Saturday Plans and John Speaking in Public

I have signed up to work at the Belltown graffiti paint-out on Saturday from 9-1. We will apparently be going around Belltown painting over graffiti. They are providing us with breakfast, lunch, and on Sunday a celebration including dinner from Outback and beer from...somewhere else. This should be fun and a good way to meet more people now that I am feeling social after my 2 year convalescence in graduate school.

Yesterday John flew down to California with one of his bosses to give a seminar at HP. He really hates doing any type of public speaking so I don't think he is having much fun. He has a group of about 10 developers he is working with. Apparently several of the people they were working with have been laid-off and several people in the "class" will be laid off staring next week. John says the whole place is very sad and depressing - they have sold off over 1/2 of the buidings on the HP "campus", there is no longer anyone at the front gates, the grounds are getting run-down and neglected, and the building he was in had a football sized room full of cubicles that were mostly empty. Not a happy place.

No Sailing

We were supposed to go sailing on Saturday - it didn't happen. John and his friend from work bid on a sailboat trip at a charity auction last winter and we finally got the the information about it/planned the trip for Saturday. We sat at the dock for over an hour and then went to Anthony's for food and to the locks to see all of the fish. The sailboat guy called and apologized - we are scheduled for Sat the 20th now, which is the day he thought we wanted anyway.

I dropped the car off to get serviced and took the bus over this morning. It was very relaxing.

It's a Gas Gas Gas

OK - I was looking at the Seattle PI website to find out about the truck that got stuck in the tunnel about 3 blocks from our house (it got out after 3 hours) and I saw a link to gas prices: http://www.seattlegasprices.com/ .

I paid $2.69 a gallon the other day and only got a 1/2 tank because I was sure I would be able to find cheaper gas in Redmond. Then I forgot I needed more gas while in Redmond - twice - and I thought I would be stuck paying $2.69. Along comes a hero - gas prices on-line! Now I can see the closest cheap gas place. I wonder though, if it is more expensive to waste my time and go out of the way to get cheaper gas. If I had filled up the car the other day I would have spent about $29.59. If I went to...say Greenwood to the $2.50 a gallon place I would have spent $27.50. I don't go to Greenwood much - only on the weekends if we are wandering about. I don't think it would have been worth the $2.09 savings to hunt down the gas station. I would have spent extra time, money, and gas to get there. Hmmm...something to think about.

On the subject of gas, I have been riding my motorcycle to work sometimes, but have yet to take the bus. It would be a good idea because I could sit and read while someone else cusses at the idiots on the road, and I get exercise because the express stop is .8 miles from my place and goes to .5 miles from my work. However, each ride (one-way) is $2.50. That's $5 for one trip IF I go from work to home and don't stop to exercise - if I stop it's another $1.50 because the transfer is only good for an hour.

OK - enough about transportation. I worked from HOME today. It was great - I didn't have to drive anywhere and got a lot done. Very cool. I also heard from my old principal who had this to say:
"Glad to hear you are getting settled and having a good time. I also know there will be moments in business when you will miss our little buggers and all the rewarding (inside rewards) work teaching brings. You will be sorely missed in many ways and your exit is education’s loss for sure and especially for Tolt (and me). I’ll miss your teaching, your leadership, your ideas, your level headedness, and your giving ways. Most of all I’ll miss the trust and confidence I had in you and our relationship. Although the last year we didn’t get as much of a chance to talk, I always knew where you were and how you felt."

She almost made me cry! How cool is that!?!

Almost forgot - for those of you who didn't get the reference in the title - "Jumping Jack Flash" - The Rolling Stones

Happy Ears

After 7 months of pain I finally gave up on my cute tragus piercings and my ears are so happy. They are healing very quickly and I don't have to worry about getting them caught on my helmet, or smashed when I roll over, or ripped out when I change clothes, or...you get the picture.

John has turned the "study" into his workshop and has produced his first useful part on the milling machine - it's a base for a robot part. That machine is REALLY cool, but very complicated. We now have to get rid of stuff that was in the study. It's mostly books, shelves, an office chair, etc.. too nice to toss, yet too lazy to take pictures and post on-line for sale=messy house. Darwin loves the new arrangement because he has a tall tower of plastic crates in the living room to play "King of the World" on. He lays there and looks over his vast domain like Mufasa in The Lion King.

My dad (Texas - not Kansas) had surgery last week on his eye and is not supposed to bend over or lift things, or cough, or...anything that might disturb the eye at all. Mom says he is doing well, but I bet he is going stir crazy right now. It wasn't so much the surgery that worried me as the recovery time.

Work is going well - I am felling a little better about things, not quite as frustrated over the lack of what I need to do my job because I know the problem is on it's way to being solved. My company has grown fast and still doesn't really have communication and knowledge-transfer processes in place so it's hard to know where to go to get anything done. It's getting MUCH better though.