Wireless LAN

This is what a wireless access point (AP) looks like. The cable modem plugs directly into this from the wall. It beams the internet signal to all of the computers in the house. I think it can support up to four computers at the same time.


This is what the antenna that plugs into the computer looks like. Instead of having a cable go into the PC for internet access, it gets beamed to this antenna. We will be able to move the computer anywhere and not have to worry about connecting to the net. They also make a model for laptops so you could surf right on the couch.

The Simpsons

How cool are these fishing lures?

Our Home Network??

A friend of ours here in town is a networking and security consultant. This is a diagram of the LAN network that connects the computers he has in his house. We are going to talk to him about doing the same kind of thing. Right now I think I would like to have one computer upstairs in the office connected directly to the cable modem, and the other computer downstairs in the front room connected to the internet by a wireless LAN card. On his diagram that's how the three laptops on the right that are surrounding a picture of a radio tower are connected. The wireless connections have either a 100 foot range or a 50 foot range depending on which type of wireless we go with. Pretty cool stuff, huh?
(You can click on the picture for the full sized image.)

PC and Internet

Yeah!! I ordered BOTH a new PC and broadband internet connection today!

The PC will be a monster. It has one gigabyte of RAM. A 120 gigabyte hard drive. A 2.66 Mghz Pentium 4 processor. A very fast and high resolution graphics card. A combination DVD and CD burner. (I want to transfer home movies to DVD for archiving.)

The internet service will be via a cable modem from our cable company. They guarantee 1.5 Mbps speeds (T1 speed!). Other cable company's internet servcie slows down during peak periods. It is 30 times faster than typical dial-up service. A 20 minute download over a modem will now take only 40 seconds!

The funny thing is that we will actually be saving money by getting the cable modem. Right now our cable bill is about $43 and our dial-up service is $22 for a total of $65. Our new combined cable and internet service will be $59.

The PC will show up next Friday (March 7), and the cable modem guy will be there the following day on Saturday (March 8).

Oh by the way...

The hospital left the voice mail at home about when Sheri has to be there on Monday. Three minutes after they left the message I received a page on my cell phone letting me know that a message was waiting. How cool is that? I love technology.

PC Update

I have a PC configured and waiting in my basket in the on-line ordering system at Dell's website, but I want to go over what I have on it with Sheri before I click the "Order" button.

Hospital

We have to be at the hospital Monday morning for Sheri's surgery at 5:30 AM!!! It's going to be a long day. Lucky Sheri gets to sleep most of the day.

She can not eat or drink anything after midnight.

On the bright side I will get to do one of my favorite things all day: read different newspapers and listen to my radio. Maybe I will take my police scanner and listen to the ambulances coming to the hospital.

Miscellaneous Catch Up Stuff

I talked to Mom for 52 minutes on the phone tonight. Unlimited long distance is pretty cool!

We finished up the last batch of tabouli tonight, so I made another batch. When I posted my recipe a few days ago I forgot to say that I also add oregano and dried onion flakes. If I don't have fresh parsley I have a big jar of dried parsley flakes. Not the same as fresh, but better than nothing. We also picked up a bag of dried mint leaves at Dominick's last week. I fill up my coffee grinder with the mint and grind the heck out of it; until it is nothing but a fine dust. Makes a big difference.

We didn't order a computer tonight. We were both feeling tired, so we took a little nap together.

A woman at work gave me an idea she got from Martha Stewart's magazine. Use yogurt containers, empty pint cartons of milk, 16 and 20 ounce plastic soda bottles, etc. as molds to make soap.

I am scheduled to take a five day Java programming class at work. I think it starts on March 17. Maybe you will start to see fun little Java programs on my site.

Our monthly mortgage payment dropped about $93 after we refinanced.

When we moved here and started our water and electric service through the city, we had to pay $250 deposit. I totally forgot about it until a couple of days ago we got a check in the mail. After two years of not missing a payment they send it back to you. Nice.

We also got a $500 check in the mail a week or two ago from closing on our mortgage refinance. That is my employee benefit. After you close you get $500 of your closing costs back. Also nice.

Sheri likes the Tempur-Pedic bed a lot and says she is sleeping better. I am still forming my opinion. The brochure that came with the mattress said that it takes some people a couple weeks to get used to it. I think I am waking up feeling better and well rested, but my neck and shoulders have been feeling a little stiff. I think it might be because the Tempur-Pedic pillow is thicker than I am used to. I am going to try going back to my regular pillows tonight and see if that makes a difference. If it does I will try to return the pillow. Sheri loves her pillow.

I have writing to do for class this weekend. I only have to turn in a draft, so it is not too big of a deal. He is just looking for effort, not content at this point.

I got my paper back from the professor this week. That paper and class participation so far make up 50% of our grade. The paper was worth 30 points, and the grades ranged from 20 points (67%) to 29 points (97%). I got 29 points on my paper.

Class participation was worth 20 points, and I got 19 points (95%).

Our natural gas bill for the 29 days between January 27 and February 25 was $143.62.

"Dude your gettin' a Dell!"

I think tonight is the night that we order a new PC. I think it would be deliverd late next week if I place the order tonight.

My Scanner

This is my police scanner that I have had almost a year. I love it and would replace it if it ever broke. I go in spurts listening to it. I think I am about to come off of a non-listening phase. I might turn it on tonight while I am working on the computer.

Mr. Rogers

1929 - 2003

Terror Alert

I just saw on the news that the Department of Homeland Security is expected to lower the terrorist threat status from orange (high) to yellow (elevated).

Phone Stuff

You will NEVER get a busy signal when you call our house now. Our new service has voice mail included for free. If we are dialed-in to the internet, your call will just roll over to voice mail. Leave a message and we will call you back when we log off.

And the situation will get even better soon. We are 99.9% sure we are going to sign up for broadband internet access via our cable company. It will take a few weeks for that to get installed once I order it. Our cable provider as a deal that we can get cable and a guaranteed 1.5 Mbps connection for $54.99. We are currently paying $43 a month for cable and $22 a month for our pokey dial-up service, for a combined total of $65. So we will save $10 per month and increase our internet connection speed by 30 times!

