Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
It is time once again to devote a blog to those 4 legged creatures that I allow to infest my house, namely my dogs. But first, a word about the cat. Our beloved Tiger has found a new (temporary) home at the mother-in-law's house as we think the son is allergic. Tiger tended to sleep right in his face for most of the night and given certain symptoms the son was presenting, we are giving Tiger a month's vacation. He has yet to write or call us but I am sure he is having a great time sleeping 23 hours a day (as opposed to his normal 22 ½ hours).
Nina (the 75 lb Doberman) is adjusting to the cold, Indiana weather. Her trips outside to take care of business are very, well, very business-like, no wasted time at all really. Get out, take care of business, return to the house, find a heater vent and cover it up with her body. Seriously, I have never even seen a cat that spends as much time lying on top of a heater vent as Nina does. When it first started turning cold here, she discovered this cozy pleasure. At first she was confused when the heat would turn off (even turning slightly violent and attaching the vent cover). After a few bouts of punishment over this issue, she has resolved herself to the fact that hot air does not continually flow from this magical hole in the house. Since Oreo (our 12 lb Shih-Poo) was born here in Indiana and since he has a little more fluff on his bones, he spends a little more time outside. When we had 6" of snow earlier this month (which is about 3/4ths of his overall height) he did enjoy bouncing through it. He left some interesting tracks as well. Also, despite the immense heat that Nina puts out, we have banished her from our bed and she now sleeps with the son (a cat replacement if you will). Oreo has now joined the wife and I in our bed and his preferred sleeping spot is on my pillow, wrapped around my head. This works out pretty well though I do not particularly like waking up to having my head licked.
One thing the dogs fight over constantly is bones. We have 2 or 3 bones for them to gnaw on (or more, depending on how many are under the couch). Nina has her favorite bone, namely whatever one is currently in Oreo's mouth. Oreo does not relinquish any bone without a fight but (in a bizarre dog form of schoolyard bully) Nina just grabs the bone and holds it in her mouth high off the ground and just out of Oreo's reach. He then just grabs whatever other bone is laying around and the whole thing starts over again as Nina shows renewed interest in the bone she had (moments before) abandoned. Another bone game that Nina plays is what we have come to call "bone hockey". I am not sure of the exact rules but the playing field is any hardwood floor and the object of the games appears to be to make an incredible amount of noise. Nina will put one or both front paws on the bone and then (pushing with her back legs) ride the bone across the floor. She also will paw at any bone and send it flying across the living room floor (this is how the bones end up under the couch).
Overall, the dogs are enjoyable and do provide a form of entertainment. Nina provides a form of protection (and so does Oreo though his bark is more of a "sound the alarm" bark and not the "I mean business" bark that Nina commands). Tiger was, of course, useless and I admit freely that I do not miss him at all.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Customer Service
Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
A few nights ago I had a late meeting that required me to head back into the office. After it was over, I gave the wife a call to let her know I was heading home. She then requested that I stop by on the way home and buy some red wine. While we were in Texas, almost any grocery store had a great selection of wine. This is not the case in Kokomo so to get a better selection I am forced to head to an actual liquor store. In the year that we have lived back here in Indiana, we have visited this store a few times. Mostly the patrons are looking to purchase (large quantities of) beer so we have the wine section to ourselves. Since I do not have a tongue savvy enough to tell the difference between bad, good and great wine, the cheap stuff is usually good enough for us. Keeping this in mind, I just look for the wines that are on sale. We had recently tried some raspberry wine that was not too bad so when I saw that there was some cranberry wine on sale ($6 marked down from $9) I jumped on it. I headed to the checkout but it rang up at the regular price. Since I was not interested in a $9 bottle of wine, I pointed out that this should be sold at the sale price. The cashier seemed OK with this but the manager (or someone who appeared to be the manager) was nearby and he headed over to the wine section to confirm. The sale sign could not have been clearer in that it had (word for word) the make and model of the wine that I was buying (Leelanau Cellars Cranberry, 750 ml). Despite this, the manager dismissed the whole episode with a "the sign is wrong" and told the cashier to give me 10% off. I had a brief moment to decide if I wanted to fight for what amounted to a little over $2. Given the size of the manager (he was a few inches taller than I) and the fact that I had no real leverage here (my annual purchases with this store could not amount to $100 give or take) I decided to move on and eat the $2. The wine tasted about like you would imagine a cranberry based alcoholic beverage might taste, namely tart, tart and more tart but now we know. The wife and I have already decided that we are going to pick up a year's supply of wine while in Texas next weekend.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
