cake, minion, cold, testing

My room-mate's birthday was this past Sunday. He's usually at the beach with his family on vacation, so I decided to do something a little different. Since I'm not really much of a baker or a cook, I found a no-bake cheesecake mix. I also grated some Heath bars to put in the mix. The crust didn't work as well as I hoped, but it turned out pretty good - we ate some while sitting outside enjoying the weather on Sunday evening.

I also got him a DVD set for when he's stuck at home after his neck surgery. And a fake lemon tree plant and some real lemonade mix. He's been feeling a little picked on at work recently and I thought a friendly reminder on attitude might help. I didn't make any "age" jokes - I already get letters from AARP wanting me to sign up - so, I didn't want to go down that road.

In other news... I picked up the Overlord game for the PS3. I have this for the PC, but could never get it to run. It's a blast to play and really funny. I'm making good progress and really enjoying it.

Yesterday, I headed up to the rec center for my swim. And though I was pre-warned about the lack of hot water - it was still rough taking a shower afterwards. I was still damp from the pool so I soaped up first - then turned on the cold water and rinsed as fast as I could. I suppose I could have skipped the shower, but I figured a little cold in the short term was better than somewhat itchy for the rest of the day.

Finally, I'm working with the crew on some usability testing again. My roll is mostly "keep track of the tech and render the video" - so, I'm keeping up with my emails and waiting quietly.

Better get back to the email and check in... later...

flush, pool

Yesterday afternoon, I headed to the restroom here at work. It was the kind of trip that, had I been at home, I would have had a book with me. But I was at work and bookless and proceeded to do my business without any reading material. Before I sat down, however, I noted that the toilet now had an automatic flush device installed. It looked like this.

Now, I'm not generally fond of auto-flushing toilet and urinals since I either can't get them to acknowledge that I exist or I can't get them to stop.

But, my needs were urgent and I was at the mercy of the technology. When I was done, I stood up and the auto-flush device made it's usual noise - but then nothing else happened.

No flush.

I sat back down for a moment - then stood back up. I will also admit to feeling a little stupid about this. Same noise - no flush.

I check the device and notice that there was a manual button. Relieved, I tried that. Same noise, but still no flush.

I tried a couple more times with the same result.

So, now what?

I washed my hands at the sink and left - then called the building coordinator to report the problem and got his voice mail. Next, I called the Facilities dispatch office and reported it to them. The building coordinator called me back and I confirmed what I'd done.

Then I made up an out of order sign, posted that on the door to the stall, and went back to work. I mean, what else could I do?

I got the update today that it's been resolved, so I guess things are back to normal. Or as close as we can expect.

In other news... I hit the pool today and it was once again filled with screaming children. And I mean screaming. Like some kind of sonic weapon - really intense. The lifeguard cleared a lane and I did my laps. They had cleared out before I was done, so at least the last bit was more calm. On a related note, a little more digging on the Swim for Diabetes site revealed some contradictions on length vs. lap - I may have earned the ribbon after all.

Work has really sucked this afternoon. I'll be really glad to get out of here today.

later...

father, uncle, guest, 100

I went to visit my folks for Father's Day this past weekend. Unfortunatly, Dad had to work all day on Saturday, so I only got to see him a bit on Friday and Saturday evening - though we had more time on Sunday.

On Saturday morning, when my sister came over for breakfast, she asked me a question.

"So, do you want to be called Uncle Anthony or Uncle Wade?"

Yea! My little sister is having a baby! She's about 8 weeks along and is due in January - just a little after my birthday.

My sister, mom, and I hung out on Saturday. We talked about baby stuff, my sister's food aversions, and about names a bit. My brother-in-law got there in the evening from a business trip and Dad got in a bit later from work.

