Before you know it.....

...the young one and his Sara will be going to their Senior Prom. The young one and I went out tonight after I got off work to shop for a suit or tuxedo to wear to the prom and after, as he needs a dark suit for performances with the bands and orchestra at UT. After a lot of groaning, grumbling and trying stuff on, we found a great Etienne Aigner black lightweight wool, two button suit with black pleated and cuffed trousers. After picking out a nice conservative tie (it is for the young one after all) we were all set, and went home to try everything on for effect, which turned out to be quite good.

He is ready, clothing-wise, but still a little reticent about the whole proposition. He is not much on the whole "dancing, schmoozing" thing and so far that is about all that he is seeing will be happening on that evening. I know once he starts making some of the other arrangements (flowers for Sara, etc) he will get a little more into it...and he'd better start doing those things soon.....its never good to do that stuff at the last minute!

That was pretty much the high point of the day...work was busy and good...but as it is called "work", it is what it is....glad to be home for a little downtime...hope you get some of the same...till later, much love to you....

v

You ever wondered?.....

In the company at which I work, we have several different areas of specialty which contribute to the materials the company produces. One of the departments consists of a group of very interesting guys who do the programming for the interactive content area. These guys are eccentric, irreverent and very creative, and provide a lot of amusement and interest to the area in which my cube resides.

Today I overheard several of the guys talking about some things pertaining to internet and the like and one of them speculated about the origins of the term "boolean search". In my early days, I remember being trained on pure boolean search on the internet, including the practice of inserting (+),etc right into the search blank. The discussion piqued my curiosity...I consider myself a pretty proficient and efficient searcher on the internet, and I was kinda interested to find out where the name of the search type came from too.

Come to find out, the "Boolean search" is named after George Boole, (1815-1864), an English mathematician. The word "Boolean" refers to "a combinatorial system that combines propositions with the logical operators AND and OR and IF THEN and EXCEPT and NOT". Make sense now? Yep, I thought so too. If you want to know more about George Boole and his contributions to abstract algebra, do a search, boolean, if you will, for his name.

That's it for now...much love to you...tomorrow, staff development...should be very enlightening....

v

Some folks just know how to have a good time....

Came home from work today and the firstborn and his Ann favoured me with all the stuff they have been observing on CNN throughout the afternoon, since they worked in the morning. Not the least of these is a very short video that I was finally able to get converted and posted of the lovely and talented President Bush, in all his glory, at an event today for Malaria Awareness. Check out the video by clicking on the link at the right.

Hope you enjoy...not much to say after THAT...later..

v

So what IS my major malfunction…seriously?

There are some days when it truly feels at though I have some sort of mental defect or something...yesterday the dumb shit things I did served to reiterate that, although I was able in small part to recover from it and not make a total moron of myself for the ENTIRE day. Although I know I am not a drooling idiot, it is times like those that really make me pause and shake my head in bewilderment...what in the heck is wrong with me when stuff like that happens?

Well, in my inimitable way, I have carried the practice of deficient thinking into today...in a rush and thinking forty steps ahead of myself as I readied to go into the office this morning, I dutifully opened and then set the lock on the driver door, intending to secure the contents of the car that were not mine (and valuable) until I could remove them later in the day. Part of that thought process was to put all my handheld devices and keys in my purse, and reach across to unlock the passenger door, then go around to the passenger side, gather my laptop bag and purse, lock and close the door and then go on my merry way into the office. I have already adapted my strategy on how I keep track of my security card for the office...it is on a lanyard that I wear around my neck with one of the iPods attached...so in principal, it seems that all was accounted for. Unfortunately, that is exactly where the “moron factor” kicked in...as I slammed the driver door, I noted with self-loathing that the passenger door was, in fact, still locked...everything sealed up nice and tight too...not even a cracked window to try to use to get myself back inside.

For a moment only I panicked; surely this was a disaster of gargantuan proportions...then I realized that I had my key card for the office... “No worries” I thought; I can get into the office, to my phone and get in contact with the firstborn, who could get me a spare key. Feeling dumb, but not frantic, I went upstairs to the office and went to my desk to make the call.