A few nights ago I had a late meeting that required me to head back into the office. After it was over, I gave the wife a call to let her know I was heading home. She then requested that I stop by on the way home and buy some red wine. While we were in Texas, almost any grocery store had a great selection of wine. This is not the case in Kokomo so to get a better selection I am forced to head to an actual liquor store. In the year that we have lived back here in Indiana, we have visited this store a few times. Mostly the patrons are looking to purchase (large quantities of) beer so we have the wine section to ourselves. Since I do not have a tongue savvy enough to tell the difference between bad, good and great wine, the cheap stuff is usually good enough for us. Keeping this in mind, I just look for the wines that are on sale. We had recently tried some raspberry wine that was not too bad so when I saw that there was some cranberry wine on sale ($6 marked down from $9) I jumped on it. I headed to the checkout but it rang up at the regular price. Since I was not interested in a $9 bottle of wine, I pointed out that this should be sold at the sale price. The cashier seemed OK with this but the manager (or someone who appeared to be the manager) was nearby and he headed over to the wine section to confirm. The sale sign could not have been clearer in that it had (word for word) the make and model of the wine that I was buying (Leelanau Cellars Cranberry, 750 ml). Despite this, the manager dismissed the whole episode with a "the sign is wrong" and told the cashier to give me 10% off. I had a brief moment to decide if I wanted to fight for what amounted to a little over $2. Given the size of the manager (he was a few inches taller than I) and the fact that I had no real leverage here (my annual purchases with this store could not amount to $100 give or take) I decided to move on and eat the $2. The wine tasted about like you would imagine a cranberry based alcoholic beverage might taste, namely tart, tart and more tart but now we know. The wife and I have already decided that we are going to pick up a year's supply of wine while in Texas next weekend.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
So We’re Heading Back to Texas
Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
So many things to blog about given the 3 months or so I took off from blogging but the most recent, biggest news is that we are going to make a short trip to Texas to go to a Superbowl party. Weeks ago (right before the NFL playoffs started) I promised the wife and kids that IF the Indianapolis Colts AND the Dallas Cowboys both made it to the Superbowl then we would make a trip to Texas. Wait, you say, the Cowboys are not in the Superbowl. Please allow me to explain (jeesh, cut a guy some slack!). I underestimated the chaos my original announcement would cause. For days, it was all the family could talk about. I knew the odds of those teams both winning all their games were small (something like 144:1 [this is not exactly true given the NFL seeding / bye weeks but for this discussion it will suffice to say that the odds were long]) so I added the New Orleans Saints to the possible teams that would ensure a trip to Texas. We have friends that lived on our street down there that were huge Saints fans so it was not a stretch for me to do this. As each weekend's games were complete, the excitement would build. I had to begin to think about offering to go to Texas no matter who made it as I could tell that the family would be really disappointed should the wrong teams get there.
So after the Colts won their games against the Jets I did a little math. A 2,000 mile trip and 3 or 4 nights in a hotel and food / extras will likely run me $600 - $700. This basically equated to me having a $700 wager on the Vikings beating the Saints. If any of you watched the game, the Vikings were close to (a winning) field goal range in the final minutes when they threw an interception. As I was watching the game next to my wife (the kids were in bed by that time), I had to try to contain my disappointment and fake some enthusiasm (which I am not very good at). So,, long story long, we are going to Texas next weekend.
Now, we have a dilemma as there are 2 different Superbowl parties that we can go to (the one we attended while in Texas [Cowboys fans] or one on our old street [Saints fans]). We are torn and will upset someone no matter what unless we split up the family or somehow go to both (quick dash at halftime maybe?). Since the Cowboy fans' party has bounce houses for the kids and it features an 11 foot big screen (trust me, it is a great party) the kids and I will vote for that one I am sure however given my life's motto (happy wife, happy life) the choice is not yet carved in stone. I will have to keep you posted.
