Showing posts with label Alex - Basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex - Basketball. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Friday, January 15, 2016
Surrounded by Hawkeye
At the Iowa City West boy's basketball game, Alex found current Iowa Hawkeye men's basketball player.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Wow
What a whirlwind the last few days have been.
Yesterday began with getting up fairly early (8:30 AM) and working in the den to prepare for when my awesome neighbor John was coming over. For many months, I've had 4 PCs in the den, not plugged in, but sitting on the side of the room and taking up space. I had talked to John a while back about if he would be interested in coming over and helping me figure out either what could be taken to Goodwill, because it's junk, or consolidating what was usable into less than 4 towers. John arrived at 1 and we worked until around 3. I now have three towers that have been cannibalized for parts, including a power supply, a second hard drive for the one PC that is going to be used for the reconversion project, and putting a hard drive into the case that was used for my 1 TB hard drive that has died. We also wiped a hard drive clean in order to install Windows XP. I tried to install Service Pack 2 on it, but so far, that's not working.
After John left, we went to the State of Iowa Boys' Basketball Tournament in Des Moines at the Wells Fargo Arena. Wade Rainey, our 12 year-old neighbor, went with us. When we walked in, the names of the bands that have played the arena, like Slipknot & Metallica, are displayed. It was a neat thing to sit in the arena and think that my favorite band has played their music in the same arena I was sitting in.
As for the game(s), first we watched Dubuque Walhert win the 3A championship and then, for the main event, we watched Iowa City West defeat Des Moines Valley. The Valley coach is Jeff Horner, who played for the Iowa Hawkeyes a few years back. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame at halftime and it was nice that the Iowa City West fans stood and cheered for him. It sent the signal that we respect your abilities as a player but, at the same time, we want to win the game. I am uncertain whether I will have the opportunity to watch Alex play in a state game for Iowa City West but it occurred to me that it would be awesome if his basketball career progressed to the point where he could play for a state championship.
During the game, the weather changed from a mild day to a snowstorm. Karen drove home. While my intention was to stay awake for her, without a cell phone to keep myself occupied, I eventually caved in and fell asleep. When we got home, I fell asleep on the couch before being instructed to go to bed. When I got in bed, I fell asleep almost instantaneously while Karen, Alex, Megan, and Logan sat in the living room and talked until after 2 AM.
This morning, we went to 11 AM Mass. Maggie played piano, Jim Porter played guitar, and the guy vocalist that is usually always there on Sunday was the only singer. I played drums. During Mass, a man required medical attention and was taken away by ambulance. Karen jumped up right away and was a hero, a rock, as she did what 23 years of being a RN has trained her to do. It made me happy to see her jump into action.
After Mass, Alex and I went to Wal-Mart to replace the windshield wipers on the GMC Canyon and to pick up some "needed" supplies for the upcoming Spring Break trip to Louisville, KY, and then the St. Louis suburb, Chesterfield, on the way home. We leave Wednesday morning and are returning home on Saturday.
I also spent a lot of time on the CD reconversion. I am now working on spindle #19 even though I'm not really quite done with spindle #18, which are 100 CDs of my "Life CD" series and other miscellaneous CDs where to do the conversion correctly, I need to spend time after each CD is converted to manually enter the name of the artist and name of the album because they are not found in the database that CDs that I received as promos or CDs like that. They are not found because they are not widely available - I assembled the songs. I also have CDs where I found songs from a specific band in my collection and put together a CD with two bands. Essentially, it's a collection of the songs I like by whatever two bands are named on the CD. Again, those CDs require manual effort. And, frankly, I will not work on the conversion from Wednesday through Saturday this week (4 days) and if I want to keep to my schedule, I needed to make progress on the conversion with the time I had and doing the manual work takes up more time than if I put in a CD that can automatically be found in the database and assigned artist, album, and other information.
All of that means that I am working on spindle # 19, but I also have spindle #18 being ripped at the same time. I was going to rip all of spindle #18 on the PC that had Windows XP installed yesterday, but since I can't get SP-2 installed, I can't rip the CDs as MP3 (only as .WMA) and I can't copy the files (apparently) from the hard drive to an external hard drive because of Windows not having the proper drivers. As of this moment, I have 70 more CDs to go on spindle #19 and when I ran the DOS batch file for today, I am well above 30,000 music files, even though the page for the reconversion states I had 29,000+ files for 20140315.
Again, that is a lot going on in my life.
Yesterday began with getting up fairly early (8:30 AM) and working in the den to prepare for when my awesome neighbor John was coming over. For many months, I've had 4 PCs in the den, not plugged in, but sitting on the side of the room and taking up space. I had talked to John a while back about if he would be interested in coming over and helping me figure out either what could be taken to Goodwill, because it's junk, or consolidating what was usable into less than 4 towers. John arrived at 1 and we worked until around 3. I now have three towers that have been cannibalized for parts, including a power supply, a second hard drive for the one PC that is going to be used for the reconversion project, and putting a hard drive into the case that was used for my 1 TB hard drive that has died. We also wiped a hard drive clean in order to install Windows XP. I tried to install Service Pack 2 on it, but so far, that's not working.
