Random Photos–2012-11-10

It is once again time to clear out the micro SD card from ye olde cellular phone and see what pictures I have snapped over the past few months.

This is the layout of the dog’s dishes.  I am not sure why I thought this was photo worthy.  From left to right: Nina’s food bowl, the shared water bowl, McKinney’s food bowl and Louie’s food bowl (notice that it is empty as he never misses a meal nor a chance to steal from the other dog’s bowls).

This is my daughter using my 47” television as a computer monitor.  I was running a test copy of Windows 8 for part of the summer and had that computer using my big TV as its monitor.  For some reason she preferred this screen to the 10” screen of her netbook.

This is from the local Whole Foods.  Don’t worry, we didn’t buy all the seaweed rice crackers.

This was my plate when I had lunch with my mother over the summer during her trip down here.  There was a lunch special where you got 4 courses for a certain price, all delivered at the same time (since no one has time for a 4 course lunch during their lunch hour).  Everything was delicious.

Louie “fits” right into our family don’t you think?

For reasons I will not go into here, the wife bought a juicer.  The smile on her face is BEFORE she drank the contents of the glass.

Another food photo.  This was a free lunch that I had at work.  My cubicle is very near a meeting room that is used quite often for all day meetings.  Sometimes these meetings have a cart delivered just outside the meeting room door that has a lunch spread.  It is an unwritten rule that anything left on the cart at 1:30 is fair game.  If you wait too much past that time, the cafeteria staff come and take away the cart.  This was my haul from the cart.  Sadly, all the cookies were gone.

Another photo taken at work.  This was taped to the refrigerator for a few days.  The thief is still at large.

Finally, one last photo from work.  I was invited into the meeting room (where the lunch cart is sometimes delivered) for a few hours during a 3 day conference.  Several of the attendees were from outside of the US and brought some local treats for us to try.  This was some sort of pineapple pastry thing.  Interesting but not something I think I would try again.

Well there you have it.  My phone photos folder is emptied again and ready to be filled with random photos again.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-06-23

It is time once again to clear out the cell phone’s micro SD card and try to remember why I took these pictures.

My manager recently took a trick to Europe with his family.  I think he visited 3 different countries.  He bought this “mug” for me (it is only 2” tall at most).  I display it in my cubicle at work now partially to impress him and partially because I just like it.  I found out last week that I will have a new manager starting in a week or so.  I have not decided whether the mug will stay in its current position past then.

On the days that I go into the office to work I like to get out of the cubicle at lunchtime.  Sometimes I go up the 6th floor arcade and play Donkey Kong.  Other days I walk across the street (a 6 lane main road) and sit near the man made pond there.  There are apartments, a hotel and tons of shops and restaurants as well so it is fun to people watch as well.  The above is my view from a bench that was mercifully in the shade on the warm day that I took this picture.

It is pretty warm in Texas this time of year so imagine my surprise when these company logo ice scrapers were a new arrival in the company store located just down the escalators from my cubicle.  I suppose they might sell since most of the folks that come to this store are people who have travelled here for meetings.  Still though, it is summer pretty much everywhere in the northern hemisphere and I would not give this product the shelf space just yet.

I recently accomplished my goal of running 5k   I look quite the mess when I get back to the house but I feel great, albeit a little warm.  Here is a picture after one of my runs.  For some reason neither the wife and kids are in a mood for a hug after I come back into the house after my morning runs.

I am not a big fan of Windows and one thing I really don’t like is all of the patches.  At home I can at least postpone them but at work they are forced upon you by the IT department.  Inevitably when I am trying to get out of the office on time it will be time for a pile of updates.  As with all things Microsoft, the information on the screen does not tell you much (being on update 8 or 16 does not mean you are 1/2 way done).  Fortunately it does not happen that often.

Well, the card is empty now and ready for more pics.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-05-28

It is once again time to clear out the micro SD card in ye olde cell phone and see if I can remember why I took these photos.

This was taken outside at my work place.  I sometimes go outside during my lunch to get some sun and fresh air.  They have these trees growing out of the brick pathways near some benches where I sometimes sit.  This one evidently need to be cut down and to keep people from falling into the hole near the tree they placed these orange cones.  I don’t know why but this struck me as odd.  This was not the only one.  I have no idea what they will do now.