Our unlimited long distance calling is now in effect too, so we might be trying it out tonight.

Last Class

This is the description of the class I have to take next month to finish up my MBA.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS FOR COMPETING GLOBALLY
This capstone course views the impact of contemporary issues on corporate strategy. Competitive, cultural, social and ethical issues are examined within the context of a global business environment. The course content emphasizes identifying strategic alternatives, developing corporate and business strategies, and understanding the role of functional activities and organizational processes from a strategic viewpoint. The process of the course involves team interaction, problem-solving, group decision-making, written reports and oral presentations. PREREQUISITE (S):ACC 500, MGT 500, MGT 502, BLW 500, ECO 500, ECO 509, IB 500, ACC 555, ECO 555, FIN 555, MGT 555, MIS 555 & MKT 555.
4 units min / 4 units max, Lecture

Radio Controlled Watch

I love my "atomic" watch except for one thing; it doesn't have an hourly chime. So I just ordered a new model that does have an hourly chime.

If anyone wants my old watch I will send it to them for only $20. Every morning at 1:00 AM it atomatically synchronizes with the atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado. It also will automatically adjust itself for daylight savings time change. Here is a link that has some information on the watch.

I got it in April or May of last year. Just let me know if you are interested.

Lunch Report

Cod cakes
Meat loaf
Yankee pot roast
Grilled eggplant
Grilled chicken with lime tomitillo sauce
Yams

$5.01

MCI's The Neighborhood Clarification

I just got off of the phone talking to my Mom, and there might be some confusion out there about the MCI The Neighborhood plan. It is NOT just a long distance plan. It is also your local phone service. You will NOT have to pay anything to SBC, Ameritech, etc. Your ONLY phone charge will be to MCI for $49.99. That covers your local phone service, all of your long distance usage, caller ID, three way calling, voice mail, call waiting, etc.

One bit of clarification, the $49.99 does not include local, state, and federal taxes, and it does not include the $6 that MCI has to pay to SBC to lease line access. You may have read in the news about how SBC is complaining to the feds in the FCC that the amount that MCI, ATT, etc pay to lease lines for local service is below their cost. Well that’s what this $6 is for.

So, it would actually be more accurate to say the service is $55.99 plus taxes.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mattress Update

Things are on the busy side today, so I can’t write too much, but I think the new mattress made a difference. Usually in the morning I wake up with my back feeling stiff. It takes a little moving around for that feeling to go away. This morning I didn’t notice that feeling. I don’t think I tossed and turned as much as I normally do either. So the initial verdict is a thumbs up. I’ll keep you posted.

Yikes!

Natural gas futures rose 38% yesterday!

Bed Update

Well, we got our new Tempur-Pedic bed delivered this evening, but it spent all day in an unheated truck that was probably about 15º. The thing was as hard as a rock. The entire king size piece of foam is as stiff as a board. The guys said that it will take two or three hours to thaw out. Fortunately they were able to come early, and we left work early, and it was in our bedroom by 5:45 PM.

We were laying on it trying to thaw it out faster, and were we were laying would get a little softer.

We went downstairs to finish up laundry, my tabouli, and start my 9:00 PM Singapore conference call. We left a space heater on in the bedroom, so it should be thawed out by now.

There was a package waiting for Sheri on the steps when we got home. It was a very nice care package from Lisa. For Sheri was a Cheer Bear to help Sheri get through her surgery, and some pictures of me with Shawn, with the best picture of the bunch in a nice frame. I plan on taking the frame to work for my desk. There was also an invitation to Shawn's birthday party. Tempting. Thanks Lisa!

Sheri also got a really nice card from Marianne today. All of the support really means a lot to her us and has been helpful and encouraging. Thanks everyone!

The dial-in number to my conference call didn't work, so I got out of that one. I am going to finish this up and then go try my first night in our new bed. Can't wait.

Tabouli Recipe

This is my basic recipe for tabouli.

1 cup bulgur wheat
1 1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tsp salt (opt) (I use 1 teaspoon)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
dash of garlic powder
2 tomatoes, diced
3 cups chopped fresh parsley (I just toss the leaves of an entire bunch in the food processor.)
4 green onions, chopped with tops (optional)

Pour boiling water over bulgur wheat and salt. (I also add maybe 1/2 teaspoon of dried minced onion at this point.) Cover bulgur wheat for 30 minutes and let set. Stir next three ingredients into bulgur and chill for 2-3 hours. Add tomatoes, parsley and green onions and gently toss before serving.

We just bought some dried mint leaves that I am going to try adding, probably in the first step. I will start with 2 or 3 tablespoons and see how that tastes.

The Good, the Bad, and the...

Good thing: I get a brand new Tempur-Pedic mattress tonight.

Bad thing: I have a 9:00 PM conference call tonight with Singapore.

Bob Chinn's Crab House

A woman at work went to Bob Chinn's Crab House this weekend and said she thought me. She said it was the best seafood she ever had. It is supposed to be the 4th busiest restaurant in the United States. I think we have to go. Maybe for my birthday.

Grammys

I have the Grammy Awards on while I am paying bills. I like watching the big award shows. I look forward to them, and it kind of makes the night feel like an event. We didn't watch the pre-show where they show the stars walking down the red carpet and everyone talks about their skimpy gowns.

Stuff

For a treat, we went to Hooters for linner (lunch and dinner) and each got our favorite buffalo chicken sandwich with 3 Mile Island sauce. We split an order of curly fries, and we both also had iced tea.

We are both really excited about getting our new bed tomorrow night. I can't wait to write to tell you how the first night sleeping on it is. We used our Tempur-Pedic pillows last night. Sheri is sold on hers. It sounded like she could breath easier last night too. I am more picky about my pillows, so I can't give you my verdict yet, but the initial night was promising.

I just changed to furnace filter. The filter is advertised as a three month filter, but I think I am going to move to a 2.5 month cycle. When I opened the hatch, the filter was blown out of its track again. I think it gets too clogged up with stuff and then air can't pass easily, and it pops out.