On Sunday, after everyone got back from church, dad invited one of his friends and caretaker over for lunch. Dad's friend has a really severe case of cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheel chair. His caretaker wheeled him in and right over in front of me where I was sitting - and then everyone went off to do their own things. So, things were a little forced - and somewhat awkward. After a little bit I was able to understand him, but it took a tremendous increase in mental processing power on my part to understand him, stay focused on what he was saying, and keep the flow of conversation going. After a bit, we had lunch and the guy and his caretaker stayed. And he dominated the conversation and ended up overstaying his welcome. Dad eventually told him it was time for him to leave. A little blunt, but I guess he and Dad understand each other and I don't think offense was meant or taken.

We did the Father's day thing and I had a bite to eat before I had to get on the road.

Finally, I got an email from the Cleveland Diabetes Association. It was a follow up to the Swim for Diabetes event and made mention of those people who were in the 100 Club. Except, it turns out that it was the 100 laps club - not 100 lengths. Which was kind of weird since all the measurments for the event were in lengths. When I finished up my swim of 150 lengths - 75 laps - they handed me a ribbon for the 100 club.

And I don't think I really earned it. Which bothers me a bit. I'm debating taking another Saturday morning to swim 100 laps and "earn" the ribbon.

Well, time to get back to work.

later...

resolved, tea, mirror, planet, 48, call

I think my room-mate and I have mostly resolved things. I'm still slightly cranky over the way things went, but I'm getting over it. So, back to the news of the ordinary and slightly weird...

I've told stories of how my Dad makes iced tea - he adds water to a plastic jug, adds teabags and seals it up, then throws it in the hot tub for a bit. With this in mind, my room-mate decided to make some sun tea outside this past weekend. I didn't pay much attention to the process until he asked me how long it took. I told him to base it on the color - when it's dark, it's done. He said it was already dark and I realized I remembered him filling the teapot.

"Wait," I said, "Did you start with hot water?" He said he did.

"With sun tea, the sun heats the water so it brews. If you start with hot water and then put it in the sun, well, you're double brewing it,"

The tea, needless to say, was very strong. But, not too bad with a lot of sugar.

In other news... stayed up late watching Mirrors last night. Good flick, a little predictable and very gory. It was after midnight before I hit the sack - which made the morning that much more difficult. Also, I avoided looking in the mirror when I got ready for work.

I played a bunch of Little Big Planet yesterday - excellent game and a lot of fun. I think I may try a bit more of the level building feature this afternoon - or I may sell some of my PS2 games and pick up another one for the PS3.

I got my new blood donor card the other day - I'm up to 48 pints donated. That's 6 gallons lifetime. Not too bad. I think I'm eligible to give again in the first part of July.

Finally, I got a call at home last night. It was an akron number, but I didn't recognize it. I answered anyway and the girl asked for me by name. She said she was calling from The University of Akron Alumni office and asked if she could verify my address and if I wanted to provide an employer. I hesitated a moment, then told her, "The University of Akron". We both laughed a bit and she verified my uakron email address. Then she asked if I wanted to donate to the college of business and I politely declined and ended the call.

I guess that's it for now. It's a pretty quiet morning here again, but there's work to be done.

later...

trek, ps3, sun, trick

Went and saw Star Trek this weekend. Good flick, very intense - and while the plot was okay, I was a little disappointed in the direction they took. Eh, the explosions were nice. And I so have to get me some Red Matter.

I also went out and got myself a PS3. I've been holding out for a price drop, but since that wasn't happening, I gathered up my coupons and gift card and headed to best buy. The PS3 and one game ended up being around 480 dollars. With the coupons, best buy rewards, and giftcard - I got it down to $178. I think the clerk was annoyed at the gift cards, but it didn't bother me at all. I've been playing little big planet quite a bit and I really like it. I haven't gone online with it yet - mainly because people online are stupid.

I got a little sun today, sat outside and read for a bit. My room-mate came out and shared the funnies with me from the sunday paper - and they were actually pretty funny instead of the usual - "heh".

I was pretty warm and noticed his cup of lemon-aid. I asked if I could have a sip and he offered to get me my own glass. I said I just wanted sip and he handed it to me.