We have never had a normal dog.  Ask anyone in our family.  Our standard poodle, McKinney (pictured here) is no exception.  This is her normal way of laying down.  Her elbow (?) sticks out in this funny way.  She looks like she is just hanging out and relaxing.  She also has a sitting position that is as vertical as any dog I have ever seen.  You need only give her a little push and she would fall over backwards.

I got a call on Saturday from my daughter to come see a wild, wild west play.  She told me that it was only a nickel so I dug into the change jar and rode my bike 1 block to her friend’s house where I was treated to a wonderful (well, for the money) play.  Kudos to them for staying in character even though it was very warm (especially with the costumes on over their normal clothes).  I did not quite get the plot but I think here the mother is telling the kids what has happened to their father (spoiler alert, it was the wild, wild west so it was not good news).

This portable little business showed up recently within biking distance of our house.  It features shaved ice (snow cones) with 64 possible flavors.  That is except today (Memorial Day) when the poor kid working the window had to apologize for being out of a lot of the flavorings.  The whole place looks like an old pirate ship and if not for the very loud generator that provides power you would almost believe it.  The daughter was disappointed that 1) the worker was not dressed like a pirate and 2) he did not even try to speak like a pirate.  She settled for blue raspberry and I settled for (my 3rd choice) peach daiquiri.  At only $2 each this might be a regular destination on our bikes throughout the summer.

Well the phone is now empty and ready for more random pictures.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-05-05

It is that time again to clear out the micro SD card on the cell phone and try to remember the reason I decided to take the pictures in the first place.

Last month there was a workshop for a project that I am assigned to at work.  There were 8 of us (give or take) holed up in a meeting room for the better part of 3 days.  At a moment of either clarity or frustration I suggested that we solve everything by simply asking our end users to choose between fast, cheap or correct (since we could not provide all 3 and were struggling even to provide any 2 of the 3).  Someone scribbled it on a white board and I snapped this photo.  I still think this is a good idea but I was in the minority.

During that same workshop we took an evening to have a team dinner.  We went to a very nice restaurant close by and this is what I ordered.  The thing on the right was actually (almost) raw fish.  I did not know that when I ordered it but not wanting to seem unprofessional and unknowledgeable I ate most of it.  I have had sushi before and I find that raw fish has almost no flavor and I do not much care for the texture.  The steak (left) and rice (middle) was very good (as was the wine that we ordered).

A few nights after the team dinner we had one of the workshop attendees over for dinner.  He is a long time friend and this is what the wife made for desert that night.  This is a completely homemade strawberry short cake.  Even the whipped cream was really whipped by the wife.  It was great.

When my mother was here in mid February she gave me a large bag of Easter M&M’s.  Since I was in the middle of outsourcing my body I did not open them up while she was here with us.  I decided that I would open up the bag when I got within 10 lbs. of my weight goal.  The kids were very excited as (presumably) I would share the candy once it was open.  Each week (I only weighed myself once a week) the kids would ask if we could open the bag yet.  This gave me a team to root me on in my weight battle (even if they had selfish motives).  Once the bag was open I followed my normal M&M distribution plan.  This involves separating them by color and then having a rock, paper, scissors contest to determine who got to pick their color first.  The person who finishes last gets the remaining 2 colors (which is usually more M&M’s than the winner gets).  I ended up coming in 3rd place in the tournament which unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) gave me the lease amount of candy.

There is an entirely logical reason why I am wearing a pink mask.  The wife recently participated in a race called the Warrior Dash.  She and several of her friends entered this obstacle course / race together and decided to make up team outfits.  This entailed t-shirts, a leather belt / skirt of sorts, leather head bands and face paint.  On the day of the race we all went to one of the entrant’s house and they finished up their outfits and donned their face paint.  I had some time to kill so I took one of the cut off sleeves of the t-shirts and cut eyeholes and wore it around the house.  This gave the son an idea and he quickly worked with the scraps to create his own outfit of sorts.

Here is the mud pit near the finish line of the Warrior Dash.  After running through the entire course, you jump over some fire (just to the left of the mud pit) and then you army crawl (there is barbed wire forcing you down) through mud.  The kids and I had over an hour to kill (the wife finished around 700th place overall for her age / gender grouping) and we hung out around the finish line and watched everyone get muddy.

Well the micro SD card is cleared out once again.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Jon

Random Photos–2012-03-24

Greetings,

It is time once again to clear out the memory card on my cell phone of those photos that I took for some reason or another.  Won’t you join me as I try to remember why I took these photos?

