More Computer Lessons

Today I went to Lawrence again to help my mom learn more about how to use the computer.  We went to a delicious Thai restaurant for lunch, and then we had the rest of the afternoon to hang out and work on some more computer lessons.  She has made a ton of progress and now has many of the basics down.  There is still a lot to cover, but she learns more and more every time I come over.

Living in a Fantasy World

As much as I love sports in real life, both playing them and following every little detail about most every sport, I also love playing fantasy sports.  I play in one fantasy baseball league every year, and I'm normally not very good.  But I play in multiple fantasy football leagues.  This year, like last year, I'm in three.  One of the best parts about the league is the draft, where we get to choose the players that compose the initial rosters for our teams.  Here I am doing my third of three drafts this year for fantasy football.  I use both my work and my personal laptop at the same time to give me access to as many resources as possible.  That makes me a nerd, yet again, but I'm okay with that.  I'm proud of both my nerdiness and my love of fake sports leagues.

Basehor is the New Vegas

We are really glad Christine is moving back to KC. She starts her new job tomorrow, but her apartment lease doesn't start until Wednesday, so she is staying here for a few days. Here we are hanging out with the dogs.

Starlight

Tonight we ate dinner with Christine and Eric and then went to go see The Producers at Starlight. It was nice to meet Eric and the show was really good.

Building by Bowling

I started out my career in the Support department for my company.  Although I'm now in Sales, I still have a lot of close friends in Support, and we still work together on a lot of things.  Today they had a team building event, and they were nice enough to invite me along.  We went bowling and then went out to eat afterward, although I had to skip out on the food because of my soccer game.  It was a lot of fun, as I really enjoy hanging out with this group of guys.

Tunnel of Light and Sound

Today I was in Detroit, and the airport here has an underground walking tunnel between terminals, very similar to Chicago O'Hare's.  While O'Hare's is somewhat tacky, Detroit's is more modern.  It has moving walkways on each side with a wide aisle down the middle, but the interesting part is the lighting walls which change color periodically all while this eerie music plays.  It's weird, but I like it.  It certainly makes the long walk through the tunnel less boring.  More photos of it are shown here, and more info on it can be found here.

The Smell of Freedom

Alex is often pining for the outdoors.  He'll frequently sit by the sliding glass door and meow asking to go outside.  Any time we call the dogs to let them outside, they'll go out the door, and Alex will come trotting right behind them, but we always have to close the door in his face.  It's sort of sad.  All he wants for his little kitty life is to be outside.  But he's an indoor cat.  So we found a compromise.  Every now and then we'll take him outside and let him sit on the table on the deck.  He can sit there as long as he wants, but he can't go anywhere else.  Somewhat surprisingly, we were able to train him on this, and now he knows that when he gets to go outside, he has to stay on the table or else it's back in to the indoor prison that is our house.

Mall of America

After our meeting in Minneapolis, my coworker and I needed to get some lunch before we headed to the airport.  We decided to eat at the Mall of America.  Neither of us had ever been there before, and it's a tourist attraction, and we were tourists for an hour, and it had food, and we needed food, so it worked out.  It actually wasn't as big as I thought it would be.  Most of the "size" of it comes from a Nickelodeon-themed amusement park and a Lego display which are technically in the mall.  The main area did have three floors, and they were decently sized, but I just expected more stores I guess.  But it didn't matter to us, because all we needed was a food court and the chance to look around, and we got both.

Palatial

For my business trip to Minneapolis, I'm staying in a Sheraton.  I got upgraded to a nicer room, and it is quite a bit nicer.  The room is huge with basically a full living room and a bedroom and of course a desk area.  On top of all that, it has a huge hot tub.  Unfortunately I have too much work to do tonight to enjoy the room, and working on my laptop in a hot tub seems like a bad idea, as water and electronics are not good friends.

Into the Wee Hours

I have a big demo coming up soon for work, plus I have a couple other big work projects I'm trying to finish.  Add those up, and there's not enough time in the day to get them done.  So tonight I'll be up for awhile.  Probably not an all-nighter, but I'm expecting to go until probably 4 or 5.  But with a good beverage (Diet Pepsi is subbing for my normal caffeine source of Diet Mountain Dew), some good music (via my mp3 player so as not to wake Meghan), I should have a decently fun and productive night.

Meghan UHurt

Today we had our August date night, which Jason was in charge of. He took us to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, which was really good. I had never had Vietnamese food before. Then we went to the roller derby. It was the last home game of the season for the Kansas City Roller Warriors. It was fun to watch and it was a decisive victory for KC, so it was a really fun night.

Word of the Day

Because I'm a nerd, one of my favorite daily calendars is the 365 New Words Page-A-Day calendar.  Every day there is a word, with a definition, a sample sentence, and an etymology.  For the past few years, Drew, Phil, and I have gone through the calendar on days we've had time at work.  We've learned a lot of words, and we've had a lot of fun, interesting, and nerdy conversations as a result.  Unfortunately, today is Phil's last day, so that also means the last of our Word of the Day sessions.

Five Guys at Five Guys

Because we're a bunch of dorks, our group of five has thought it would be amusing if all five of us guys would be able to meet at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  We've been close a few times, but tonight we finally achieved this momentous accomplishment.  Thanks to all of us who made this triumphant moment possible.

At the K

My stepbrother Matt is getting married next month, so tonight we had a mini bachelor party.  Matt, David, Ron, and I went to a Royals game together at Kauffman Stadium, which the Royals amazingly won in a high-scoring affair, 9-7.  Afterward, David, Matt, and I were kind enough to financially contribute to whatever Ameristar's next expansion project is.  We're so generous.