The home phone rang and rang…no firstborn OR his Ann to answer it... “No worries” I again thought; they are probably out to breakfast...just have to give them a call on their cell phones. Then, it truly hit me how cut off I was without my technology...I don’t even know the numbers of any of our cell phones...when we got them I stored all the numbers on MY phone for quick dialing...I had no way to figure out their numbers...my laptop was in the car…no Outlook address book with my personal contacts in it…no Blackberry for saved information from incoming calls...I absolutely felt that at that moment I was totally stymied. My gadgets gone, I felt as though my hands had been cut off...all I could do was try to work without my tools and sit at my desk phone and listen to the phone at my house ring itself off the hook.

By some miracle (and the grace of very noisy trash collectors), the firstborn finally answered the phone at a little after 9 AM…by this time I had called the young one’s school to try to get him to give me his brother’s cell number, the firstborn’s AND Ann’s stores that they work in to see if their numbers were on file (they were, but the employees I spoke with followed company policy and would not release them to me – excellent to know!) and one of my co-workers had shared with me that he might be able to “help me out”, should other methods fail. The firstborn was groggy when I first got him on the line, and also shared that his brother had already called home to see what was going on (so thanks to the people in the attendance office he HAD gotten my message) After a minute to take the whole situation in, he could do nothing other than laugh at me and assure that he would be out to the office with an extra key….thank goodness for extra keys!

Nearly 10 by the time the firstborn arrived with the key to let me into my car…for his sacrifice, I gave him bucks to buy some gas and breakfast...the least I could do, considering I would have probably ended up with a broken window if he has not been able to bring me a key. When all was said and done, I was embarrassed but otherwise unscathed...and of course, had succeeded in proudly maintaining the reputation of blondes everywhere with yet another “dumb blonde” stunt.

After all this, one of my co-workers, who is relatively new to the company, passed by my desk and asked me how I was doing...in my usual fashion, I regaled her with the gory details of the morning to that point, never one to pass up the telling of a good story, after all. She commiserated with my plight and recounted several of her own, a friendly gesture that only served to cement our friendship even more. Later she came to stand at my shoulder and leaned close to my ear... “Talk about moments”, she said...”I just had one...took a spill in the lobby”. Shocked, I turned to face her, just as she was beginning to walk away... “Are you alright?” I asked with concern. She paused for a beat and said in a low voice and with a hint of a smile, “All but the pride”...Indeed...I can TOTALLY relate...

Hope your day was well, and in our little challenges you found a little smile; I know that in retrospect, I certainly have.

Much love to you...

v

Yeah...so...Mondays..what's up with that?

So..went in early to work to find the scanner needed to be recalibrated and the conference room needed to be set up for a meeting, including teleconferencing....got everything set up but could not connect to the remote computer...asked for help from my boss...he went in and walked behind the unit...plugged into the wrong freaking port in the drop...dumbshit thing number one...had to set up a conferencing phone in the other conference room for a different person, and had to move connections around in the wiring rack for phone...unplugged the wrong friggin' wire and took down someone's phone for a few minute till I figured it out...what a retard!....Thankfully the rest of the day went a little better, and without incident, but I had an appointment with a friend of mine from the old job, to work on her mac at her house (one like the photo upper left) Went from work to her house, and by the time things were all said and done, her mac was working a little better and her PC laptop was working a lot better...I hate to admit it, but I have been working with Windows long enough now, that I think I can actually troubleshoot it kinda well sometimes...and this one was just that kind of troubleshooting...clean up and reset the stuff that was set incorrectly...it was blue screening when I got there and was wirelessly connected to their home network, screaming fast when I left...nice way to end the day I would say.

Hope that whatever you undertook today, you were highly successful and had no dumbshit moments in the process...much love to you...

v

Doin' stuff....