Whole Foods Trip

We went to Whole Foods and picked up the following:

1 bottle of German sparkling mineral water (Apollinaris)
1 bottle of Italian sparkling mineral water (San Pellegrino)
2 bottles of Whole Foods brand Italian sparkling mineral water (only 89¢ per bottle!)
2 12 oz bottles of Poland Springs still mineral water
3.42 pounds of bulk bulgur wheat for tabouli
Soft tofu
3 packs of tempeh
.64 pounds of bulk mung bean seeds to sprout
.18 pounds of bulk alfalfa seeds to sprout
1 jar of tahini for humus and baba ganoush
2 loaves of manna bread
20 oz of dehydrated mango bits
1 jar of natural peanut butter

MCI Phone Plan

Oh, by the way, the MCI phone plan that I mentioned last night that we upgraded to is $49.99 per month (plus taxes). Again, there are no usage charges with this plan. Every call is like a local call. No more long distance charges. It also comes with:

• voice mail
  
• call waiting
  
• caller ID
  
• call waiting ID
  
• three way calling

If you are interested, just go to The Neighborhood.

Journal statistics

My journal gets between 500 and 600 unique visits per month, with between 900 and 1,200 page views per month.

Nixie Clock

If I was going to buy I Nixie clock, I would want one like this. I want to see all of the exposed circuits, and I would display it on our mantle. You can buy this one either fully assembled or as a kit. The kit price isn't too bad (relatively speaking); $105. Fully assembled it is $135.

Nixie Clocks

To further explain my earlier post about Nixie clocks, what made it a Nixie clock were the Nixie tubes used to display the digits. They were originally developed back around 1952 by the Burroughs corporation. The display tubes were used in things like the early computers that filled an entire room. They didn't have computer monitors like we have now.

How they were is kind of interesting. Each character that was to be displayed from a tube had an actual piece of wire bent into that shape, and they were all stacked on top of one another. If the number "5" was to be displayed, electricity would pass through that wire. The tube was filled with neon gas. The gas touching the number 5 wire would then glow orange, and you would see the number 5. Because they were all stacked on top of each other, all of the numbers, except for the one at the very front, would have little breaks because of where the wires in front of it passed over. The tubes mostly displayed numbers because of the way the tubes were designed. It would be difficult to get 26 little wires crammed into a tube for each letter of the alphabet. Plus the connector for the tubes would need 27 contact points.

The name "Nixie" came from a working acronym for of "Numerical Indicator eXperimental", e.g.. NIX-1, and the name stuck.

No one uses them anymore for any real product. I don't know if they even make them anymore. Someone came across a bunch of spare nixie tubes and came up with idea of making a clock from them. Pretty cool, huh?

That is why the prices for the clocks are on the high side; each one is hand made; no big factory churning them out. Plus, the supply of the tubes is limited. They are literally antiques.

Late Saturday Update

Well, we bought a Tempur-Pedic mattress! It will be delivered to us on Monday night after work. The list price of the mattress is $1,700. We got the mattress and two $100 pillows for a total of $1,800 plus tax. The delivery is free.

Probably the biggest seller of Tempur-Pedic mattresses is Brookstone. Their base price for the mattress is also $1,700, but they charge $150 for shipping, plus no half-price pillows.

The mattress comes with a 20 warranty. You don't have to flip and rotate the mattress every few months either. It is supposed to be better for allergies too. Because it is made of closed-cell foam, there is no place for dander, dust mites, etc. to accumulate and cause allergy problems.

I have been waking up with back aches every day for the last month or so. There are valleys in the mattress where each of us lays, and there is a peak between us. We tried rotating it recently, but the peaks and valleys were very uncomfortable to lay across.

If we don't like it, we have 90 days to return it for a full refund. They said they have never had a return on one of these.

Sheri drove to the doctor's office to pick up her scrip, but they had already closed. They mailed one to her last week, but it got shredded in the mail. It came in a plastic bag with a little note from the Post Master saying he was sorry.

We bought a new shredder today. Very nice. It is a monster. I can chew up junk mail envelopes with out even opening them. Just put the whole letter in. Much quieter than our old one. The new one also doesn't create static interfere with the TV that sits right next to it. That has to be better for the TV, doesn't it?

• Shreds 8 sheets per pass and 50-100 shredding passes per day for about 800 total sheets per day
  
• Increased security with the smaller 5/32" x 4/5" confetti cut particles
  
• Exclusive POWERSHRED® Cutting System accepts staples, credit cards and small paper clips
  
• Heavy-duty, quiet motor allows for extended shredding cycle and less down time
  
• Easy to remove 7 gallon wastebasket allows waste to be emptied without lifting shredder head

We went to Famous Dave's for lunch. It was good, but my meats were both about room temperature. I told the waitress, and she offered to bring out hot meat, but I said no, so she brought us each a dessert. Bread pudding for me, and a big brownie for Sheri. Just what we needed, but it was good.

After we bought the mattress and shredder we went back home. We wanted to try out our new pillows and shredder. We didn't need food from the grocery store that badly, and we will do it tomorrow.

I just opened up a nice bottle of Fürst Bismarck sparkling mineral water from Germany.

I also just got of the phone with MCI. We upgraded to their Neighborhood Complete plan. What does this mean for you? We have unlimited long distance. If you want to talk with us now, just give us a call and we will call you back. If the line is busy, by ALL means, call either one of our cell phones and tell us to call you back. Don't be shy about it either. Chances are we are just casually surfing the web and watching TV. If we are doing something important, we just won't call you back! Fair enough? They said it will take up to two weeks to switch us over to the unlimited long distance plan though.

It got too late in the day to rent another movie for tonight, so we are just going to watch "Maximum Exposure", "Mad TV", and "Saturday Night Live". Our usual Saturday night line-up. Oh, Sheri just informed me that we will be watching "I'm a Celebrity; Get Me Out of Here!"

In case anyone didn't know, I have a full beard right now.