So we are staying in the house we are currently in for another year.  We had planned to stay here only for 5 months and the move back into the house we lived in when we previously lived in McKinney.  However, the couple that lives is (what we affectionately still call) our house decided to renew their lease.  We talked our landlords (a nice couple originally from Vietnam) into resodding the back yard as a condition of our renewal (we also got $400 toward a new dishwasher as well).  Here is a photo of the sod that was delivered to our house.

I snapped this on the way to our car as we were leaving church a few weeks back.  It is perfect!

I think I have mentioned that a fried of ours down here sells (among other things) silk flowers.  His company has a ginormous showroom in Dallas and every once in a while they have a sale of their closeout items.  We were invited one Sunday to look at everything before the sale officially started on Monday.  This is part of the wife’s haul.

Just a random sunset.  I think this pictures shows the true limitations of the cell phone camera since I remember this sunset as being much prettier than this pictures shows.

Sad really, partly because this product will probably sell (you can shove the dog’s pill in a hunk of cheese you know) and partly because I didn’t think of this first.

When I logged into work last Monday morning I noticed that all my meetings were cancelled for the day.  I pinged my manager for permission to take the afternoon off and the wife and kids and I drove to the mall in Frisco and ice skated.  I had not ice skated in 30 or so years so my first 2 times around the rink were with the help of the side railings.  After that though I kind of got the hang of it.  We all had a great time.

Thanks for taking time to look at my random photos.

Jon

Blog Number 428

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It has been a while but it is now time for another installment of...

Random low quality pictures from the wife's cell phone

Sometime late this evening the wife turned to me and asked me the following question: "Did I tell you that we saw a monkey today?"  Faithful readers I can honestly say that I have never been asked this question before.  I would think that in the summary of the day that monkey sightings would be your lead off story not some afterthought following stuff like "I forgot to get the mail" and "Listen to how well your daughter plays 'Old MacDonald' on the piano" but that's just me.  The money in question is actually a Capuchin monkey and the wife and son saw it this morning while walking at a nearby park.  It was only 6 months old and did manage to get bold enough to climb partially up the wife's leg.  I still cannot believe my son did not greet me at the door with a "hey dad, guess what, we saw a monkey today!"

This is a quite old picture as I took it in Texas (so at least 5 months old).  I am used to handicapped parking signs or even those marked for pregnant or new mothers but I had never seen one of these.  The parking spot where this sign was located was empty.  I wonder what constitutes a Fuel Efficient Vehicle in the eyes of Best Buy?  I meant to ask one of the sales associates but we did not make it into the store and only visited the store next to it.

Here is another picture of a dog.  I cannot believe the number of pictures we have of our pets.  I really cannot believe the number of pictures that I take of our pets especially when you compare it to the number of pictures of other things (like, say, my children).  For me, I think it is because the pets do not think to pose for the camera like my kids do.  I like the live action-ness of the dog pics whereas the kids just pause what they are doing and smile for the camera.

Well once again I have killed another evening and topped it off with a blog.  I cannot believe that my next blog will be # 400.  Incredible.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 352

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It seems like our family is just waiting for January to be over so we can get on to the next phase of our life back in Indiana.  Seems like a perfectly good waste of a fine month (and our last warm January for a long time) but so be it.  We did manage to toss out most of our VHS movies (noting which ones we want to replace with DVDs) and our VCR.  This is the continuing process of deciding what we really want / need and what is just excess baggage in our lives.  The movies that made our "to be replaced with DVDs" list are...

• Runaway Bride
• An Affair to Remember
• Monsters, Inc.
• The Prince of Egypt
• Searching for Bobby Fischer

All but Monsters, Inc. can be replaced for $10 or less (new) but we have no immediate plans to buy the replacement DVDs.  Maybe we will get lucky and find them at our favorite pawn shop back in Kokomo (crosses fingers).

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My (Wife's) New Cell Phone

 

This is supposed to be a map of Greece around the time of Christ.  It was drawn by our ABF teacher this week on the white board in our classroom.  I have added a real map of Greece as a reference.  I will let you be the judge.

