This morning, after a wonderful breakfast and coffee at Panera, I headed to the 10:00am service at church. Today was a special day for church, because it was the last day for Pastor Carol Solovitz, pastor of education and enrichment at Zumbro Lutheran. Pastor Carol started at Zumbro in November 1996, only a few months before I moved to Rochester in May 1997. She was the last of the 4 pastors that were here when I moved here. While I (and many many others) are sad to see her leave, I am happy that she is now going to be "reuited" with her husband in Florida, where, because of job situations, they have been living apart for 4 years.
As I have talked to Pastor Carol in recent months, and as I think of how things change in life, how people move on to new things (or how you yourself move on to new things), I realize that we really are the sum of the people we have had in our lives at one point or another. Many people say "we are the sum of our experiences" and while that might be somewhat true, I personally believe "we are the sum of our people". I look at how many people I've met in my life, and can see so many cases where they were there for a reason (or I was in their life for a reason). In some cases, it's for a very short time, in other cases it's for a long time. I am happy to know that the new church in Florida that she is going to be the pastor of is now going to add to the "sum of their people" and that she will have the opportunity to do the same. I certainly love continuity, but I also see the value of meeting new people, making new friends, even if it's for a short time. I look forward to getting the chance to meet the two new pastors who are taking the place of the two that have left, during the next year.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I love coffee
OK so this post has NOTHING to do with coffee, I just like coffee a lot :) I used to wonder why my grandma would insist on making sure there was coffee every morning, thinking why would anyone want that bitter tasting stuff (or want a warm drink on a hot summer day!)...now I get it grandma!
I chose to work at home yesterday, mostly because the Friday before a holiday weekend the site is empty, but also because this is the annual takedown of most of the hardware we do development on, so most of the work I could do was reading, reviewing, etc. things I didn't need to be in the office for. It worked out well because the air conditioner repair people had to come (again - 4 if you're keeping count this summer) because nothing was cooling again. Fortunately they're to the point of not charging me anything for any of this because they now see this is their fault. He found nothing...came back in the afternoon to see if it was cooling...possibly a thermostat problem although I'm not convinced. We'll see this weekend, as it is going to be warmer. Still not so bad when you can open the windows at night though.
This morning I went to the post office to mail some packages (my old phone sold on eBay - yay!). It was $7.20 to mail each one priority mail - seems like last year it was like $4.something...then again, I still think the post office is a pretty good deal and run pretty well, considering you can still send a letter anywhere in the country for $.42 or whatever it is (imagine if that were a private industry, no way would it be under $1). Went to Target - yeah, groceries cost more too, but then so does eating out, so we've been coming out ahead on that one too I think.
I'm now drinking coffee and pouring through handbell music catalogs listening to stuff and picking out things to order for this year - fun, but wow there's a lot to go through! Band plays tonight at St. Luke's Episcopal church 6pm-8pm - if anyone's looking for something to do, $5 for a great bbq dinner, and a good cause.
50th Ave construction update
Well they won't be done Sept 1, but they may be done by the end of Sept - everything is completely leveled out now, and it looks like they're getting ready to put down concrete. Can't wait for this to be done.
Reading/Watching
Darn it for getting hooked on another old series - caught a few episode of "Charmed" in Vegas because of the time difference and it was on when we were getting up in the morning...now I'm hooked. Fortunately they show 4 episodes a day and the DVR is ready and waiting to record stuff. HD too...even better! Reading one Star Wars book and the second of the IBM books friend Dave loaned me.
And I'm already sick of hearing about the two political conventions and Sarah Palin - I have nothing against her personally, but until yesterday we had been creeping back to actually talking about important things like ISSUES...now she's all they're talking about. Oh well...
I chose to work at home yesterday, mostly because the Friday before a holiday weekend the site is empty, but also because this is the annual takedown of most of the hardware we do development on, so most of the work I could do was reading, reviewing, etc. things I didn't need to be in the office for. It worked out well because the air conditioner repair people had to come (again - 4 if you're keeping count this summer) because nothing was cooling again. Fortunately they're to the point of not charging me anything for any of this because they now see this is their fault. He found nothing...came back in the afternoon to see if it was cooling...possibly a thermostat problem although I'm not convinced. We'll see this weekend, as it is going to be warmer. Still not so bad when you can open the windows at night though.
This morning I went to the post office to mail some packages (my old phone sold on eBay - yay!). It was $7.20 to mail each one priority mail - seems like last year it was like $4.something...then again, I still think the post office is a pretty good deal and run pretty well, considering you can still send a letter anywhere in the country for $.42 or whatever it is (imagine if that were a private industry, no way would it be under $1). Went to Target - yeah, groceries cost more too, but then so does eating out, so we've been coming out ahead on that one too I think.
I'm now drinking coffee and pouring through handbell music catalogs listening to stuff and picking out things to order for this year - fun, but wow there's a lot to go through! Band plays tonight at St. Luke's Episcopal church 6pm-8pm - if anyone's looking for something to do, $5 for a great bbq dinner, and a good cause.
50th Ave construction update
Well they won't be done Sept 1, but they may be done by the end of Sept - everything is completely leveled out now, and it looks like they're getting ready to put down concrete. Can't wait for this to be done.
