My Mother-in-law showed us this video today.

It’s a testament of a Fathers love. Please watch the entire thing.

I propose to you, that no matter how much love and dedication this man has for his son, your Father in Heaven loves you even more and is your biggest fan.

Grasping that reality will change your life.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle…Georgia Tech either looks really good or it’s going to be a long year at Notre Dame…I hope it’s that we are that good.

Woo-Hoo!

UPDATE: Well, it’s Half Time and Tech is winning 16-0. I can’t complain, but I will…The defense looks stellar. I hope today is a good indicator for the rest of the year. The offense has not been terrible, but it is lacking a bit. 16-0 at the half is not to shabby, but when you look at it, we should’ve had at least 2 more touchdowns if not more. The offense is moving the ball, but is having a hard time finding the end zone. Overall, I’m impressed, but the true test will be the Fourth Quarter. Tech is famous for only playing 3 quarters of football.

My first year at Tech (1992) was the first year Florida State was in the ACC. It was a home game and my roommate and I cheered on the Yellow Jackets. We were winning by 14 points with 2 minutes left. There were lots of high fives and slaps on the back. Man we were going to beat the much-heralded Florida State. This was our year! We were going to be National Champions….

Then Florida State scored 3 touchdowns in 2 minutes….

Yay! The long, dry summer is over.

Time for my favorite time of the year: College Football Season!

Today, my alma mater and team of choice, Georgia Tech, will be playing the evil, Notre Dame “Fighting Irish” *giggle* Like anyone’s ever heard of an Irish Catholic getting in a fight…

I don’t have anything against the Irish or Catholics…but when they are combined and playing against my football team…they become an evil force to be beaten and destroyed.

Talk to me around 5pm today and I’ll probably be singing a different toon as my battered and bruised Yellow Jackets limp off the field.

Jon, I know, I know, I have so little faith.

There are songs that always make me smile. I’ve heard them a million times, yet I still get a big grin on my face when I hear them.

On the way back from lunch, “Lola” by the Kinks was playing. Anyone who’s ever heard the song can probably figure out why it makes me smile. I think the reason I smile is because I remember the first time I really heard and understood the song. Probably like most of you, I had heard the song, or parts of it and was happily singing along when I started to pay attention to the lyrics.

She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said, “Lola”
L-O-L-A Lola, la la la la Lola

Well, I’m not the world’s most physical guy
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
Oh my Lola, la la la la Lola
Well, I’m not dumb but I can’t understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man

Where was this song heading? Once you start to follow the story line, you’ve got to see how it ends…

Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
Except for Lola, la la la la Lola

Well I left home just a week before
And I’d never ever kissed a woman before
But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
She said, “dear boy, I’m gonna make you a man”

Well I’m not the world’s most masculine man
But I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man
And so is Lola…

I just remember laughing out loud. Every time the song comes on, I have to sing along and I just smile.

Another song that makes me smile is “Self Esteem” by The Offspring off their 1994 CD Smash.

I don’t know how many times I heard the song before I finally paid attention to the lyrics and got the point of the song, but it took me longer than it should. It’s a fun song and brings back some great memories from college.

I always got the gist of the song, the guy lacks self esteem…duh…but once I put it all together…

When she’s saying, oh that she wants only me
Then I wonder why she sleeps with my friends
When she saying, oh that I’m like a disease
Then I wonder how much more I can spend
Well I guess, I should stick up for myself
But I really think it’s better this way
The more you suffer
The more it shows you really care
Right? Yeah!

Now I’ll relate, this little bit
It happens more than I’d like to admit
Late at night, she knocks on my door
She’s drunk again and, looking to score
Now I know, I should say no, but
It’s kind of hard when she’s ready to go
I may be dumb, but I’m not a dweeb
I’m just a sucker with no self esteem

*grin*

I still turn up the volume when this song comes on, much to WunderWife’s dismay. Yes, yes, she “gets” the song, but somehow she fails to see the humor in it.

*shrug*

It makes me smile.

My last day here at the City is next Friday.

I’ve been busy wrapping up a few projects and explaining to the interim Capital Development Superintendent what in the world he’s now responsible for.

I am down to cleaning my office and finishing a design for my former boss. The design was originally completed by in 1994 but was never constructed due to budget constraints. Actually, parts of the project were built. That’s been the tough part. Figuring out what was built and what wasn’t.

The plans are not very good. The stationing is odd and one long run of pipe was stationed going the wrong way.

What? You didn’t know there was a proper way to station your storm drain design? Why yes, there is but one way.

The contractor will start at the downstream end of the project and lay pipe from there back upstream until the ending is reached. As is such, you start station 0+00 at the downstream end. Also, your plans need to go left to right. Meaning the downstream end is at the left end of the sheet. That way the stationing and the profile all line up appropriately.

Not having the stationing going in the proper directing and having it go right to left is a huge pet peeve of my former boss. But, in the interest of time, we have decided to let the plans be. They may not be pretty, but they will work.

Our office manager e-mailed today to ask if a going away party next Thursday would be good for me. I asked her if there would be pony rides and balloons. That would be great.

As long as there aren’t any clowns. I hate clowns. Don’t make me wear my clown shirt…

I know I’m no suppose to listen to NPR, but A Prairie Home Companion can be half way enjoyable to listen too. Anyway, there is a line that Garrison Keillor (yes I know he’s a Liberal jackass) uses when he’s reading the news from Lake Wobegon:

Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average

It’s funny because of the implausibility of it all. By definition, not everything can be above average.

That’s the point of this post. The good ol’ Bell Curve.