Saturday Update

All of the video store's copies of "One Hour Photo" were checked out, so we got "Undercover Brother" instead. It was a funny movie at the beggining, but I was so tired from lack of sleep the night before that I fell asleep, hard, probably after only 45 minutes. From what I saw I would recommend it. I stayed asleep on the couch until 11:00 PM. Sheri had already gone upstairs.

We both slept in really late today, and it felt good. We have both been really busy and stressed the last few weeks.

Here is our to-do list for this weekend so far:

• Doctor's office (pick up scrip refills)
  
• Office Max (Shredder, Ink Jet paper, Rubber Bands)
  
• Tempur-Pedic store (buy mattress?)
  
• Famous Daves BBQ for lunch
  
• Groceries (staple refills like Jif peanut butter, milk, etc.)
  
• Michaels's foods (wander)
  
• Whole Foods (Mana bread, sprouting seeds, bulgur wheat, peanut butter, pita bread, mineral water)
  
• Clean kitchen
  
• empty dishwasher
  
• Replace furnace filter
  
• Laundry
  
• Stuff to basement
  
• Clean fish tank
  
• Make tabouli
  
• Order Dell PC
  
• Pay bills
  
• renew license plates
  
• Bath for Sheri
  
• Van in for service

I bought some new headphones from Best Buy for my Walkman last night. They were only $10 and I am very happy with them. I will write about why I like them later.

Friday Movie Night

We have already decided that we are going to rent One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams tonight. We have both heard a lot of good creepy things about it.

For dinner we are going to eat the bean soup I finished last night. It turned out unbelievably good! Too bad that corn bread has too many carbohydrates.

Friday's Lunch Report

Grouper in a coconut sauce
Pasta with chicken and asparagus in a white creamy cheese sauce
Mango slices for dessert

International table: China
Cold long beans (like skinny green beans) in a hot sauce
Fish in a black bean sauce

Nixie clock

Only buy this nixie clock for me if you want my everlasting and undying love.




This links to a guy's page that is devoted to nixie clocks. Maybe I will try making one some day.

Groan

It is almost 1:00 AM in the morning and I am still screwing around on the computer. I have a meeting first thing in the morning at 8:00 AM. I am going to be dragging.

On the bright side, my professor still hasn't posted any homework updates, so it looks like no writing this weekend. Yeah!!!

GPS Time Reciever

This is a GPS receiver used to keep computer's clocks accurate.


You can configure it to set you clock every day, hour, minute, second, or whenever your PC's clock deviates from a certain number of milliseconds from the real time.


There are so many parameters and options to play with. I would just love it!


However, the clock and the software are $789. You also have to buy an antenna for about $100. I don't know where I got my obsession for clocks and accurate time keeping. This is their web page.

Geek toy

Below is a link to a neat on-line digital circuit logic tester. You can drag a power source onto the work surface. Then drag out various logic gates and on/off switches, and connect those to LEDs, and then see how your logic circuits work.

ALL computers are essentally made up of just three logic gates: AND, OR, and NOT. I would like to get a better understanding of this stuff only because I am curious. I don't think there is any use of this for a casual user other than for the puzzle solving aspect of it. However, I might be able to go to radio shack and buy bread boards, transistors, a soldering gun, etc. and make some neat stuff, but I am not sure yet.
Digital circuit tester

E-mail Update Option

For people that can not read my journal at work because their company's firewall (Bank One) won't let it through, I have a mail-server list set up. Just click on the link below, hit the send button on your e-mail window that pops up, and then whenever I make a post it will automatically be e-mailed to you!

You might want to do this if:

• You wanted to keep track of Sheri's surgery in a couple of weeks. I will be posting from my cell phone through-out the day.
  
• if you don't always get a chance, or remember to stop by here regularly.
  
• You don't want to get caught surfing the web all of the time.

Click this link!!
Subscribe to e-mail updates for Brad's journal.
Click this link!!

If the link doesn't work, the e-mail address is:

im2xlt-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Lunch Report

Salmon cakes with romolade(sp?) sauce
stewed okra and tomatoes
avocado salad
broiled fish (from the African table today)
cheese ravioli with pesto sauce

Evening Update

I started the bean soup tonight. I did the first step where I boil the beans for two minutes and then let it stand for an hour. I am about ½ way through the second step where I put the ham bone, garlic, and bay leaves in an simmer for two hours.

When it is done simmering it will be about 10:30 PM and time to go to bed, so I will put the covered pot in the garage overnight (too hot to go directly into the fridge), and then tomorrow night I will add the potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions and simmer for another hour.

It already smells great. The ham bone filled the kitchen with a good smoky sweet smell in a matter of minutes. The broth actually already has some pretty good taste too.

I made humus with the garbanzos I cooked over the weekend. We were going to get some pita bread to eat the humus with for dinner, but Dominick’s didn’t have any. We went looking down the cracker isle for something to dip with, but they were all on the high-fat side. Then I had a brilliant idea. We got a fresh baguette from the bakery. I sliced it pretty thin, maybe a ¼ inch, and then laid them on a pizza screen. I set the oven low, about 250º, and slid the screen into the oven. I checked them every now and then while I was making the humus, and just pulled them out when they were nice and crunchy. It was cheaper, tastier, and a lot less fat than a box of crackers.

Sheri also liked the looks of one of the soups at the deli salad bar, so we got a pint of that. It was a chicken tortilla soup. We stopped every couple of isles and had a few bites each, and finished it off at home.

I also got a mango. It was delicious. I always have trouble peeling them, so I hopped on the internet and did a search on "how to peel a mango". The trick is to use a vegetable peeler! It worked perfectly. I always thought the skin was supposed to peel off easily like an avocado.

I bought a couple of bags of soybeans, and ate those as I cooked. One was barbecue, and the other I just had to try. It was apple flavored. Very good with just a slight sweetness and a little bit of cinnamon.

We also each had a soy burger on light bread with a slice of fat free American cheese and a little mustard. I have always like these, and Sheri has just discovered them and made them one of her new favorites. We like the Morningstar Farms Grillers. They are mostly soy and have almost no carbohydrates other than fiber. I microwave one for about 45 seconds and them flip it over and cook it for another 45 seconds.