Busy today, with the unlimited pick up for household items coming up next week. Everyone who was at home today threw in bigtime, and we were able to do some yard maintenance that had been neglected for awhile. The firstborn evaluated the lawn mowers, one self-propelled and one rider, that have been badly abused over the winter...the self-propelled seems to be significantly challenged and will not stay running but will turn over...the rider, which I had thought was the one we would be putting out in the trash pile out front, was in need of a very small part, a new battery and the blade sharpened....all that being done, we now have a very spiffy and totally functional riding lawn mower...the boys will be duking it out to keep the yard cut, rather than moaning and groaning every time it needs to be done...as a matter of fact, to show you how cool the running mower is, check out the link on the right to see the firstborn illustrating how well the mower is running now...popping a "wheelie" as he ripped through the mowing of the front yard in short order.

I spent most of the day outside, clearing leaves out from around the low decorative bushes in the front of the house and the lillies on the north side of the garage. Two yard waste bags and a significant amount of sunburn later, the yard looks like someone cares about it again...next task, some weed killer to take care of the dandelions that are making their presence known.

This evening, the young one and his Sara are at the Spring Musical at NV...."Fame"...the firstborn is chilling in the living room, waiting for Ann to get home from working late, and I took a trip to the pond and park in our town to walk and watch the sun set...the photo above is of the pond WITHOUT ice on it (see other Flickr album photos of Olander from late winter)..next weekend there will be a Trout fishing contest there for the youngsters...they will put a bunch of fish in there and they will fish for a couple hours for fun and prizes...it was a beautiful night and a beautiful sunset...I was very happy to end the day that way...

Hope you have been having a wonderful weekend too...much love to you...

v

Announcements and other things....

The young one's graduation announcements arrived in the post today...a beautiful, understated trifold on ivory parchment with the Northview coat of arms embossed in gold and black on the front, a sketch of the NV campus under the outside flap and all the details about the graduation ceremony on the inside, elegantly printed in gold script. Things are happening fast and furious for the young one now, with prom and graduation approaching, and all the grants and scholarships being aligned for his first year at UT. His exceptional academic career at NV has garnered him recognition on several fronts at UT and his scholarship funding is generous (for which we are extremely grateful) He has also qualified for several student loans, which were enumerated in his financial aid disclosure. We will be finalizing our decisions on funding over the weekend and sending in all the forms to assure that when Fall 2007 arrives, funding will be a non issue, and his only responsibility will be to keep those grades up.

In totally unrelated activities, the unlimited pick up (or as many (including the firstborn) consider it, the "city wide garage sale") takes place next week. The house is already spewing copious amounts of excess stuff, making for great "shopping" for all the folks who cruise the neighborhoods every night, scanning the discard piles under the glow of the street lamps and headlights. We look forward to civilizing the house a great deal, and clearing out much of the ignored and unused items which have been taking up space. If all works out well, we will be back to using the three season room on the back of the house again for recreation, rather than storage...a very pleasant thought as the warm weather finally arrives. Between house cleaning and yard work, it should be a very energetic weekend....and beautiful weather projected the whole time to make it enjoyable.

Hope whatever you do, you enjoy warm sun and blue skies...and much love...till later...

v

Today's Quote....

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

"The Mourning Bride" (1697) - William Congreve

Kurt Vonnegut Jr

The literary world recently lost a great talent in Kurt Vonnegut Jr. As a young adult, I recall my favorite Vonnegut books.... "Breakfast of Champions", "Cat's Cradle", and "Welcome to the Monkey House". After his death, I revisited his body of work and found the short story "Harrison Bergeron", the complete text of which is available as a download here. I liked it so much that I copied the entire story in longhand and then made it available as a .pdf file for you. It is a short piece, but reminded me how much I admired and enjoyed his work when I was younger. I hope you take the time to download it and give it a read....as with all his works, you will have food for thought.

Much love to you...

v

OMG!!!!!