Reading/Watching
Darn it for getting hooked on another old series - caught a few episode of "Charmed" in Vegas because of the time difference and it was on when we were getting up in the morning...now I'm hooked. Fortunately they show 4 episodes a day and the DVR is ready and waiting to record stuff. HD too...even better! Reading one Star Wars book and the second of the IBM books friend Dave loaned me.
And I'm already sick of hearing about the two political conventions and Sarah Palin - I have nothing against her personally, but until yesterday we had been creeping back to actually talking about important things like ISSUES...now she's all they're talking about. Oh well...
Friday, August 29, 2008
Did not see that one coming...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_veepstakes_analysis
I'm not going to write any political opinions, but I was definitely surprised to see this. Is certainly making more headlines than Obama's speech last night (which I did watch and was very good).
Fellow blogger Shelley says this is going to make the election more interesting..that it will!
In other more important news....the Huskers open their season tomorrow at 6:00pm at home against a good Western Michigan team...the kickoff of the Bo Pelini era...let's hope it goes well!
I'm not going to write any political opinions, but I was definitely surprised to see this. Is certainly making more headlines than Obama's speech last night (which I did watch and was very good).
Fellow blogger Shelley says this is going to make the election more interesting..that it will!
In other more important news....the Huskers open their season tomorrow at 6:00pm at home against a good Western Michigan team...the kickoff of the Bo Pelini era...let's hope it goes well!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Shameless self-promotion
Before I forget, some upcoming performances for the bands I'm in.
Saturday, August 30th, 6pm-8pm, the 37th Street Gold jazz band will be playing at St. Luke's Episcopal church (1884 22nd Ave NW, Rochester) for a benefit to raise money for...well I honestly can't remember, but there will be a pig roast and barbecue, and 2 hours of great live music.
Sunday, September 7th, 7pm-11pm, the Notochords jazz band will be playing for a dance at the Kahler Hotel ballroom. I'm actually not sure what kind of dance this is, so I'll find out...but I believe it's open to the public.
And last, but not least...
Friday, September 12th, 8pm-midnight, the Fuego latin/salsa band will be playing at the Blue Moon ballroom for their Friday latin dance night. This is a significant performance for us, because, sadly, it will be the LAST performance for Fuego. Martial, our band leader, drummer extraordinaire, singer, and pretty much the driving force behind the band, is taking a new job in St. Louis and will be moving at the end of September. I'm really sad to see him go - he is incredibly talented and we can't really continue the band without him. I have enjoyed getting to learn about true African salsa music, expand my musical breadth, and just have fun playing music with this group of such talented musicians. So if you wanted to see us, this is your last chance :)
Saturday, August 30th, 6pm-8pm, the 37th Street Gold jazz band will be playing at St. Luke's Episcopal church (1884 22nd Ave NW, Rochester) for a benefit to raise money for...well I honestly can't remember, but there will be a pig roast and barbecue, and 2 hours of great live music.
Sunday, September 7th, 7pm-11pm, the Notochords jazz band will be playing for a dance at the Kahler Hotel ballroom. I'm actually not sure what kind of dance this is, so I'll find out...but I believe it's open to the public.
And last, but not least...
Friday, September 12th, 8pm-midnight, the Fuego latin/salsa band will be playing at the Blue Moon ballroom for their Friday latin dance night. This is a significant performance for us, because, sadly, it will be the LAST performance for Fuego. Martial, our band leader, drummer extraordinaire, singer, and pretty much the driving force behind the band, is taking a new job in St. Louis and will be moving at the end of September. I'm really sad to see him go - he is incredibly talented and we can't really continue the band without him. I have enjoyed getting to learn about true African salsa music, expand my musical breadth, and just have fun playing music with this group of such talented musicians. So if you wanted to see us, this is your last chance :)
NBC and the Olympics
I came across this article a few days ago, after Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won the gold medal in diving:
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid59979.asp
OK so I'm not the kind of person who thinks that everything in the world is perfectly fair, even, politically correct, etc. - I'm too much of a realist to think that things actually work that way. And they don't always need to. The reason this kind of bothers me is because it makes me a little sad for Mitcham - this is his one shining moment and they sorta cut it short. He does not deserve any special treatment because he's gay - he's special because he won the GOLD MEDAL at the Olympics, which very few people in the world can say! And he did it against the odds in this case - the Chinese divers were heavily favored.
If you watch the video that NBC did not show, he is just excited and happy like every other athlete that wins a gold medal, and excited that the two most important people in his life (his mom and his partner) are there to share it with him. He's not making any political statements, he doesn't have any agenda, he's just an excited person who won a gold medal. I've watched enough of the olympics to know that at least on NBC's coverage they would show this kind of stuff for most athletes and especially ones that are underdogs. Now I know he's not American, and maybe possibly that's why they didn't show it (I hope so) - that's still kind of a lame excuse though.
