Free Lunch Thursday

Free Lunch Thursday
It was a great day to be at work. The building management company sponsored a free lunch of an In n Out cheeseburger, small bag of potato chips, and a medium drink. The company said it was an end of Summer celebration.

I think it was because the building renovation is taking forever to complete.

Anyway, free food is good food most of the time.

The Younger Brother
The Younger Brother called today. He wanted to know if my office was very far from a street in Beverly Hills. I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window and said I can probably see the street from where I am sitting.

He said he was going to be in Los Angeles and might be able to visit me after his mid-morning meeting is over.

That would be cool. I could show him our offices; they are completely unbanklike with movie posters on all of the walls. Then, we could go to lunch afterward.

Sharon
I spoke with Sharon today. We are going to the theater on Saturday and I wanted to tell her when I would be bye to pick her up. She was on her way to a meeting so we did not speak for very long. She is always on her way to a meeting.

We are going to swap photos on Saturday. I am going to give her the photos from the steak and lobster dinner.

Sharon is going to give me a new photo of her. She said she had two poses to pick from; one pose is sort of professional and the other pose is sort of sexy [her words]. I asked which was the better image. Sharon said the sexy pose so I said I would like a copy of that pose.

I wonder how sexy that pose is.

The Big Guy and the Production class
Things turned better after the photo trouble on Tuesday. His professor gave him a one day extension to complete the assignment. He picked up a new disposable camera and shot the required costumes.

I feel this, the Production Class travails, is going to be a recurring theme until the semester is over in December. I only have about two and a half months left to go in the semester.

The Big Guy formed a team to complete the next assignment which to film a scene. Hopefully, one of the other team members is good with the film camera. Then, he will avoid the stress of handling the camera.

We talked about new films coming out this weekend. The only one that he is interested in is A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. He also suggested that I might like SERENITY. I said I was planning on seeing SERENITY. The other film struck me as being undated version of the 1950s classic HIGH NOON.

The weekend is coming together nicely. I will see Sharon again and that is always a high point for me.

Be well and stay happy and enjoy your weekend.

Beach Day

Beach Day
I should have stayed home from work and called in sick gentle readers. It was one of those typical Southern California end of Summer beach weather days that just screamed to be spent watching waves crash on the sandy shore.

It was completely clear at the beach. I would have been able to see the smoke clouds from a brush fire 60 miles – 95 kilometers away being blown out over the ocean from any spot on the sand.

The air temperature was probably 80F – 27C with a steady, light breeze blowing off of the ocean all day long.

The ocean was probably around 68F – 20C; a little on the cool side but still very refreshing after you have been baking yourself in the sun.

Now I ask, is that a day to be spent at the beach or not?

Yes, even adults think about cutting school or work when the weather is great, just like students.

Days
It was Day 52 and nothing happened. I bet you weren’t surprised by that at all. Sooner or later, something will have to be done with the building next door. It can not stand for long as a wreck in Beverly Hills.

The Big Guy and Cameras
I had a call from the Big Guy this afternoon as he was walking to his class from the distant parking lot. He told me that the photos he took for part of his Production class did not come out because they were underexposed. The flash did not work so that meant part of the assignment was in question.

The Big Guy said he sent an email to his professor asking for a one day extension on the assignment so he can reshoot the photos. He had not heard from the professor yet but he was not very optimistic that he would hear from him in a timely manner.

I guess this means that he should not plan on or consider a film career as a cinematographer unless he has a brilliant assistant who can load and focus the camera for him. The Big Guy said he would concentrate on his writing and directing work since those do not involve film.

I should point out that he can handle video easily and successfully. It is the celluloid stuff that gives him trouble.

That was a short and simple day for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Records and Other Things

Today was a minor day for records; personal records mostly.

Records
I achieved my 1,000th data search for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. I still have not found any signs of intelligent life out there but then we created that stinker of a film DIRTY LOVE so maybe we should not be so quick to judge other life forms.

On Monday, I had twenty unique visitors to the blog. This is a record for days when there has not been a link to the site. Most were from North America but there were others including two new visitors from South America and one regular visitor from Korea.

If you like what I write, tell others to visit the blog.

If you don’t like what I write, maybe I will change. Then again, it is my blog after all so I may not agree to change anything except my underwear.

Days
It was Day 51 today and for a moment I thought I saw some activity on the site. After putting my glasses on, I discovered that it was only the security agent wandering around the deserted site.

Work
Work for me was half lost today. Our network connection was out of commission for almost five hours. I know it was almost five hours because I was the first to notice the trouble when I arrived a little before 7:00 AM.

The failed network connection meant we had no phone service unless you count Fax machines. I had to participate in a conference call on my cell phone and that was no fun. I would have preferred to shut my office door and place the call on the speaker phone so I did not get sore arms from holding a phone.

I store my work product on an off-site server. The IT guys say this helps data security management and it makes our examiners happy. Personally, I think it is an IT power trip but I will go along with the flow of bits and bytes.

Since the network connection was down, I couldn’t get to any of my work. This all meant that I did not get too much accomplished this morning or all day for that matter.

Nice Guy Chuck
I really am a nice guy even if I work for a bank as a loan officer. Really, I am a nice guy.

I know you read about the steak and lobster dinner that I went to with the Big Guy and my friend Sharon on Saturday. I also ordered a roast prime rib [center cut] with a baked potato and sour cream and bacon bits to go for the Big Guy’s mother. I think that was nice of me.

How many men will order an excellent dinner for their ex-wives? I don’t how many would but I would be willing to guess that it is not a large number.

More Nice Guy Chuck
This is almost too much for me, being nice and all.

My friend Sharon doesn’t like her job.

There are a lot of problems at her work and they are mostly caused by [a] taking on too much work at the very last minute and [b] not being able to plan beyond the end of the week. This is mostly crummy management. Any competent manager knows the skills, abilities, and limits of his or her staffers. Only a fool takes on more work that can be accomplished in the allotted time. Not planning is a glaring management crime.

Being a nice guy, I found two jobs that Sharon is very well qualified for and sent them to her. One of them is near perfect for her since it would allow her to control her functional responsibility completely while allowing her to plan for a year in advance. On addition to having control, it is much closer to home and that is a big plus with high gasoline prices.

Lastly, the job has a minor fringe benefit for me. Sharon would only have to work a couple of weekends a year instead of a couple of weekends a month like she does now.

Those of you out there can draw your own conclusions. Be creative. Use your own pens, paints, crayons, and paper.

DVRville
DVRville is the Big Guy’s new home.

He seems to become more fascinated and enamored with his new digital video recorder with each passing day. He can see no reason to want to leave his house except to walk Nelson the dog and go to school or maybe to go hang with his Dad and grab some food at the same time.

The Big Guy has been raving about his DVR in his blog [http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com] for the last couple of days.

Oh yeah, in case you haven’t figured this out by now, I have yet to learn how to do a link to another site. I should make the Big Guy a team member so he can handle those tasks for me.

I think that would make the site better.

The Big Guy says I should get a DVR so I won’t miss any programs. He pointed that I missed last Saturday’s episode of The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin and I will miss next Saturday’s one as well because I was or will be out with Sharon. He said, with a DVR, that I wouldn’t miss an episode.

Sometimes, one has to make sacrifices for the overall good of the group. You know, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

And so gentle readers, I will go outweigh myself with other things before bed. Be well and stay happy.

Monday

Well, it is Monday for sure and certain. That is a crummy way to start out the week gentle readers.

On the plus side, I don’t have too much to write about tonight so I guess that is good.

Today was Day 50 at the building next door. As usual, nothing was happening today or on last Friday for that matter. One of these days, the construction will have to start up again.

We had a light and short rainfall this afternoon. I was so depressed at the thought of rain on my way home tonight. I do not mind driving in the rain; I can deal with the other clowns out on the roadways.

I was depressed about having my car washed and waxed on Saturday and then having it rained. I would have had a clean car for barely three days and then it would have been dirty again.

That was Monday for you. Some days are long with lots of things to talk about and others are short with nothing just like today.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Happy Birthday Bro.

Blogosphere Milestone.
This is my 150th blog posting.

Hello gentle readers, I had a great weekend and I hope your time away from work was rewarding and fun.

I don’t have a lot to say today because I did not do very much this weekend. I got my Prelude washed and waxed. It was long overdue for a cleaning. It looks so much nicer now. I even think it runs better because it is clean.

My old printer failed me this past week so I bought a new, smaller sized one. It will still print in color, copy, and act as a scanner. It just has a lower profile and a smaller footprint on the desk top.

While I was at the computer store, I had a chance to check out the plasma big screen televisions. I can see myself scoring a big screen in February after I get my bonus for 2005. That would be a nice way to start the year off.

Morton’s Steak & Lobster dinner
The Big Guy and I went to Morton’s for the Steak and Lobster dinner. I brought my friend Sharon because we like having her join us for dinner and, as the Big Guy says, you can never have too many hot chicks around.

We had our favorite server Amy again on Saturday. She is so friendly and makes us feel like we were truly welcome guests. We also like Amy because she does just a superb job. I think Amy is one of the main reasons why we to go to Morton’s.

The Big Guy and Sharon decided to not go with the small steak that was part of the special. They opted for the larger Chicago style rib eye steak that we all love. I had the small steak that went with the dinner; I did not feel like stuffing myself. As it was Sharon started falling asleep in the car on the way back to her house so I knew she was full and satisfied.

My son decided to show up his Dad last night. I had talked with Sharon about what I was planning to wear. Sharon said for me to leave my tie at home and dress casually because she was going to do that. I told the Big Guy that I was skipping the tie and he said he would wear one.

When I told Sharon that he was going to wear a tie and she said that he won’t; it was not like him to wear a tie.

Sure enough, he wore a suit and a tie. Sharon raved about how handsome he looked in the suit. Good thing she is not young enough to go out with him.

Sharon had talked about wearing jeans and a blouse and a blazer. Instead, she wore a sweater and stripped dress pants. It was a stunning outfit. I thought she looked perfect.

Friday evening class
I had my seminar of Friday evening. With the new semester, it was a full roster of students. The class went longer than the scheduled two hours. I stuck around for about two and a half hours. We had one presentation that went longer than it should have lasted.

The student was arguing with the professor about his presentation. If the student had been listening to what the professor was saying, it would have been done in almost half of the time.

I ended up getting home around 10:00 PM because I stopped at Fatburger for a hamburger and fries to go.

On the plus side, I learned from Amy that Morton’s serves dinner until 11:00 PM on the weekend and that she works on the weekends and Friday. This means I could go to Morton’s for dinner after class and have Amy as my server. That is an excellent idea. The Big Guy said he would be willing to join me for a late dinner so he would not have to eat alone. That was sporting of him.

Digital cable and digital video recorder
The Big Guy finally got his new digital video recorder hooked up to his television and life was suddenly excellent for him. He told me that he had programmed in all of his favorite shows as soon as it was hooked up.

He recorded a spaghetti western marathon while we were eating dinner on Saturday.

The Big Guy said he also programmed in his mother’s favorite shows as well. The way he described it, it sounded more like an after thought. Oh well, I still can’t get my VCR to work with my cable box so I should not talk.

The American Film course
The Big Guy has to write a paper for his American Film class. He picked D. W. Griffith to write on. He borrowed my DVD copies of BIRTH OF A NATION and INTOLLERANCE; probably Griffith’s most well known works.

I also lent him my DVD copy of some Biograph Studio shows that Griffith made. I think this is a more rounded view of Griffith and probably one that most of his classmates will not include in their papers.

Weekend Movies
I was able to see both of the films that I had planned on seeing this weekend.

THE CORPSE BIRTH is an excellent claymation film by Tim Burton. I really liked his NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS so this film seemed like a continuation of the earlier film. I was surprised at how small children were at my showing of the film. I was thinking that they would find it upsetting but I heard so crying so I guess this film is suitable for kids that are, say, 10 or older. One surprising element is the songs and music that make this film more like a musial comedy of the 1940s than anything else.

I also liked the film because it had a really great tribute to Ray Harryhousen in it. If you like the cinema, you will understand why it was there.

I would recommend it highly.

The other film was the LORD OF WAR with Nicholas Cage. This film is not for everyone; it is full of graphic death scenes. There is some nudity and adult language. I did find the subject matter interesting and that was why I went to see the film. Arms smuggling is an intriguing element to me. The film presents the disturbing morality of arms sales to third world parties, and makes reference to some sales that may have been condoned by the United States government. The Nicholas Cage character processes the sales because the Government does not want to become publicly involved with the buyer or his philosophy.

I would only recommend this film was those that like Nicholas Cage or the study of arms.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin
I was out with Sharon and the Big Guy last night so I did not see the Saturday episode. It will be interesting to see how the battle ends or ended.

Things did not go well for the Japanese in the battle. Tonight’s episode had the Japanese shogun having nightmares about the battle. It was a bad day for the Japanese navy. They lost over 20,000 men and obviously a whole lot of ships, several hundred I would suspect.

The part that makes the defeat so hard for the Japanese is that the Koreans only has 13 ships.

Following the naval victory, the Koreans followed up the fleet action with localized actions against the Japanese sea based supply lines. With the loss of command of the seas, the Japanese have been forced to retreat to be closer to their main supply base and to avoid being cut off by the advancing Korean and Chinese forces.

The Japanese, since they were unable to defeat Yi Soon-Shin at sea, attacked his home village and slaughtered most everyone including his son. Not a very honorable way of fighting for a samurai, taking revenge on unarmed civilians.

I don’t think this will change much of the outcome. Yi still has a hatred for the Japanese and the war they started. I don’t thing raiding his home village was necessarily the wisest move on the part of the Japanese. On the contrary, it is likely to fill the Korean sailors, who would follow their admiral anyway, with a renewed sense of purpose and burning desire to destroy the Japanese.

Sort of like a Korean version of Pearl Harbor.

Well, gentle readers, that was my weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

The weekend is here gentle readers and I am more than ready for it. This week at work seems to have just dragged on and on forever. This is going to be a short blog tonight I think.

Non-Deconstruction Day
Day 48 was just like Day 47; nothing happened today. It was warm and sunny with a light and steady breeze blowing, great Southern California weather.

Ice Cream Social
The building management company sponsored an ice cream social if you will today. They provided make it yourself sundaes with a choice of either vanilla or chocolate ice cream and a dozen or so topping to slop on to of the ice cream.

I walked over to the ice cream event with the operations manager from the office. We had to bring back servings for those who were in the office. We had to guess what the others would want on their sundaes. I think we did a good job because no one complained.

Contrary to my usual approach, I took vanilla ice cream. The chocolate ice cream ones looked sad and melted. The chocolate ones just did not look appetizing to me at all. I did glop on chocolate sauce and caramel sauce along with some chocolate chips and miniature Reese’s pieces.

It was very nice and a wonderful way to end Summer.

Earthquakes
Southern California had two earthquakes this afternoon.

The earthquakes were centered maybe 150 miles and a bunch of kilometers away in the southern portion of the Central Valley. The first earthquake was a 4.0 on the Richter Scale and the second one was a 4.9. They were only about 40 seconds apart. The epicenters were only a few miles apart.

Only Vivian and I felt the earthquakes in the office today. The building rolled or seemed to take on a rolling motion for maybe five or six seconds and that was it. We were far enough away to experience no real impact beyond the idle office conversation of “did you feel the quake?”

I suppose if I had been closed to the epicenter I would have a much different opinion.

Krispy Kreme donuts
I had a left over donut this morning with my morning coffee from the local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store. I was not expecting the donut to be too tasty after spending the night in the staff room refrigerator. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted after I reheated in our microwave oven for about 10 seconds.

I exercised restraint with only one donut. One of the others in the office helped himself to two. I guess he was hungrier than I was.

Utah Football
I watched my Utes win in a conference match with Air Force tonight. The final score was 38 to 35. The game was closer than the score indicates as Utah made a couple really poor defensive plays that allowed Air Force to score.

Air Force is one of the stronger teams in the Mountain West Conference. They always play well against Utah. The last eleven Utah – Air Force football games have been decided by an average of only four points. Utah is now at 3 wins and 1 loss for the season and 1 and 1 in the conference.

I had spoken to the Princess on my way home from work tonight and we talked about the game. She wasn’t sure if the game was going to be broadcast in Atlanta or not. I think she probably got to see Texas A&M and Texas Tech play tonight.

Weekend Plans
I plan to get my car washed this weekend. It is looking really seedy now with the mud residue from the rain on Tuesday.

I need to do some cleaning around the house and I may get in some reading while I wait to go pick up Sharon for the steak and lobster dinner on Saturday.

Sunday is shaping up to be a cinema day with THE CORPSE BRIDE and the LORD OF WAR as being the first choices.

Do enjoy your weekend gentle readers and I will be back here with a weekend update on Sunday.

Be well and stay happy.

Blue sky today

We had a bright blue sky in most of Los Angeles today gentle readers.

Krispy Kreme donuts
The bright blue sky day was made even brighter when the Krispy Kreme donut delivery person dropped three dozen donuts off for our office this morning. Those of you that can remember will recall that I had no part in the getting the second donut delivery.

Vivian, the perky office assistant, said it best when she took the three boxes of donuts to the staff room, “You can have four donuts each.” I held myself to only two.

Another staffer and I discussed what was so good about Krispy Kreme donuts. We concluded that they were just a product of hype. We also had a slightly difficult time with the conversation because we had donuts in our mouths.

Three Kingdoms novels
My Three Kingdoms novels arrived today from Amazon.com. The four volume set is regarded as one of China’s greatest historical novels. According to the box, the novel, written in the early 13th century, was the first Chinese novel to use chapters. I think there are almost 100 chapters in the over 2,300 pages. The Three Kingdoms is considered to be the Chinese version of Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey.

I think this will be a fascinating collection to read. I expect to gain a better understanding of the Chinese culture from reading the novel.

I am also slightly concerned about having the book. The book was published by the Foreign Language Press in Beijing. The book says specifically that it is not for sale in North America.

Does this mean I am breaking some really obscure Chinese law? Or, does this mean Amazon.com did something wrong?

I am going to go with the Amazon screwed up concept for a defense. I plan to focus on the idea that Amazon had last clear chance to avoid breaking the sales restriction.

Non-Deconstruction Day
It was Day 47 for the building next door today.

The building worker elves were out last night and put up some new shiny signs for the restroom doors. I wonder when they will get around to putting our company signs back up outside of the entrance to our space. I suppose that I could start keeping track of how long the signs have been down but then the blog would end up being just a series of different Days.

Who would want to read a blog with just almost meaningless numbers?

Bad Tats
I have another excellent reason for not getting a tat, good or bad.

Some of the tattoo ink contains lead. In California, a manufacturer has to disclose if one of their products contains a hazardous substance and lead certainly meets that requirement.

Does it sound reasonable to knowingly allow someone to inject ink with lead in it into your body?

I feel that my logic will probably get overlooked by those who get tats. Most of them seem to smoke so I guess a little lead is not so bad when compared to the potential for lung cancer from the cigarettes.

Something to think about for sure.

And now, I am off to do some reading.

Be well and stay happy.

It never rains in Southern California

Hello again gentle readers.

It never rains in Southern California
I used to think that the song was true and that it never rains in Southern California. I am beginning to change my mind or at least consider changing my mind. We had real rain in Southern California today.

As far as I can tell, the rain started in the night with thunder and lightening. Being a sound sleeper, I did not hear any thunder. Just as well because I was enjoying a nice solid night’s sleep.

The rain fell off and on in varying degrees all morning long and well into the early afternoon. I don’t how much rain we received but it was way more than a trace.

Rain always panics most drivers in Southern California. They seem unable to adjust their driving to accommodate the rain. Or give up talking on a cell phone while driving in the rain.

I had a joint customer call on a prospective customer today with one of our Orange County branch managers. Normally, the drive from my office to his office would take just over an hour under dry road conditions. The rain extended the drive to almost two hours and that was back breaking almost.

On the plus side, I was pleased that I didn’t get my car washed this weekend. There was just enough rain to make some of the dust on the car turn to a mud like substance. I will get it washed this weekend before I take Sharon to Morton’s for our dinner.

Krispy Kreme donuts
The building management bought Krispy Kreme donuts for everyone in the building on Monday. It was their way of thanking us for being good sports about the evacuation last week. We received our donuts and promptly consumed them.
It was all good.

Today, the building management company said they were buying us some more donuts because they thought we did not receive the Monday donuts. Now, just for the record, I did not take the call from the management company so I don’t know what was said during the phone call.

They said they tried to get the donuts to us today but Krispy Kreme was unable to deliver them. We will have to wait until tomorrow to enjoy them.

I can wait a day.

The management company is tossing an ice cream social of sorts on Thursday to celebrate the end of Summer. They also want to keep us happy during the start of the second year of the building remodeling project. The project is now set to end in Fourth Quarter 2005; I am reading that to mean December 31, 2005 or maybe later.

Non-Deconstruction Day
It was Day 46. The rain would have prevented the workers from working outside so I am not sure if I should count this as a non-work day. I will because I do not count holidays and weekends. It all balances out in the end I think.

The roof top palm trees were out in the rain today. I don’t know how much rain fell in the palm tree pots. I figure that any rain has to be good for the trees since I don’t think anyone is watering them. They were looking sad the other day.

G5
The G5 continues to cause us troubles. The Big Guy tried the suggested Microsoft solutions. They only had a modest impact at improving overall performance.

We talked about the troubles. I suggested it could be cause by a failure of one of the two processor chips. This ought to slow things down. We also considered the Ram stack chip is failing as a possible solution.

The Big Guy decided to take the G5 into the local Apple store this weekend when he has the time to sit and wait while they work on it. I told him that I thought this was probably the best and least stressful solution.

DVD Planet.com
Since I was in Orange County for the customer call, I stopped at DVD Planet.com to pick up some more DVDs. I got six new AFI 100 Best Films on the way home. I only have eleven more DVDs on the list and most of them are not out in DVD release yet. I also pre-ordered my copy of EPISODE III. Now, I do not have to rush to the store when it comes out on November 1st.

Be well and stay happy gentle readers.

Monday Monday

It was a Monday Monday today for me gentle readers.

It was also a good day at the office as well. We had no emergencies or other business interruptions. That was very nice.

I do not have too much to say so you will be in and out of the blog quickly. Besides, I posted a lot of material yesterday for you to read.

Today was a slow day for me.

I had to tell a potential borrower that he could not have the amount of money that he wanted because he did not have enough income to pay the loan back. I don’t approve loans where the expectation of repayment comes from a foreclosure of the borrower’s assets. I don’t think he heard much of what I had to say when we spoke.

Then, I worked on another credit. I have spent almost a full day trying to see where I can find some income and cash to make the payments on a proposed credit. The most recent tax return showed a loss of over $190,000. With a loss of that size and another loss the year before, I am very likely to decline this loan request. What troubles me more is that another division of the bank is about to close a $1,650,000 loan to this borrower. I am going to ask another loan officer to take a look at the file and see if I missed anything here. It is always possible that I did miss something.

The Big Guy called today. He was having trouble with his semi-new Apple G5 computer. He said his Word program was freezing up when he ran spell check on a moderate sized document. In his conversation / email exchange with Microsoft tech support, the tech support person indicated the trouble was likely in the G5’s RAM stack. The tech support person gave him a simple solution to resolve the problem. If the solution does not work, then he will haul the G5 back to the Apple store for a RAM stack replacement. I figure this repair job will about cover the cost of the extended warranty service on the G5.

We had one of the senior managers at the bank stop by our office today. No one knew he was stopping by or why he was in the area. Surprises like this keep you on your toes and alert.

I told you this would be short.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Good evening gentle readers.

I say good evening because it is night time when I wrote this blog. I know you may read it at another time of day or night.

This Weekend Update blog will not be very long. I had a slow and quiet weekend. It is hard to make cleaning the place, taking trash out to the containers, going to the market, or doing laundry very exciting. I did not do very much was noteworthy or blogworthy. Sometimes, life is like that.

Friday
It was a good day on Friday. We had no emergencies at work for a change. After a week where we had power failures, building evacuations, and lost network and telephone connections, a quiet day is nice for a change.

It was Day 44 of the building next door Non-Deconstruction. Nothing happened that I could see from the 10th floor window.

I phoned my friend Sharon to see if she was going to join the Big Guy and me for a steak and lobster dinner next Saturday. Sharon said she had nothing else planned for the Saturday so she would love to join us. She asked what about the Big Guy’s friends. I said they had other plans and could not join us.

Since the steak and lobster special expires at month end, we can not reschedule or defer the dinner.

I told her when I would pick her up and later sent her a copy of the reservation confirmation email. Things are all together.

Vivian, the office assistant, said I looked nice in the casual shirt that I wore on Friday. Then, she realized that her statement did not come out as well as she thought it would. It was a very light moment as she tried to say what she meant. I understood what she was saying. I thought that was very nice of her to say that I looked good today.

Then, we talked about dry cleaners and where I go to get my shirts done. Apparently her cleaner does less than a satisfactory job on her clothes. I told the place that I go to and that I have been pleased with their work for the last five or six years.

I did some reading when I got home tonight. I finished one of the new books and started a second one. The first book was very small, only 150 pages with large type. It was probably no more than 80 pages on regular type. It was an easy read for me since I was familiar with the novel’s characters and the basic plot line. This book was the new prequel to a 27 volume series that I have read.

The second book was the 12th and most recent in a series. It is a regular sized book, 330 or so pages, so it will take me longer to finish off. I should finish it sometime on Sunday I think.

Both of the series deal with the Royal navy during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Since they tend to follow the same historical tread, they are familiar and easy to follow. It also helps that I have read the complete Patrick O’Brien series on the same subject.

Location Scouting
The Big Guy arrived at my house right on time. We left immediately for the Korean Friendship Bell.

On the way to the Bell, I told him that the lobsters for the dinner next Saturday would be full size lobsters and not the smaller lobster tails. He thought that was excellent. I told him that it looked like it would be the three of us.

I did mention that Sharon could always have a business meeting come up and not be able to join us. I told him that I was already over that possibility and that it would just mean we would have to share a smaller table for dinner. That was not an inconvenience for us.

I asked him why the professor had chosen the Korean Friendship Bell foe the location scout project. The Big Guy said he chose the site because he wanted to see the Bell and because it was such a great scene in THE USUAL SUSPECTS. The students could pick any site for a location scouting exercise.

After we got there and parked, we walked to where the camera was set up for scene in THE USUAL SUSPECTS. I cracked him up as we were walking along by saying that this might be a good place to come to pick up Korean-American chicks. We walked around the Bell, trying to pick a good spot to take the still photos.

He wanted to shoot the Bell from the ocean side. I suggested that he use the other site. We walked back to the other site and he agreed that this spot would work better from a visual setting. There was various state flags flying since it was Constitution Day weekend. There was some sort of related ceremony to be held later that afternoon. We finished up with the camera work in less than twenty minutes.

Our next stop was the local one hour film developing store. I picked up some greeting cards while he took care of the film developing. Then, we were off to the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers at their original location, just west of downtown Los Angeles. Tommy’s has been a Los Angeles institution for almost sixty years now.

We showed no imagination when it came to lunch. We both had Mega Combos with the large drinks, I had root beer and he had Sierra Mist, and the large order of chili cheese fries.

There is something special about standing at a counter in the open to eat your hamburger and fries and drink. Maybe it was the exhaust fumes from the cars that park right next to where we were eating our meals or the noise from the busy streets a few feet away. There is nothing like a fire engine with its lights and sirens on and flashing to add a little excitement to lunch.

Then, we burped and belched our way back to the film developing place. The film was ready when we got there. The film turned out just fine. The Big Guy still has to mount the photos on a poster board and put together some narrative but he has until next Thursday to finish off the project and turn it in to his professor.

The Rest of Saturday
The Prelude rolled over at 326,000 miles or 525,000 kilometers on the way home from the one hour film developing place.

After the Big Guy headed back to the O. C. [Orange County], I went out on the balcony to read. I made good progress with the second of the Royal Navy based novels. I also read some more after Yi Soon-Shin on the television.

I did watch The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin tonight but I will talk about the episode along with Sunday’s episode. I that makes for a better story.

One of my activities for the weekend was to go to the movies. I had thought about driving to Santa Monica to see KAMAKAZI GIRLS or driving out to the O. C. to see BALZAC AND THE LITTLE SEAMTRESS. In the end, I decided to save some money for tickets and gasoline and wait for the DVD to come out.

I plan to watch Tim Burtons’ THE CORPSE BRIDE and maybe the LORD OF WAR next weekend. They are likely to be playing at a local cinema so I can get in for an early show on both Saturday and Sunday and still keep all of my other plans.

Sunday
I was disappointed to read in the paper this morning that my beloved University of Utah Utes played Texas Christian University on Thursday night and lost in overtime. Now they are 2-1. It will be interesting to see what happens next week when they play the Air Force Academy.

I went to the post office this morning and sent the Brother a month’s worth of Los Angeles Times Sports Sections. He likes the papers, even though they are almost a month old, because his local San Francisco papers do not cover our local teams well.

I also mailed a parcel off to my longest Internet friend Lara in South Africa. She likes our coffees so I sent her two pounds or almost one kilo of quality coffee along with a bunch of newspapers on the cinema. Lara owns a video rental store and finds our local papers have information for her on upcoming films long before the South African papers do.

I finished the second Royal Navy based novel this afternoon while I was out on the balcony reading. I started up reading one of the Chinese books.

Now, I am reading THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER. This is regarded as one of China’s greatest novels. The translator’s forward calls it the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. Since I have only read three of the chapters, it is a little early for me to say. It does seem well written and is interesting. It present likes in early to mid-18th century China before there was extensive European influence, control, and occupation.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin
In last night’s episode, the king decided to dissolve the navy and combine their forces with the still vastly outnumbered army. Sort of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; not a very sound idea. But then, the king seems overly ready for a massive breakdown anyway.

Yi Soon-Shin gave the men one of those great before the speeches on Saturday. It was close to the “Band of Brothers” speech. It was one of those defining moments when the morale of the forces shifts from one side to the other. The Korean sailors knew they were facing long odds as the speech started but they were shouting for victory at the end.

Tonight, the king changed his mind. He changes his mind with almost every episode it seems. The navy can stand for now because Yi has said he will be victorious when he fights the Japanese.

Even the Korean Prime Minister has found his courage. He wrote the Ming emperor that if the Chinese do not send a real army with real generals, then the Koreans will ally themselves with the nomadic horsemen from Mongolia. This would represent a power shift in the area and would be upsetting to the Chinese.

This is real Cold War statesmanship that is so very close to the concept of mutually assured destruction of John Foster Dulles.

Episode 95 closed tonight with the opening of the battle.

The Japanese are over confident as usual, even the generals who previously counseled caution are now arguing for a head long charge at the weak and outnumbered Korean navy. The Koreans know the waters and the weaknesses of the Japanese. The Japanese understand the strong currents that control passage in a narrow waterway.

Yi plans to trap the Japanese until the current changes. All he has to do is hold the Japanese for about two hours and then the battle will be his.

Yi also has a trick that the Japanese are unaware of but soon will know that he has laid an iron chain across the narrows. This will trap and block the Japanese ships until the tide turns and current rips the Japanese fleet. The chain will also box the Japanese fleet into a compact mass so any cannon shot from the Koreans will hit a target while the same can not be said for the Japanese.

Next week will be an interesting set of shows.

This was my weekend gentle readers. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

Be well and stay happy.

Minneapolis Wedding Weekend Conclusion

Minneapolis Wedding Weekend Conclusion
This is the wrap up of the weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota for my niece’s wedding.

When my Brother and I were having lunch, we talked about flying home. I said I was scheduled to fly out around Noon but was planning on going to the airport early and see it I could catch an earlier flight to the Coast. His flight was set to leave at 5:00 PM and that would put him into San Francisco International really late and then the drive home from there.

I suggested he catch an earlier flight so he could get home at a reasonable hour. He came around to the idea when he figured that everyone else would want to leave early in the morning and he would be stuck in the hotel lobby or airport lobby for several hours.

When we got back to our hotel, he called his airline and managed to get on a Noon flight as well. This would get him home in the late afternoon, much better arrangements.

People are different in the Midwest you know.
That’s the opinion of me and my Brother and my cousin from Connecticut.

People in Minneapolis do not have tans like we do here in California at the beach. I was just not ready for all of that pasty white skin. Nasty. I felt really out of place in my Tommy Bahama Aloha shirt with my tan arms sticking out as I was walking around downtown Minneapolis.

The Wedding
The wedding was a nice wedding as weddings go. It was a short service and we were pleased with that.

The minister struck me as being on funky side, sort of a through back to the 1960s. All he needed was some love beads and a peace button. I think it was his messy, unkempt hair that made me nervous. The Brother was not impressed by him either; he would know since he played the father of the bride a little over a month ago.

Our cousin, the mother of the bride, did not get along with the minister at all. She said she almost punched his lights out. That would seem to indicate there was friction within the wedding party.

For the family record, I think the minister was selected by the groom and his family.

Speaking of the groom, he looked nervous and scared at the wedding. I do not recall him smiling very much or often. He looked old too. Not a good sign for the future if you ask me.

I don’t think any of the men in the wedding party were comfortable wearing tuxedos. One of the groomsmen took his tuxedo coat off as soon as he got to the reception. I saw him later sitting at an empty table with his feet up on the table and he was talking on his cell phone. If my hearing was a little better, I could have heard half of his conversation.

The Brother and I were placed at a table with six people from South Dakota. Right away, we had very little in common with them except for being citizens of the United States of America and having some minor connection with the bride’s side of the wedding.

There was one ditzy blonde at the table who must have been a model for the “country bumpkin” contest. The favors at the tables included some Hershey’s chocolate kisses. The ditsy blonde decided that my Brother and I did not want our chocolate kisses so she just helped herself to them and put the bag with the crumpled foil from the kisses back in front of our places.

My Brother and I were confused when we sat down and saw the crimpled foil. The ditzy blonde said, almost as a matter of fact, “I figured you wouldn’t want the candy.” She smiled. She looked like the village idiot’s wife then.

Our only explanation was that she was from South Dakota and did not know any better. Our opinion was confirmed when she went to another table and helped herself to someone else’s candy. I guess she did it because she thought she could and that manners and good behavior are things you can leave home.

The Midwesterners have strange customs. They banged their glasses and plates periodically during the dinner. When they stopped, the bride and groom had to get up and kiss each other. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like that before; we figured it was the Midwestern influence again.

This practice went on all through dinner. I thought it was the inmates demanding better food in some 1940s B – prison film. After a while, the DJ drew couples’ names out of a hat so they could get up and kiss each other. That certainly took the focus away from the bride and groom.

The Brother and I left shortly after dinner was concluded and we said good night to the bride and her family. I think that was a smart move. Besides, we got back to the hotel in time to see the end of the Ohio State – Texas football game.

Saturday Night
When I was watching the football game, I saw that my beloved Utes beat Utah State 31 to 7 in Salt Lake City. There was very good. The victory ran their unbeaten string to 18.

I took a photo of Jennifer the desk clerk at the hotel with my cell phone camera. I wanted to see what a photo would look like. It turned out nice but small. I tried to rename the image from Photo 1 to Jennifer. The photo program only allows for a three character name.

Sunday and the Flight Home
I got up early and went to the airport. Jennifer drove the van and that was nice. I gave her a nice tip.

I checked in with America West and inquired about switching to an earlier flight. This being Sunday, my choices were limited. They could get me on an earlier flight but could only give me a seat as far as Las Vegas. I would be listed as a standby and have to take my chances. I decided to go with my scheduled flights and get home for sure.

I walked on the gate and read. I also did a little people watching.

I was unnerved when America West had to page the flight crew for the earlier flight to report to their gate. Wouldn’t the flight crew know which gate they were supposed to be at and wouldn’t they know when they had to be there? This did not instill confidence in me.

This was September 11th and I had thought that many people would not want to fly on this day. Boy, was I ever wrong. The flight was full. There was no crummy in-flight movie on this older and smaller aircraft.

The flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles was also crowded but it was a short flight so that was a little better for me.

Catching Up with the Princess
You may recall that the Princess was going to be in Phoenix this weekend for one of her best friends from high school’s wedding. Since my plane was early and I only had to walk across the concourse to my new gate, I had lots of time to kill.

I phoned her to say hello. She was in the airport but at a different terminal so we could not get together. The Princess was shocked when I told her about her uncle and my experience with the ditzy blonde from South Dakota.

I asked her what sort of favors Tami had. The Princess said Tami had an open bar instead. She and her best friend Kim thought that was an excellent solution. They were even happier when they were placed at the table nearest the bar. I suppose they were on first name basis with the bar tender before the wedding was over.

Bad Tats and Bad Thongs in Phoenix
I think most of you know I am not a big fan of tattoos on women or men. Some tats, like an eagle, globe, and anchor, from military service or a small rose on an ankle are fine.

I saw one young woman in Phoenix who had a really bad tat. It looked like she had a fungus on her foot and it was moving up her leg. It was mostly red and green and was an intricate, almost Eastern or Hindu, influenced design.

It started just back of her toes and came to her leg. There, it went around her leg and up it until it reached her calf, maybe six or seven inches or sixteen centimeters. It did not look pleasing to me. She also had another tat on her arm and one more, that I could see on the back of her neck. Since she was standing opposite where I was sitting in the boarding area, it was hard not to see her and the tats.

She also sat next to me on the plane so I could not avoid seeing the tats. I decided to not strike up a conversation with her. There was no reason to do so.

One of Ms Bad Leg Tat’s friends was wearing low rider jeans. I have nothing against low rider jeans; in fact, I tend to enjoy them for the most part.

I guess her friend in the low rider jeans did not care about what others thought of her. Her low riders were just too low; I got to see that she was wearing a black thong when she turned around. It had drifted well above the top of her jeans. I got to see part of her butt crack and that was way too much for a gentleman like me to be exposed to.

Since my breakfast had been digested by now, I had nothing hurl from an upset and disturbed stomach.

Ladies, for the love of God and all of humanity, please think first when you are out in the world exposing yourself. Showing too much skin is just not right and painful to behold by others.

Emails
Surprise, surprise, I had an inbox full of junk emails when I got home. I had133 emails and all but 16 were spam or other forms of junk. It took a while to clean out the inbox.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin
I missed the Saturday episode. I don’t think I missed all that much from what I saw on Sunday.

The emotional and short sighted replacement admiral, Won Kyu, had dutifully followed the king’s orders and engaged the numerically superior Japanese fleet. The Japanese had over 1,000 warships at the start of the battle and the Koreans had about 200 warships. The outcome, based on size of the fleets, would seem obvious and it was.

At the end of the battle, only twelve Korean ships survive. That’s a 95% loss rate. You can’t win a war with losses like that.

The Koreans are in retreat everywhere. Their naval bases have been captured or destroyed. Stores have been burned to prevent the Japanese from getting them. Their Chinese allies have retreated all the way back to China across the Yalu River in a matter of a few short weeks.

Oh yes, the king has recalled Yi Soon-Shin and restored him to his old rank. The delusional king expects Yi to turn the tide of the war, now in its sixth year.

And so gentle readers; this concludes my weekend in Minneapolis.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

Hello again gentle readers. The weekend is almost here and I can hardly wait for it to arrive. With all of the trouble at work, I am looking forward to no emergencies.

We had some more trouble at work today. Our network connections at the phone company went out for maybe two or more hours. The network administrators restored the connections and we were able to complete a full day’s work in our regular offices.

My Amazon.com books arrived this morning. They had been sitting on the truck since Tuesday. I am looking forward to starting to read them this weekend. I hope it is sunny so I can read out on the balcony on Sunday.

Maybe even smoke a cigar too. That would be very nice indeed.

It was Day 43 in the Non-Deconstruction of the building next door. One of the two palm trees on the roof of the building is starting to look poorly. I think it has not had any water in over two months. I am not sure if it will last until the rains come.

The Big Guy called today. He was in a break from his Film Production class and wanted to know if I knew where the Korean Friendship Bell was located. I said of course I know, I’m the Navigator,

The Big Guy has to go there for a location scouting exercise for class. He needs to take some photos of the place and develop some other information and then put it all on a poster board for class. It should be an easy project for him. He plans to get a couple of disposable cameras and take his photos on them. Then, drop the cameras off at a one hour photo kiosk for developing.

We plan to have lunch while the film is being developed. We have to kill time and going to the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers at Rampart and Beverly in downtown adjacent Los Angeles is an excellent way to kill time.

The Korean Friendship Bell was a gift from the people of Korea to the people of the United States following the Korean War. It is in Los Angeles because we have a large Korean community here.

I was surprised about the professor’s choice of the Bell as a standard location scout site. It is probably fifty miles and a bunch of kilometers from the university. For some students, they will be looking at a drive of over 125 to 150 miles or more. That will hurt the gasoline budget.

The location exercise takes up the middle of Saturday. I will do some other minor tasks before and after the exercise. I also need to phone the Princess to see how the latest order of brownies tasted. The brownies are scheduled to arrive on Friday sometime.

Sunday is a day to go to the cinema. I think I may see either THE CORPSE BRIDE or the LORD OF WAR. Interesting choices.

This will be a slow weekend I hope and I hope you all have a great weekend too.

Be well and stay happy.

MIA Chuck

Hello again gentle readers. I was not here last night to continue the multiple parts of last Weekend’s Update.

Building Evacuation
I was busy with an emergency evacuation of our office building yesterday. We were given less than thirty minutes to shut everything down and get the staff out safely. We were told about the evacuation right in the middle of the lunch hour.

Just wonderful timing.

I got involved in the evacuation process because I tend to be a leader in when things go badly. The military does teach officers to handle challenging situations in a calm and reasoned manner. The other bank officer who was helping manage the evacuation process was nervous and tense.

I tried one of those press on this spot and see how stressed you are cards that she had in her office. I filled the card with a nice, calm, dark blue spot; I was very relaxed. She was surprised at how calm I was.

We got the staffers organized with packing things up and shutting down the servers and the rest of the equipment while the other officer and I made phone calls up and down the line to let everyone know why we would not be answering the phones. Everything went very well and we were able to walk out of the office with five minutes to spare. We did not have to walk down the stairs

The staff got sent home early for the day. I took our messenger bags to another office so that they could be delivered. Then, I worked at the other office for a couple of hours before a drive home that took two hours.

We talked again after I got home about what we would do in the morning. We decided to try to go into work. I would go in early and then call her so she could let the rest of the staff what to do.

I checked the phones off and on all night long to see if power has back in the office. There was no power as far as I could tell when I left home to go see what was happening. I could see the building was dark as I drove up. There were workers outside of the building working to fix a leaking water line that had caused the evacuation.

The leaking water line had knocked out the water supply to three other buildings in addition to our building. The other buildings had power but no water. We had no water and no power because the leak almost flooded the building’s electrical distribution room. The electricity was shut off to prevent an explosion. Nice.

We talked again after contacting the building management who gave us a fuzzy estimate of when the repairs would be completed. The estimate said hopefully the building would be ready to be used around 1:00 PM.

We kept the other staffers home and had them work from home over the Internet. I went to work at another office instead of going home. I was productive in the other office and I did meet some people that I had only talked to previously. It was nice to put a face with the voices.

Around 1:00 PM, the work was finished and we returned to the office to finish out the day. The air in the office was a little on the stale side because there was no air conditioning running for most of yesterday and today. By going home time, it was starting to smell better.

Non-Deconstruction Day
We are now up to Day 42 at the building next door. Nothing happened.

The building workers replaced the emergency evacuation sign in the elevator lobby. They did their usual poor job and left a bunch of grubby finger prints on the nice, freshly painted, crème colored walls. Nice touch not.

Missing Books
I had ordered some books from Amazon.com. They were supposed to be delivered yesterday by UPS. But, with the building being closed, there were no deliveries yesterday and there were none this afternoon. I tried the UPS package tracking feature to see where the books were. The most recent listing was yesterday morning at 4:00 AM when they left the UPS office.

I wonder where the books are.

Missing Weekend Update segments
I think I will try to put out all of the missing Weekend Update segments from my trip to Minneapolis in one large blog over the weekend.

Yes, I know Yoda said that there was no to try but Master Yoda did not live at the beach at the end of Summer. That does make a big difference to me.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - Part Two

Here we are again gentle readers. This is Part Two of my weekend in Minneapolis for my niece’s wedding.

Cruising Downtown Minneapolis
My Brother had his mind sort of set on cruising around the city for part of the day. We had tons of time to kill what with waking up around 8:00 AM and the wedding not being until 4:00 PM.

We headed off after breakfast to see what we could find. He drove and I handled the navigation. I think I did as good of a job as the nav-computer in the Big Guy’s Honda. Granted my voice is not like the one in the computer, I do have the ability to think around traffic jams and missed turns and can see short cuts on a map.

The first stop was the Metrodome. I have no idea why we went there except that the Brother wanted to see it. It was strange to see people gathering for a college football game that early in the day. All I can say about the Metrodome is that it is big and round and sort of a dullish grey color.

Then, we went on to find a restaurant that my Brother had been in years ago. We had no idea if it still existed so we asked a helpful doorman at the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel. Yes, Murray’s was still in business and he gave us the necessary directions. It took us longer than what we thought was necessary to find the place; parking is really bad there because you can only park on one side of the street. San Francisco is even better at street parking.

Anyway.

We got there after parking and then walking a block. It still has the same food on the menu. I think the prices have gone up. Murray’s is an old through back, 1940s era steakhouse with dancing to a live band upstairs. If I had brought my cellphone, I could have taken a photo of my Brother in front of Murray’s

We were shocked; shocked I say when we went to leave the parking lot. It was $5.00 for the first half hour. We nearly had a stroke. $5.00 for thirty minutes is more expensive than a lot of places in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Lunch
We were hungry and knew we needed to eat before the wedding. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a local Houlihan’s Restaurant. It was as we expected it would be. We sat in the bar and watched the Michigan – Notre Dame football game.