I took a sip and immediatly spit it out. It tasted horrible and I couldn't come up with enough spit to rinse my mouth. It looked and smelled like lemon-aid - but there was something else. I asked him what it was and he told me it was lemon-aid + vodka. And he laughed at my reaction.

Now, I don't drink. Haven't since college. Sort of drew a line in the sand on the whole thing. If other people want to drink around me, I'm generally okay with that provided they don't try to force it on me and don't get too messed up.

So, I put away my chair and took my book inside. I went to the cabinet and found the bottle of vodka and then poured it in the sink. Then, for good measure, I got a half-full bottle of wine out of the fridge and poured that out too. Both empty bottles went in the trash.

He apoligized - then sarcasticly thanked me for pouring out an expensive bottle of wine when he found the bottles later.

Was I being petty? Yep. Sure. Why not? Should have poured out more. Still might.

I think I need to do some cleaning or something. Need to create a little more order in my life. Maybe need to look at Apartments.com later as well. Yeah, it's that bad.

later...

chemical, guest

I got to the rec center at my regular time and as I entered the pool area and prepared to get in the water, I noticed that a guy was dumping a white power in the water at the end of the lap lanes. I asked the lifeguards if it was okay to swim and while they were unsure, they said it was probably okay.

So, I walked over to ladder and started to get in. The guy dumping the powder didn't react to my presence and he finished up before I was ready to start my laps. I did my laps with no ill reactions - and noted that at least a part of the powder didn't dissolve right away.

I'm still doing okay, no weird skin itches or anything. Still a little weird to be doing something to the pool water during regular hours.

The AA Founder's day is this weekend on campus. A few parking lots have been closed off and we've got a lot more people on campus than usual, but it hasn't really affected us much. I avoided the student union food court just in case there were long lines, but otherwise no biggie.

The afternoon is going slowly, but I'll be out of here soon enough. Looking forward to some sunshine this weekend.

later...

taken, gas, meeting

Watched the movie "taken" last night. Even though he was a jedi, I was a little skeptical about Liam Neeson as an action hero, but he pulled it off. Lots of "judo chop" moves and ass kicking - pretty intense.

I was standing in line at Starbucks today with my coworker. There was a man standing at the counter getting his coffee and a woman behind him. The two were good naturedly arguing and he said,

"better be careful, I've got a lot of gas today"

to which she replied,

"I've got a really long umbrella,"

prompting my co-worker to comment,

"I've got a lighter"

Ah, Friday morning on campus.

In other news, my FMR's mom and grandmother were supposed to come over for dinner last night, but had to cancel. The weather was a little bad yesterday so that may have been a factor.

Well, I was supposed to be 1/2 way through a meeting/training session - but they haven't shown yet and it's now a little after 8:30 Oh, well, makes for a quieter day.

That's it for now... later...

spam, headache, swine

I got a spam message today - from someone I know. Occasionally I'll get a message from someone that has been accidentally tagged as spam (the message, not the person) and of course I get a ton of spam from strange addresses - but this time I recognised the name and address of the person - but the content of the message was spam. It was from someone that had invited me to use Linkedin - I wonder if their database got hacked?

I went home yesterday with a headache. Not a migraine, but bad enough that I took some motrin and went to bed for a bit. It stayed with me most of the rest of the evening - sort of coming and going as lighting conditions and noise levels changed. And it's back again this afternoon - though not as bad. Don't know if it's stress, a hold over from this cold I can't seem to kick, or the flourecents in the office here.

Just got an email from Mom about WHO upgrading H1N1 to a pandemic. I don't have the body aches or fatigue, but I do have the rest of the common symptoms. Great. Swine flu. Just like Link Hobthrob.

Still got 2 hours to go today. It's been pretty quiet here though that doesn't make the time go faster.