After John left, we went to the State of Iowa Boys' Basketball Tournament in Des Moines at the Wells Fargo Arena. Wade Rainey, our 12 year-old neighbor, went with us. When we walked in, the names of the bands that have played the arena, like Slipknot & Metallica, are displayed. It was a neat thing to sit in the arena and think that my favorite band has played their music in the same arena I was sitting in.
As for the game(s), first we watched Dubuque Walhert win the 3A championship and then, for the main event, we watched Iowa City West defeat Des Moines Valley. The Valley coach is Jeff Horner, who played for the Iowa Hawkeyes a few years back. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame at halftime and it was nice that the Iowa City West fans stood and cheered for him. It sent the signal that we respect your abilities as a player but, at the same time, we want to win the game. I am uncertain whether I will have the opportunity to watch Alex play in a state game for Iowa City West but it occurred to me that it would be awesome if his basketball career progressed to the point where he could play for a state championship.
During the game, the weather changed from a mild day to a snowstorm. Karen drove home. While my intention was to stay awake for her, without a cell phone to keep myself occupied, I eventually caved in and fell asleep. When we got home, I fell asleep on the couch before being instructed to go to bed. When I got in bed, I fell asleep almost instantaneously while Karen, Alex, Megan, and Logan sat in the living room and talked until after 2 AM.
This morning, we went to 11 AM Mass. Maggie played piano, Jim Porter played guitar, and the guy vocalist that is usually always there on Sunday was the only singer. I played drums. During Mass, a man required medical attention and was taken away by ambulance. Karen jumped up right away and was a hero, a rock, as she did what 23 years of being a RN has trained her to do. It made me happy to see her jump into action.
After Mass, Alex and I went to Wal-Mart to replace the windshield wipers on the GMC Canyon and to pick up some "needed" supplies for the upcoming Spring Break trip to Louisville, KY, and then the St. Louis suburb, Chesterfield, on the way home. We leave Wednesday morning and are returning home on Saturday.
I also spent a lot of time on the CD reconversion. I am now working on spindle #19 even though I'm not really quite done with spindle #18, which are 100 CDs of my "Life CD" series and other miscellaneous CDs where to do the conversion correctly, I need to spend time after each CD is converted to manually enter the name of the artist and name of the album because they are not found in the database that CDs that I received as promos or CDs like that. They are not found because they are not widely available - I assembled the songs. I also have CDs where I found songs from a specific band in my collection and put together a CD with two bands. Essentially, it's a collection of the songs I like by whatever two bands are named on the CD. Again, those CDs require manual effort. And, frankly, I will not work on the conversion from Wednesday through Saturday this week (4 days) and if I want to keep to my schedule, I needed to make progress on the conversion with the time I had and doing the manual work takes up more time than if I put in a CD that can automatically be found in the database and assigned artist, album, and other information.
All of that means that I am working on spindle # 19, but I also have spindle #18 being ripped at the same time. I was going to rip all of spindle #18 on the PC that had Windows XP installed yesterday, but since I can't get SP-2 installed, I can't rip the CDs as MP3 (only as .WMA) and I can't copy the files (apparently) from the hard drive to an external hard drive because of Windows not having the proper drivers. As of this moment, I have 70 more CDs to go on spindle #19 and when I ran the DOS batch file for today, I am well above 30,000 music files, even though the page for the reconversion states I had 29,000+ files for 20140315.
Again, that is a lot going on in my life.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Minimum Wage Increase and Obama as Satan?
I remember, clear as a sunny day, that when I worked @ the Spring House from fall 1986 to fall 1992, it was a very big deal when I got a raise. I remember my hourly rate went from 3.90 / hour to 4.10 / hour. The $.20 rate increase was a result of me working hard while I was at work. I had shifted from being the host of the dining room to a brand new position that Lester created for me where my job was to, essentially, float around the restaurant and get what needed to get done "done" so that the operations of the restaurant was smooth. If that meant making up syrups so that the waitresses could simply grab their orders, I did that. If it meant filling the bread drawer and rotating the bread, I did that. If it meant clearing a table, I did that. I also remember Lester walking by me one morning with a bus tub and saying, "I can keep busy, can you?" I didn't always agree 100% with Lester, but I will always appreciate what he did for me in this regard.
I mention this as there is now a push to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 / hour. With great interest, I read how the Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the proposed minimum wage increase and that it will cost 500,000 jobs. While I don't agree with an across-the-board blind wage increase, I find it interesting that the CBO can figure out how many jobs are going to be lost. I wish I knew how they came up with 500,000. Why not 450,000? Why not 600,000? I have no idea how to do the math to figure it out. I hate math. I also think that it's possible that teenagers working in a restaurant, like the Spring House (before it closed) shouldn't make $10.10 / hour. And why is it $10.10 / hour? Wouldn't the math be simpler if it were a flat $10 / hour?
40 hours / week x $10 = $400.
40 hours / week x 10.10 = (let me get my calculator) 404.
Is it worth the extra $4 / week to do "more complex" math?
Alex had his next-to-last basketball game last night. Iowa City West lost. When Alex was on the court, he didn't touch the ball except for a couple of rebounds.