I'm really glad I got to see the interview on the internet. I also think a little less of NBC (which I already had a low opinion of for other various reasons)
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid59979.asp
OK so I'm not the kind of person who thinks that everything in the world is perfectly fair, even, politically correct, etc. - I'm too much of a realist to think that things actually work that way. And they don't always need to. The reason this kind of bothers me is because it makes me a little sad for Mitcham - this is his one shining moment and they sorta cut it short. He does not deserve any special treatment because he's gay - he's special because he won the GOLD MEDAL at the Olympics, which very few people in the world can say! And he did it against the odds in this case - the Chinese divers were heavily favored.
If you watch the video that NBC did not show, he is just excited and happy like every other athlete that wins a gold medal, and excited that the two most important people in his life (his mom and his partner) are there to share it with him. He's not making any political statements, he doesn't have any agenda, he's just an excited person who won a gold medal. I've watched enough of the olympics to know that at least on NBC's coverage they would show this kind of stuff for most athletes and especially ones that are underdogs. Now I know he's not American, and maybe possibly that's why they didn't show it (I hope so) - that's still kind of a lame excuse though.
I'm really glad I got to see the interview on the internet. I also think a little less of NBC (which I already had a low opinion of for other various reasons)
State Fair-on-a-stick
Today I had the opportunity to have a day off of work and go to the state fair, all on IBM (and get $20 worth of food coupons too!) Thirty-six people from my area all got on a bus at 8:30 this morning and headed up to Minneapolis to go to the fair. It was a beautiful day! It's always interesting hanging out with all your work colleagues "outside" of work - not that it's bad or anything, but sometimes you don't get to see someone's whole personality in a work environment.
Anyway, on to the important stuff - the food! Walking in, we saw a stand called "Big Fat Bacon", so Brian and I got a quarter-pound of bacon on a stick, maple-cooked - YUMMY! I really do think that eating a quarter pound of bacon is better for you than the stand we saw a few down, "deep fried snickers on a stick" - deep fried fat and carbs not cool. I also managed to get two nice big ears of corn on the cob dripping with butter (I think I could eat corn forever - More Corn!), cheese curds, fruit-and-cheese-kabobs (not deep fried, these were actual fresh cheese and fruit, really
good), and plenty of bottled water.
While wandering around, we went through some of the buildings - 4-H, the technology building which was featuring "green" technologies this year, horticulture, and the dairy barn, where you can see "butter busts" of the dairy princess and runners up. I couldn't resist taking a picture of that - how often do you see a head made of butter??? I guess they give these to the people they are sculpted from - I wonder what they do with all that butter?
Work News
This was actually the last area outing I will be doing with this area - after 11 years in the area I've been in, I'm officially being transferred to a new organization in the SWG (Software Group) division of IBM. That sounds way cooler and scarier than it actually is - I have already been working on this project for two years and now they're formally creating an organization for it. It doesn't mean moving anywhere (well, not out of town anyway - I do get to move to a new office), and it IS kind of a big change as my entire reporting structure is changing. But for the most part it's the same job, and I believe that being in this division is actually going to be good for my career in the long-term. So I'm excited, and still waiting to see how it all goes...so far so good!
Anyway, on to the important stuff - the food! Walking in, we saw a stand called "Big Fat Bacon", so Brian and I got a quarter-pound of bacon on a stick, maple-cooked - YUMMY! I really do think that eating a quarter pound of bacon is better for you than the stand we saw a few down, "deep fried snickers on a stick" - deep fried fat and carbs not cool. I also managed to get two nice big ears of corn on the cob dripping with butter (I think I could eat corn forever - More Corn!), cheese curds, fruit-and-cheese-kabobs (not deep fried, these were actual fresh cheese and fruit, really
good), and plenty of bottled water.While wandering around, we went through some of the buildings - 4-H, the technology building which was featuring "green" technologies this year, horticulture, and the dairy barn, where you can see "butter busts" of the dairy princess and runners up. I couldn't resist taking a picture of that - how often do you see a head made of butter??? I guess they give these to the people they are sculpted from - I wonder what they do with all that butter?
Work News
This was actually the last area outing I will be doing with this area - after 11 years in the area I've been in, I'm officially being transferred to a new organization in the SWG (Software Group) division of IBM. That sounds way cooler and scarier than it actually is - I have already been working on this project for two years and now they're formally creating an organization for it. It doesn't mean moving anywhere (well, not out of town anyway - I do get to move to a new office), and it IS kind of a big change as my entire reporting structure is changing. But for the most part it's the same job, and I believe that being in this division is actually going to be good for my career in the long-term. So I'm excited, and still waiting to see how it all goes...so far so good!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Vegas 6 and home (and pictures)
Day 6 - Erin had a half day (4 hours) left of the conference, so I had another free morning. I headed over to Treasure Island to their Starbucks (I think I was determined to try every single one in Vegas) and took a nice long walk around TI, Palazzo, Venetian, Harrah's, and then back to the Mirage. I could tell the morning was cooler than the previous ones - still warm but I think we didn't get to 100 that day.
