ride! I have this great bike that I really love (http://www.trekbikes.com/bikes/2004/citybike/7300.jsp) but I’ve only ridden it a handful of times since I got it two years ago. I don’t think I rode it at all last year.

I need to do better.

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As I’ve said in the past, we are in the process of absorbing our Mexican sister-company. We’ll soon be a single North American entity. One of the important aspects is that we’re all going to be using the same SAP system. They have a basis person, but I have significant concerns that this basis person is capable of doing the job to which she is assigned. That is, I’ve worked with her before and I’ve seen her skills. And while she seems to be able to complete assigned tasks, she doesn’t seem to be able to manage more than one of them. She needs a lot of direct supervision, which is unfortunate because she is so far away (http://mappoint.msn.com/(annoqtbdr41rip55nkq11aem)/directions.aspx?&StartName=Boston%2c+Massachusetts%2c+United+States&StartLocationB.35844%2c-71.05660&EndName=Mexico+City%2c+Mexico&EndLocation.41973%2c-99.14483&DataSetLangID=USA%2c409&RouteType=Quickest&RouteUnit=Miles).=

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I’m wrapping up my first day back at work with mixed results.

I’ve been busy and have a good handle on all my stuff but there are some other projects going on, for which I have no responsibility that are spinning out of control. We’re in a disaster recovery mode because of some hardware problems that caused corruption on the disks and that has everyone very distracted. Its not directly my responsibility, but its this 800lb gorilla that you can’t avoid talking about.

My department has moved in to its new digs. They’re fine. Overall I think its a little more spacious and a little more noisy that my old environment. No big deal. I’m still in a cube farm, which isn’t working for me.

I had applied for a new job in a management position but they held the interviews while I was out of town so I didn’t get the job. The guy who got the job is my new boss and I have to admit that I’m pleased with the choice — he’s a good guy with a good head on his shoulders and I think I’ll enjoy working for him.

There’s another job in which I am interested. It would be a manager in charge of Web Development! Cool, huh? This first job (the one I didn’t get) I figured was too much for me, but I bet this other one would be something I could really sink my teeth in to. I’ll have to concentrate on the image I want to present and the angle that will make me special. There’s another guy that everyone assumes will get the job but I’m hoping I can beat him out — otherwise there’s no opportunity for advancement until someone dies or leaves.

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We had a good trip to Oregon. We’re home now. I had imagined that I would get a chance or two to update the ol’ blogrilla once or twice while we were away, but I was mistaken. We were really quite busy most of the time.

The flight there wasn’t bad. We got an early start @about 5:30am, which didn’t bother me because I’m usually awake then anyway. The trip there was mostly uneventful. We had a long uncomfortable visit to the Las Vegas air port. The kids were about as good as we could have hoped. In fact, that was true throughout the visit. The kids really did remarkably well, I think. Some people get stressed out by change and by not being in a familiar setting, but it sure didn’t seem to bother these kids!

The first day we were there we snooped around Mom & Dad’s neighborhood some and visited a local park. We also tried to go pick some fruit, but there was none available. One sign said: “U Pick — All picked!”

funny.

Anyway, the next day we went to the Portland, OR Zoo where we met my Brother, his wife and their kids (2 year-old Aidan and 4 month Linnea). As we walked around the zoo we all visited. I got a photo of all the kids on some vine-inspired play-things. Afterwards we went for a nice supper at my brother’s house. Everything there went well — except for Gabriel getting bitten by a very large dog.

Gabriel was on some monkey bars going from one bar to the next when a woman who was chasing her 2 year old son, “Carter” brought her dog underneath Gabriel’s swinging feet. I’m not sure exactly what the dog thought it was doing but it reached up with its mouth and nipped Gabriel in the shin.

It left a large bruise but it didn’t break the skin. The woman seemed genuinely sorry — and I have no doubt she was. She explained this had never happened before and she really couldn’t understand it. I told her that the dog (Rudy) was a threat to children and she should never have brought the animal to a playground. Since the skin wasn’t broken I wasn’t too concerned about rabies. The woman assured us that Rudy’s shots were all up to date and he was really a sweet heart.

She thought it would be helpful for Gabriel to give Rudy a hug. Hell no. Rudy had also snapped at Chloe for no good reason. Neither were threatening Carter, but the dog was going overboard. My brother got her name & number and we left. Gabriel was too sad to continue playing.

I still feel bad about it.

When we got home his mood improved. He also doesn’t seem to blame all dogs or even all big dogs. Mind you, I think he has a healthy concern about animals but I don’t think the bite had any lasting effects.

I’ll write more later.

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We’re back.

We’re tired.  I’ll write more later.

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