The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball game @ Indiana was postponed because part of the roof fell.
There's a new movie coming out called "Son of God" and I saw in this article that there were scenes cut in the movie because the actor was was cast as Satan looks too much like President Obama.
I mention this as there is now a push to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 / hour. With great interest, I read how the Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the proposed minimum wage increase and that it will cost 500,000 jobs. While I don't agree with an across-the-board blind wage increase, I find it interesting that the CBO can figure out how many jobs are going to be lost. I wish I knew how they came up with 500,000. Why not 450,000? Why not 600,000? I have no idea how to do the math to figure it out. I hate math. I also think that it's possible that teenagers working in a restaurant, like the Spring House (before it closed) shouldn't make $10.10 / hour. And why is it $10.10 / hour? Wouldn't the math be simpler if it were a flat $10 / hour?
40 hours / week x $10 = $400.
40 hours / week x 10.10 = (let me get my calculator) 404.
Is it worth the extra $4 / week to do "more complex" math?
Alex had his next-to-last basketball game last night. Iowa City West lost. When Alex was on the court, he didn't touch the ball except for a couple of rebounds.
The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball game @ Indiana was postponed because part of the roof fell.
There's a new movie coming out called "Son of God" and I saw in this article that there were scenes cut in the movie because the actor was was cast as Satan looks too much like President Obama.
Friday, February 14, 2014
This is Why
As if I would ever forget, the following graphic is "why" I did not write this week. It is a snippet of my time sheet for this week.
So, in addition to 50 hours at work, all of this was going on:
Sunday, we come home. I am already planning to go to bed early!
Frankly, next week isn't going to be much easier:
- Monday - Alex had a basketball game.
- Tuesday - Alex had a basketball game in Cedar Rapids & after that, I had Uncle Rico the Band rehearsal.
- Wednesday - I had a Knights of Columbus meeting at church from 6:30 - 8. Prior to the meeting, we worked on getting the house in shape for Alex's Confirmation next weekend.
- Thursday - I worked a little later than I wanted to and then picked up Alex at West High after basketball practice. We went to Old Chicago for a team dinner.
- Today, actually, is my "easy" day with only 8.5 hours. Wow.
Sunday, we come home. I am already planning to go to bed early!
Frankly, next week isn't going to be much easier:
- Monday - Alex has a basketball game.
- Tuesday - Alex has his FINAL basketball game of his freshman year.
- Wednesday - Get the house ready for Confirmation.
- Thursday - Get the house ready for Confirmation.
- Friday - Company arrives (Lou & Jean, Mark & Jonathan - Susie / Tyler are not coming Friday night and if they do come, it will be on Saturday afternoon sometime).
- Saturday - Company is enjoying our hospitality! <grin>
- Sunday - Confirmation at 11 AM Mass, followed by lunch.
- I have to play drums.
- Somehow, some way, I need to sit down at the Yamaha electronic set to practice. The next Uncle Rico rehearsal is on 2/27, (Thursday) at 6 PM! I'm looking forward to it already. One of the things that came out of rehearsal is the need to play the songs at a specific BPM. I'm not used to that preciseness, but I think it will make me a better drummer to play with a metronome in my ear. To get to that point, I need to get used to playing at specific tempos. Last night, immediately prior to going to bed, I downloaded some metronome apps. I want to use an earphone bud while we play so the tempo is popping in my ear!
- I have some promos to review, especially Red Tide Rising's new one - it is awesome!
- I have to return to the reconversion. I have not touched that project this week.
- Music_reconversion has 19890 File(s)
- Music_shell has 21529 File(s)
Monday, February 10, 2014
So Much
My schedule this week:
- Monday
- Work 7 AM - 4 PM
- Pick up Karen @ work
- Go to Alex's basketball game @ Iowa City High
- They lost
- Stop at work and grab laptop from desk
- Go out to eat at Jonesey's by Pearson
- Tuesday
- Work 6 AM - 3:30 PM
- Go to Alex's basketball game @ Cedar Rapids Washington, which is on the SE side of Cedar Rapids. The game starts @ 4:30.
- The moment the basketball game is over, race out to Uncle Rico rehearsal at Gary's, which is on the NE side of Cedar Rapids. Rehearsal starts as close to 6 PM as I can get there.
- Wednesday
- Up at 4:30ish AM.
- Take Alex to basketball practice that begins at 6 AM,
- Take Karen to work.
- Work 6 AM - 3:30 PM
- Pick up Karen
- Knights of Columbus meeting at STM, which begins at 6:30.
- Thursday
- Either
- Up at normal time and take Karen to work
- Work 7 AM - 3:30 PM
- Pick up Karen at work
- Go home
- Leave by 5 PM to get Alex from basketball
- To C
- Or
- Up at 4:30ish AM
- Work 6 AM - 4:45 PM
- Go from work to Iowa City West to get Alex from basketball
- To C
- C
- Take Alex to basketball team dinner at Old Chicago
- Then home.
- Friday
- It's Valentine's Day.
- Up at normal time.
- Take Karen to work.
- Work 7 AM - 3:30 PM
- Alex has basketball practice until 5:15. That's all I know.