Erin finished at noon so we headed down to the pool to enjoy the sun and water one more time. We took a little time to relax until about 5:00 when we headed out and hopped on the monorail to the MGM Grand (the last south strip stop). Erin hadn't seen that part of the strip yet, so we took the opportunity to see the MGM Grand, Excalibur, Luxor, and eat dinner at the buffet in the Luxor. We wandered around some more until our 9:00 show, and then took a slightly different route back so he could see New York New York (which is really pretty impressive when you see it, although not as cool as the real New York New York :)
Day 7 - our flight did not leave until 2:20pm Las Vegas time, so we had all morning to wander around, pack, and eat breakfast. Decided to hit the Venetian one more time for breakfast, and found a nice cafe in the casino - "The Grand Lux Cafe" - expensive but good food. Back to the room to finish packing, and we were off to check out and catch the shuttle to the airport. The shuttle ride was a bit long and bumpy (I didn't know how many speed bumps there were behind many of thoe hotels we were picking people up at) but by 12:30 we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was a little worried about security as last time I was there it took almost an hour to get through, but this time there was no wait. Off to terminal D and one more Starbucks (there were 5 to choose from in terminal D alone!) Our flight was apparently overbooked and they started asking for volunteers and we hoped we'd not get bumped, fortunately we didn't. A little over 3 hours later we landed to see the sun setting in Minneapolis at 7:30pm. I could tell we were home because it was cooler and humid :) A shuttle to the Park'n'Fly, stop at Subway, and one hour of driving and we were home! Unpacking at 10:00pm wasn't a lot of fun but it didn't take too long. I had to work the next morning (and wow what a day that was - more on that later) fortunately Erin didn't have to work until 3pm the next day.
For the complete picture collection, go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pcbye1/20080814
Erin finished at noon so we headed down to the pool to enjoy the sun and water one more time. We took a little time to relax until about 5:00 when we headed out and hopped on the monorail to the MGM Grand (the last south strip stop). Erin hadn't seen that part of the strip yet, so we took the opportunity to see the MGM Grand, Excalibur, Luxor, and eat dinner at the buffet in the Luxor. We wandered around some more until our 9:00 show, and then took a slightly different route back so he could see New York New York (which is really pretty impressive when you see it, although not as cool as the real New York New York :)
Day 7 - our flight did not leave until 2:20pm Las Vegas time, so we had all morning to wander around, pack, and eat breakfast. Decided to hit the Venetian one more time for breakfast, and found a nice cafe in the casino - "The Grand Lux Cafe" - expensive but good food. Back to the room to finish packing, and we were off to check out and catch the shuttle to the airport. The shuttle ride was a bit long and bumpy (I didn't know how many speed bumps there were behind many of thoe hotels we were picking people up at) but by 12:30 we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was a little worried about security as last time I was there it took almost an hour to get through, but this time there was no wait. Off to terminal D and one more Starbucks (there were 5 to choose from in terminal D alone!) Our flight was apparently overbooked and they started asking for volunteers and we hoped we'd not get bumped, fortunately we didn't. A little over 3 hours later we landed to see the sun setting in Minneapolis at 7:30pm. I could tell we were home because it was cooler and humid :) A shuttle to the Park'n'Fly, stop at Subway, and one hour of driving and we were home! Unpacking at 10:00pm wasn't a lot of fun but it didn't take too long. I had to work the next morning (and wow what a day that was - more on that later) fortunately Erin didn't have to work until 3pm the next day.
For the complete picture collection, go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pcbye1/20080814
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Vegas 5
Day 5 (Monday)
Erin had his conference today from 7am-10pm, so I was on my own. Deciding I'd save the "big" meals for later, I picked up a biscuit sandwich at the Strip McDonalds (complete with its own flashing lights and escalators) and some coffee from the Strip Starbucks (which wasn't all that great). Walked a ways down on the strip as it was a nice morning, before heading back and going to the pool and doing some sunning/reading. Seemed a lot less busy at the pool - maybe Monday isn't such a busy day? I haven't figured out the "schedule" of when it's more/less busy here but it doesn't seem to follow any pattern.
After the pool I headed over to the mall again, but only to see what the half price ticket booth had available. After looking at what all shows were available, I decided I'd rather go see a show I'd saw listed in one of the magazines - The Anthony Cools Experience - a hypnotist who's been in the business for quite awhile and there were several great reviews. Full price was only $52 so at 6:30 I headed down to Paris, made sure I could still buy a ticket, and then found a small cafe and had some dinner, and wandered around Paris and Bally's until it was show time. The show was great - most hypnotists I've ever seen were kind of cheesy and did the standard "tricks", this guy was really good though. I was a little wondering how they selected the people who went on stage, but it was completely volunteer (and they had no trouble getting 12 volunteers).
Erin decided to hang out with some of his conference colleagues, and I was tired after a late show, so I rode the monorail back to the hotel and watched TV and went to bed.
More Vegas Observations
Erin had his conference today from 7am-10pm, so I was on my own. Deciding I'd save the "big" meals for later, I picked up a biscuit sandwich at the Strip McDonalds (complete with its own flashing lights and escalators) and some coffee from the Strip Starbucks (which wasn't all that great). Walked a ways down on the strip as it was a nice morning, before heading back and going to the pool and doing some sunning/reading. Seemed a lot less busy at the pool - maybe Monday isn't such a busy day? I haven't figured out the "schedule" of when it's more/less busy here but it doesn't seem to follow any pattern.