Well it is time to head out the door for work.
Thanks for reading my random thoughts.
Jon
So many things to blog about given the 3 months or so I took off from blogging but the most recent, biggest news is that we are going to make a short trip to Texas to go to a Superbowl party. Weeks ago (right before the NFL playoffs started) I promised the wife and kids that IF the Indianapolis Colts AND the Dallas Cowboys both made it to the Superbowl then we would make a trip to Texas. Wait, you say, the Cowboys are not in the Superbowl. Please allow me to explain (jeesh, cut a guy some slack!). I underestimated the chaos my original announcement would cause. For days, it was all the family could talk about. I knew the odds of those teams both winning all their games were small (something like 144:1 [this is not exactly true given the NFL seeding / bye weeks but for this discussion it will suffice to say that the odds were long]) so I added the New Orleans Saints to the possible teams that would ensure a trip to Texas. We have friends that lived on our street down there that were huge Saints fans so it was not a stretch for me to do this. As each weekend's games were complete, the excitement would build. I had to begin to think about offering to go to Texas no matter who made it as I could tell that the family would be really disappointed should the wrong teams get there.
So after the Colts won their games against the Jets I did a little math. A 2,000 mile trip and 3 or 4 nights in a hotel and food / extras will likely run me $600 - $700. This basically equated to me having a $700 wager on the Vikings beating the Saints. If any of you watched the game, the Vikings were close to (a winning) field goal range in the final minutes when they threw an interception. As I was watching the game next to my wife (the kids were in bed by that time), I had to try to contain my disappointment and fake some enthusiasm (which I am not very good at). So,, long story long, we are going to Texas next weekend.
Now, we have a dilemma as there are 2 different Superbowl parties that we can go to (the one we attended while in Texas [Cowboys fans] or one on our old street [Saints fans]). We are torn and will upset someone no matter what unless we split up the family or somehow go to both (quick dash at halftime maybe?). Since the Cowboy fans' party has bounce houses for the kids and it features an 11 foot big screen (trust me, it is a great party) the kids and I will vote for that one I am sure however given my life's motto (happy wife, happy life) the choice is not yet carved in stone. I will have to keep you posted.
Well it is time to head out the door for work.
Thanks for reading my random thoughts.
Jon
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Return of the Blog
Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
At long last, the return of the blog! It is not as if I have not been blogging actually. I started a blog on my company's internal blog site. My new manager (my 10th different manager now during my 9 years with this company) has encouraged our team to blog once per week internally about work related items. While some of my new teammates were not very excited about this team goal I actually started salivating at the prospect of having blogging as part as my job for which I am paid.
So, what has happened since my last blog in early October? Well, we still do not have any internet access at home though I am researching my options again. DSL and cable internet are still not options so we are left with either satellite, line of site, or a cell phone data plan. My main concern is the ability to connect to my company's VPN and be able to work from home on some days. I have heard that satellite does not play well with VPNs in general and you typically have to have a clear view of the southern sky for the best connection. Since I have a lot of trees and since the satellite dish left over by the previous owners is mounted very high on my detached garage with a long, underground cable ran all the way to the house, I am going to guess that satellite internet access would require a similar set up.
I did do some research on the MiFi device that can be used by Sprint of Verizon (the cell phone company we use for the wife's phone). This little device seem pretty cool in that you bring your network with you and can connect up to 5 devices. This seems ideal for me and I do get a pretty strong signal on the wife's cell phone here at home. The one drawback is that there is a 5GB per month limit on throughput. This works out to about 167 MB per day. This would likely prevent us from doing any streaming of videos (YouTube, Hulu, etc) and would likely cause us to have to monitor our usage to make sure we don't go over the monthly limit (at a $0.05 per MB cost). I did a little testing and am estimating that I would use 200MB per day for a normal day at work. This would cause us not to be able to use the internet at all or very sparingly if I worked from home very often.
This leaves the line of site option. I actually have a friend at church that uses the line of sight provider that services this area of Indiana so I am hoping I can take my work laptop out to his house and do some testing soon. This is the cheapest option actually overall. All 3 options would require a 2 year commitment and have some up front costs. While the line of sight has a higher upfront cost, it is less per month. I have high hopes (usually a bad sign) that this will work. I will have to keep you posted.