- Saturday
- Alex has to be at Iowa City West by 7:30 AM to ride the bus to his basketball game.
- Alex has a basketball game at Cedar Rapids Kennedy. It will be the first time since winter 1988 that I have set foot within my alma mater. His game starts at 10:30 AM.
- Immediately after the game, Karen, Alex, and I are leaving for the Waterloo / Cedar Falls area for the annual Mount Mercy group weekend away. This year, we are going to see Hairball at the Cattle Congress Grounds.
- Alex is spending the night with Mark and Susie.
- Sunday
- Pick up Alex & head home.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Bad Taste
I'm up early, for a Saturday, because we are leaving at 8:30 AM for Alex's basketball game at West.
I have a bad taste in my mouth because I had ordered the Metallica movie "Through the Never" on DVD. It arrived yesterday. I put it in the DVD player upstairs and it won't play. At first, it played but, at the 5 minute mark, it seemed to freeze. I turned off the DVD player and turned it back on. I was able to watch 15 minutes of it before the DVD player "crashed" again. It is a 2 DVD set so I put in the second one - with the documentary about how it was made. Karen and Alex were in the room sitting, while Megan popped in and out, as I was watching this.
What I found interesting was two things:
Speaking of choosing to be sober, I still am. I guess I don't obsess about it nearly as much as I used to on this blog. That may be because it is now part of who and what I am. I don't really think about getting drunk anymore. I don't find myself surrounded by people - either at work or outside of work - that are drinkers. I don't know if that would have happened if I had never chosen to stop drinking or if it would have evolved naturally. I feel like my sobriety is not something I have to think about all the time. I can be sober and live life without being obsessed about it.
It's 7:55 AM and we're leaving @ 8:30 AM. I *have* to take a shower or I'll feel gross at the game. Thus, maybe more words of wisdom later today. Iowa plays MI @ 1 PM and then we're going to 5:15 Mass because Alex is serving.
I have a bad taste in my mouth because I had ordered the Metallica movie "Through the Never" on DVD. It arrived yesterday. I put it in the DVD player upstairs and it won't play. At first, it played but, at the 5 minute mark, it seemed to freeze. I turned off the DVD player and turned it back on. I was able to watch 15 minutes of it before the DVD player "crashed" again. It is a 2 DVD set so I put in the second one - with the documentary about how it was made. Karen and Alex were in the room sitting, while Megan popped in and out, as I was watching this.
What I found interesting was two things:
- Alex seemed to be really interested when the documentary talked about building the stage and about how it took 40 trucks to move the stage. He asked about bands on tour moving their stages around and really seemed to be interested. It'd be a clamorous job to be on the road crew and it would be very demanding, physically, to be doing construction work day in, day out. I would actually consider doing it for a band someday. I know I would be the low man on the totem pole and I wouldn't ever get to work on a tour as big as a Metallica tour, but nonetheless, it'd be something I would do, if it were presented to me and I had no other responsibilities in life, which isn't going to happen, so what I'm trying to say is that I will never be on a road crew.
- Karen seemed somewhat interested in the movie itself. She asked about the premise and if it was about the band. It was kind of funny that she was so adamant about me NOT taking Megan to see it and, exactly 4 months later, Megan was sitting on the couch when the movie began and when Metallica were playing "Creeping Death" on the screen. Is it a movie for kids? Of course not.
Speaking of choosing to be sober, I still am. I guess I don't obsess about it nearly as much as I used to on this blog. That may be because it is now part of who and what I am. I don't really think about getting drunk anymore. I don't find myself surrounded by people - either at work or outside of work - that are drinkers. I don't know if that would have happened if I had never chosen to stop drinking or if it would have evolved naturally. I feel like my sobriety is not something I have to think about all the time. I can be sober and live life without being obsessed about it.
It's 7:55 AM and we're leaving @ 8:30 AM. I *have* to take a shower or I'll feel gross at the game. Thus, maybe more words of wisdom later today. Iowa plays MI @ 1 PM and then we're going to 5:15 Mass because Alex is serving.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Seemingly Endless Time
The title of this post refers to the lone Death Angel song title I know.
As of now, I have 17441 File(s) in the music_shell\reconversion folder. I am in the process of copying files from the My Cloud drive to my Toshiba external hard drive, which is what I bring back and forth to work to listen to music as I write technically during the day.
I have 1814 files on the My Cloud drive.
That means 19255 total.
I hope that I can get even more done today!
And, just for the record, I should be starting Spindle #10 today but I am actually working on Spindles #11 & #12. Being ahead of schedule is good but I think there are higher priorities in my life in February 2014 - Alex's basketball season overrules all. I love going to my son's basketball games and watching him. In the big picture, I don't really care about my CD reconversion schedule when I am watching him - he is far more important. He has a game tomorrow night in Cedar Rapids Prairie and then games on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. After that, there are two games left - 2/15 @ Kennedy and 2/17 @ home v. Linn-Mar. I will guess that there will be additional games added. With the weather so crazy yesterday, Bettendorf cancelled out of coming up to Iowa City - can't blame them - and it's currently unclear if the postponed games will be rescheduled.