Battery-reliant security

We have a security keypad for our garage door to allow us (or someone with the code) to enter without needing a key.  This is very useful, but only under one condition: the battery has to not be dead.  Recently when I went to use it and found it not to work, I realized it needed a new battery.  Thankfully that wasn't my only way into the house.  Today I replaced the battery, so it should be good to go for awhile.

Phillies with Phil

One of my coworkers, Phil, is leaving our company, and this is his last week.  A few of us went out to lunch with him today as sort of a farewell meal.  He chose PepperJax, and we all (Derek, me, Phil, Drew, Trevor, and Steve) had some tasty philly cheese steaks.

My Hill Valley Part II

Today we visited the new home of some of our friends. It was just down the road from where my parents used to live in Shawnee so we drove past the house and around the old neighborhood and got a picture.

Cafe Roux

Tonight we tried a new restaurant that we hadn't been to before. It was okay. I am not sure we will go back, but we did really like the shopping center it was in and will probably go back there and try some other places.

Tying the Apron Strings

Although the apron has sat mostly finished for a few days now,I finally put the pockets on today so now it is completely finished. I am overall happy with the way it came out. I drew my own pattern for this after seeing an inspiration apron at Pier One. If I were to redraw it, I would make it a little wider and a little bit longer, but those aren't big deals, and it came out mostly as I had hoped.

TED

One thing I enjoy doing is watching TED lectures online. I don't watch them every day, but I try to watch one at least once a week. Imagine my excitement when I found out that we were having a local TED conference right here in Kansas City. It was a really interesting night and I am very glad we were able to go.

Top Chef

Today I was feeling very tired, yet we had no food, so Jason was nice enough to cook dinner for us. He did a good job making one of our favorite pasta salads.

Mountain Biking

Today after our conference ended, my coworker and I went mountain biking at Deer Valley resort in Park City.  It's a ski resort in the winter, but during the summer you can ride up the lifts with your bike and then go down one of the many trails, and then do it all over again.  It was an awesome time, though I found out I wasn't in as good of shape as I thought I was, as I was very sore and very tired by the end of the day.  But it was lots of fun, and I'd love to do it again.

Park City

My company sent me to present at a conference, so yesterday, today, and tomorrow I'm in Park City, Utah, which is about 30 minutes outside of Salt Lake City, and was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  It's really really beautiful here, and the weather is awesome (76 with no humidity versus 95 with a heat index of 108 back home).  So I'm going to enjoy it while I can before I have to go back to the sweatbox that is Kansas City.

Sew Nice

Today I started a new sewing project for the first time in ages. I am making an apron. I finished the top today and hopefully will finish the bottom tomorrow or Tuesday. Even though I got my new sewing machine for Christmas, I hadn't used it yet because it seemed complicated and it was easier just to keep using my old one. I was set to do the same today, except I realized I gave my old one away.

So I was forced to learn it, which did take awhile because it's like a computer in some ways and has so many options, but I just learned enough to do basic sewing so it wasn't so bad. It is soooooo nice compared to my old one. Every project was frustrating with that thing and this makes everything so easy. It's just great. It has an automatic needle threader and winding the bobbin is so easy. I was totally excited once I got it going and I know there are a lot of great features I don't know how to do yet that I will use in the future for more complicated projects.

Buy Our Junk

One of my duties with our homeowners association is to put out the sign for our semi-annual neighborhood garage sale.  The fall sale is toward the end of this week, so I put the sign out today so it can serve as advertising during the week.

Salsas

Tonight Meghan made us some delicious appetizers to have before our dinner.  There were two salsas, and they were both really good.  Although there's no such thing as bad chips and salsa, sometimes it's a lot better than others, and this was one of those times.

3 at BW3

Tonight the guys met at Buffalo Wild Wings.  John and Jeremy couldn't make it this time, so it was just the three of us.  Nathan tried the new dry seasoning, and despite the endorsement from the waitress, it was quite disappointing.

Racquetball

Last year my friend Steve from work asked if I wanted to start playing racquetball together.  He lives at a nearby apartment complex that has a couple of good courts, so pretty much every Wednesday we go there and play after work.  Our friend Kevin has since joined us, so we often get to play a three-player game.  It's a great workout and a lot of fun, even if it sometimes leads to unfortunate results.

Free Sticker!

Today was the primary election in our state. In Kansas especially I think it's really important to vote in the primaries because in the general election a lot of times only the Republican party fields a viable candidate. So in many cases the primaries are your only chance to have a real say in who holds office. I try to vote in every election because I think it's important, but I am surprisingly motivated by the free sticker. Ours say, "I voted in Johnson County". I always wonder if all counties have them and everyone does that or it's just here. But either way, I really like the stickers.

int *ptr = FellowCompEngCarpenter

My good friend from college, Aaron, was in Kansas this weekend, so I went to Topeka to see him and his wife Jessica.  I've only gotten to see him a few times since we graduated.  He and I were both in computer engineering at K-State together, and we were teammates in the battle against unreasonable professors and marginally-relevant coursework en route to getting our degrees.  We also perfected the art of using all-nighters as a strategic study device, which still serves me well to this day.

Circle Cat

Cats are known to sleep in weird positions.  Tonight Alex apparently decided that he would make himself as round as possible when sleeping.  Sometimes he gets cold when sleeping and he covers his little nose with his paw, which is rather adorable.