My room-mate and I are having my FRM's mom and grandmother over for an early dinner this evening (they don't like to drive late). Should be fun - they are both fiesty old ladies from the Bronx. Meaning: fun, but don't cross them or you'll get a facefull of mace.

Guess that's it for now. later...

cold, swim, drive

I've been fighting a bit of a cold for the past few days - but since it's been combined with my eye swelling up again I at first dismissed it as some kind of allergy thing. And it didn't help that my neighbor had his charcoal grill and lawn mower going right outside our windows - thought I was going to sneeze my head clear off.

I'm doing better today, though my throat is still a little sore.

I hit the pool today and did 21 laps. Not my best, but okay considering I'm really not at my best. The water was really warm - I kept watching the lifeguards to make sure they didn't throw in any vegetables.

I did a little errand running on Sunday - got some supplies for a a few projects and bought an mp3 player and an external hard-drive. I've held off moving from the cds for a while - but some artists are only releasing music digitally now, so I'd better get on the bandwagon. I've got a big project ahead of me converting my cd's to mp3 - but I've got time and plenty of space now, so it should be fun to rediscover my music collection again.

later...

mario, crowd

I played some super paper mario last night - the Pitt of 100 Trials. Essentially, 100 levels of enemies to fight. Some rooms I cleared in 20-40 seconds, others took as long as a couple of minutes. In the very last level, I fought a huge dragon and at a crucial moment I meant to hit the button to open my menu and use a health item - and instead I hit the button to jump and smashed into an enemy on the dragon's back.

And died.

Game over.

I turned off the Wii and the television and went outside to read a book. Stupid game.

I hit the pool today for my swim and as I walked in I realized that the pool was busy - there must have been about 40 kids in there for some event. And they were also in the lap lanes.

I approached the life guard to ask if they had the whole pool reserved, but before I got the word out, she asked if I was going to do lap swimming. I said I was and she said she'd clear them out of the lap lane. And she did.

Yea!

So, I had a lane to myself and got in my laps. No records set, but it still felt good.

It's been a rough week here at work and I'm looking forward to getting out of here and getting some sunshine. And it's Friday, so, bonus.

later...

pants

My co-worker and I went to Chipotle for our weekly lunch event.   We met up with his cousin and sat at a table outside to enjoy the sunshine.  I was part way through my burrito when my co-worker spilled his drink.

I could see it racing across the table toward me and I had only a moment to act.  

Abandon the burrito and use the lag time that gave me to get out of the way 

or

Carefully set my burrito down in the tray, protecting it from the soda, and take whatever came at me.  

Well, there was really no question about which way that was going to go.   I carefully set my burrito down and moved away from the table - too late to avoid the onrush of soda that soaked my pants.   

But, the burrito was safe and that's all that mattered.   My co-worker felt bad, but my pants dried quickly in the sun.   And the burrito was awesome.

later...

clever, shoes, mile

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I remembered that I had a meeting today with a student group that had caused me some grief in the past.   I have to work with them, so I got dressed with an eye toward a carefully calculated impression.    Long sleeve white dress shirt with a UA logo indicating that I was part of the establishment and would be expected to follow the rules.  Sleeves rolled up to indicate that I was someone prepared to work.   Dress pants - and my dressier flip-flops - an indication that I'm cool and that I can relate.   Or at least that I'm trying to fool myself into thinking that I'm cool and that I can relate.     I never put this much thought into what I'm wearing under usual circumstances, but this group had been stubborn and I was going to need all the help I could get.

So, image complete, I headed into work.  And when I checked my calendar, I realized that I also had a meeting today with the Office of General Counsel - i.e. the lawyers.   And while flip-flops might be appropriate for a meeting with a student group  - they would not be appropriate for a meeting with the lawyers.  

One of my co-workers and I headed up to the student union for starbucks and I mentioned my footwear issues and that I might have to go  home and change shoes before my meeting.   He asked what shoe size I wore (10) and then offered to let me borrow his shoes for the meeting.   He had a backup pair in his car and no meetings - so, it would work out fine and though I had to go sock-less I was in much better shape than before. 