So, what else? Christmas went well though we did remember how nice it was to have a simple Christmas in Texas with no family locally to have to make time to visit on Christmas day. I will save my presents for another blog but we all got some cool stuff that we are still playing with today. My company forced us all to save 8 days of vacation to use for the last 2 weeks of the year so for the first time in about 15 years, I had 2 weeks in a row off of work (since I was laid off each summer at a bowling center I worked at a lifetime ago). I was concerned about going insane but once we opened our Christmas gifts, the last week was OK. Surprisingly I did not have too much of a problem getting back into the swing of things when I returned at the beginning of this month.
Either I have nothing to blog about or too many things or maybe I am just out of the habit. We are getting ready to head out to a local Mexican restaurant with our flock group. This means that I will be at a popular restaurant on a Saturday night with a large crowd. If you know me at all, I don't like large groups or busy restaurants so I am not really looking forward to this. I am sure all will be well but I still would rather stay home or do anything else but this. Well, Oreo appears to need to be petted so I better cut off these random thoughts.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
At long last, the return of the blog! It is not as if I have not been blogging actually. I started a blog on my company's internal blog site. My new manager (my 10th different manager now during my 9 years with this company) has encouraged our team to blog once per week internally about work related items. While some of my new teammates were not very excited about this team goal I actually started salivating at the prospect of having blogging as part as my job for which I am paid.
So, what has happened since my last blog in early October? Well, we still do not have any internet access at home though I am researching my options again. DSL and cable internet are still not options so we are left with either satellite, line of site, or a cell phone data plan. My main concern is the ability to connect to my company's VPN and be able to work from home on some days. I have heard that satellite does not play well with VPNs in general and you typically have to have a clear view of the southern sky for the best connection. Since I have a lot of trees and since the satellite dish left over by the previous owners is mounted very high on my detached garage with a long, underground cable ran all the way to the house, I am going to guess that satellite internet access would require a similar set up.
I did do some research on the MiFi device that can be used by Sprint of Verizon (the cell phone company we use for the wife's phone). This little device seem pretty cool in that you bring your network with you and can connect up to 5 devices. This seems ideal for me and I do get a pretty strong signal on the wife's cell phone here at home. The one drawback is that there is a 5GB per month limit on throughput. This works out to about 167 MB per day. This would likely prevent us from doing any streaming of videos (YouTube, Hulu, etc) and would likely cause us to have to monitor our usage to make sure we don't go over the monthly limit (at a $0.05 per MB cost). I did a little testing and am estimating that I would use 200MB per day for a normal day at work. This would cause us not to be able to use the internet at all or very sparingly if I worked from home very often.
This leaves the line of site option. I actually have a friend at church that uses the line of sight provider that services this area of Indiana so I am hoping I can take my work laptop out to his house and do some testing soon. This is the cheapest option actually overall. All 3 options would require a 2 year commitment and have some up front costs. While the line of sight has a higher upfront cost, it is less per month. I have high hopes (usually a bad sign) that this will work. I will have to keep you posted.
So, what else? Christmas went well though we did remember how nice it was to have a simple Christmas in Texas with no family locally to have to make time to visit on Christmas day. I will save my presents for another blog but we all got some cool stuff that we are still playing with today. My company forced us all to save 8 days of vacation to use for the last 2 weeks of the year so for the first time in about 15 years, I had 2 weeks in a row off of work (since I was laid off each summer at a bowling center I worked at a lifetime ago). I was concerned about going insane but once we opened our Christmas gifts, the last week was OK. Surprisingly I did not have too much of a problem getting back into the swing of things when I returned at the beginning of this month.
Either I have nothing to blog about or too many things or maybe I am just out of the habit. We are getting ready to head out to a local Mexican restaurant with our flock group. This means that I will be at a popular restaurant on a Saturday night with a large crowd. If you know me at all, I don't like large groups or busy restaurants so I am not really looking forward to this. I am sure all will be well but I still would rather stay home or do anything else but this. Well, Oreo appears to need to be petted so I better cut off these random thoughts.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
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