My Brother had a burger and fries and an iced tea. I had a turkey club sandwich and a great bowl of tomato basil soup and an Arnold Palmer [half iced tea and half lemonade]. We had a great server, Aimee, who looked stunning. Even if I had my cellphone, it would have been too dark to take a photo of Aimee, assuming she gave me permission to do so. The food was very good and filling. I indulged myself with a dish of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

For the record, it was a small dish. Aimee did not think ahead to encourage a nice tip by increasing the amount of ice cream.

I only have eleven more subjects to talk about from the weekend so I ought to finish before too long. I may end up combining some of the topics to save time and space. It is much easier to write a Weekend Update as you go along but I was not going to lug my laptop to Minnesota and back to save a few hours at home.

Non-Deconstruction Days
I guess the work on my floor in the office building is finished at Day 15. The old paint cans have been taken away and the walls were all touched up. New signs have gone up in the hall.

Our office’s custom signs have not been put back up yet. I think they have been down since before July. The emergency sign in the elevator lobby is still missing. All in all, I think I will give the building credit for a completed job.

It was Day 40 at the building next door and nothing happened since I checked in on the building on Thursday before I left work for the day. I wonder when work will start up again next door.

Morton’s Steak and Lobster Dinner
The Big Guy and I connected today. He had to go to school early to return the movie camera he checked out over the weekend. We picked a day for the dinner, September 24th. This day was a compromise choice and seemed to make the best of the available days for us. I know I have no desire to drive out to the restaurant after work for dinner.

We decided to invite my friend Sharon because she is fun to be around and likes going to Morton’s with us. We also plan to invite the Big Guy’s friend Evelyn because you can never have too many “hot chicks” around you and the Big Guy’s friend Robin.

The Big Guy said Robin may want to bring his girl friend. This is not a big deal since she is a vegetarian and does not have a fun time at the steakhouse. The last time she went with us, Robin and the Big Guy had an eating contest with steak as the primary ingredient. I think she was not pleased with the contest or the outcome.

Power Failure
The power in most of the City of Los Angeles went out for up to two hours today. Power in our building was out for about forty minutes. Our office is in the City of Los Angeles. All I did was read today’s Wall Street Journal from cover to cover today by the big conference room window.

I was the senior person in the office today and will be for the rest of the week. This is the Toronto Film Festival and two other senior managers from the Film Finance division are there for the week.

The power failure was not an act of terrorism. The Los Angeles city workers cut the wrong electrical cable and caused the outage. Of course, nothing will happen to them because they are civil service workers. You can be lazy, slow, and even incompetent but you can’t get fired as a city worker.

Breaking Concrete
I think I have mentioned to you before that our building is going through a cosmetic renovation. I think we are well over a year into the process. I think this is a waste of money because the age of the building has not changed any; it is like putting new lipstick on a very old pig.

Workers started breaking up concrete this afternoon. They were working right under my office space. The noise and the vibration were very distracting. Eventually, the noise got the better of me and I had to leave early. It was either leave early or come home with a splitting headache and be stuck in heavy traffic.

I hope the workers finish off their concrete breaking work tonight so that tomorrow life will be nicer for me.

I will leave you with the sound of jackhammers pounding away on concrete and the warning bells from heavy equipment backing up. Nasty stuff.

Weekend Update - Part One

Hello gentle readers, so much happened to me that I hardly know where to begin. I suppose I could go chronologically and leave it at that. Chronologically is a simple but elegant solution.

The Friday Flights
I flew America West to the wedding in Minneapolis because I saved around $200 and that just about completely covered my hotel room. Sweet exchange there.

My flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Friday morning was full. That was no surprise to me or anyone else on the flight. I had a younger [than me] Asian woman sit next to me on this flight leg. She was attractive and, from what I could see of her all important ring finger on the left hand, was single.

I had thought about starting a conversation with her and considered letting it go where it wanted. I changed my mind because she was going to Las Vegas with three girl friends and that just sounded badly. Girls’ weekend in Las Vegas seems to be a bad idea for guys.

Anyway, I changed planes in Las Vegas and only had to walk three gates from one plane to the next. That was very convenient.

The Las Vegas to Minneapolis segment was only about half full. The middle seats were empty all over the plane. My middle seat was empty. This is always nice and the cabin crew was friendlier than usual.

I was considering renting the ear phones so I could hear the movie. Then, I found out what the movie was and passed on the ear phones. I was not going to pay $5.00 to rent some poor ear phones so I could watch the Adam Sandler version of The Longest Yard.

I had also thought about buying one of America West’s boxed meals for $5.00. I decided against that because I could not see my way clear to spending that much on a small collection of salty snacks.

I figured I could hold out until dinner and dinner would be early so everything would be just fine. I started thinking about dinner and decided that a big, thick cheeseburger with fries and a cold beer would be excellent. I could put ketchup on the fries and eat healthy because of the anti-oxidant lycopene in the ketchup.

Friday Night in Minneapolis
I had to wait for the hotel shuttle to pick me up at the airport. I killed the time by talking to the flight crew from the Las Vegas to Minneapolis segment. There was one single flight attendant and she seemed promising until I learned that she was based in Phoenix and came from Texas.

That seemed to violate Reinhardt’s Third Law of Dating that says never go out with a woman who lives three area codes away.

When she lit her cigarette, it made it very easy for me to say, “Here’s my shuttle, I hope y’all have a safe flight tomorrow. Maybe I will see you when I fly back to Los Angeles on Sunday.”

As the hotel shuttle got off the freeway from the airport, I saw there was a Chipotle Mexican Grill across the street from the hotel. This sounded to me to be a good place to go for dinner. The Big Guy regularly goes to Chipotle and says it is good but it is not as good as Albertacos.

When I caught up with my Younger Brother, I suggested that we go to Chipotle for dinner. He had been thinking about burgers but changed to Mexican since it was close and we did not need directions.

One of the first things my Brother said was that he had disowned one of our cousins because he did not go to the wedding nor was he planning to go to a reception from the bride and groom in the bride’s hometown. That really bothered the Brother.

We each had the three soft tacos meal and we split and order of chips and salsa. I said that we should have a beer with the tacos and volunteered to pay for them. An excellent meal by all counts.

To our common shock and surprise, we were both carded. We both thought this was a joke but the cashier was serious. Neither one of us had been carded for over thirty years. With full heads of gray hair, we hardly look underage anymore. Still, the cashier closely looked at each one of our driver’s licenses. Since they were from California, could he tell a real one from a fake? Probably not.

We got back to the hotel and talked for a bit more. Then, we went to bed because we were tired. I was just about to crawl in bed when my cousin phoned me from the lobby and said to come on down and meet everyone.

I got introduced to everyone and promptly forgot most everyone’s names. I am not good with names, never have been actually. I was surprised to find there were a dozen or so Amish friends of my cousin who had traveled from Pennsylvania to the wedding. The Amish are very friendly but always seem to look so very serious. Maybe it is the oddly shaped beards and the dark, plain clothing that gives them the serious look. After about an hour of idle conversation, I decided it was time for me to go to bed.

And I did and I slept soundly as well.

End of Part One. Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

Well, gentle readers, it is weekend preview time. But first, the usual stuff that I write about.

Non-Deconstruction Days
It was Day 38 at the building next door and nothing happened except the security agent parked his or her car in a different spot today, hardly earth shattering.

There was some more activity on the floor today. Painters came up to the floor this afternoon and were loudly discussing what they were going to do or have done. The conversation was in Spanish so I was out of the loop.

They did rearrange the pile of paint cans in the hallway. The pile looks messier now. It was Day 13 here.

The Film Shoot
The Big Guy called today after his Film Production class. It seems he has overcome the earlier troubles he had with loading the 16 mm camera. He even helped another student who was having trouble as well.

He has to take a bunch of shots this weekend; I think he needs to take nine or so. He is planning on having his friend Robin Brown play the part of the actor in the shots. The Big Guy wanted to know if I could play the part of the actor double in case Robin is unable to do so.

I trouble the Big Guy that I will be out of town on Saturday at his cousin’s wedding. I said I could do the shots on Sunday afternoon when I return. I figured we would two to two and half hours of daylight to get the shots in. He thought that would work out nicely. We even picked a tentative venue; an empty parking lot section of a local mall.

Reading
I have a very eclectic reading style. I finished a book about gunpowder and then read a Star Trek based book. I just ordered some classic Chinese books from Amazon.com.

One of the books is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It comes in four volumes and is about 2400 pages long. This is not going to be a book I can read over the weekend. I am thinking these books will take me into the end of the year to finish.

I also ordered a couple of novels based on the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era. They are both part of a series of books; once you start with one book, it is difficult not to finish the story out to its conclusion. These are weekend reads. They are about 350 pages long and the pages turn quickly

After all, it would be so wrong to give up blogging for reading.

The Niece’s Wedding
I have another niece’s wedding to go this weekend. It is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is my second trip to Minneapolis in my lifetime. This is not a vacation destination when you live at the beach.

I talked with the Younger Brother today since he is more connected to this side of the family. I was wondering what was going to happen. All he could provide in the way of information was the wedding was going to happen on Saturday but everything was uncertain. I think we may end up having a simple dinner on Friday. Burger, fries, and cold beer would make an excellent meal in my mind.

Obviously, the wedding will play a big part of the Weekend Update for the 11th.

Consulting Project
I have agreed to take on a minor consulting project as well. I am going to help a Chinese company refashion its United States marketing and distribution strategy. This will fill up time while I am in the thin aluminum tube that is hurtling through the skies [my airplanes] this weekend.

The company’s products are unique and high quality. They are reasonably priced and are unlikely to cause the loss of any American jobs. I think the basic issue is a refocus of the company’s target market in light of its product strategy. Currently, the products are not appropriate for their planned strategy.

You can make the world’s greatest buggy whip and sell it at rock bottom prices. Great as your whips are, Wal-Mart is not going to order any in the very near future.

My biggest challenge will be persuading the owner to change is ideas. I think I know more about the American consumer, having been one for over fifty years. Time will tell if I am correct or not.

That about wraps things up for Thursday. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will see up again in the 11th.

Be well and stay happy.

Nothing much happened today

Hello again gentle readers.

Just like the topic says, nothing much happened today for me. My drive to and from work went smoothly and without too much traffic or delays. Work was good and productive.

Non-Deconstruction Days
Surprise, surprise, there was nothing happening at the building next door today. It looked just it did yesterday and the day before. Today was Day 37.

The building workers were active again on our floor. They came and removed the emergency evacuation sign from the elevator lobby. There were new holes in the wall and exposed and damaged paint. Wouldn’t it have been logical to do all of the sign removal and installation work at the same time? I think that would save time and money. Today was Day 11.

The fire hazard from the buckets of paint stored on the floor still exists. I suppose if the paint is latex based then the fire hazard is reduced.

Theater Choice
My friend Sharon said she would prefer to go see the comedy play and the play about Katherine Hepburn. That made my decision. I know a couple of people that would love to have the tickets to the other play.

If it was my choice, I would have gone with the Katherine Hepburn play. She was such a great force in American cinema that a play about her life, told by her character, would have been fascinating.

I wonder if the film studies major Big Guy would have any interest in the play. If I had to guess I would say no because he loves the moving image too much plus he would have to dress reasonably well, no torn jeans.

That is about all that happened to me today. I wish there was more but some days are just slow days.

Be well and stay happy.

Tuesday and the week is almost half over

Hello again gentle readers.

The week is almost half over for me. I have a vacation day on Friday so I can go to my other niece’s wedding. This time I fly to Minnesota. The Younger Brother will be there but the Princess and the Big Guy are staying at home.

The Princess
The Princess called me to say return from a long weekend in Hilton Head, South Carolina with her roommate Emily. She said she had a lot of fun and really enjoyed herself. Phrases like that can upset some fathers. I have not worried about the Princess since she was in high school. I trust her judgment completely.

Home Networking
The home networking project ended this morning when the Apple tech support person suggested the Big Guy call Linksys because they could not help him out. If you recall, it was Linksys that suggested we call Apple tech support.

The Big Guy did say that Apple played rock and roll music while he was on hold and that he heard Bob Dylan. He also got to speak to a real live American and not a tech support person in Bangalore or Mumbai.

We decided that we ought to give up the project as a lost cause now. He was able to unwind things in less time then we spent on the phone with tech support. He sounded relieved when the project got unwound this afternoon.

Non-Deconstruction Days
Today was Days 36 and 11. Nothing happened to or at the building next door except maybe the wind blew the dry leaves around a bit more today.

There was more activity on our floor today. The painters came by over the weekend or early this morning and touched up the repaired wall spots. This afternoon, the building maintenance workers came by and put up some new signs. They avoided putting our signs up. Maybe they will get to our signs tomorrow.

Haircut
I got my hair cut tonight. I left work early so I could get in and out in a hurry. How was I to know it was get your kids’ hair cut before school starts day. The salon was crowded with grubby little urchins who had no sense of proper behavior like not bothering others. This was another reminder of why I don’t want to have any more children of my own. Grandchildren are fine because they eventually go home with your children.

I would write more gentle readers but, since I did not get home until 8:00 PM, I will go to be instead.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers. I hope you had a good weekend. One of the nice things about the Weekend Update is that I have more time to write it. Normally, I write my daily blog posting after my dinner and before I go to bed. That limits the time available to think first and then write.

On the weekend, I have a couple of hours to think and write each day. Since this is a holiday weekend, I have an extra day.

Thursday Holdover
I did have a holdover from Thursday that I never got around to including in that blog. I had called the Big Guy to confirm the Saturday home networking project. That conversation went smoothly and quickly which is not all that surprising since we had been planning it for several days and more than one prior phone call.

What was odd was that when I phoned the Big Guy on the cell phone I got the Old Girl Friend instead. This was truly odd and obviously unexpected. After we got over the initial shock, we had a nice little talk. It was an odd talk.

She was waiting for friends to join her so they could all go to dinner. I had finished my dinner an hour and half earlier. I figured it would be a late dinner for her. I caught up with her on Friday and learned that she did not get home until after midnight. I know that she is not a morning person and one who enjoys her sleep.

If the play is crummy, we can always walk out at intermission and go do something else.

I mentioned that I was going to be going past her office building on Friday on my way to our Glendale office. I had to go there and get some information so I could work on two loan requests. She said that I should stop by and that we could go to lunch. I said I would call her if I would be able to join her.

Non-Deconstruction Days
It was Day 35 for the building next door.

But, things were happening in the floor hallways in my building. The paint had been touched up overnight; you could smell the paint odor as soon as you stepped off of the elevator. The ripped off sign holes had all been patched and were drying before they can be painted. This was real progress. Maybe the workers will finish up over the long weekend.

Donut Friday
I woke up on Friday morning precisely at 4:54 AM with a horrible shooting pain from a really nasty cramp in my right calf. There was just no way too massage the cramp away. I was up walking around and stretching my leg for about 15 minutes. In spite of all of the work to fix the cramp, I was troubled by pain all day and into Saturday afternoon.
Friday was the first Friday of the month. That means it is Donut Friday. I bring in donuts for the office staff. This is something that they look forward to. So do I.

I also bring in a box of donuts for the valets who park my car every day. I know I do not have to do this but I would just feel odd if they saw me getting out of my car with a box of donuts for my office. I just think it is the right thing to do.

I am confident that they appreciate the donuts. The box is always gone by the end of the day when I leave. I just assume that the donuts have been eaten. I believe that I benefit from doing this. The valets park my car in the first stall every day so it is easiest to get out. I don’t know how much time this saves me but I figure a couple of minutes here and there in Los Angeles traffic is worth something.

The only problem with being the first car in the parking structure is that it is the one that is covered with construction dust from the outside. It looked really bad this weekend. But, in another week, the construction will change and my spot will not have as much dust blown on it. I may even get my car washed to celebrate the construction progress.

Munching along on a chocolate donut.

I make a point of buying selected donuts for the office assistants [clerical support staff members]. They all have their favorites and I make sure one of each is included in the box I get for the staffers.

One of the staffers changed her mind and failed to tell me. She ended up eating a cinnamon roll that was intended for someone else. Because my office is at the end of the hall in our space, I was out of the loop when one of the staffers got upset because her cinnamon roll had been eaten by someone else. I think everything got sorted out in the end. At least, I hope it was sorted out properly.

I sometimes wonder if buying the donuts is the right thing to do. I do not receive any tangible rewards from spending my money. I know some manager would have put in an expense claim for the donuts but that just seems so wrong on so many points to me.

University of Utah [American] Football
Our beloved University of Utah opened the 2005 football season with a win over the University of Arizona on Friday night. [I can say our beloved because the Princess and I went there.] The final score was 27 to 24 but the game was much closer.

Utah has the second longest unbeaten string in the Division I now; trailing only the defending national champion University of Southern California. That is a tremendous accomplishment since the head coach from last year’s team has moved to a new school and many of the key players from last year are gone as well.

The Princess and I were both very happy with the outcome. We were also overjoyed to see BYU lose 20 to 3 to Boston College. Our second favorite school is any team playing BYU.

The Princess was also very happy that her other college [graduate school] football team win its first game of the season under their new coach. The University of South Carolina is in a rebuilding program and will not be ready to challenge for national ranking for a couple of years.

Last year, Utah ended up the football season ranked as Number 4. This is very good for a small school, second tier program.

Saturday
I had to fill up my car to go to the Big Guy’s house for the home networking project. The station at the bottom of the hill had raised its prices for the grade of gas that I buy from $3.01 a gallon to $3.03 a gallon or $0.80 a liter for those of you in metric land. The other station that I go to raised its prices from $2.85 a gallon to $3.03 a gallon.

I know the United States should move to the metric system and we probably will some day, just not very soon.

I felt very smug and self confident as I drove out to the Big Guy’s. I was driving slower in the Honda Prelude that gets great gas mileage or kilometerage. I snickered to myself as these big gas sucking trucks with their large engines roared past me almost as fast as their gas gauges declined.

Home Networking Project
In a word, the home networking project did not go well for the Big Guy and me.

We discovered that we lacked a key component. That resulted in a call to our ISP’s tech support in Mumbai or Bangalore. After listening to really bad music, Tony said we needed to get a router. He gave us the part number so we were off to the computer store.

There was an accident on the road to the computer store so that made the drive all that much longer. We made it to the store and picked up the router and headed back, confident that we would only be a few minutes at plugging things in and loading software.

Our first attempt at loading the router software onto the Big Guy’s Macintosh G5 failed. We could not get it to load. We tried everything we could think of.

Then, it was back to the boys and girls in tech support.

I spoke with Christine, then Alvin, then Susan, and finally Gabe.

We were not getting anywhere fast. We were not getting anywhere slow for that matter. Not surprising, none of the tech support could help us even though they were the Mac specialists at our ISP.

One of their biggest problem was in not listening to me explain what the problem was. They were telling me how to plug the cables in. They did not hear me say that I could not get the software of their recommended router to load on the G5.

Then, the battery in the cordless phone died or discharged.

We were beginning to get desperate now. The Big Guy phoned the router company’s tech support number on his cellphone. We found a tech support person but he did not know Macs. He shouted out to see if there were any Mac people in the office so he could transfer our call to someone who might be able to help us.

There were no Mac experts on duty to help us. At this point, we knew we in deep, deep trouble.

The router tech support guy suggested that we call Apple for help.

At this point, we were three and a half hours into the project and all we had to show for our efforts was frustration and more frustration. We decided to call a halt to our efforts and go grab some food. Neither one of us had eaten since early morning and it was not getting close to 4:00 PM.

Lunch or Dinner
We went to the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers for lunch at the almost local store. We both had the Mega Combo which is three patties of beef, three slices of cheese, tomato, onion, pickles, and chili; chili cheese fries; and a very large drink. You need the very large drink because of the chili. The hamburger is wrapped in paper and it leaks chili all over the place. You have to use paper towels as napkins; they are so much more effective in picking up the messes.

I was very pleased with myself since I did not spill any chili on my shirt. Neither did the Big Guy.

This is a very satisfying and extremely messy. I did not have anything else to eat all day after lunch. I felt full when I went to bed around six hours later. I know my spirits improved as we were eating the food.

DVD Planet.com
The Big Guy had hinted earlier in the week that we could go to DVD Planet.com, our favorite DVD store after we ate at Tommy’s. I was feeling poorly and I figured he was as well.

Going to DVD Planet seemed like a good idea to me. We needed something to go right for us on Saturday. The Big Guy picked up four DVDs that seemed on the obscure side to me. Since he is a film studies major at university, I guess he knows what he is have me buy for him.

I have been building a DVD collection over the last year and a half. My collection is based on the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Films. While one can argue that CITIZEN KANE is over rated and complain that all foreign films are off of the list and therefore deeply flawed, it is still a reasonable basis to start a collection from.

DVD Planet has just organized a section of the store that has the AFI 100. Now, I can go there and look for any new releases instead of having to wander aisle and aisle in different sections looking for a new release. I picked up seven of the missing films and felt very good about that. I now have 84 out of the 100. I will pick up two more by the end of the month so my collection is looking very good now. I think that by the end of the year I will be close to completing the collection as I can be since some films are not available on DVD.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin
I caught the weekend episodes and they are up to 91 now. The program could end at 100 and then I would be out of luck for my weekend television viewing. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

The Saturday episode was devoted to mostly non-combat activities. The replacement admiral learned plain, cold, simple truth that Yi was correct and that he could not attack the Japanese because he did not have enough warships and because the Korean army could not seize the heights that control a key waterway.

The combat situation is almost like the Gallipoli campaign in the First Word War with minor changes. The Japanese, like the ANZAC forces nearly ninety year ago, are bogged down in a beachhead lodgment area and are unable to advance. They are currently being supplied by sea. Their morale is good.

The Korean forces resemble the Turkish forces. They are poorly led and fed, are ill-equipped, and ruled by a corrupt and ineffective monarch.

The battle is in a stalemate position now. The Japanese think they can break the stalemate and break out of the beachhead area. They have sent a new army of 120,000 soldiers to the area. They believe they will succeed because the Koreans have removed their most successful leader Yi Soon-Shin and made him a private soldier now.

The Japanese see this as a key shift; they have momentum and will of force behind them. They believe correctly that Yi’s removal will weaken the morale of the Korean forces opposing them. This has already happened. The weakening of the Korean leadership and battle capabilities has increased as the replacement admiral has removed more and more of the mid-level officers of the navy because they do not believe in his tactics or battle plans.

The Japanese almost destroyed the Korean fleet in a nicely setup ambush battle that the replacement admiral fell for. The battle was still going on at the end of the episode so I don’t now the final outcome but I can make a really good guess.

The Koreans sailed through a storm to get to the battle area. This exhausted their rowers; the vessels are mostly powered by oars. The Korean ships have sails but they rarely seem to use them. The Korean fleet navigator reported they are missing twenty warships just before they started to engage the Japanese. The replacement admiral realized that he was in no position to engage the Japanese and withdrew.

One of the key points one has to remember is the Korean vessels are all built for coastal waters and carry very limited supplies. The Japanese ships are not that much better. They both have to land frequently to resupply the crews with food and water.

I found the lack of deep water sailing capability odd. Their neighbors, the Chinese, had built large, ocean going, deep water ships that traded with the Persian Gulf, Australia, and even sailed to North America. These large ships were build over 150 years earlier than where we are in the timeline. I find it amazing that the ship building knowledge and ability did not get passed on the Koreans and the Japanese.

Back to the episodes.

Episode 91 ended with the landing party being attacked by well rested and better armed Japanese soldiers. It was not an even fight and the Koreans took heavy losses. The survivors retreated to the beaches where their ships lay anchored in very shallow water or beached on the sand. Perhaps, when the survivors reach the ships, they will have a chance to make it out of the battle in one piece.

The battle should go to the Japanese. The Koreans apparently lost twenty ships in storms at sea and the other ships took damage from the larger number of Japanese vessels with cannons. The landing party is in extremis right now. This is not going to make happy reading for the unbalanced Korean king.

Movies
I saw only two films over the long weekend. Of course, Saturday was spent engaged with the home networking project.

The first film I saw was THE CONSTANT GARDENER. The Big Guy thought it was a very good film so that was a plus for it. The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles who made the CITY OF GOD, a film that made both of our Best Films of 2002 lists.

While I liked the film and thought it is well worth seeing, I felt that it could have been made better with some judicious cutting. After all, a butt shot of a naked woman who is extremely pregnant does not have to be shown several times for example. Once is more than enough. There were other scenes that seemed to be added for no apparent reason.

The film uses a great deal of what the Big Guy calls “shaky camera,” where the handheld camera is unstabilized. This provides or is supposed to provide a more realistic image on the screen. It can be a bit annoying to some people like me.

At the end of the film, I was unsure of which character I disliked more. There are many to choose from. There are the obvious, stylized generally dislikeable characters like the greedy industrialist, the honorless intelligence agent, and the politicians at home. I ended up disliking the Ralph Fiennes character because he was so out to touch with everyone except his plants until it was too late to do anything about the events as they came crashing down around him.

The other film was TRANSPORTER 2. This was a straight forward good versus evil film where the good guy wore black. There are no subtle plots or significant messages except that the Audi A8 is a great car for tight situations so long as you can drive like Frank Miller. I guess Audi put up more production assistance money than BMW who provided the car in the original TRANSPORTER. Or, maybe BMW did not want to be associated with a character whose past is anything but neat and tidy and whose habits and practices only seem to skirt law.

I think the A8 deserves honorable mention as best supporting actor for its work in this film. The car chases through Miami are excellent and very well done. At one point, I was expecting Crockett and Tibbs from Miami Vice to appear in a cameo.

The plot in this film is very linear. The good guy is introduced. The bag guys are introduced. The bad guys do something bad. The good guy sets everything right and kills almost all of the bad guys.

The Frank Miller character plays like a young Clint Eastwood “man with no name” and “Dirty Harry.” I liked the character and his sense of honor and duty. The film also has a bunch of the other usual characters from a crime drama including the overweight Southern police official who is really slow and semi-toothless Caribbean immigrant cab driver who ends up with a yellow Porsche 911 convertible as his cab after the bad guys shoot up the Ford. Since the bad guys are dead, no one complains about the change of use for the Porsche.

I would recommend both films.

They are both well made in their respective genres. TRANSPORTER 2 is a pure Summer action adventure film while THE CONSTANT GARDENER is one of those thought provoking films that usually show up in the Fall in time for Academy consideration.

Odds and Ends of the Weekend
I sent the Old Girl friend some stamps. She has been trying to send out thank you cards from the first part of July. I figure the stamps will be a big help to her; I have already given her the addresses three times now.

I spoke to the Big Guy today. He had not any luck with the Apple tech support. He thinks we may have to abandon the whole project. I think it is a solvable project but we are missing a key element and I am not sure where to turn for help. I suggested that he talk with his friend Derek because Derek has set up a Mac based home network.

I had asked my friend Sharon to go to the theater in Pasadena with me in October. We were going to see a one woman play, starring Kate Mulgrew, about Katherine Hepburn. I got my tickets for the other theater that I go to on Saturday. They are having a performance on the same night as the Pasadena performance. I guess I will ask her which one she would prefer to see and then pass on the tickets to some other friends that I know will enjoy the play.

Wowie kazowie; this blog has spilled onto eight pages of a Word document. Well, I did promise you a longer posting and I think I gave you your money’s worth today. Obviously, Tuesday will be a smaller version of this effort.

Be well and stay happy.