I 'shoed-up' just before my meeting and things went fine.   Back to flip-flops for my second meeting and that went fine too.

They say you have to walk a mile in someone's shoes before you really know them.  I didn't quite cover a mile, but I was impressed by his generosity and I appreciated it.  

I learned a lesson about planning and still ended up making the right impressions.

The rest of the day has been pretty much business as usual, but I'll head out of here in a much better mood than I had yesterday.

later...

600, day, swim

This is post number 600 for my blog and I had rather hoped for something deeply meaningful or a fundamental truth about existence.  Instead, I think it's pretty much going to be same old-same old.

I ended up  having a really really crappy day yesterday.   One task that should have taken 15 minutes lasted all day.  I had 2 meetings that annoyed me and promised to create a massive amount of work.  And then I screwed up the survey tool software by not carefully following the instructions - though, to my credit, they were very much counter-intuitive.

So, my swim was delayed and I didn't get to go to the pool until after work.  I was really looking forward to getting some of my frustrations out.  

Instead, the two lap lanes were in use.    There's a guy swimming in one and a mother teaching her kids to swim in the other one.   Now, it's a big pool and I'm pretty sure that a swimming lesson is not appropriate in the lap lanes, but I tried to not be annoyed by it and got in the lane with the guy swimming laps.   

I tried to stay out of his way - he was less concerned about staying out of my way - and as a consequence I ended up scraping my elbow on the wall.     I stopped in the middle of the lane, lifted my arm out of the water for an inspection and as soon as I did that, it started to bleed.

So, that was it for me.  I kept my arm out of the water and got out of the pool.   I snagged a paper towel and had the bleeding mostly stopped by the time I was dressed and on my way out the door.    When I got home, I opened it back up and cleaned it with alcohol and then slathered on the neosporin and a band-aid.  

I played some video games, read a book, and cooled down.      Today is not shaping up to be awesome, but I'm going to keep my head down and get through it.     On a brighter note, the boss is out of the office this week - so, I'm predicting a slightly longer than an hour lunch hour.

later...

weekend

Went to Olive Garden on Friday for dinner - not really impressed.   The calimari appitizer was underdone and the pizza was rather mediocre.   They did take the calimari off the bill, but even with that I just wasn't impressed.   Think I'm going to avoid that one for a while.

I went to the final soccer game of the season for my FRM's son.  As usual, I drove FRM's mom to the match and hung out with her and the little dude's mom.   (one day I really need to map out their family tree).    FRM's mom seems to have reconciled with he and his new wife - I think partly because of their new baby girl.   Which is good - since FRM's mom wasn't on speaking terms with the rest of the family and it may any encounters very tense.  The little dudes and dudettes won the match 2-1 - so, very exciting times.

I got a little sun in the afternoon and took a trip to Lowe's for some 2 ft square concrete slabs so we can set the grill off the patio in the back.   They were heavy and since my room-mate is headed for spine surgery soon, I was the designated lifter of  heavy things.    I also bought some dumbells while I was out - it's way past time that I started lifting again, even if it's just to tone up a bit.   I also need to work on my abs - so, it's literally crunch time.

On Sunday, my room-mate's second cousin and her husband stopped by in the evening for a visit on their way to Falling Rock.  It was a surprise visit in that my room-mate had forgottent they were coming until they called in the morning.   We did a rush job of cleaning to get the place ready and had a nice dinner and evening.   I taught them some origami too.

This morning I woke up with a headache and despite a brief respite during the walk up to starbucks, it's been pretty persistant.  I think it's the lighting in here.  I took an excedrine and we'll see how that goes.  

Two meetings today - one at eleven (pushing back my swim) and another at one (rushing my lunch).  Looks like I'll be swimming late this afternoon.

So, not a bad weekend, but something of a rough Monday already.  Better get back to work.

later...