RIM (Research in Motion) had a humongous system failure last evening at about 5 PDT. Many Blackberry users in the Western Hemisphere are totally boned, with no ability to send or receive emails or do global address book lookups. Luckily for me, I seem to be extra special so it is all good on my device......no info yet on when the system will back up....so in the meantime folks have to communicate the old fashioned way, by phone!   Okey dokey....let's see if this will post....here we go....good luck today to all Blackberry users and IT support people!

Love to ya

V
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Sent from Vicki Timman's BlackBerry Wireless Device

Put it to rest already......

Here is another great example of an entrepreneur who has identified a very specific need that just screams from some segments of the population; primarily the very bitter, newly (or not so newly) released from the institution (of marriage or long term relationship, etc).

This delightful little item is called a "ring coffin" and its intent is to facilitate that final symbolic death of the relationship and burying of the past; the intent, as stated by the creator, is to help with closure when a relationship ends and help the angry person act out their feelings, then, in principal, move on.

The full story regarding this "interesting" item is available here. I see a possibility for a spin off of this....how about a hatchet coffin...when you wanna "bury the hatchet"? Hmmmm...

Till later, much love to you....

v

Gremlins....old school......

Bugs Bunny - Falling Hare

_________________________

Took out the autoplay embedded player for my own sanity...the link above is for the .wmv file for you to view or download.


v

Turtle Customer Service (Courtesy of "toothpastefordinner.com")

Barry Nelson, the First James Bond, Dies at 86

Follow this link for a little more info and to discover the really cool website, "Cinema Strikes Back".

A Ven diagram even I understand.....

At UT

At U Hall waiting for the concert to begin. The rehearsal was awesome and the composer is a very interesting character. Wanted to take some photos but went with the young one and he was mortified so photography was bare minimum. Do have a few photos of the composer Sam Hazo talking to the band members after rehearsal...a few little things he said rang so true I jotted them down......of the coming performance he encouraged the attitude "I have a good job to do".... On the performer's attitude for success..."Own your performance and play your life"....I like that a lot....will add a photo to this post when I get home....much love to you....

v

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Sent from Vicki Timman's BlackBerry Wireless Device

Apple Sells 100 Million iPods.....

Here are my contributions to the effort (in photo from bottom left, clockwise - my pink Shuffle clip with all my fav music on it, my original Shuffle 500MB with purple "jam jacket" and matching lanyard, my pink Nano, with fav weird mix of stuff (I like it because it has a lot of album art), my "Root Green" Shuffle clip, with all my "new and need to listen to" stuff on it, and in the center, the firstborn's black Nano)…my fun little musical treasures….these do not include the First Gen Snow 5GB with the greyscale display and hidden “Brickles”…the shuffles that I have given away, the Nanos that I have purchased for both the young one and the firstborn…I think that I have loyally contributed to the Apple effort for portable music world domination…and it has been a pleasure…

Look for me around with my Shuffle clips, coordinated with my matching “Chucks”, skilfully dodging any unwelcome human interaction with a shrug of the shoulders, and a gesture toward the ears, with the obvious excuse, “Can’t hear you, listening to my iPod…”

Ah, life is good…

Till later, much love to you…

v

Doin' a "Happy Dance"....

Happiness, joy, trepidation, anxiety....you will find them all at my house tonight....the young one, at almost three weeks out, received notification of the results of his audition and theory test for entry in the College of Music...he has been accepted, with percussion as his primary instrument!!!! No scholarships in the department available at this time, but they are awarded at times throughout the academic year, as students demonstrate improvement in their area of study...The young one has been anxious and upset about this since the audition, and now can breathe a sign of relief...now the onus is on me to step up with the funds needed to make this work. It will work out...one way or another; the young one has paid his musical dues and now it is time to work toward his life goal of sharing his passion for music with others...exciting times these...it will be quite a wild ride, to be sure.

Offer your congrats to the young one by visiting him at BuddhaofDrumming and leaving him some love...it would be cool for him to get some "Attaboys" from some folks who have been following him along the way...

Till later, much love to you (visualize that little "happy dance" for a chuckle)...

v

Easter Sunday

No day with the family for us...everyone in my house save me working at their respective jobs. We had our moments of closeness on their ways out the door into the cold Ohio morning, and will have late goodnights when they return home. Such is the way of those of us who must work to keep life going....we take what is offered us and do what is necessary...even in that, we are blessed to have each other and a place to call our own.

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend, and if your own family has the luxury of time off this coming week to celebrate the coming of spring that you spend it enjoying the time together.

Much love to you....

v

My slice of Pi

While surfing, found a link for this money making effort of some internet entrepeneur called My Slice of Pi. The premise is basically that the number Pi is an infinite and non-repeating sequence of numbers, and the person who set up this site has created a way for folks to buy one or more of the individual numbers on the right side of the non-repeating decimal. Each number costs whatever the number is - the number 2 costs two dollars...BONUS...the number zero is free!

The actual point of buying the number is how you take possession of your number...you basically are paying to create a tiny little advertisement with a link to wherever you want to direct people when they click on your number. Click on my number and it will bring you HERE, to Country of the Blind...click on the "zero" to the right of it (number link 78) and it will send you to the website for Strollerguy - David Wayne Black, as promotion for his book, "Zero Main Street".

There are many others of these blatantly money-making websites on the internet, and not all are worth endorsing with a financial contribution...this one I thought was innovative and may get them a few bucks, thus the mention.

Hope you enjoy the info...

v

Learning is good.....

With all the activity in our office, I have been challenged to take on some different tasks that I have little experience with….hopping back into the mode that I am most comfortable with, I have begun again to “self-teach”, learning how to resolve many problems that are assigned to me using my honed “research-review-experiment-implement” strategy. The rub is that this strategy sometimes takes a little time if I have been totally unexposed to the issue before, so it has been a blessing that the things that needed research for this week have been some that were not mission critical; they were more high inconvenience and idiosyncrasies of software and hardware…things I need to know for future reference and to expedite resolution of future problems.

Since I am researching a great deal again, I have had to sort and store much “stuff” that has come to live on my computer…the things that build up on the desktop and other stuff that gets found and saved on the way to other things…there is no excuse for the contents of a person’s desktop folder to be 10GB, but mine was, and my poor machine was running much the worse for it. This weekend will have to be dedicated to the business of further maintenance….a good technical person practices what they preach, after all….this machine is a good one and has served me very well up to this point…I know that once cleaned up, I will be in love with it again, as I was when I first got it, and it will continue to be the workhorse that I have come to rely on.

Today is a quiet one in the office and folks are working in solitary mode for the most part….taking time to catch up a little bit…maximizing their efforts while interruptions are lessened. As the day passes, the tone becomes more light and jovial…soon it will be time to depart for the weekend to be spent with family and friends….not to forget the real reason for the acknowledgement of the days before this day and the important days after.

Blessed Easter to you and yours…happy spring as well…crocuses, forsythias, and daffodils to colour your new season….much love to you, till we connect again….

v

Geez….it IS April, after all….

Woke this morning to snow sitting on the sunroof of Viktor and “graupple” (the word, I learned from the weather talking head – looks like little snow pellets) building up on the windshield and hood of the car. It was a grand total of 22 degrees when I passed the digital thermometer on the tall pole next to the expressway on the way in, and several schools to the south and north of us were delayed…although one at least was announcing their delay because they provide bus transportation to other school districts; their own students were already off for Spring Break.

Once at work, set about the business of the day, with a client meeting in the conference room close to me…checked with our own staff before the client arrived to assure that they had everything they needed, took care of my daily maintenance chores, and sat down to check and respond to emails and the like.

Mid morning, after helping a couple of our staff members with things, I headed for the break room for a soda…looking out the windows, I noted that the flowering tree outside the window, although still trying to bloom, looked a little less hearty than it did yesterday. I scanned the grounds outside our windows and observed a light coating of snow on the roofs of most of the surrounding buildings (photo) and what looked like a practical SWARM of red squirrels foraging under the bird feeders situated at the rear of the building next to ours.