After the pool I headed over to the mall again, but only to see what the half price ticket booth had available. After looking at what all shows were available, I decided I'd rather go see a show I'd saw listed in one of the magazines - The Anthony Cools Experience - a hypnotist who's been in the business for quite awhile and there were several great reviews. Full price was only $52 so at 6:30 I headed down to Paris, made sure I could still buy a ticket, and then found a small cafe and had some dinner, and wandered around Paris and Bally's until it was show time. The show was great - most hypnotists I've ever seen were kind of cheesy and did the standard "tricks", this guy was really good though. I was a little wondering how they selected the people who went on stage, but it was completely volunteer (and they had no trouble getting 12 volunteers).
Erin decided to hang out with some of his conference colleagues, and I was tired after a late show, so I rode the monorail back to the hotel and watched TV and went to bed.
More Vegas Observations
- There is more than enough to do here without ever touching a slot machine or going to a blackjack table.
- Everything is geared toward getting you back to the slot machines and blackjack tables :) (food service is fast, getting anywhere requires going through a casino, the only free drinks are when you're gambling, the pool is only open until 7pm, shows are never more than 90 minutes, etc.)
- I appreciate now more than ever having a smoke-free state (it's getting better in Vegas but it's definitely still there)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Vegas 1-4
So I had the best of intentions of doing a short entry every day...and I'm 4 days behind :) So here's a summary of the trip so far - no pictures as I forgot to bring the cable to download from the camera.
Wednesday night (after work) - drive to Roseville and once again enjoy the hospitality of cousins Brent & Cindy's house (the best place to be if you have a 7AM flight the next day)
Thursday - leave at 4:45am for the airport ugh. After finding the Park'N'Fly and taking the shuttle, we arrived in plenty of time to get an egg mcmuffin and a Caribou coffee. Flight was great, 10 minutes early in fact. We didn't get to sit together - I have no idea what the airlines are doing with flights and seating and charging extra for stuff - why can't they just be normal? Shuttle to the Mirage Hotel & Casino, where we dropped off our bags (checkin was not until noon). Decided Erin would enjoy going through the Venetian and getting breakfast, which we had at a nice little cafe. Not quite noon so we hit the Fashion Show mall (which is pretty much like any other mall in the world). While we were there I found the 1/2 price show ticket counter (for shows that aren't sold out for that day, they sell 1/2 price tickets, a good deal if you don't want a specific show on a specific night). At 7:00pm we headed down to the Imperial Palace right across from the Mirage, and saw "Legends In Concert", a tribute/impersonator show to singers from the past. The ones we had that night were Jay Leno (hosting), Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield (who was AWESOME - she was there because she won Britain's version of American Idol), the Blues Brothers, and of course Elvis who always ends the show. I saw the show two yeras ago and the Elvis was the same (great) but the rest were new.
Friday - decided to try "The Roasted Bean" coffee shop in the hotel, which was kind of an overpriced disappointment. Everything here is overpriced but usually it's good :) The Mirage is home to Siegfried & Roy's Secret Graden which has dolphins and lions/tigers so we decied to check that out. The dolphins were pretty neat and we saw the trainers working with them. The lion/tiger zoo had 15-week-old white tiger cubs wihch were adorable, as well as a mix of full-grown ones. Decided we should spend an hour or so at the pool and start getting some sun. At 1:00pm, we made the "trek" over to the Hilton to the only must on the trip, The Star Trek Experience - which, sadly is closing permanently on September 1 after 10 years (so we were lucky to get to see it!). I saw this two years go and spent about 4 hours looking at everything, doing the two rides, and eating at Quarks. It was just as good this time, and we did the additional "backstage" 1 1/2 hour tour which was totally worth the extra money. I'm so glad I got to see this one more time! Took the monorail back to the hotel (walked there, it's a long walk!) and grabbed something to eat and made it an early night as we had a full day the next day.
Saturday - walked across the street to the Wynn for breakfast, where I remembered a nice cafe from last time (great food, great view of the back of the Wynn resort). Walked over to the Fashion Show mall again to do a little more looking. Around noon hit the pool again, this time stayed out a little longer and remembered sunscreen :) Lunch at 3:00pm in the hotel at the California Pizza Kitchen, which was a little less than expected - good food, bad service. Our plan for the night was to go and see the Blue Man Group at the Venetian, and we sort of took a nap for awhile. We thought the show was at 7:30, but it was actually at 7:00, and so we were actually a few minutes late (fortunately that is no big deal, they just get you in). I would DEFINITELY recommend this show to anyone visiting Las Vegas. The tickets were $140 each (there are cheaper upper deck ones too) and totally worth it. Last time the big ticket show I saw was Celine Dion which is gone, and that show was still the best, but this one was fantastic. Erin was even picked out of the audience and got to throw some pieces of candy to one of the "Blue Men" which he caught in his mouth (he was doing this same thing on stage). Unfortuantely we weren't allowed to take pictures or anything but it was cool that he was one of about 5 people picked out to do something. After the show we walked down the strip to the Bellagio so that Erin could see the fountains (these are the fountains you see every time you see Vegas on TV, and the show is really neat, even if it is only 5 minutes).