So all of the above was our dinner.

I also bought a package of Hurst's Hambeen Brand 15 Bean Soup kit. I actually heard a radio advertisement a day or two ago and thought it was an odd thing to advertise on the radio, but I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't heard the add. I will wait awhile after this current batch of bean soup before I make the Hambeen soup.

I just saw a headline that Johnny Paycheck died today. He is best know for his 1977 hit, "Take This Job and Shove It". He was 64.

My back has been hurting a lot again lately. Mostly in the morning, and at the end of the day. I think it might be about time to get serious about getting that Tempur-Pedic mattress. Maybe this weekend, and have it delivered while Sheri is recuperating (if they can't deliver it on a weekend, that is.)

Tonight

I am making bean soup tonight with our ham bone, and finishing making another batch of humus. We cooked the garbonzos over the weekend, but I never got around to humus-izing them.

So far the professor hasn't updated this week's assignment on the web, so as far as I know now, no writing for this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed though.

Comment Status

Oh, the comments are working again.

Amazon Wish List

The link to my Amazon with list was broken for I don't know how long. Greta discovered this and let me know. It is now fully functional and ready for your clicks.

Iced Tea Maker

This is the iced tea maker that we have. We usually always keep fresh tea in the fridge, but it seems that we go through more of it in the winter time than in the summer time.

Class

The professor did not assign any writing assignment last night, but that doesn’t mean anything. He can still post an assignment on his web page. I checked this morning and he has not updated it yet. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I need a weekend off from writing!

Pedometer

This would make a nice gift.

Cell phone update

He just let up out of class, but i dont know if it is enough to catch the earlier train. They run every hour.

Cell phone update

We have killed over an hour in class passing our papers around for every one to read. I am bored stiff!

Off to class soon. Bleh!

Sheri update

Sheri is still at the doctor’s! The anesthesiologist had to ask her some questions and go over some things. Now she is waiting for a resident to sign some paperwork. The nice thing is that she is now pre-admitted. She just shows up on the day of her surgery and gets down to business. No paperwork or anything to worry about. She is not going to go to work when she is done since she would only be there about an hour anyway.

Shhhhh

Don't tell anyone I had a cigarette today.

Lunch Report

For lunch I had the following from the employee cafeteria:

Grilled chicken breasts with Caribbean jerk seasoning
Steamed asparagus in a seasoned butter sauce
Grape leaves stuffed with seasoned rice and covered in an olive oil, lemon, and feta cheese sauce
A cold pasta salad with a nice pesto sauce

It was all very good.

Testomonial

I just got off the phone with Marianne back in Columbus, and she told me that Rita had her thyroid taken out 20 years ago. Hers was malignant and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Rita is still doing fine and said the treatments have progressed a lot from 20 years ago and not to worry. (Rita is Italian too, so that probably had something to do with her recovery!)

Thanks guys!

Monday Tuesday Morning Update

Sheri messaged my from her cell phone that she made it out to her appointment just in time. She took the train into the city with me this morning, and instead of going to work walked over to the L. She takes that and then transfers to a bus that drops her off right in front of the medical building.

She says that I didn’t need to go with her, but now I wish I had. They are injecting her throat (and larynx?) with novocaine and then doing tests on her larynx. We think they are doing this to see how her larynx is connected to her thyroid so they don’t damage it when they remove her thyroid, or alter the way her voice sounds.
Update: Since I wrote the above paragraph Sheri called and said the throat test was no big deal. They sprayed some bad tasting stuff in her throat to numb it and then looked down her throat with a camera.

She seemed OK this morning, but maybe a little nervous. She has been staying up really late doing mindless stuff on the computer until she gets really tired. That way she can just flop into bed and fall asleep without her mind wandering and thinking about scary stuff.

Depending on how she feels, and how late it is when she gets back into the city from the tests, we talked about meeting for lunch in Union Station. There is a little place that has pretty good bourbon chicken. It doesn’t have an overly sweet syrupy sauce like some places do; and pretty good vegetables as sides.

I hopefully won’t have any writing assignments for class to do over this next weekend, and I just found out that the auto show goes through next Sunday. Maybe we will go and check that out for something fun to do.

I started growing another batch of alfalfa sprouts yesterday.

Our Honey Baked ham is almost gone. All of the sliced portion is gone, I have just been working on the unsliced bottom part that is not as pretty and can’t be used for sandwiches. Tomorrow night I will be done picking on it and it will be ready for the bean soup pot. Mom e-mailed me the recipe that we grew up with. Here it is:

1 lb. dried navy beans
1 meaty ham bone
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small bay leaf
1 cup cubed potatoes
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup diced carrots

Rinse beans. Place in large soup pot with 2 1/2 quarts. water. Bring to boil. Simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand at least 1 hour. Add ham bone, garlic and bay leaf to beans. Cover and simmer 2 hours. Add potatoes, onions, celery and carrots. Season with salt and pepper to taste.(I use 1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon white pepper) Simmer covered for 1 hour. Remove ham bone and cut off meat. Dice and add to soup. Reheat just to boiling. Remove bay leaf and serve.

I think I will use small white beans instead of navy beans. I don’t know why, but I just think Sheri will be more apt to like those instead of the nave beans.
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Yeah!

I think my paper is done. Just printed it out and will proof read it. Hopefully I won't find any glaring mistakes that will require a lot of time to fix.

We are going to watch the season finale of Joe Millionaire.

Sheri went out and brought a sack of White Castle's back for dinner. It has been so long since we have had those. Sheri did NOT get fries!

I had a sweet tooth afterward, so I made some instant sugar free chocolate pudding.

Nuts

I think my favorite type of nut is the almond, followed closely by the lowly peanut.

Chicago Night Club

You have probably heard about the 21 people killed in a Chicago night club early this morning.

I was listening to the BBC talk about the incident and they had an interesting point. If something like this can happen when a relatively benign substance like pepper spray is detected, what happens in a large public place if terrorists release, or even make people believe that they have released, chemical or biological weapons? What if a green cloud starts to appear in Union Station at rush hour with shoulder to shoulder people. Probably something similar.

Wet mop

I want to get one of these kinds of mops to keep handy near the kitchen.

When we come in the house with snow caked on our shoes, it starts to melt out of the tread after a few minutes and get the kitchen floor dirty. I am getting tired of using paper towels to clean up after this mess. I could just keep the mop, a bucket, and a little Pine-Sol nearby.

I think this style of mop would be faster than the kind with the sponge head.

Paper Update

When the sun went down today, I found myself straining more to work on my paper. I realized that with out the sun coming in it is difficult to do any kind of heavy duty ready of paper. The computer screen is obviously not an issue, but I have a big stack of print-outs that I am shuffling around, marking on, and typing from.

I went down to the basement and found a work light with a big spring clamp attached. I brought that up, clipped it to the shelf on the wall behind me, and aimed it at the ceiling over the desk. I am now getting a good amount of diffused light on my work surface.

I need to do something about getting a long term lighting solution for the office. Maybe a floor lamp that can be aimed right where I need it.

I made myself a cup of instant coffee (non-decaffeinated) to keep me going a little longer. The only fresh coffee we have is decaffeinated, so that is why I am using instant.

For dinner I had the last three imitation crab legs, an 8 ounce glass of low sodium V-8 juice, and an 8 ounce glass of Ocean Spray grape and cranberry juice, sweetened only with Splenda. Only 10 grams of carbohydrates per serving.

I wish I was downstairs with Sheri hanging out and watching a movie.

Updating this journal with my cell phone

In case I didn't make it clear from my earlier post, I can enter text into my cell phone and then e-mail it to this blog. I plan to do that the day of Sheri's surgery so that everyone can stay updated with a minimal amount of work from me. I plan to update when she goes in, gets out, any conversations I have with the doctor or staff, updates of how the she progresses after the surgery, etc.

Now that I figured out how to do this, I may use it more often for everyday stuff that can't wait until I get to a computer.

Cool stuff from Chiasso.com

#107-0149 - Robot Clock


#107-0163 - These are just the clock hands and motor. You hang it on a wall, and use whatever you want for the numbers. In this case they hung tea cups at the 3, 6, 9, and twelve o'clock positions.

Anatomy Lesson

Your larynx is your voice box.

Bathroom Door

The door to our master bathroom gets sprayed with soapy water droplets that come over the top of the shower door. The door has come to look rather dingy.

Sheri picked up the new Pledge with orange oil today to use on the door. It is a miracle! The door looks brand new and has a nice luster to it. I assumed that I was going to have to strip the door and apply a new coat of varnish.

Cell phone update

This is from my cell phone. I plan to post news from the hospital!

It looks like the comments are back, at least for now.

The company that supports the comments on my and Sheri's blog are ran into some problems while they were upgrading their servers today, and won't have comments for a while.

The cooling fan on our video card in our PC has a bad bearing and makes a constant whining-grinding sound. It is making it very difficult to concentrate and work on my paper. I don't have time to fix it now because of my paper, so I have to keep the radio or TV on to try and mask the sound. Grrrrr..... Maybe later this week I will get the bad fan out and take it to the computer store to pick up a replacement. I think we are also getting closer to ordering a new Dell. Maybe even time it so it will arrive while she is recuperating at home.

Sheri is going to run some errands now while I try to get a few good hours of work done on my paper.

We only got maybe 2 - 3 inches of snow yesterday. Not even enough to get the snow blower out. Sheri talked to Greta and said that they got 12 inches dumped on them. Yuck.

Sheri has been having ups and downs regarding her cancer. We are not worried about removing the thyroid; we are worried about if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. That is much more serious. Unfortunately they won't know until they are in there. On the plus side, the kind of cancer that usually attacks the thyroid isn't usually the aggressive kind.

The Chicago Auto Show is in town. I can't go this year, but I think I definitely want to make plans to go next year. For some reason it is bigger than the Detroit Auto Show.

It is about this time every year that I get nostalgic about cutting the grass and doing some yard work. I also wasn't able to properly play with our pressure washer that we bought in the fall.

I don't think we are going to get any plastic sheeting and duct tape per the government's recommendations, but I think we will get a few gallons of extra drinking water. We get our tap water from the city of Chicago and I think the water purification plant would be an attractive target for a terrorist.

I think that we are going to need a vacation soon. We've talked about San Francisco. I want to go to D.C. Manhattan has come up in conversation. I like what Tim and Lisa just did. Maybe the world's largest mall in Edmonton, Canada. London would be fun, but not now with all of the instability in the international environment.

I won a free lunch at the employee cafeteria last week. Every now and then they have a fish bowl at the end of the check out line. You are supposed to write your name and extension on your receipt and drop it in. I did, and I won. I haven't used my voucher yet. It is for an unlimited amount, so I think I won't be eating dinner that night!

End of the week update

What a crazy-busy week at work. I'm glad it's the weekend. We both get Monday off for President's Day.

The first installment of the Christmas present from Mom, Dad, Tim, and Lisa arrived yesterday. It is a subscription to the Honey Baked food club. Our first shipment was a ham, a two pound wheel of Swiss cheese, and two bottles of gourmet mustard. We were all excited about having it for dinner last night, but it shipped frozen. Oh well, we will enjoy ham sandwiches all weekend. Thanks guys!

I had lunch with Sheri today in the Sears Tower at the Italian restaurant Mia Torre. Very good.

Sheri thinks she might rent the second season of Oz, the HBO series, while I work on my paper all weekend. The final draft of the paper is due on Tuesday. Good ridence. The rest of the semester should be a piece of cake since I won't have to worry about writing assignments.

"One to get ready. Two for the show...."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has deployed jeep-mounted Stinger anti-aircraft missiles around the nation's capital in an increased alert against possible terrorist attack, defense officials said on

The defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that heat-seeking Stinger missiles -- weapons that can be fired from the shoulder -- had been deployed in mobile "Avenger" systems on jeeps also carrying firing and guidance units. Each is operated by a two-member crew.

I am going to be tired tomorrow. I feel wide awake right now, though.