As of now, I have 17441 File(s) in the music_shell\reconversion folder. I am in the process of copying files from the My Cloud drive to my Toshiba external hard drive, which is what I bring back and forth to work to listen to music as I write technically during the day.
I have 1814 files on the My Cloud drive.
That means 19255 total.
I hope that I can get even more done today!
And, just for the record, I should be starting Spindle #10 today but I am actually working on Spindles #11 & #12. Being ahead of schedule is good but I think there are higher priorities in my life in February 2014 - Alex's basketball season overrules all. I love going to my son's basketball games and watching him. In the big picture, I don't really care about my CD reconversion schedule when I am watching him - he is far more important. He has a game tomorrow night in Cedar Rapids Prairie and then games on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. After that, there are two games left - 2/15 @ Kennedy and 2/17 @ home v. Linn-Mar. I will guess that there will be additional games added. With the weather so crazy yesterday, Bettendorf cancelled out of coming up to Iowa City - can't blame them - and it's currently unclear if the postponed games will be rescheduled.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Basketball & Grammy's
Alex had a basketball game in Mount Pleasant on Saturday. He left his jersey in the locker room. Karen and I drove down yesterday - 104 miles roundtrip - to pick it up. He had a game last night, Iowa City West was defeated in the freshman game, but victorious in the 5th quarter. Alex had a couple of nice rebounds and played well. I was happy for him.
On Sunday, January 26, 2014, Metallica is returning to the Grammy's, an awards show they have not performed on since 1989, when they performed "One" and then lost the Grammy for Best Metal Band to Jethro Tull. It was such a big deal because, frankly, the fact that Metallica had created a video for "One" was controversial. Fans wanted Metallica to remain their secret, for some reason. Then, performing on the Grammy's happened and everyone went nuts.
For me, I had not really started my love affair with Lars in January 1989. It took seeing them 6 months later in June 1989 at the Five Seasons Center before I really got into them. I think. Maybe I got into them prior to that. I kind of remember having a poster of them in my dorm room from the first day of school. Now I want to go look through my photo albums and see if I can find a picture.
In 2014, they are again going to play "One" but this time with a violist named Lang Lang. Guitarist Kirk Hammett has been quoted as saying the version of the song they are rehearsing is going to be "insane." Here's to hoping it is as awesome as the way they played the song in 1989!
On Sunday, January 26, 2014, Metallica is returning to the Grammy's, an awards show they have not performed on since 1989, when they performed "One" and then lost the Grammy for Best Metal Band to Jethro Tull. It was such a big deal because, frankly, the fact that Metallica had created a video for "One" was controversial. Fans wanted Metallica to remain their secret, for some reason. Then, performing on the Grammy's happened and everyone went nuts.
For me, I had not really started my love affair with Lars in January 1989. It took seeing them 6 months later in June 1989 at the Five Seasons Center before I really got into them. I think. Maybe I got into them prior to that. I kind of remember having a poster of them in my dorm room from the first day of school. Now I want to go look through my photo albums and see if I can find a picture.
In 2014, they are again going to play "One" but this time with a violist named Lang Lang. Guitarist Kirk Hammett has been quoted as saying the version of the song they are rehearsing is going to be "insane." Here's to hoping it is as awesome as the way they played the song in 1989!
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Victory! Defeat!
Alex's game resulted in a victory, Louis and I won 2 out of 3 games of Euchre, and I managed to squeeze in some time on the Yamaha set while Louis & Karen napped and Jean showered for 5:15 Mass. It was important to me that I found some time to drum because of two reasons:
- Hopefully, I can round up LCR for a gig at the MDA Walk on Saturday, February 22, 2014, at the Coral Ridge Mall. That's something I'm actively trying to do.
- Hopefully, I can play drums tonight at 5:15 Mass. I hadn't drummed since last Sunday at 11 AM Mass. I wanted to loosen up my muscles a bit and get familiar with how to move around the drums again.
Bad Odor = NO Food
We walked into the Hardees in Mount Pleasant and I had to turn around and walk away. It smelled like cow manure! We're going to an Alex basketball game.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Cruising Through Life
Without taking this the wrong way, last night was an awesome night for me.
I sat on the couch, watching WWE Raw, which was a good show with interesting matches and a good flow and worked on the reconversion of my CDs. As a side note, between 4:13 PM and 10:25 PM, I modified 64 root folders under the music_shell folder - I call that progress. I have 30 left on Spindle #6.
Meanwhile, the rest of the family went about their business. Karen went to bed around 8:30 and Alex kept busy in the basement. Megan worked from 6 - 10 and then went to a friend's house for a sleepover since they don't have school tomorrow because of the arctic vortex that is sweeping the country.
Eventually, WWE Raw was over, I became satisfied with the progress I had made on the reconversion so I stopped reconverting and settled on the other couch to watch Two and 1/2 Men. I considered watching something on Netflix, which we signed up for on Sunday, but did not. I did DVR the episode "Squab Squab Squab Squab" because I think it's really funny. I will look later for a youtube clip to include here.