When I was in high school I heard about grading on the curve, but I never understood what it meant. However, when I got to Georgia Tech I quickly understood the “Curve” and what it meant in everyday life.

I am not a math guy, so I’m not going to explain this very thoroughly, but basically it all boils down to 10-80-10.

In most any event (academic tests, athletic ability, financial status, etc.), the results will tend to break down into three positions: the bottom 10%, the middle 80% and the top 10%.

10-80-10.

What am I talking about? Let’s say you give a test to 100 students. There is a very high probability that the scores from the test would break down using the above criteria. That is what is meant by the “curve”. The graph looks like a bell shaped curve. Looking at the scores for the test, basic statistical methods would be able to group the results into the three positions I mentioned. The Wiki has a great explanation of this. I vaguely remember doing things in calculus that dealt with the bell curve or Normal Distribution as it is more properly called…but that was a LONG time ago.

My point?

Oh yeah, this is not going to be a math lesson, I promise.

When I graduated high school, I was in the top 5% of my graduating class. When I started Georgia Tech, the other freshmen were from the top 5-10% of their graduating classes as well. When we started we were all “Above Average”. In fact, we were all the best of the best.

Guess what happens when you put the best of the best together in a school….

The Bell Curve

Yep. It took about two quarters, but it eventually trended that way. I settled into the lower middle 80%. I had friends that were overachievers and ended up in the top 10% and I had friends that almost flunked out.

What happened? I mean, we were all over achievers in high school. We all did very well on the SAT’s. We all did extracuricular activities. Why did some fail, others achieve and still others settled?

People will tell you it’s because of different socio-economic backgrounds or differences in the quality of the high school you attended or because you were away from home for the first time. Any number of reasons can be given. The true answer is probably a combination of all of the above.

Life is like the Bell Curve. There will always be those that fail, those that have some success and some that are hyper-successful.

Look at wealth. We have poor people in this country that will always be poor. Why? There are lots of theories, but it boils down to ambition. How can I say that? You may think I am being harsh. But think of it this way. There are some poor people who are working to get out of poverty. It happens all the time. Someone decides to fight the shackles of poverty, whatever they may be, and do well in school. Avenues start opening up to that person. College or a good trade become possibilities. Those turn into jobs, which allow that person to leave the poverty ranks and enter into the middle class. It’s a hard row to hoe and it takes a very determined person to make it, but it can be accomplished.

Now turn to the middle class. Some people (like me) are content to be middle class. They have a decent job and prepare for retirement. The upper middle class may start college funds, while the lower middle class struggles to stay where they are at.

But.

There are those that see opportunity or are ambitious. They invent something, work harder, take risks, network, whatever, in order to make it big. The successful ones move into the top 10% of the wealthy.

Like the poverty example, it can happen, but it takes a very determined person who is not afraid of risk or failure.

There is movement within the Bell, but the shape stays the same. You will always have those who have less, those that have just enough and those that have more. It’s part of life.

The great thing about America is that you are only bound to your area of the curve by your own ambition. If you want to move up or down, you are free to do so. It’s one of the things that makes our country so great.

The Bell Curve is also why Socialism/Communism will never work. When you make everyone average and there is no incentive or way to move forward, growth becomes stagnant, innovation stops and apathy sets in. After all, why try? It’s not going to help me any. To some, such as the lower 10%, its a windfall. They now are taken care of and things are great, but the middle 80% suffers and the upper 10% somehow manage to remain in power. Oh yeah, and millions of people tend to die too…but who’s counting?

I think I’ve beaten this horse enough.

The Bell Curve!

Catch the Fever!

This may come as a shock to some of you, but… I…like…Veggie Tales…

There, I said it.

I like Veggie Tales.

Of all the cartoons that the kids have watched over the years (Bob the Builder, Barney, The Wiggles, Arthur and a whole host of other turn your brain to mush shows), the one that I actually enjoy watching are Veggie Tales. In particular, their two movies: Jonah and Lord of the Beans.

The creators do a great job of telling wholesome stories and yet being funny at the same time. The humor isn’t just at the kids level, but parents can enjoy them as well. That is an important aspect of childrens entertainment. After all, the DVD is going to play at least 20,000 times on a continuous loop, the least they can do is make it fun for us too.

When we go on long trips, I hook up the DVD player in the car so the kids can have something to do. While I can’t watch the movies, I’ve seen them all eleventy-billion times, I listen to them. The good ones make me laugh and smile just by hearing them. Veggie Tales shorts and movies are some of my favorites.

My all time favorite character is Mr. Lunt. He’s the gourd with no eyes and the “Mexican-Spanish” accent. In Rack, Shack, and Benny he plays Mr. Nezzer’s assistant. Basically, he’s a boot licker with such lines as “Sure thing, Boss” and “Yes sir, Boss”. It cracks me up every time.

But, my all time favorite Mr. Lunt bit is when he sings “His Cheeseburger” as shown below:

best line:

If the world suddenly ran out of cheese
He would get down on his hands and knees
To see if someone accidentally dropped some cheese on the dirt
And he would wash it off for you!
Wash it off for you!
Clean that dirty cheese of just for you!

Mr. Lunt is also great as one of the members of “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”.

I’ve written before about some of my fears (see here).

Fears are a funny thing. For the most part they are not grounded in reality. I know that’s not always true, but just take a look at my list of fears:

Fear of heights – I’ve never fallen from a great height nor have I ever been stuck or trapped at a great height.

Fear of bees and wasps – I’ve only knowingly been stung by a wasp once. I’ve been stung by things that I suspected were wasps, but I just didn’t see anything. I’ve never been stung by a bee.

Fear of dogs – I was chased by dogs once when I was around 8 years old. I’ve never been bitten by a dog.

So why am I afraid of those things?

I’ve mentioned before my fear of bees and wasps and yet I am fascinated by them. There are only two things I remember from my childhood that could’ve contributed to my fear. Both happened when I was around 8 years old and living in California.

There was one time when I was walking with my mom down our street and we came to what I affectionately call a “bee bush”. It was one of those bushes that has lots of little flowers on it that bees just love. As we were walking towards the bush, my mom noticed my apprehension.

She did what every good parent does, she lied. She said the classic “If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone” line.

Well, as we got next to the bush, a bee flew out and buzzed my mom. She screamed, swatted and ran.

Lesson learned: Bees are EVIL!

The other time was when we had a yellow jacket nest at the corner of our house. It was not very large, maybe 8 or 10 wasps, but you had to walk near it to get to the back of the house. I don’t know why dad did not kill the nest, but he didnt and I had to walk near the nest each time I went to the back yard.

I remember standing and looking at the nest, debating when I should move. Kind of like the scene in all great war movies where the guy hesitates, then moves only to be blown to bits by a shell that would’ve missed him had he not hesitated.

Now that I think of it, I guess there are more reasons why bees and wasps scare me. I remember watching the movie The Swarm, about swarms of killer bees. All I remember is the scene where the bees are coming in through the air conditioner of the car. Was it a VW Bug? Also, I think they led the swarm into the Astrodome and turned the air conditioning down so they stopped flying about. I don’t know, but I do remember it freaking me out.

I found the trailer. God bless YouTube:

Then there was the time that I was with my Granddad in “The Country” and he warned me about underground yellow jacket nests. Great, they build nests underground as well? Sure do, and he warned me that they will fly up your pant leg and sting you multiple times.

Yeah, that freaked me out as well.

We actually found a nest and late that night my Granddad went out and poured gas into the nest and set it on fire. I can vividly remember the fire.

Ok, so maybe my fear is grounded in some reality…some…

Now my fear of heights? That’s just evil. All I am willing to say is that I’m fine until a little voice whispers “you could fall” or “you could drive off the bridge and into the river”.

0.o

Oh my God! You’re right! Now I’m really freaked out! That’s when I become fearful. It’s probably not the healthiest fear out there.

I’m not sure where that fear came from. I do remember being hysterical in the glass elevator at the Old Post Office Building in Washington, DC and being scared to go up in the fake Eifel Tower at Kings Dominion. That may have been the same trip to Virginia when I was around 8 or 9.

Wow, it seems like 8 year olds are very impressionable.

One day I will kick these silly fears.

I finished my last book and now I have started:

NPR has a nice little interview with the author, Max Hastings.

I got a new cell phone today. Since I’m leaving the City, I have to turn in my City issued cell phone and actually get my own.

I went with Verizon. They seem to have the best coverage down here and most of the people I know have Verizon as well. That means free calls.

In searching for a plan, I originally went with AT&T. Why? Mainly because I want an iPhone…I want one bad. So I figured I would sign up for a standard plan and then when I get a bit more money, I would buy the iPhone and just upgrade my service!

There was one flaw in my plan…AT&T’s coverage sucks down here. I had zero bars when I got home. 0, zip, nada, none, zilch. I am going to be using the phone as my primary line, I can’t afford to have a terrible signal. So, I took the phone back, cancelled the service (no charge within 30 days) and walked across the street to the Verizon store.

Today I’m busy copying CAD files, letters and other useful information onto CD’s. When I came here, I brought a bunch of my own stuff. I’m getting what I brought plus the other projects I’ve worked on the past three years. Engineers never re-invent the wheel. Someone, somewhere has done a design or drawn a detail that will work for one of your current projects. It’s a time honored tradition of borrowing other peoples designs and details.

Take the City’s standard specifications. They were written by my boss back in the 80′s for a private engineering firm. When he left, he took a copy of the specs and they became the City’s specs. Same with many of our standard details.

Then there is the task of backing up this website and putting all the parts that make this site the stellar web experience that it is onto a CD.

Three more days.

I don’t have much to say about today, only that the memory of that day is as fresh now as it was six years ago. I’m not going to write about the politics of 9/11, remember, I gave up that sort of thing, but I will point you to Ace’s post on that very topic. He nails it.

No, today, I just wanted to share what I remember about that day and to take a deep breath and sigh. It’s still unbelievable even six years out.

I had been at my new job for less than 6 months. My wife and I had moved back to our hometown not long after our first child was born. She was at home with our only child at the time, when she saw something on the news that didn’t make sense.

She called me as said, “The news is saying that a plane hit the World Trade Center.”

Like everyone else that day, I initially thought it couldn’t be. I assured her that things like that happen. The Empire State Building had been hit a few times over the years by small planes flying in fog or low clouds.

She protested, “No, it’s a clear day in New York and they say it was a passenger plane”.

What was going on?

Then she said the words that I can still hear, “Oh my God! Another plane just hit!”

I’m not sure if I said anything. I meant to tell her I would check and call her back, but I think I just hung up on her.

In the break room was a small TV. I ran down the hallway and rounded the corner just as CNN was replaying the second plane hitting one of the Towers.

My stomach sunk.

What in the world was going on?

I watched TV the rest of the day and probably for the next few days. I was a junkie. I had to know what was going on. How did this happen?

Finally things started to settle down and the facts became clear. Our long vacation from reality was over.

I can’t believe it’s been six years. My oldest is now 7. I have two other children with one on the way. In many ways, my life hasn’t been effected by 9/11. Sure, I got into blogging and the war has been forefront in my mind, but in the end my life has gone on like normal.

Unlike the several thousand who died that day. For them and their loved ones they left behind, time stood still. Forever frozen on a seemingly insignificant date on a cool, clear East Coast morning.

Yesterday, my boss and I met with the Director of Engineering. We’ve been meeting a lot lately to go over my projects and what not.

We talked about a bunch of things and then I tried to be funny:

Director: So, any other burning issues?

WK: Yeah, but the doctor gave me some penicillin and says it’ll clear up in a few days.

Director:…

I thought I was funny. It took them a minute, but they both got it and laughed as well.

Eh, what ya goin’ do?

Rob over at File It Under is one of my blogging heroes. He does his best day in and day out. He also has a great photo blog.

Not to reveal too much about the secret world of bloggers, but Rob and I happen to be twins. Somehow (I blame aliens) we have the same DNA and seem to be living the same life. It’s actually scary how many times we have both commented that we are living the same life.

Anyway, here is a great random post. Random posts about what’s in your mind at the time are fun. Go read it and enjoy the randomness of it.

Best line:

Genghis Khan is my bitch.

Check out previous editions of “I Wish I Had Written That”

Yep, I’m lazy. Deal with it.

I know not all of you read Jeff from The Shape of Days, but you should. His short posts about falling in love with women on the subway are some of his best. This one is no exception.

Best line:

“I’m in love with an albino girl” is probably already the title of an emo song. But if not, somebody should get to work on that immediately.

Check out previous editions of “I Wish I Had Written That”

So I’m sitting here in my running shorts and I’m not wearing a shirt. A few things: no, I don’t run and yes, you should be afraid of me without a shirt.

Anyway. I’m sitting at my new desk, in my new Fake Italian Leather Executive Chair and something unexpected just happened.

As I leaned forward to assume my blogging position (think Quasimodo, well, without the misshapen face), it became clear that my back was stuck to the chair.

I don’t mean stuck, like just a little stuck, nope, I mean stuck like I just ripped off the top layer of my skin.

*Ouch*

What the heck was that about?

It felt like a back sized piece of duct tape had been ripped off my back. It actually sounded like tape being pulled off of the counter top. On the plus side, I now have less hair on my back. On the down side, I now have a furry chair.

*shudder*

Lesson learned: Put on a shirt when you blog.

Today was my last day with the City.

I took a few pictures of the people who make the City great and thought I’d share them with you.

Me and our two CAD operators

Renie is on the left and Jackie is on the right. They have both been with the City for some time and are great at AutoCad. Renie and her two sisters are absolutely crazy. I’m not sure if they still do it, but they use to have Tequila Nights on Friday night.

Jackie is very active in her church and is heading to Africa in a few weeks on a missions trip. She is a breast cancer survivor (double mastectomy) of about 4 years.

Me and our head inspector

That’s good ol’ Donnie. He’s the head of our construction inspection section. He manages 4 inspectors and I think the current number of active projects around town is 34. They stay busy. Donnie was born and raised in Lee County, the county just north of us and has been with the City for over 20 years. He loves his grandbabies and fishing. It is a little known story, but Donnie is part of the reason I came to work for the City.

I was in the private sector designing a project for the City and one day on the job site, this big guy comes up and says, “Mike, how’s it going? Come here, I want to talk to you.” I had no idea who he was. When that happens to me, it really throws me (see here). He talked up the job and really encouraged me to apply.

Me and the Director of Engineering

Good old Bob. Bob started with the City in 1972 as the City’s Traffic Engineer. In one staff meeting, I asked him when he started with the City and he said 1972, to which I replied, “Damn, that was the year before I was born!” Needless to say, he wasn’t very thrilled.

Bob is a survivor. He’s survived at least 5 City Managers and untold numbers of City Commissioners and Mayors. Not only is he a survivor, he’s also a very astute political animal. We all thought Bob’s number was up two years ago, but somehow, he dug himself out of the hole and now the City Manager loves him.

Bobs secret is his management style. Oh sure, there are many things I think he could do better and many things I don’t agree with, but the one thing he does is surround himself with people that make him look good. In the end, he does very little of what you would call real work. Yet, he keeps the department running and stays in good with the Commission and the City Manager. It all comes down to who he hires.

He also is into real estate. He started when he was 40 and now has over 100 rental units scattered around town. He has a few condos along the Gulf and is set up to have a very nice retirement.

Survivor, Political Animal, Real estate Barron…. That’s Bob.

Me and my boss

Rod is my friend.

Sure he was my boss, but in many ways we were a team. It’s amazing how well we complimented each other. He’s been practicing engineering for over 40 years and has seen everything under the sun. The amount of experience and knowledge that he carries around in his head is staggering.

He is my mentor. I have grown so much as an engineer over these past 3 years and that is because of Rod.

He can be ruff and gruff and has some edges that definitely need softening, but on the inside he’s a giant teddy bear. If you did something wrong, or he was upset with you, he would chew you out, but when he was finished, he would look up and say, “Let’s get some lunch.”

I’m going to miss him most over all. If we had the workload that could support him, I would insist that my new company hire him. He is a production machine and can turn out good designs left and right.

Yeah, I’m going to miss him.

He and I started Hawaiian Friday’s. As evidenced by his shirt in the above picture. I wore my Hawaiian shirts all week because I had to turn in my uniform so I did not have one to wear today. But if you saw us on Friday, even if we had a meeting with City Manager, we would be in our Hawaiian shirts.

He is from Poulan, which is about 30 miles to the east of here. His mom worked in the cotton mill and his dad was a plumber. He left for Atlanta in the early 60′s to go to Southern Tech and only has a two-year degree, but he is a Professional Surveyor and has had one heck of a career.

In the end, I almost cried today. I’m very sentimental and would almost cry every time we moved from an apartment when we were first married. As my new boss said, it’s kind of sad, after all a chapter in my life is closing, but a new one is beginning. My three years with the City have added yet another part to what makes me, me.

*sigh*

I can’t wait to start my new job Monday.

It’s Friday night…

Time for a relaxing time playing some Call of Duty 2.

Our Pastor and his wife, along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and our entire clan spent a good chunk of the day working at the Church.

The purpose was to get up our temporary sign letting the world know about our new location. We headed on over to Lowe’s to buy four 4”x4”x10’ posts for the two signs.

A few things: Them things ain’t light and my little truck seems even smaller when you stick 10′ long lumber in the back.

The hardest part was trying to determine the appropriate location for the sign. Our location has a split rail fence along the road right-of-way and there is a pole and street sign at the beginning of the property. It was decided that the best thing to do was for me and my brother-in-law to hold the sign at different locations and at different skew angles while they would drive by on the road. Instructions would follow each pass via a cell phone.

It was quite comical. Jon and I both felt like we were trying to get customers to stop at a car dealership. After an hour of positioning and repositioning, it became clear that the split rail fence was too high and the 10′ posts (only 7′ after setting) were too short. The solution? Buy 4”x4”x12′.

The thought of now having to dig four-foot holes filled me dread and evil forebodings.

Then…

My sister-in-law spoke up and said that the sign company who sold us the sign would put up both for $150 and she felt we should just have them do it.

I wanted to hug her right there.

It was agreed, but now Jon and I had to take the two posts back up the hill to the carport. I had dropped them off earlier, but he did not want to wait for me to get the truck. With him egging me on, we each picked one up, slung it over a shoulder and headed up the hill.

In a bit of sacrilegious humor, he turned to me and said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.”

After the short trip up the hill, we were both hurting and gasping for breath. He commented that neither of us would have made it back in the 1800′s. I agreed, we would both be dead.

Anyway, that was my day. How was yours?

Now I’m off to get the van GooGoo-fied at the wonderful GooGoo Carwash.

Later gators.

WunderKid1 is playing soccer for the first time this fall. He is actually pretty good at it and seems to enjoy it more than baseball. I was good at soccer and regret not keeping up with it when we moved to Georgia.

He had his first game Saturday and I happened to catch his first goal on video. It’s not the greatest quality, but I am proud:

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. As is such, I’m heading to see my new boss up in North Georgia. I should be home late Thursday night.

Unless the Holiday Inn has a computer set up in the lobby, I doubt I will get to blog very much this week. I plan on reading and relaxing each night and just didn’t want the hassle of the laptop.

Try not to burn the place down while I’m gone.

Until then, here are a few pictures of my amazing kids:

The Boys

Cutiepie

More tree monkeys

Diggin’ in the yard

Well, my first day at my new job went very well. We spent a few hours chatting about life, work and what’s ahead. Then I plunged into my first job.

Here’s the thing, my new job requires me to use a different CAD program. It’s actually the one I taught myself on, some 12 years ago. The last time I used it was 6 years ago. Then I switched to AutoCad and have used that since.

I figured it would take me some time to get back up to speed, but it was very frustrating. It took me 3 hours to figure out how to make an alignment. If I was at my old job, I could’ve done it in 10 minutes…

*sigh*

But this too shall pass. In a few short weeks, I’m sure I will be back to my old form with this software. If anything, it’s making the old gray matter function. That’s saying something.

I’m staying at a Holiday Inn Express that backs up to a golf course. I went for a walk/job this morning up and down a few hills. It darn near killed me. Tonight, I sat on top of the hill and talked to WunderWife and the WunderKids. There was a nice breeze and I almost needed a jacket…almost.

My evening view

Nothing beats fresh mountain air.

This morning I ate at the “World Famous Blairsville Restaurant”.

It was pretty good, but “World Famous”?

Eh, I don’t see it.

I avoided the buffet and ordered a Western Omelet. It was pretty good.

Tonight I get to eat with WunderWife’s Grandparents. They have lived up here for the past 20 years or so and are thrilled that I now have a job that will periodically bring me, and thus the great grand babies, up this way.

I think prime rib is on the menu tonight. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I had dinner last night with WunderWife’s Grandparents. Here’s where we ate:

The prime rib was actually very good. Even the pieces of fat melted in your mouth. The funniest part of the evening was paying the bill.

When they stopped by the office, they mentioned taking me out to dinner. I knew that meant they were going to try to pay for it. At the table they told me to order whatever I wanted. Another dead giveaway.

Now, I’ve used this technique before to avoid the inevitable “I’ll get the bill. No I will get the bill. No I will…”, but it was refreshed in my mind yesterday when I read this post over at The Shape of Days. Basically, about 2/3′s of the way through dinner, politely excuse yourself. They will assume you are heading to the restroom. Instead, go find your waitress/waiter and explain the situation to them and hand them your credit card.

I did that and later on once we were finished our waitress brought the bill to me and PawPaw said, “Hey! You weren’t supposed to do that!” I just grinned.

We had a great time talking about everything under the sun. They have lived an exciting life and have traveled all around. They are very southern and I heard a few “chill-rin” for children and “Hawaiya” instead of Hawaii. It just cracks me up.

When WunderWife and I first got married, her Grandmother hugged me and said, “I’m not sure what you’ve decided to call us, but I hope it isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Gurr.” Nope, they are Beeba and PawPaw and always will be.

I saw a great bumper sticker last night. I did take a picture of if, but when I was uploading pictures this morning, I forgot to upload that one and then deleted my pictures…I know, lame.

But I was able to find a similar one on the good old Internets:

The one I saw looked much better than than this. It was on a black background with white letters and didn’t have the silly banjo, but given that Deliverance was filmed near here, it was funny.

I shouldn’t laugh because the guy died, but come on, with a headline like this:

Police: Legally Blind Man Killed While Driving ATV

I know you’ll be shocked to know this:

Haueter also said Hoyle’s friends admitted they all had been drinking prior to the accident.

Yeah, I’m shocked.

Mother Nature can be a harsh mistress. Combine alcohol, an ATV and a blind driver and someone HAS to die. It’s like a law of nature or something.

Tonight I went to Wayne’s house for dinner. Wayne is my new boss and the pastor of what is known as a Simple Church. Basically, it’s a loose collection of house churches. Tonight they were having their Wednesday night meeting and he invited me home for dinner and fellowship.

I had a good time and it was nice to meet his family and another couple who came tonight. He’s been up in the mountains since 2000 and has a nice little house. It’s two bedrooms upstairs with a living room and eat in kitchen. The downstairs/basement has two rooms, one on either side and the middle is an office/den.

The most impressive part about his house/property was his garage. Well, part of it is a garage and the other part is his study. It’s just a short walk up the hill.

Very nice.

The reason I called him Brother Wayne is because it’s a bit of an inside joke. When I first met him, that is how he was introduced to me and for many years after he would call me Brother Mike. It just seems to fit.

He has a great family and I’m glad I’m working for him.

Tomorrow I head home! Yay!

I can’t wait to see my kids and the amazing WunderWife.

Being away has been tougher than I imagined. When I traveled with the railroad, I didn’t have kids. It was tough, but not as tough as this.

I can’t wait!

Today was my first day at home with my new job. Actually, that’s only partially true. By the time I sat down to do any work at home it was 1:00 pm. I had to do some running around in the morning, which involved work, but it wasn’t very productive.

Once I sat down to do work, things did not go according to plan. I attempted to set up my new work email. Setting up went ok, but when I tried to test the settings, I found I could receive emails but couldn’t send them. Odd.

Then I had to set up my printer. HP thinks a lot of their printers. Well, at least their drivers. It took 30 minutes to load the software. I’m not sure what the deal was, but I have my suspicions that some insidious code was being written to my hard drive, only to awaken some day and replace all my pictures with images from random Google image searches. Then when I call HP, they will politely explain that everything is fine, that I must not have read the Terms and Conditions very closely because if you read in Section xxii, paragraph 5, line 12,479, it clearly states that “All your images are belong to us.” But, I could just be a bit paranoid.

Something dawned on me today…it’s going to be terribly lonely working from home. But it will be very productive. I bet that if you took all distractions away (phone, email, annoying co-workers, fun co-workers), I could accomplish in 4 hours what once took me 8. However, that does beg the question of what to do with the other 4 hours.

What can I say, I’ve set out on a little adventure. It should be fun.

*sigh*

Georgia Tech…

What the hell?

Why must you keep breaking my heart?

Why?

This story struck me as rather funny:

Man Says Wild Sex Caused SUV Accident

No wait, it’s not quite what you think. See, it wasn’t him having sex that caused the accident, it was the two other people in the SUV.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Frank told authorities that the actions of the pair in the back caused the Blazer, which “was top heavy anyway,” to become “tippy” and lose control.

Right…

We all know he must have been distracted; after all, it’s kind of hard to drive while looking in the rear view mirror. I’m just sayin’

Raise your hands if you think the following sentence could’ve been written better. Careful where you pause…

Frank told Moscow Police Department officers that he was driving the vehicle near downtown early Saturday while a man and woman were having sex in the rear of the vehicle.

The driver is a carney. I don’t like carnies. They scare me, as do clowns and mimes. Austin Powers summed it up best:

Austin Powers: Only two things scare me and one of them is nuclear war.
Basil Exposition: What’s the other?
Austin Powers: Excuse me?
Basil Exposition: What’s the other thing that scares you?
Austin Powers: Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

Ah Carnies. If you don’t stay in school kids, you could end up as a carney and your address will be similar to this guy:

Joshua D. Frank, who is living in a trailer parked on the Latah County Fairgrounds

I’ve mentioned before my dislike of mimes. Want to know why? Take a look:

Don’t tell me that doesn’t freak you out.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is because “mime legend” Marcel Marceau died today.

…

…

…

And the silence was deafening.

Yeah, so I almost drowned last night. It’s not quite what you are thinking…

See, I was drinking a glass of water, you know, trying to be healthy and what not, when for some unknown reason, my body decided that my lungs were thirsty. The proverbial “going down the wrong pipe” syndrome.

I darn near died.

No really.

Water came out of my nose and I tried to spit as much back into the cup and not all over me. WunderWife just looked on in helpless amazement as her husband of 12 years struggled to live.

It was terrible.

The rest of the night, I had to keep clearing my throat and coughing as my lungs finally figured out that they were not thirsty and began to expel the water. As usually happens to me, this morning I woke up with what feels like a chest cold. My chest is tight and I am coughing. Great.

I don’t understand all this. It’s like when you bite your tongue or your lip when eating. I mean, for the love of all that’s holy, haven’t you chewed a few million times in your life and yet your brain totally blacks out and you begin to self cannibalize. Same with drinking and having it “go down the wrong pipe”. What the heck is that all about?

Saying something went “down the wrong pipe” sounds so sweet, almost cute. It conjures up a vision of there being two pipes in your throat and, oops, the water took the wrong turn…giggle…haha…how cute…how innocent….

WRONG!

It’s your body trying to kill you.

I’m beginning to think that my body planned this whole event. It was all like “hey, let’s really mess with him tonight. I know, we can embarrass him and cause him excruciating pain. The “going down the wrong pipe” scenario is perfect and if we’re lucky, he will develop pneumonia from all the fluid in his lungs.”

I better keep an eye on my body today. I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s not quite finished with its plans to kill me.

I’m watching you…

Like most blogs, almost all of my traffic comes from Google Image searches.

I get about 350 hits per day into this site, at least 320 are Google Image searches. Unfortunately, this means most people who see my site are not coming to read the articles. They are here for the pictures.

I tend to get a huge number of hits on two things: Pershing Tanks and a political cartoon I posted a long time ago.

The political cartoon far outweighs any other searches though, so I thought it would be fitting to re-post the cartoon in question:

I’m glad so many people are searching and pulling up this cartoon because it’s very sad and unfortunately, very true.

It beats being the number one hit for some porn search string.

Yep, I’m number one on Google Images for “Politcal Cartoon.”

But I’m also the number one search result for “Nazi Mexican Cesspool”.

Eh, you win some and you lose some.

My brother-in-law called me and told me about this story.

Apparently, the San Diego Padres have a player named Milton Bradley…and no, not the maker of fine family games…Anyway, he is a good player but he has a bit of an anger issue.

Bradley got upset with an umpire and got into a heated argument. He was ejected, but before he could leave the field he had a few more words and his manager came out to keep him from going after the umpire. That’s when things got strange:

Bradley said Winters (an umpire) responded with a string of expletives.

“That’s when I went at him and he kicked me out,” Bradley said.

First base coach Bobby Meacham began to restrain Bradley, and Black (Padres manager) came running out. Bradley got away from Meacham, but Black grabbed him by the jersey.

Bradley tried to get free and, after a few seconds, Black spun Bradley around and the player collapsed. Bradley immediately grabbed his right knee and eventually had to be helped off the field.

Yeah, he tore his ACL and is out for the season….

Of course he blamed the umps, which he may have good reason to, but ultimately it comes down to his temper. If he had been able to keep his cool, then he would still be on the lineup card. Instead, he got angry, tore his ACL and is out for the season.

It is an odd story. Very odd.

Yeah, so my body won.

It defeated me.

While I’ve been defeated, I’m still alive. So take that body!

Sick, sick, sick.

Feels like a nice sinus infection. I slept like crap last night and today my face hurts and my eyes are running. Pleasant, no?

On the plus side, since I now work from home, being home sick means that I’m, well, at home sick working.

Why couldn’t this have happened two weeks ago when I still had 80 freaking hours of sick time that I lost by leaving the City?

Anyway, I’m here working and blowing my nose.

How’s your day going?

You know, it’s been years since I heard the slogan, but today, it proved true.

There really are sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t.

Mmmm…chocolate, almonds and coconut goo.

Another great insight into the mind of an engineer from xkcd:

While catching up on some xkcd comics, I took a gander at his store. Funny stuff.

This one struck me as particularly funny

By the way, I look REALY good in black and Christmas is coming soon and all and I wear an XL…hint, hint, hint.

*cough*

Yes, we are still in the process of adopting our daughter from China. No, we still don’t know when we are going, but it is sooner now than it was.

Referrals are coming out soon and it’s possible they made it into December 2005. Our Log-in Date is December 12, 2005. The way things look now, we could get a referral in November and travel in December or it may be referral in December and travel in January.

When we get our referral, it will be the first time we get to meet our new daughter. The referral will have her picture and what information is known regarding her age and medical history. Then the hard part comes while we wait for our Consulate appointment and approval to travel to China. That can take up to 8 weeks after the referral.

Don’t worry, once we get our referral, I will post it all over this blog!

Anyway, now that we know we will be leaving this winter, WunderWife has started working on a packing list. She has combined and weeded out several packing lists from people who have already gone to China. This includes our good friends Chet and Dusty who went this time last year.

We will stay a few days in Beijing to see the sites including the Great Wall and then travel to her province. Beijing has about the same climate as Chicago, so we have to pack warm clothes, yet not too bulky. We only have a finite amount of luggage we can bring. That being said, WunderWife has become an E-Bay junkie. She scored a great buy with a slightly used Columbia Parka for only $50 or so. It came in today and it is very nice. It has the removable fleece liner so she can use it in Beijing and elsewhere in China.

I took a picture of her:

I think she’s cute

She posted it over at her blog as well.

From Beijing we will travel to her province, which is normally Nanchang. Nanchang is about like Atlanta in the winter. Then its off to Guangzhou which is where the U.S. Consulate is located. That is like Miami in the winter.

So you can see that packing for a trip in the winter to China is a daunting task. I’m glad WunderWife is making a list and checking it 40 times. It would be a bummer to get to China and forget something.

It was a good night for Call of Duty 2.

I actually led our team to victory in a game of capture the flag. I then promptly had my butt handed to me on the next map. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

I feel 95% better today. Yay! That must mean I’m rounding the corner and should be back to normal in a few more days.

I slept very well last night. I’m guessing my bedtime cocktail had lots to do with that. My friend Nyquil.

Today I hope to finish the Hydrology for the bridge project I’ve been working on all this week. Then it’s a waiting game to get the topo in from the surveyors so that I can begin coding a HEC-RAS model to look at the Hydraulics.

I know, I’m boring you, but it is MY blog so I get to talk about what I want to talk about.

This weekend is shaping up to be very hectic. Fun, but hectic. I’ve scored some Georgia Tech football tickets from one of my engineering buddies. We both graduated from Tech, although 15 years apart from each other.

He has 3 additional tickets, so I’ve decided to take the WunderBoys to their first football game. It’s going to be one heck of a day. 3 hours to Atlanta, 3 hours at the game and then 3 hours back home with a 7 and a 5 year old.

I plan on taking lots of pictures so that I can bore you with them here on MY blog *points to paragraph 4*.

Welp, I’m off to do a little light reading:

Someone wake me up in an hour…I’ve got a feeling this isn’t going to be the most captivating book I’ve ever read….

*sigh*

I started playing Sudoku last week when I was up in the Mountains. I had nothing else to do at night, so I played the one in the paper. I quickly discovered something: I can easily do the ones ranked 1 and 2 stars on the difficulty scale. Anything above that? No dice.

Take today’s which is ranked as 3 stars:

I got about 1/3 of the way through it and started having to guess. My guesses were, how do you say, not very good. In any event I gave up after trying it twice. Any of you out there hazard a guess. This one is probably in your paper, so no cheating.

Ken over at It Comes In Pints? has been posting old family photos and has posted a few times about researching his family tree. All his posts got me thinking about my family tree.

I’ve been into my family’s history since I was about 10 years old. There are two main reasons why researching my family tree has been so important to me. The first is history. I love history and knowing that my family came from a part of Virginia rich in history, I was curious if any of my ancestors participated in any historic events. It turns out that as far as I can tell, no they didn’t, but it was still fun to research. The second reason is probably the more important of the two, I wanted to know where I came from and what my place is in history. This is very important to me, because so much information has been lost about my family. My attempt to trace my line is in many ways the only information I have on my ancestors.

The Internet has made searching for your ancestors much easier, but when I started, I did it the old fashioned way, I hit the courthouse in the county where most of my ancestors lived and died. All I had was a few names, dates and whatever information my Dad could remember. It was frustrating and exhilarating all at the same time. Each book would give another lead or solve part of the puzzle. In the end, I was able to get back to around the mid to late 1700′s. The main issue with going further is that my family seems to have migrated up the James River peninsula towards Richmond and then West to Louisa County. I can find most of the information on my family who lived in Louisa because Louisa escaped damage during the Civil War. The other courthouses closer to Richmond did not do as well. I hope to spend some time in Richmond one day looking for any other information that will allow me to trace my line further back.

In a nut shell here is my line: Nathan, William, Anderson, Nathan, Lester, Elmer, James, Me. Then there are my three kids Nathan (my oldest), Charles (my 2nd son) and Madilyn (my daughter).

My great grandparents died in the flu epidemic after World War I when my grandfather was only 2 years old. He was sent to be raised by his maternal grandparents. My grandfather died when I was only 9 years old. Those two facts are partly why so little is known about our family. There was no one to tell the stories. There was no old Matriarch or Patriarch to hand down the legends and traditions. I know my ancestors names, but I know nothing about them.

That is incredibly sad to me. Were they good people? Were they fun to be around? How did they do as farmers? What did they do for a living? Did they have any incredible stories to pass along? And the list of questions just keeps going on.

All I have is a few names and a few pictures.

Here are the pictures I have of my direct line:
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Today was a big day for the WunderFamily.

First off, it was time for us boys to get our hair cut by Karen. Karen has been cutting my hair since I was 15 and she has given each of our kids their first haircut. Getting our haircut goes quick, because we all keep our hair short, but today was different. WunderWife decided, after much badgering from me, to get little WunderKid3′s hair bobbed.

Getting ready for the first cut

Silly girl!

Finished!

I think she looks great. After a good wash and some cute barets, she will be the talk of the town.

Yesterday I took the two boys to their first Georgia Tech game! A friend of mine has season tickets and told me that if I provided the transportation, he would provide three tickets. I couldn’t pass up that offer, so away we went.

First off let me say that my boys were and are amazing. For a 7 and 5 year old to make the trip to Atlanta (3 hours), sit through a football game (3+ hours) and then ride home (another 3 hours), they did wonderful. We had a great time and I hope this will be one of those life long memories that they will have of their “Old Man”.

My friends name is John and he is my engineering mentor. He is THE REASON I passed my Professional Engineer Exam. He graduated from Tech back in 1984 as an Air Force ROTC. Upon graduation, his assignment was to Minot, North Dakota where he worked keeping nuclear missiles ready to launch. His degree is in Mechanical Engineering, and he now does Civil, but I still comment that, at heart, he’s still a rocket scientist. Anyway, after many years in Minot, he got the choice job of helping launch satellites from Cape Canaveral. He is responsible for launching many of the original GPS satellites that we now take for granted. He left the Air Force as a Captain and learned the Civil Engineering trade.

Parking was a breeze. Man, having connections with season tickets does has it’s benefits. We had a little tailgate of our own:

John and the Boys

WunderKid1 was concerned we would not find the stadium. I re-assured him that the stadium was so big, you couldn’t possibly miss it.

Entering the stadium

As you can tell we had a great time:

Me and the Boys

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