The daughter bought this bracelet kit today with some of her leftover Christmas money.  Notice how big the box is compared to the contents.  I have this feeling that sometime later this week or next I will be the proud owner of a new, homemade bracelet that I will be required to wear to work at least one day.  I will have to let you know how it turns out.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 347

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well it seems I will fall short of the century mark for blog entries this year.  I don't recall making this a goal so I guess I should be satisfied with 98 (or so) blogs.  The insurance payout / lawsuit as a result of the April crash is progressing nicely and we should hopefully have it all cleared up before we move back to Indiana in February.  We are heading to the next door neighbor's house for a New Year's Eve get together with some other folks on our street.  The son is looking forward to staying up until midnight.  Last year was the first year that he made it (awake) into the new year.  He has been talking about extending his streak to two.  The daughter (7) has no aspirations nor can she see any reason not to go to bed when she gets tired (like every other night of the year).  Maybe the peer pressure will get to her but I honestly don't think she could make it if she tried (short of a caffeine boost sometime late evening).  We will see.

It is time to clear out the 2008 cell phone pics (from the wife's phone remember)...

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My (Wife's) New Cell Phone

  

The dog and I have this ritual every morning (and evening).  It seems that her chew bone is much more tasty and satisfying if it is enjoyed while being chewed on my feet.  If I move (or even adjust my feet) she simply picks up her bone and relocates to wherever my feet are.  This is a little painful at times but I allow her this small pleasure for a few minutes each day.

Tiger (the cat) has lost a little weight in the last few months since we put him on some light cat food.  He protested at first but when he figured out that was all he was getting, he ate it willingly.  This photo does not really give you a few of his shrinking gut so you will have to trust me on this one.

This pic is a few days old (duh) but we have started using this small chalkboard as a countdown to our move to Indiana (currently set at 37 days).

I don't usually put pics of other people on my blog but I wanted to share this one with you.  This is from a few weeks ago during the morning church service at the church that we attend.  The girl on the third row is actually playing a Nintendo DS.  This is not the first service that I have seen her doing this   I am not sure which is the greater sin (playing Nintendo during church or posting a picture of someone playing Nintendo DS during church on a blog).  I am voting for the former.

Well the wife just delivered a large bowl of hot oatmeal.  Feliz Año Nuevo!

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 342

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Another week slipped by without a blog entry.  The in-laws got safely back to Indiana and I had to return to work on Monday after my long vacation.  So things are pretty much back to normal.  We did do our birthday dinner for the daughter's 7th birthday.  She chose Macaroni Grill (her favorite restaurant) and got to order for everyone (as is our tradition).  The waitress / waiter always enjoy waiting on us on the kid's birthday dinners and the time was no exception.  Other that that, the week has been normal so I have nothing in particular to blog about.

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone

The Wednesday before last, our church had some sort of bazaar going on or something.  There were all kinds of booths selling artsy-craftsy stuff.  I found this one interesting.

 

Last Thursday (since the in-laws were in town), the wife and I went grocery shopping together.  Soy Nog or Goat Log anyone?

Last night for a change of pace, the wife made a quiche with broccoli, onions and cheese.  It turned out OK but looks much prettier than it tasted.  In the end it did what food is supposed to do, namely make me not hungry.

Sadly, this will be the last installment of "Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone" as my cell phone is no longer in service.  I did keep my old cell phone and it is back in service again but I do not have a way of getting pictures from it.  This picture was taken with my wife's new cell phone.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 335

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It is time to clear out my cell phone's micro SD card with another installment of...

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone

Just to prove that I did indeed vote back on November 4th.  With all the concerns about long lines and massive turnouts I was pleasantly surprised (and a little shocked) to find out that I was the only person in the gymnasium (other than the poll workers) when I arrived to vote around 2:45 in the afternoon.  The poll workers seemed excited to see me and by the time I left there were a few others that arrived (looking equally shocked and surprised as I was).

The daughter and I were at Dollar Store last Sunday and the man wearing these M&M pants was acting a little too friendly with the people in line.  So much so that I thought he might be mentally unstable.  The pants he chose to wear in public only adds to my side of this argument.

I was shocked to learn of the "2008 Meal Worm Shortage" as it has been left off of the major news networks.  Fortunately there was this warning in the local PetSmart to keep me informed.

I saw this a week ago at the local Half Priced Bookstore.  Either someone was not paying attention to proper sticker placement or they were trying to make a joke.  For the record, I did not have my cell phone with me so this picture was taken with the wife's new cell phone.

Well that clears out the cell phone.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon