Take Your Child to Work Day

Last week we had take your child to work day. This has been around a number of years but this year engineering took on the coordination of activities and events.

A full day was planned and the kids got to see a lot of neat stuff that happens in the day of the life of an engineer at Motorola. We had tons of phones and electronics, x-ray machines, guassing magnets to change the TV screen colors, soldering, assembling, sound tests, and so on.


And of course engineers are a different bunch. Many of them have "toys". So the highlight of the day was the Tesla Coil. This demo started with a Jacob's ladder. Then a Van de Graaff generator to use static electricy to make the kids hair stand out striaght. Next the demo moved to a small tesla coil that made light bulbs light with amazing colors. And finally was the big Tesla coil. This was the big show and the kids oo-ed and aw-ed all the whole time as electric charges shot all over!



It was a good day for all.

All Star Fun




My son and I watched part of the all star game last night. I love to see his excitment just because so many stars from all the different teams are there at once. We missed the opening when they introduced each postion with hall of famers first then the player for this year. But we did talk about some of those historical players. "Yogi Bera, who's that?"!


And I have a feeling he will want to add a Hamilton t-shirt to his Ranger collection next time we go. What a performance at the home run derby!

Got to love baseball. Now I'm feeling like I need me some more baseball soon!

The Quiet Before...

We strolled around campass last week just to walk around and visit Mike. Mike was asleep in his spot. The campus was empty, closed, totally dead...

Hard to believe that in a month this ghost town will transform to life. Two of our girls will be living here, one for the first time to move out of the house.

And, of course, Death Valley will open for buisness... dun dun dunnnnnnn

4th of July

In our family we have this thing about traditions. I'm the instigator of most of it. But once a tradition is established it must be followed at all costs. And we have a bunch of them.

One such tradition for the last many years to go see fireworks on the 4th of July while sitting on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. They are set off on a barge in the river at the I-10 bridge in Baton Rouge. We sit on the opposite side on the levee with the state capital lit up in the back ground and the fire works show before us.

Well the last two years had not gone so well. Two years ago something blew up on the barge right at the start and the show was ended right then. Then last year the show was just a dud, seeming to just end mid stream. So when it came time this year I was thinking maybe it was time to skip the show, avoid the 30 minute drive, and just do our own little show that always follows instead. The adults were all for this.

So I go to take the consensus with the kids asking them what they want to do? They answered, its a tradition, we have to go. Enough said, lets go...

This year the show the most spectacular we had ever seen. Several times we thought we were in the big finale only for the show to slow down and keep going. I guess the organizers knew the last two years were disappointing and were making up for it. Even after all was finally done and we were all leaving one more shot off. As if to put the exclamation mark on the end.

Thanks kids. It was a great, traditional 4th of July.

As it should be...

Sometimes a lyric just strikes you.

Sometimes the lights all shinin on me
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been...

It seems like that is the way things are right now with kids growing up and life passing by.

Have a great 4th. We are off to Louisiana to sit by the lake and watch the grass grow.

Half way there.... Happy Birthday!!




Today our 'baby' turns 9 years old! Yikes, how did this happen.... Happy Birthday!

Bocce!

The father's day gift this year was a bocce ball set. This has proven to be great family fun! It is easy to do, outdoors, and creates fun and excitement. Of course my son perfers bocce on the wii....

Blogger...


Its been a week! Sorry about that, time flies by so quickly. This week started with one kid going off to college orientation and finished with the other kid totaling her car (she is ok, no injuries to humans). Its a tough stage to be a parent of kidults.

CWS finished up with the cinderalla Fresno State winning it all. What a great story and exciting finish. To bad nobody watches the CWS... it was some great action and drama. Congrats to the Fresno State Bulldogs!

And the Rangers are holding around 500. Not in last and some things are looking bright. I need some more baseball. I'm definately going on the next fireworks night. This year was the first time I had attended a Rangers fireworks night and I was really impressed! Baseball and fireworks, you can't beat that.

Texas Rangers

Bask in it while you can! The Rangers are over 500!!!


CWS close out

LSU lost to UNC in the 9th ining of their CWS elimination game. It was tied 3 all into the ining. But UNC hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth and that was all she wrote. Good run Tigers! It was great to be back in Omaha and it was some exciting baseball to watch along the way.

UNC would go on to loose to Fresno St. Leaving Fresno and Georgia as the final teams.

Pine Cove

The boy is at Pine Cove this week. They post pictures for each day and we dig through all of them in hopes he was in a picture or two. We got big smiles when we found this one. I'm sure he is having a blast.

We miss him badly. But we have taken advantage of the time to get a few dates in!

Can't wait to get him Saturday and hear all about the great week he had.

College World Series Update

LSU lost to UNC in the opening game throwing them into the longest run through the loser's bracket. Not good. So now its focus on one game at a time.

Yesterday they did just that in the first elimination game. In dramatic fashion they beat Rice in the bottom of the 9th innning with 4 desperately needed runs!

Next up is an elimination rematch with UNC (who lost to cindarella Fresno St.)

Geaux Tigers!

Bonnaroo!

It's Bonnaroo weekend!

This is the greatest music festival ever. Its 4 nights and 3 days of music all day and all night long! There are multiple stages with multiple genres of music all happening at once. You are musically enveloped!

Me and a friend went to Bonnaroo in 2003 and 2004. It was a 12 hour road trip to the middle of nowhere Tennessee. We camped out, met lots of people, had crazy adventures and listened to a lot of great music. All the music was fantastic. Stages start going around noon. There are 4 main stages and a few smaller ones. They go all day until the about 9pm when that night's headliner plays. After the headliner finishes the other main stages start up again and go from midnight to sun up. Then start over the next day! The amount of music we heard and saw was just an incredible experience.

My Bonnaroo days are over but I'm glad to see it still going strong...

College World Series!
Way to go Tigers! A decisive 21-7 defeat of UC Irivine in game 3.

Double Bugs

Crawfish season is fast coming to an end. This weekend we decided to have one last boil. Saturday I got 2 sacks and we had a gathering at the house to hang out and eat mudbugs. They were very good and satisfied that last urge before they go away until next year...

But about an hour after my parents left they called back to say that my cousin was having a crawfish boil the next day! Their daughter is graduating at Lewisville HS and wanted to have a crawfish boil for her party. So Sunday evening we went over there and had another fill of the crawdads!

Plus Sunday after I had mowed the lawn the wife made a yummy crawfish etouffee for lunch with the Saturday left overs.

I think I ate my weight in crawfish this weekend! Got to love that...

P.S. LSU lost its first game in the super regionals against UC Irvine. But they won the second in exciting fashion scoring 5 runs in the 9th to win!! Last game is tonight. Geaux Tigers!

Dorf junior

Sky Rocketing

In my blog on 4/14 I lamented how my little car required $50 to fill up. Well only 6 weeks later and its now $60!

Buffalo Wings - Old School

In my freshman year of college I met a buddy who was from Buffalo, NY. We called him Buffalo Paul. This was in the early 80s and at that time buffalo wings were unknown in the world except in Buffalo! So Paul had wing parties and taught us the beloved dish of his home town. They were simple yet tasty.

I hadn't thought of these in years. But my wife went out of town this weekend to her College reunion. That got me thinking back to those years for me and I remembered Paul's wings. Since it was just me and the boy we went for it. And they were just as delicious as I remembered.

Original Buffalo Hot Wings:

1. Cut wings into sections.

2. Fry wings sections as they are with skin on, no batter or breading.

3. In a bucket (Paul used a coffee can) mix 1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup Louisiana Hot Sauce. Add a pinch of salt.

4. Drop fried wings in bucket and shake vigorously. Remove, serve and eat.

That's it, yum yum.

The shaking bucket:

Final result:

LSU continues the streak!

Add three more wins as LSU runs the Baton Rouge regional entirely in the win bracket!

Bring on the super regionals. Geaux Tigers!

New Fridge Blues

Our fridge of 14 years started leaking water. We had the repair man out and he discovered many things wrong and pronounced it dying. Great, so now we have to get a new fridge.

The wife and I went looking. Just like everything these days refrigerators have become complicated. We decided we just want your standard fridge, freezer on top, fridge on bottom, one door each, and no water/ice dispenser in the front. Basically what we have now!

Well apparently we are the only ones in the FloMoPlex that wants such an animal. Oh well, no problem because they can order whatever we want. So we pick out a nice Maytag from Home Depot. The first alarm bell went off when they realized the ice maker had to be ordered separately. This is odd since all fridges come with it installed. But the ice maker model number is specified so its added to the order. We payed the tally, saving tax since it was free tax weekend on all green star purchases.

Yesterday the delivery truck arrives. The two works unload the fridge, take off the packaging and then start looking into a smaller box. After about 45 min the guy informs me he can't install the ice maker, it seems to be the wrong one. He also admits they usually don't have to install ice makers. He also lets me have the install manual so I'm sure not to order the same model again. This manual is 27 pages of many various was to install an ice maker. I never saw him or his partner actually open it. Inside it looks pretty complicated. My personal conclusion is its just beyond them.

Now I have to decide what to do. I had been previously warned that if the order arrives and its not exactly how you want it reject the whole thing. The delivery guy reiterates the same thing. I told him to take it away... :-(

I call Home Depot and they will have to look into it. I'm sure a big mess will ensue. Our punishment for ordering the basic, simple fridge.

Seeing Gold!

LSU won the SEC tournament! They also have an unprecedented 20 game win streak going.

The Tigers will host a regional for the NCAA College world series starting on Friday.

Geaux Tigers!!

Ski Texas!


Bear Fire Ski Resort in Fort Worth, TX

That's right, Fort Worth, TX is going to get a ski resort! I hope it comes through, it looks like a lot of fun.

LSU wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They scored the go ahead run in the bottom of the 10th.

Final score was 5-4!

SEC Tournament update: Tigers were down 4-0 in the bottom of the 9th... and have just tied it! Going to exta innings!!

The SEC Baseball Tournament starts tomorrow. LSU finished #1 in the west coming off of a 16 win streak and climbing up the national rankings. LSU will be the #1 seed in bracket 1 and will face South Carolina tomorrow morning at 10.

Geaux Tigers!

Book list has piled up high!! I need to get busy (wish I could have a week on a beach somewhere). Here is the list:

1. The Remnant : On the Brink of Armageddon (Left Behind Series #10) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

I had never read this series before. Last fall I came across it in the library and got started. At first it was good but I'm now at the point were I've become bored with it. But I'm 10 books in and don't want to quit! So its on very slow mode... will I make it to #11? Dunno...

2. The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

A very eye opening book that has been generating a lot of discussion amongst friends. Basically how our food has been changed into food like substances made out of corn. Very interesting reading I hear so I'm anxious to get to it.

3. In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan.

Kind of the sequel to book 2 above. Answers the question of so what do we eat then!

4. 1 Dead in Attic : After Katrina by Chris Rose

Written by a Times-Picayune columnist about the year after Katrina in New Orleans

5. The Barbarian Way : Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin Raphael McManus

A book my Mom gave me about organized religion.

6. To Own a Dragon : Reflections on Growing up without a Father by Donald Miller

Not really applicable to me but its a Donald Miller book and I'm interested in stuff he writes.

7. Break 100 Now : From Hacker to Golfer in Just 90 Days by Mike Adams, Mike Corcoran (With) , T. J. Tomasi

The on-going quest. So what does an engineer do to improve something? Reads a book! Probably worthless but I need all the help I can get!

Colon continued

They just wont let it go. This morning I go to the lab and this was on the door...

I shall say no more about the colon episode of 2008....

A Journey Through Your Colon

Yes, that is just wrong isn't it. Well that is what was posted all over the place at work this week. Needless to say there was a lot of snickering and jokes going on about this. The guided tour was scheduled at lunch time on Thursday but I didn't make it. However, when I was doing my usual 3:00 walk around the building I came across the colon. It was basically a plastic walled tunnel with two 90 degree turns in it. All throughout it were various signs informing you of all the wonderfulness of the colon.

At one point I came to a blockage and had to duck under it. It suspiciously looked like bubble wrap.


And finally, of course, I came out of the end of the colon (ug). I then texted the co-workers I had made it through. The response, "Did you step in anything? :-)".

This is about the weirdest thing I've seen at work.

Sponor Payoff

I have a friend who works at Nike. Everytime Tiger wins they get free lunch and big hooplas. And that is pretty often! Around here its rare. But it happens. And for this we get to enter a contest to win a blue tooth device.

Kent State - May 4, 1970

A dark day in American history... Four dead in Ohio.

R.I.P

Perri-who?

Coach Miles kicked Ryan Perrilloux off of the LSU Tigers football team. Perrilloux was set to take over the starting quarterback job this year. Apparently he failed a drug test and this is just another problem in a long line of issues Perrilloux has had. It's a real shame, a guy with all that talent and opportunity wasted on bad decisions.

So now the job is split between the red shirt freshmen Jerret Lee and Junior Andrew Hatch.

Its going to be a tough year...

May Day

Today is May Day. This was a celebration I knew nothing of until I moved to the mid-west for a few years. In Ohio they would have a big May Day celebration at the local university. It was suppose to celebrate that winter was over and spring was here. Unfortunately most of the time it was still cold. But it was always a fun festival.

So for you people up north happy May Day!

Golf Lessons

So I finally broke down and got some golf lessons. These seem to help a lot as a start. But last weekend I went up to the Cliff's at Possom Kingdom. As the name implies there is a lot of trouble on this course! Turns out to not exactly be the best choice of courses to play coming right off lessons that have totally revamped your swing! It was scenic but brutal...

Here is one of the tee boxes. Hard to really appreciate what you see here but that is about a 150+ carry from the box to the fairway (shooting at that trap out there). Anything in between is a 300 foot drop into a ravine! Needless to say I fed the ravine...

This was a cool par 3. Hard to see here as well but the tee box is about 100 feet above the hole. I actually birdied this one!! Best shot of the day, perfect swing and ball rolled up to within 2 feet of the hole.
This par 3 killed everyone. Its a 180 yard carry to the green. Nothing between the tee box and green except ravine. I feed this ravine too :-(

Anyway, it was a fun experience but not recommended as a place to test out the new lessons!

Nostril Minstrel

You must see my son playing his recorder with the nostril...

http://hearthomekids.blogspot.com/

A classic. Happy Monday...

Late?!?!?!?!?


This reminder popped up on my Outlook this morning. I have no idea where this came from! 189 weeks late, I guess I missed that meeting! And good thing its reminding me now... oh that crazy Bill Gates.

Marathon




Two guys from work just got back from running the Boston Marathon. It was on Monday. There are 25,000 runners. You have to qualify to do this by running another marathon and submitting your time. These guys did it in about 3 hours and 45 mintues finishing about 9000th! It is quite an accomplishment. Especially when you consider one of them is 46 years old (ouch). I'm in awe and a bit jealous.

Warm!

Finally its really warm outside. You can feel the change to the summer heat coming. Hopefully we won't have to many more bad storms and can get right into it!

The pool is back in full operation and just waiting for the temp to creep up. The traditional May 1 swim data is looking good.

The yard is in full growth now too, so its back to the weekly yard routine.

It is Jackie Robinson Day!

It was 61 years ago today that Jackie played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hats off to number 42.

Are you kidding me?

It happened this morning. I was on E so I stopped to get gas...

I drive a 2000 Nissan Altima. Its a small 4 door with a 4 cyclinder engine. Since I drive 35 miles each way to work I wanted a commuter car when I bought it 8 years ago. Back then it cost me $15 to fill it up.

I'm waiting and finally the pumper popped. I go to put it back on the pump and there it is. A tank of gas for my car that passes the $50 mark. Unbelievable.


When will the price soaring end and where will it stop?

I can't imagine what people do that drive their suburban's and big SUV's to work everyday.

I have to get my carpool back in action. And I'm thinking I need to have a work from home day.

Crawfish is here!


Finally starting to see crawfish in North Texas at a reasonable price. The first boil was last weekend.




Nothing like sitting on the back patio with friends eating mud bugs. I'm ready to fire the pot up!!

Opening Day

The whole family played hooky yesterday to go to opening day at the ball park! We go there early, grilled in the parking lot then headed in for the game. The weather remained great the whole day. Unfortunately the Rangers didn't deliver :-( But great fun was had by all!

More Hail

This weekend was the clean up after the hail storm. There are tons of twigs and sticks from the trees, chopped up plants, etc. Here is the pool skimmer lid and chlorine floater. The floater was at the bottom of the pool, sunk by the hail.

Spring Time in Texas


The first week of April has had all the signs that spring is really hear in North Texas.





The weather is all over the place, the boy's first baseball game last Friday night was brutally cold. Not sure what the temp was but it was cold! Two days later it was 85 and humidity out the roof! His second baseball game was Wednesday night. It was originally scheduled for Monday but it was rained out with the first major spring storm complete with hail and tornado sirens.

Last night at 3AM we had a hail storm and toronado sirens again. I'm sure the roof is a goner. These are hails stones still in the yard 5 hours later. During these storms the trees get shredded and their fodder is all over.



It's also Nascar weekend. The RV city is here, pictures don't do it justice. Who decide to make this race at this time of year in North Texas was insane. The same weekend last year I was driving home for work and the big racetrack jumbotron said "Take cover immediately"! There was a huge funnel cloud moving up 35W right over the track. Not exactly sure where you take cover in an RV...




On the bight side the blue bonnets are bluming, crawfish has finally arrived in Texas, and opening day at the ballpark is next Tuesday!

Today in History... 35 years ago the world's first mobile call

Matin Cooper was the corporate director of Research and Development for Motorola. Cooper is the inventor named on US patent 3906166 "Radio telephone system" filed on October 17, 1973. He is considered the inventor of the first portable handset and the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone on April 3, 1973, to the bewilderment of passers-by in a New York City street. That first call, placed to his rival Joel Engel, Bell Labs' head of research, caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place. It was the incarnation of his vision for personal wireless communications, distinct from cellular car phones. Cooper later revealed that watching Captain Kirk talking in his communicator on the television show Star Trek inspired him to research the mobile phone.

Love Music Round 2 for 2008

moe. @ Lakewood Theater - March 29


moe., the reigning kings of the jam band scene came to Dallas last weekend. I always see these guys when they come and moe. always delivers. The Lakewood is not a venue in use very often. Its 4 or 5 times bigger than the Granada which moe. has out grown. Musically nobody cranks up the intensity like they can. Plus the shows always have a great light display, not bad for a 'bar' band. This year they stepped that up another notch. There were 18 multi-axes lights in the setup that produced an incredile visual display. moe. threw in some classic jam vehicles like Rebubula, Captian America and Crab Eyes. Plus lots of new stuff and some sandwiched segues into rock classics of Baba O'Reilly and Dear Prudence. A audio visual extravaganza!

An added bonus that I didn't realize until just before show time was the opening act. Jam newcomers Tea Leaf Green opened the show. They have made a mark on the scene as of late and I was glad to catch them. Their show was a bit reduced since it was the opening thing. But it did include a lot of crowd favorites in that short time on stage.

Stupid Phone Company Messages

You know how the phone company has stupid messages when you call incorrectly. Things like you don't have to dial a 1 (then why not just ignore it for me) or you do have to dial a 1, etc.

Well this morning I was trying to connect to a remote computer using my home line. This is some old school methods here but should work for what I needed. The number I'm dialing is to Oklahoma so I did add the 1. The computer starts the call with those customary beeps and then I get a phone company message saying "This call cannot be completed because the number you are dialing from has been disconnected". What???? I get a dial tone, the phone makes calls, all seems normal. What the heck does this mean that my number has been disconnected?

After messing with dial properties and comm programs for an hour I resort to Google. Apparently this is the message you are given when your phone is not allowed to make long distance calls! Well why didn't they just tell me that in the first place? Maybe "This call cannot be completed because you don't have long distance service"??? Frustrating and annoying.

Day 2 of a week that didn't start well!