The day went by quickly, with things to do and keep track of and folks to chat with throughout. As the time dwindled down to the last hour, everyone was starting to tie up loose ends….I get the impression that some folks will be off tomorrow for a long weekend….school for the young one is out as of today, so he will be off as well….but as with all young people with part- time jobs, he is at the mercy of the time he has free, so he will be working tomorrow, even though he has no school.

The sun has been peeking out from time to time and the cold air makes it seem all the brighter and more intense when it does….soon it will be setting though, and as long as the sky is clear, the spring configuration of the stars will be easily observed from the center of my front yard….perhaps I will take a peek tonight…who knows….

For now, that’s it….much love to you…

v

Touring....

Today, I finally visited the construction in the new building, accompanied by my partner in the plan for relocation of supplies. During our walk through, I took a LOT of photos of the “in progress” conditions, to get a feel for the reality of the floor plan we have been referring to and also because the space is so darned cool! The photo, right, is through one of the windows that gives natural light to the vestibule area, which then opens into the main reception hall for the building, with a large glass wall off to your right hand that takes you to the reception area for our company.

The ground floor still has much to be done, but the second floor walls are much finished and there is a sense of what is to come there….the colours are warm, engaging and definitely planned to stimulate the creative mind…the main client meeting area is astonishing in every way, even in its current state, with a beautiful circular window encompassing all of one wall, illuminating the room and providing an overlook to the city park and the creek that runs next to the building.

There will be a public reception for the new space, once we have moved in and set up shop there (sometime in June, I believe). I will definitely include more information here when I learn of the details. Until then, enjoy the view from the vestibule and wish our company the best as we prepare to set up a new client destination and home for all Rootsters that we can surely be proud of.

Back with more later, perhaps…till then, much love to you….

v

Waiting....

Before all hell broke loose on vacation, this was one of the pleasant moments on the beach....sitting on the sand, watching the waves lap the shore and the seagulls lazily swoop low over the sand and water. The tiny birds that run the water's edge moved much the same, little feathered waves moving along to pick the leavings of the incoming tide.

I imagine in my mind the sounds and smells of the early morning...the seagulls call, the water as it encroached ever further up the sand, the wind as it added just a bit of morning chill and gently tugged at my hair. So much to enjoy from this trip, in spite of everything...no more driving to Florida, but Florida still calls me to return....

Hope this mellow carries throughout the day....

Much love to you...

v
****************

Yahoo!!!! In an additional entry for today, I got a call from my best friends at the old place of employment wanting to make sure that we are still on for drinks and snacks after work at one of my favorite places...Ventura's...we have been trying to do this since FEBRUARY, but family issues and other things have precluded us from it numerous times....I have an IT staff meeting 4 to 5 today, but just to make a point I am gonna pack up all my stuff ahead of time...I wanna get out of here at 5 if at all possible and am really looking forward to some margies, some deluxe chicken nachos and hooking up with my good friends....may be some photos in the works if they are agreeable....we will see....

Later....

v

Pink Chucks

Gleefully, Karen approached my desk early Friday morning....stopping in the aisle a few feet (***smile***) away from me, she poked her foot straight out and smiled broadly. Looking down, I observed her pink Converse Chuck Taylor lows, pristeen and perfect on one of their first ventures out in the real world; she had shared with me several months ago that she had purchased them. Together, we found Jeff, who kindly took the photo (right)to help us to preserve the first meeting of our respective "Chucks" for posterity. Giggling like schoolgirls, we both clipped on our iPods shuffles and headed off to our days, each of us happy in the knowledge that our "Chucks" loving, iPod wearing counterpart was just a short walk across the office.

NOTES: Our office, Root Learning; Karen, the executive assistant to the president of our company; Jeff, internet corporate presence, and me, IT Technical Support....yes...I do work for a really awesome organization! (If you would like to know more about the origins of "Chucks", check out this blog entry written by my young one, "Buddha of Drumming".)

Much love to you...

v