The Hens

I think this would make a nice gift. It would be even better in short sleeves.

This one would be nice too, but I am not sure about the texture of the graphic.

Valentines Day

Sheri and I have reservations at Carzz Grilleria for Valentines Day dinner. It is a New Orleans/Seafood/Cajun/Caribbean place that Dad found for us in his subscription of Chicago magazine. We have not been here yet, but are really looking forward to it. We have late reservations, so we might see about checking out a nearby bar before hand. Maybe find some live music. It was Sheri's idea.

We (Sheri) found a couple of places in Illinois to rent cabins. Still researching. We talked today about Sheri coming with me to Stamford. While I am working during the day, she could take the train into the city (Manhattan) and explore. Manhattan is just a 36 mile train ride from Stamford. It takes you right to Grand Central Station in the heart of the city. Still kicking it around.

New Boss in Town

My new boss is in town today and tomorrow to get to know me and my programmer. He is really nice and I think I will like working for him a lot.

He started out his career as an aeronautical engineer. While he was doing that he also became a licensed pilot and became a flight instructor. After doing that for a while he decided that he couldn't see himself doing that for the rest of his life, so he went back to school for his finance degree and worked in the finance world for a while. I didn't hear what caused the next transition, but he moved into the IT environment, and that is where he is now. He has 14 other people working for him now. I think mostly in Stamford, Connecticut where he is, and Toronto.

He is originally from Georgetown, Guyana. He still has a neat Caribbean accent.

It sounds like he wants me to be more of a project manager and run various projects and direct other programmers rather than be a programmer myself. That is just my initial take on things. He still needs to digest what we are currently responsible for, and where our skill sets will fit in with the rest of his team.

He took us to lunch to a nice restaurant. I had the Thai chicken salad ($11). I really wanted the seared tuna ($19), but I didn't want to overstep any boundaries after only knowing him for 90 minutes.

He wants to have both of us to come to Stamford for a week to get to know the rest of the team. It seems important to him that we feel like part of his team. That is cool.

Weird, but good, breakfast

We both had tabouli with some diced cucumber, and baba ganoush with a little pita bread for breakfast today. Sheri put the tabouli and cucumber in a coffee mug, and then laid a quarter of pita bread with the baba ganoush on top. We ate it in the car on the way to the train station. She also brought a large glass of iced tea to wash it down. Both salads tasted even better this morning after sitting overnight.

Sunday update

This afternoon we went to Best Buy to return the 13" TV that I got Sheri for her birthday. She wanted one that she could carry to the bathroom and watch while she is in the tub, but this one was too big for that. We looked at their smaller ones, but they had a bad selection. They were either very cheap, or twice as much as the 13" we just returned. We will keep looking around. She picked up the 2 CD set titled The Very Best of Elvis Costello.

I also picked up another Walkman radio that I am going to keep in my work briefcase. The reason is that I remember on the morning of 9/11, while it was still happening, walking around downtown Chicago not knowing what was going on. For all I knew they were saying that Union Station was bombed and stay away. With all the talk about war in Iraq and the terrorism threat upgraded to orange I just thought I would feel a little safer and better prepared if I had a radio with me while downtown. I like this radio for a few reasons. It has a seek function like in your car. Just hit the up or down button and it will find the next strong signal. Very nice for traveling. It also can receive NOAA weather transmissions, and TV sound. It has a tape player, but I didn't but it for that. I probably won't use it because we don't use tapes.

I made a great batch of baba ganoush today. I cut two eggplants into ¾ inch slices; sprinkled them with salt, and then brushed them with olive oil. I let them sit just a little bit and then grilled them outside. It gave it a really nice smoky and charred taste.

We also made a double batch of tabouli. We have been eating so much of it that we bought a gallon tin of extra virgin olive oil. I used the food processor to chop up an entire bunch of parsley. That is all we had for dinner; we each had a piece of pita bread to dip into the baba ganoush, and a plate of tabouli with diced cucumber.

My doctor appointment was good on Saturday. I lost three pounds since my visit between Christmas and New Years. He said I should ideally be at 240 pounds. I weighed in at 258 pounds on Saturday. I think I can do it. Our diet these last few weeks seems doable long term. Neither one of us feels deprived. Getting back to an exercise routine will really help too. Classes have made it difficult, but I guess that is just an excuse. No more excuses!

I really like my new doctor. He is probably the youngest one I have ever had, but he knows all of the latest research. He is presenting a whole new way of looking at and treating diabetes. I hated my last doctor. When I last went to him, and they did blood work, the tests indicated that the drug I was taking for cholesterol was starting to affect my liver, so he took me off of that drug. Did you give me a new drug? No, he gave me a photocopied sheet about low fat diets and sent me on my way. When I saw my new doctor, my cholesterol was almost at 300. My triglycerides were, in his words, at the scary level. He said I had canola oil in my veins. He is very aggressive with treatment, and we hope that by getting my weight down, and optimizing my meds, all the side effects of diabetes, like high cholesterol will take care of themselves.

I am also spilling protein in my urine. This means that my kidneys are gunked up with sugar and can't filter properly. They are supposed to be able to reabsorb the protein. I feel mad that my previous doctor never even checked for this. If this were to go on unchecked, the end result is dialysis. That is a good thing to keep in mind when I am trying to decide if I want one of the donuts that a co-worker brings to work. I have another follow-up appointment in six weeks. I told you this guy was aggressive. And super super nice. He says he is very competitive and I am not going to die on his watch. (A little dramatic?) But that's good. My doctor back in Columbus was like this, and I had better control of my sugar there.

My new boss will be in town to meet me tomorrow and Tuesday. He sounds like a really nice guy on the phone. No worries.

I didn't have any writing to do for class over the weekend, but I forgot that it will be my turn this week to present part of chapter seven in class. Every week there are five or six students have this responsibility. The professor goes around the room asking these people to talk a little bit about the chapter. I will read a little bit of the chapter tonight, and then tomorrow night make my copious notes.

Weather Radios

I hope that the people that got a weather alert radio from us this year for Christmas have it plugged in and on standby. If terrorist activity occurs in the middle of the night, the weather radio alert system will be the first channel of warning activated because it is patched directly to the FCC’s Emergency Alert System (EAS).

Terror Level Raised

The Bush administration Friday raised the national terror alert from yellow to orange, citing a U.S. intelligence warning of a "high risk" of terrorist attack, a senior administration official said. The highest alert level is red. [yellow is elevated and orange is high]

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision was based on an increase in intelligence pointing to a possible attack around the Muslim holy period of the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy Saudi city of Mecca.

President Bush approved the decision in a meeting early Friday. The administration planned to announce the change later in the day.

Senior White House, Justice and Homeland Security Department officials had considered raising the level for several days.

The alert has been at code yellow, or "elevated," which is the middle of a five-point scale of risk developed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It was last raised to orange in September. It stayed at orange then for two weeks to coincide with the first anniversary of the attacks.

Government officials have grown increasingly concerned about the likelihood of terrorist attacks within the United States as intelligence sources are reporting an increase in terrorist activity or "chatter." One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this activity appeared to be peaking and was rivaling that seen before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Officials are increasingly worried that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups might try to use chemical, biological or radiological weapons such as a "dirty bomb" that spews radiation into the atmosphere over a relatively confined area. There is no evidence, they say, that al-Qaida has acquired nuclear weapons but there is ample proof that it was working with a variety of harmful substances.

There is also concern that individual al-Qaida member or sympathizers could attempt small-scale attacks, such as a shooting or suicide bombing.

Sheri's Birthday Dinner

I am not going to get into too much detail because it is late and I should be in bed, but here is brief run-down of Sheri’s birthday dinner.

We went to Sullivan’s Steak House.

Every dinner comes with their famous salad wedge. It is a quarter head of iceberg lettuce covered in crumbled blue cheese, and then drizzled with a light blue cheese dressing. Finely chopped tomato bits are scattered on top of that. (The tomato had a very good taste, like they were from someone’s back yard in the middle June.) I think the salad wedge is what Sheri was looking forward to most! This is where we went last year for her birthday dinner and when ever we would mention it over the last year, that is what she talked about first.

They also bring a loaf of freshly baked bread to the table. Very good.

We both had iced tea to drink. Of course, very good.

We split two side dishes. One was a big plate of steamed asparagus with a little pitcher of hollandaise sauce. (We just used our fingers to pick up the spears and dip into the sauce. Miss Manners says it is acceptable to use your fingers with asparagus!) The asparagus was very hot without being overcooked. How do they do it? The sauce was wonderful. The right balance of butter, lemon, and egg yolk.

The other side dish was mushroom caps in what seemed like a reduction of red wine and maybe beef juices. Very flavorful.

Now for the good stuff. Sheri had the 16 ounce (yes, one pound!) filet mignon done medium rare. Wow was it good. It was about as tender, and the same color, as good tuna sushi. Sheri like it, but decided that, for now, she is a medium done person.

I had a very good 20 ounce bone-in Kansas City strip also done medium rare. Excellent. I think the strip is my favorite steak. Porterhouse is too greasy and heavy. T-bone is too much bone, not enough meat. If it is a good cut, I think a strip is just about as good as a filet.

We were going to call it quits, but I talked her into getting a cup of cappuccino. I did that by reminiscing about how on our cruise we always finished off dinner with a strong cup of cappuccino. We were just going to have that when we saw a chocolate soufflé go by. So we ordered one too and split it. It took 20 minutes to cook, and our cappuccinos were huge, so it worked out well. I actually still had coffee left by the time I finished my half of the soufflé.

Even though the soufflé looks huge, by the time they server it and it deflates, there is not much actual mass left. At the table he divides it in half with two spoons, puts each half on a plate, and then poured a wonderful liquid egg-ey, vanilla-ey custard sauce on the plate. Well worth the wait. Drinking the cappuccino brought back good memories and made the meal seem like more of a special event.

Do I have you drooling?

Good night.

The Master

Compared to me, you are all rank amateurs when it comes to procrastinating. The more important, arduous, or boring the task at hand, the better and more creative I become at procrastinating too.

Shaving Brush

I would like a real boar's bristle shaving brush. I have been using the same cheap $5.00 Berma Shave brush for the last, what seems like, five or six years, and it needs replacing.

I would like the longest handle possible in order to get good leverage when the shaving soap cake gets near the end, and it needs to come with a holder so that the brush can dry with the bristles pointing down.

I would also prefer one that does not have a wood or metal handle. I think those materials would wear out faster in a wet environment than either plastic, ivory, etc. would.

The one pictured here lists for $48.

I have been feeling too busy to take the time to post much here lately. My professor wants about three to six pages of writing turned in each week, and I usually feel too exhausted or have other things to do during the week, so I usually spend most of the weekend in front of the computer. This weekend I am writing about the politics and economy of Switzerland.

We got a recall notice on our van for the lower pinion bearing in the power steering gear. The notice said that on some vans this bearing can separate and the car will intermittently lose power steering assist when making low speed left turns. There is no problem during right turns. Until we can get the van to the dealer, we are going to play it safe and only make right turns, or high-speed left turns.

From Consumer Reports

Myth: Engine oil should be changed every 3,000 miles.

Reality: Although oil companies and quick-lube shops like to promote this idea, it's usually not necessary. Go by the recommended oil-change schedule in your vehicle's owner's manual. Most vehicles driven under normal conditions can go 7,500 miles or more between oil changes. Some models now come with a monitoring system that alerts the driver when the oil needs changing. Depending on driving conditions, these can extend change intervals to 10,000 or 15,000 miles.

Postcard Trivia Challenge

It's time for another trivia question. I am going to do things a little differently this time. Everyone that answers correctly will get a postcard, and I will not acknowledge what the correct answers are for a day or two, so take your best shot. Here goes:

For each of the following senses, one of us has a decided advantage over the other person. Accurately say which one of us has the more refined sense for each category and win a postcard. We just bought 20 postcard stamps, so I am ready for a lot of winners. Good luck!

hearing
smelling
tasting
seeing