I sit here and think about work and life and feel awesome. What should have been a crazy busy week hasn't kicked into overdrive and won't until later today. Because Megan has a dentist appointment @ 4 & a doctor's appointment @ 5, the plan is for her to drive herself to the dentist. Meanwhile, as of this moment, Alex has a basketball game at 6 so he needs to be there, probably, around 5. I continue to drive Karen to work so on our way home tonight, I will be dropped off at the dentist and Karen will continue home. When Megan is done with the dentist, I will go with her to the doctor's appointment. After that, we are getting her flu shot at the pharmacy up the road. Then, when all of that is done, I will go to Alex's game.
If the game is cancelled, we talked about watching "Brian's Song" on Netflix and going to bed fairly early as Alex has practice tomorrow at 6 AM.
I sat on the couch, watching WWE Raw, which was a good show with interesting matches and a good flow and worked on the reconversion of my CDs. As a side note, between 4:13 PM and 10:25 PM, I modified 64 root folders under the music_shell folder - I call that progress. I have 30 left on Spindle #6.
Meanwhile, the rest of the family went about their business. Karen went to bed around 8:30 and Alex kept busy in the basement. Megan worked from 6 - 10 and then went to a friend's house for a sleepover since they don't have school tomorrow because of the arctic vortex that is sweeping the country.
Eventually, WWE Raw was over, I became satisfied with the progress I had made on the reconversion so I stopped reconverting and settled on the other couch to watch Two and 1/2 Men. I considered watching something on Netflix, which we signed up for on Sunday, but did not. I did DVR the episode "Squab Squab Squab Squab" because I think it's really funny. I will look later for a youtube clip to include here.
I sit here and think about work and life and feel awesome. What should have been a crazy busy week hasn't kicked into overdrive and won't until later today. Because Megan has a dentist appointment @ 4 & a doctor's appointment @ 5, the plan is for her to drive herself to the dentist. Meanwhile, as of this moment, Alex has a basketball game at 6 so he needs to be there, probably, around 5. I continue to drive Karen to work so on our way home tonight, I will be dropped off at the dentist and Karen will continue home. When Megan is done with the dentist, I will go with her to the doctor's appointment. After that, we are getting her flu shot at the pharmacy up the road. Then, when all of that is done, I will go to Alex's game.
If the game is cancelled, we talked about watching "Brian's Song" on Netflix and going to bed fairly early as Alex has practice tomorrow at 6 AM.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Pause? Nah, I Don't Know what the Hell that Means
Thankfully, or perhaps not, this week has flown by. I had an awesome 1:1 with my manager today. It was fun to realize that our meeting naturally was extended from 30 minutes to 60 minutes because we were having a really good conversation. On top of that, when I got out of my meeting, I was assigned to help Alan, a co-worker, get a document ready for distribution. There were 1181 instances of "Normal" style in that Word document when I started working on it and when I handed it off back to Alan today at 3:15, there were none. No bold characters because of pressing Ctrl+B. No italic characters because of pressing Ctrl+I. No underlined characters because of pressing Ctrl+U.
Then, on top of all of that, I finalized another document for a different client and got that off my desk.
I felt productive.
Until I realized that the document I had started to work on first thing was still not done. Then I felt like the hours in the day went pass me too damn quick.
After work, Karen and I went to Best Buy to exchange her Samsung tablet for an iPad. She didn't like the apps that came with the tablet, even though it's the same OS as her Samsung phone. She is now wading through setting it up. Unfortunately for Karen, I know nothing about iPads. I mean, NOTHING. I cannot be her technical support, even though I was roped into being her TS because she needed the incoming and outgoing mail server names. I called our ISP to get that information.
Anyways, the big story around here is that there's a winter storm coming and when it's going to arrive is a guessing game. We are going to Alex's game at Cedar Rapids Xavier tomorrow and it starts at 4:00. That means I'm actually picking up Karen a little before 3:00 so we can make it up to his game.
Outside of a great week at work, I didn't spend time on the conversion other than Monday night. I am trying to get my 2nd spindle of 100 CDs ripped prior to Monday AM. I know that next week, with Christmas, will be interesting to see if I can get it done.
One final note is that currently, there is no scheduled rehearsal for LCR. I know that life is busy for all of us and I totally get that. I am as busy as Matthew, who is dealing with some issues and as busy as Joe, who is dealing with a search for a new job. I haven't really talked to Brian lately but I would guess that he is busy as well. When we find the time to play together, I think we sound good. I think if we were to get a gig in early 2014, it would be beneficial to us as right now, we do not have a 'next gig' scheduled, unless you count being asked to play the Courage Ride in August 2014. I definitely think we need to gig somewhere prior to that! I am hoping something materializes sooner than later. I miss playing with Joe, Matthew, and Brian. I miss the opportunity to play songs I like. I miss playing:
It was also announced today that Bayside is touring in the spring of 2014 but, thus far, they are not playing in Iowa. They are playing in Milwaukee, Chicago, and St. Louis, but not stopping in Iowa City or Des Moines. That's too bad although they are playing in Chicago on a Saturday (!!) so I can at least pretend that it is possible that I will go to Chicago to see them play.
Then, on top of all of that, I finalized another document for a different client and got that off my desk.
I felt productive.
Until I realized that the document I had started to work on first thing was still not done. Then I felt like the hours in the day went pass me too damn quick.
After work, Karen and I went to Best Buy to exchange her Samsung tablet for an iPad. She didn't like the apps that came with the tablet, even though it's the same OS as her Samsung phone. She is now wading through setting it up. Unfortunately for Karen, I know nothing about iPads. I mean, NOTHING. I cannot be her technical support, even though I was roped into being her TS because she needed the incoming and outgoing mail server names. I called our ISP to get that information.
Anyways, the big story around here is that there's a winter storm coming and when it's going to arrive is a guessing game. We are going to Alex's game at Cedar Rapids Xavier tomorrow and it starts at 4:00. That means I'm actually picking up Karen a little before 3:00 so we can make it up to his game.
Outside of a great week at work, I didn't spend time on the conversion other than Monday night. I am trying to get my 2nd spindle of 100 CDs ripped prior to Monday AM. I know that next week, with Christmas, will be interesting to see if I can get it done.
One final note is that currently, there is no scheduled rehearsal for LCR. I know that life is busy for all of us and I totally get that. I am as busy as Matthew, who is dealing with some issues and as busy as Joe, who is dealing with a search for a new job. I haven't really talked to Brian lately but I would guess that he is busy as well. When we find the time to play together, I think we sound good. I think if we were to get a gig in early 2014, it would be beneficial to us as right now, we do not have a 'next gig' scheduled, unless you count being asked to play the Courage Ride in August 2014. I definitely think we need to gig somewhere prior to that! I am hoping something materializes sooner than later. I miss playing with Joe, Matthew, and Brian. I miss the opportunity to play songs I like. I miss playing:
- "Switching to Glide" and
- "Saturday Night" and
- "Gimme 3 Steps" and
- "What I Like About You" and
- "Big River" and
- "Stuck in the Middle" and
- "Rocking in the Free World" and
- "Paranoid" and
- "Rock and Roll All Night" and
- "Lonely Boy"
It was also announced today that Bayside is touring in the spring of 2014 but, thus far, they are not playing in Iowa. They are playing in Milwaukee, Chicago, and St. Louis, but not stopping in Iowa City or Des Moines. That's too bad although they are playing in Chicago on a Saturday (!!) so I can at least pretend that it is possible that I will go to Chicago to see them play.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Another Career Update
First, just for the record, last night, we did not have Lou's Classic Ride rehearsal. For the record and because I may not always remember what I did, here it is: I watched TV and fell asleep relatively early.
Thinking about it today, I realize it would have been a good night to work on the conversion projects, but I did not. I was tired. The day began by taking the boys (Sam Goldsmith, Seth Goldsmith & my son, Alex) to basketball practice at Iowa City West in the morning. This meant my alarm went off at 4:30 AM. Alex and I left the house at 5:10 AM and by 6:00 AM, I was sitting at my desk. It will be the same schedule tomorrow as well. Alex's team voted to have an early morning practice, mainly so the team will be free to watch the Iowa / ISU men's basketball game tomorrow night. The team's original schedule was for them to get done with practice at 6:30 PM. Because I am an early bird type of person, I volunteered to drive in the morning, even though I think that getting up early will result in not working on the conversion tonight.
Second, the reason for my post. In my cubicle, I have a schedule for a document that needed to be written. These were the project milestones:
Thinking about it today, I realize it would have been a good night to work on the conversion projects, but I did not. I was tired. The day began by taking the boys (Sam Goldsmith, Seth Goldsmith & my son, Alex) to basketball practice at Iowa City West in the morning. This meant my alarm went off at 4:30 AM. Alex and I left the house at 5:10 AM and by 6:00 AM, I was sitting at my desk. It will be the same schedule tomorrow as well. Alex's team voted to have an early morning practice, mainly so the team will be free to watch the Iowa / ISU men's basketball game tomorrow night. The team's original schedule was for them to get done with practice at 6:30 PM. Because I am an early bird type of person, I volunteered to drive in the morning, even though I think that getting up early will result in not working on the conversion tonight.
Second, the reason for my post. In my cubicle, I have a schedule for a document that needed to be written. These were the project milestones:
- First Draft Complete: 12/6/13
- Development Review Complete: 12/10
- Updates Complete: 12/11
- Development Approval: 12/12
- Published: 12/13
- First Draft Complete: 12/6/13
- Development Review Complete: 12/12
- Updates Complete: 12/12
- Development Approval: 12/12
- Published: 12/12
Friday, December 6, 2013
The Season Begins. ..
I am here at Iowa City West High School to watch Alex play in the second game of his high school basketball team career. They won the first game of the season last night. Coach put him in the game with a 18 point lead and 1:34 left in the game. Then there was a 7 minute scrimmage and Alex played the entire game. He was fouled in the act of shooting and then missed the two free throws, so I am going to hope that he has a great game tonight.
Monday, November 25, 2013
He Made It!!
He did it. Alex made the Iowa City West freshman basketball team and I couldn't be prouder. I am so happy that he was able to show the coach that he was good enough to play. Alex has talked about playing basketball for Iowa City West since he was very young. As I mentioned, he has practice tomorrow AM at 6 AM, but has to be there @ 5:40 AM.
I am going to bed.
I am going to bed.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Blowout
Sometimes, I think back to Alex's days of playing basketball on a North Dodge Athletics Club team. I think about how his team would play a really good team and, before long, the game was out of reach.
That's what I see when I go to a Iowa City West boy's basketball game. Iowa City West trounced Cedar Rapids Xavier last night. There were a couple of dunks. It was fun to watch, to be cheering for the winning team.
That's what I see when I go to a Iowa City West boy's basketball game. Iowa City West trounced Cedar Rapids Xavier last night. There were a couple of dunks. It was fun to watch, to be cheering for the winning team.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Alex's Basketball Team
I have neglected to write even a bit about Alex's basketball season.
They won their game last night in OT. Their record is now 3-4-1 (they had a tie). Their final game is tomorrow (Thursday) so they have a chance to stay at .500 for the season. The win last night was exciting. There were some wild shots that went in, all adding to the excitement. I videotaped the game and couldn't resist trying to coach from the stands.
And that's an interesting point. I realized that I missed coaching. It's been two years since I was coaching Alex. I was never a head coach, which I guess is fine. I don't regret being an assistant coach because that was the role I needed to be in to help the kids achieve success.
They won their game last night in OT. Their record is now 3-4-1 (they had a tie). Their final game is tomorrow (Thursday) so they have a chance to stay at .500 for the season. The win last night was exciting. There were some wild shots that went in, all adding to the excitement. I videotaped the game and couldn't resist trying to coach from the stands.
And that's an interesting point. I realized that I missed coaching. It's been two years since I was coaching Alex. I was never a head coach, which I guess is fine. I don't regret being an assistant coach because that was the role I needed to be in to help the kids achieve success.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
UNDEFEATED!
No, not talking about OSU men's basketball. I'm talking about Alex's basketball team. They won last week so they are UNDEFEATED! How fantastically awesome to start the season off with a BIG W! It has increased the confidence level of the players. They expect to win tonight in our 7:30 contest. They expect to do well. They know that to do well, they must play good defense. DEFENSE! for the UNDEFEATED!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Alex's Game Last Night
Excitement last night @ Alex's game.
The team we played had a 1-3 record, just like us. It was a battle of the basement teams.
Started out and neither team could make a layup or anything. It was scoreless for the first 4-5 minutes. Then it was 2-0 for what seemed like forever.
By 1/2 time, things were tolerable. They built a 4 pt lead but we came back and were down by 2 @ 1/2 time.
In the 2nd half, more back and forth. We missed easy shots but they missed them as well. Neither team could dominate. There were a lot of bad calls.
Finally, us behind 18-20, with 8 seconds left, my son went to the free throw line and tied it. You should have seen his face! Fist pump action!
Then we got the ball, got fouled and Alex K, our tallest kid went to the free throw line with :01 seconds, score 20-20. He lined up to shoot the free throw and all our kids were back across 1/2 court. As he was about to shoot, one of our players ran across 1/2 court to line up. They called a lane violation and waved off the MADE free throw ... we would have won if he wouldn't have ran across but he is new to the game. His teammates should have instructed him to not move.
So we went to OT. In OT, we were down right away 22-20, then made a couple of baskets to be 24-22. With :01 in OT, they threw up a shot and it went in. The ref said that he didn't get it off in time. I am glad there is no instant replay in our league b/c it was darn close!
We are now 2-3. We play a good team next week. Then on 12/2, play the team of kids a year younger than us. This is always a heated game but we respond well - I think we won last year. Then we have a final game. I predict we will play the team we played last night and I expect to win that game. We could end up 4-4, if the kids respond well. It will take a lot of hard work on their part.
The team we played had a 1-3 record, just like us. It was a battle of the basement teams.
Started out and neither team could make a layup or anything. It was scoreless for the first 4-5 minutes. Then it was 2-0 for what seemed like forever.
By 1/2 time, things were tolerable. They built a 4 pt lead but we came back and were down by 2 @ 1/2 time.
In the 2nd half, more back and forth. We missed easy shots but they missed them as well. Neither team could dominate. There were a lot of bad calls.
Finally, us behind 18-20, with 8 seconds left, my son went to the free throw line and tied it. You should have seen his face! Fist pump action!
Then we got the ball, got fouled and Alex K, our tallest kid went to the free throw line with :01 seconds, score 20-20. He lined up to shoot the free throw and all our kids were back across 1/2 court. As he was about to shoot, one of our players ran across 1/2 court to line up. They called a lane violation and waved off the MADE free throw ... we would have won if he wouldn't have ran across but he is new to the game. His teammates should have instructed him to not move.
So we went to OT. In OT, we were down right away 22-20, then made a couple of baskets to be 24-22. With :01 in OT, they threw up a shot and it went in. The ref said that he didn't get it off in time. I am glad there is no instant replay in our league b/c it was darn close!
We are now 2-3. We play a good team next week. Then on 12/2, play the team of kids a year younger than us. This is always a heated game but we respond well - I think we won last year. Then we have a final game. I predict we will play the team we played last night and I expect to win that game. We could end up 4-4, if the kids respond well. It will take a lot of hard work on their part.
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