Sunday - Decided to try the buffet in the hotel, "Cravings". So, I decided a buffet is still a buffet - certainly higher quality food than say Old Country Buffet, but...still a buffet :) They did have great hash browns which I got two servigs of. We let the massive amount of food settle and Erin went down to register for his conference (the main reason we were here in the first place). Hit the pool at 11, spent a couple hours there, and then headed out to wander down the strip - we wanted to find the CVS drugstore to get some more suntan lotion and just see some more of the strip, including the other "mall" which is down by Planet Hollywood, Paris, and Bally's. They have about 6 blocks all torn up between Monte Carlo and Bellagio, building the "City Center" which looks to be bigger than anything else here - supposedly hotel, shops, and condos. At 4:30, Erin had to go to the first day of his conference, so I walked over to the half price ticket counter to see if I could find a cheap show - I decided on "V - The Ultimate Variety Show" which I wasn't sure about, and wasn't thrilled about standing in the general admission line for (Planet Hollywood's theater has a bad setup IMHO) but the show was pretty good. The juggler who was the main performer was really good, and there was also a strongman duo act, trapeze artists, comedy act, and magician. Good for a half price show :) Met up with Erin and some of his colleagues from the conference and did some wandering and hit some of the Vegas night life.
Vegas Observations
Wednesday night (after work) - drive to Roseville and once again enjoy the hospitality of cousins Brent & Cindy's house (the best place to be if you have a 7AM flight the next day)
Thursday - leave at 4:45am for the airport ugh. After finding the Park'N'Fly and taking the shuttle, we arrived in plenty of time to get an egg mcmuffin and a Caribou coffee. Flight was great, 10 minutes early in fact. We didn't get to sit together - I have no idea what the airlines are doing with flights and seating and charging extra for stuff - why can't they just be normal? Shuttle to the Mirage Hotel & Casino, where we dropped off our bags (checkin was not until noon). Decided Erin would enjoy going through the Venetian and getting breakfast, which we had at a nice little cafe. Not quite noon so we hit the Fashion Show mall (which is pretty much like any other mall in the world). While we were there I found the 1/2 price show ticket counter (for shows that aren't sold out for that day, they sell 1/2 price tickets, a good deal if you don't want a specific show on a specific night). At 7:00pm we headed down to the Imperial Palace right across from the Mirage, and saw "Legends In Concert", a tribute/impersonator show to singers from the past. The ones we had that night were Jay Leno (hosting), Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield (who was AWESOME - she was there because she won Britain's version of American Idol), the Blues Brothers, and of course Elvis who always ends the show. I saw the show two yeras ago and the Elvis was the same (great) but the rest were new.
Friday - decided to try "The Roasted Bean" coffee shop in the hotel, which was kind of an overpriced disappointment. Everything here is overpriced but usually it's good :) The Mirage is home to Siegfried & Roy's Secret Graden which has dolphins and lions/tigers so we decied to check that out. The dolphins were pretty neat and we saw the trainers working with them. The lion/tiger zoo had 15-week-old white tiger cubs wihch were adorable, as well as a mix of full-grown ones. Decided we should spend an hour or so at the pool and start getting some sun. At 1:00pm, we made the "trek" over to the Hilton to the only must on the trip, The Star Trek Experience - which, sadly is closing permanently on September 1 after 10 years (so we were lucky to get to see it!). I saw this two years go and spent about 4 hours looking at everything, doing the two rides, and eating at Quarks. It was just as good this time, and we did the additional "backstage" 1 1/2 hour tour which was totally worth the extra money. I'm so glad I got to see this one more time! Took the monorail back to the hotel (walked there, it's a long walk!) and grabbed something to eat and made it an early night as we had a full day the next day.
Saturday - walked across the street to the Wynn for breakfast, where I remembered a nice cafe from last time (great food, great view of the back of the Wynn resort). Walked over to the Fashion Show mall again to do a little more looking. Around noon hit the pool again, this time stayed out a little longer and remembered sunscreen :) Lunch at 3:00pm in the hotel at the California Pizza Kitchen, which was a little less than expected - good food, bad service. Our plan for the night was to go and see the Blue Man Group at the Venetian, and we sort of took a nap for awhile. We thought the show was at 7:30, but it was actually at 7:00, and so we were actually a few minutes late (fortunately that is no big deal, they just get you in). I would DEFINITELY recommend this show to anyone visiting Las Vegas. The tickets were $140 each (there are cheaper upper deck ones too) and totally worth it. Last time the big ticket show I saw was Celine Dion which is gone, and that show was still the best, but this one was fantastic. Erin was even picked out of the audience and got to throw some pieces of candy to one of the "Blue Men" which he caught in his mouth (he was doing this same thing on stage). Unfortuantely we weren't allowed to take pictures or anything but it was cool that he was one of about 5 people picked out to do something. After the show we walked down the strip to the Bellagio so that Erin could see the fountains (these are the fountains you see every time you see Vegas on TV, and the show is really neat, even if it is only 5 minutes).
Sunday - Decided to try the buffet in the hotel, "Cravings". So, I decided a buffet is still a buffet - certainly higher quality food than say Old Country Buffet, but...still a buffet :) They did have great hash browns which I got two servigs of. We let the massive amount of food settle and Erin went down to register for his conference (the main reason we were here in the first place). Hit the pool at 11, spent a couple hours there, and then headed out to wander down the strip - we wanted to find the CVS drugstore to get some more suntan lotion and just see some more of the strip, including the other "mall" which is down by Planet Hollywood, Paris, and Bally's. They have about 6 blocks all torn up between Monte Carlo and Bellagio, building the "City Center" which looks to be bigger than anything else here - supposedly hotel, shops, and condos. At 4:30, Erin had to go to the first day of his conference, so I walked over to the half price ticket counter to see if I could find a cheap show - I decided on "V - The Ultimate Variety Show" which I wasn't sure about, and wasn't thrilled about standing in the general admission line for (Planet Hollywood's theater has a bad setup IMHO) but the show was pretty good. The juggler who was the main performer was really good, and there was also a strongman duo act, trapeze artists, comedy act, and magician. Good for a half price show :) Met up with Erin and some of his colleagues from the conference and did some wandering and hit some of the Vegas night life.
Vegas Observations
- More is More, Bigger is Better - everything built seems to be trying to top whatever the last thing built was
- If your casino is over 10 years old you're "old"
- Everything here is wide open - not only can you go anywhere any time with anything (including your drinks), they WANT you to - they go out of their way to get you to have to walk through the casinos and shops (which is great because they're air conditioned)
- This is NOT a family vacation destination, no matter how much you want it to be (I've seen so many little kids - sure, there are some things to do but I wouldn't bring my kids here)
- The average age of the visitors is probably over 55 :)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Human Foosball
So after this you will all probably think I do nothing at work...but at lunch I played IBM-funworks-sponsored "Human Foosball". I was skeptical when I heard about it, but it really is like human foosball - I wish I had a picture. The funworks club built a human-size foosball table, and you have 6 people on each team with places to put you hands, and sliding bars, and you kick around a nerf soccer ball and try to score goals. Pretty neat! My department's team won like 10-4...sadly I'll be gone on vacation for our next game (OK I probably won't be sad to be on vacation hehe)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Goliath Online
(bonus points for anyone who got or laughed at the Starcraft reference in the title)
Yesterday my last replacement hard drive came and I was finally able to get my new server up and running (and it's been busily copying ever since). Total time to being up and running - the original order was July 20th, and it was able to start copying files to yesterday (August 12th). This included:
Since I'm a geek and keep track of this stuff, here is a list of my "computer history" in chronological order:
COMPUTERS
Yesterday my last replacement hard drive came and I was finally able to get my new server up and running (and it's been busily copying ever since). Total time to being up and running - the original order was July 20th, and it was able to start copying files to yesterday (August 12th). This included:
- Originally ordered parts July 20th, arrived August 1st
- First set of (incorrect) SAS/SATA cables ordered August 4th, arrived August 6th
- Second set of (correct) SAS/SATA cables ordered August 6th, arrived August 8th
- Discovered "bad" hard drive (1 out of original 8) on August 8th, and after checking everywhere in town and finding out nowhere sold this particular model, ordered a replacement August 8th, arrived August 12th.
Since I'm a geek and keep track of this stuff, here is a list of my "computer history" in chronological order:
COMPUTERS
- Apple IIGS (1) 1988
- Apple IIGS (2) 1993
- Gateway Pentium 60 DOS 6.2/Windows 3.11 (1994-1996)
- Gateway Pentium 166 DOS 6.2/Windows 3.11 (1996-2000)
- AMD Athlon 700 Windows 98/Windows XP (2000-2003)
- "vorlon" Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Windows XP (2003-2005) [desktop]
- "shadow" Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Windows XP (2004-2005) [desktop]
- "kosh" AMD Athlon 64 3000 Windows XP (2005-2006) [desktop]
- "sinclair" Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz SUSE Linux 10 (2005-2008) [server]
- "whitestar" AMD Athlon 64 3000 Windows XP64 (2006-present) [media PC]
- "gkar" AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Windows XP (2006-present) [desktop]
- "garibaldi" Intel Dual-Xeon Dual-Core 5205 1.86 GHz Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (2008-present) [server]
- Gateway Crystalscan 15" CRT (1995-1996)
- Gateway Sony Vivatron 17" CRT (1996-2004)
- IBM P200 20" CRT (refurbished) (2000-)
- Dell 1901FP 19" LCD Flat Panel (2004-)
- Apple Imagewriter II dot matrix color
- HP Laserjet 5L laser B&W (1996- 2007)
- HP Deskjet 930C inkjet color ( - 2007)
- HP Color Laserjet 1600 (2007 - )
Friday, August 8, 2008
08-08-08
So it took me until 3:49pm to notice that that was the date today...it's the little things :)
Played with a salsa/latin combo group last night at the Thursdays on First/Art Walk downtown Rochester. What a beautiful night to be out walking around! And the turnout was fantastic - I am SO glad to be living in a city that does cool stuff like that, and that actually has a downtown!
Besides having fun playing, there were a LOT of people I knew there that stopped by to watch - Jeff, Amber (& Declan), Brian, Curtis, Shelley, Anne, Dylan...even more fun when you play for people you know.
News
The server setup has not been going well - after having to order a second set of cables, which got there yesterday, now it looks like one of the drives is bad, and no one in town actually sells these same drives (and they have to be the SAME ones). So another order and another 2 days of waiting...
Fortunately we're heading to Ames for the weekend anyway for a wedding! Will be fun to see Ames again, this time when there aren't a million people there for homecoming.
Played with a salsa/latin combo group last night at the Thursdays on First/Art Walk downtown Rochester. What a beautiful night to be out walking around! And the turnout was fantastic - I am SO glad to be living in a city that does cool stuff like that, and that actually has a downtown!
Besides having fun playing, there were a LOT of people I knew there that stopped by to watch - Jeff, Amber (& Declan), Brian, Curtis, Shelley, Anne, Dylan...even more fun when you play for people you know.
News
The server setup has not been going well - after having to order a second set of cables, which got there yesterday, now it looks like one of the drives is bad, and no one in town actually sells these same drives (and they have to be the SAME ones). So another order and another 2 days of waiting...
Fortunately we're heading to Ames for the weekend anyway for a wedding! Will be fun to see Ames again, this time when there aren't a million people there for homecoming.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Hooray for coffee!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/health/05brod.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1218132060-ePsW22KW4f8vPcEnrpDaWQ&oref=slogin
The bottom line, as with EVERYTHING, is moderation. But this article lists a whole slew of studies, some of which were 10+ year studies, citing that the effects of coffee when consumed in moderation, are negligable to health. So my one cup a day (with just water the rest of the day) every morning is probably just fine. Hooray!
The bottom line, as with EVERYTHING, is moderation. But this article lists a whole slew of studies, some of which were 10+ year studies, citing that the effects of coffee when consumed in moderation, are negligable to health. So my one cup a day (with just water the rest of the day) every morning is probably just fine. Hooray!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Live and Learn
So $50 later I learned last night that SAS cables are DIRECTIONAL. OK so that probably only means something to all my geek friends out there, but suffice to say I had to order another set of cables for my new server...two more days of waiting :(
Goings-on
Had a nice weekend of relaxing and attending a wedding of a friend of Erin's.
Coming up this week - a subset of my salsa group along with a few others are going to play some latin/salsa improvs downtown at the Art Walk in the peace plaza on Thursday night, from 7-9pm - should be fun - if you're looking for something to do on Thursday, downtown is the place to be (in addition to the Art Walk, Thursdays on First and Third from 11am-8pm with live music).
Saturday we're heading to Ames for another wedding of one of Erin's friends.
And we're only 8 days away from leaving for Vegas woohoo!
Goings-on
Had a nice weekend of relaxing and attending a wedding of a friend of Erin's.
Coming up this week - a subset of my salsa group along with a few others are going to play some latin/salsa improvs downtown at the Art Walk in the peace plaza on Thursday night, from 7-9pm - should be fun - if you're looking for something to do on Thursday, downtown is the place to be (in addition to the Art Walk, Thursdays on First and Third from 11am-8pm with live music).
Saturday we're heading to Ames for another wedding of one of Erin's friends.
And we're only 8 days away from leaving for Vegas woohoo!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The County Fair and dumplings in the shape of...
Yesterday IBM generously gave us a half day off, $10 of food coupons, and free admission to the Olmsted County Fair - designating this "IBM Day at the Fair". This year they even had one of the buildings reserved (presumably now that the new Graham center is open and many of the displays moved over there, the older buildings are now freed up). We wandered around the displays and met up with friends Paul & Anne (and LP) and ate "lunch" I had corn on the cob, Erin had a slice of pizza, and we both had milkshakes from the dairy booth - $14 total. $10 doesn't last long anymore at the fair I guess :(Other Goings-On
Friday morning the rest of my new server arrived (thanks again Andy and Erin for the "gifts").
So I have started the long migration process - which has been made much easier thanks to my good friend Chris who has loaned me some of his spare drives so I can do the intermediate copying to those (and save an entire copy - when you're talking about 2 TB of data that is a lot of time). So I'm running a whole bunch of copies in parallel with running surface scans of the new drives to make sure they aren't defective. I'm sure I'm consuming quite a bit of power :) but once this is done, the new server will be much more power-efficient.I have decided I really love my new phone (have I mentioned that before)? I used it to take pictures at the fair yesterday and the picture quality is good! Still not 5.1 megapixel like my other camera but good enough to print if I need to. And I discovered solitaire on there...
Erin and I watched the season finale of Dr. Who this morning - WOW, that show is really great! I wish American TV would take a lesson from what the British do - it is so much better than the junk we have on most channels here.
Last but not least...last night we decided we wanted soup for dinner, and Erin makes great chicken soup - this time he chose dumplings instead of noodles. Well when I walked out to the kitchen to see how it was going, lo and behold were dumplings cut in the shape of NEBRASKA! Yes, my mom got me a Nebraska-shaped cookie cutter many moons ago and here Erin was using it...soup is more fun when you get to eat your home state.
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