The Ramblings of a Great Dane...

Ok, I really enjoy tea and I am picky about brands. I have tried a good number of brands but ever since i heard about Adagio on Digg I keep coming back to them. I have had a few teas I did not care for, mostly because they where too earthy, but I always keep coming back to them for my favorite flavors. Well this time I placed an order for my normal two black teas English Breakfast and Earl Grey I picked up a bunch of their other small $2 samplers. I have their IngenuiTEA tea pot and it works very very well but I have found it can be a bit of a pain to clean. So I picked up a glass tea mug and infuser.

<3 oh my i love it already! Buy one if you like loose tea you will not be disappointed.

Well today I took out there VWs for a test drive. The GTI, Jetta DTI and Golf 2.5.

I really liked the Jetta DTI. Very nice ride, very snappy acceleration thanks to the torc of the TDI. Shifting was very smooth and fun if you used the manual shifting feature. I liked the seats and well most everything about it. I was pleasantly surprised over all.

The Golf (Rabbit) was nice, I was very please how much room I had, in fact I did not put the seat all the way back. It was not as smooth of a drive as the Jetta but still not bad and well you are not paying as much so... Again was please with the inside and how well it drove but it was no Jetta.

I really liked the GTI. It has lots of pep and can really get going. The ride was stiffer but it should be. This one had the sat nav but they did not put in the DVD so did not get to try it. The paddle shifters were fun to use. IT sounds funny but i really liked the steering wheel.

The test drive did its job, it eliminated the normal Golf and moved up the GTI a lot. It also pushed down a few of the other brands.

Very excited! Just got my new lens and will use it this weekend. My old Canon 28-80mm USM lens has auto focus issues, some times it works, most of the time it does not. While I could shoot old school (manual focus) I just want something that works with out worry. So after a bunch of research I sucked it up and pulled the trigger and bought a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. There was a Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC. The Sigma came in a close 2nd but it does not have fast enough AF on the Canon body so lost out in the long run. Yes I know I paid a lot more but I really wanted something I can focus faster and the image stabilization is really a plus for low light shooting.

While I sit here on hold I figured I would do something productive... (other then work of course)

I have just registered for the first two masters classes:

710: Seminar in Technology Management (2 Credits)
"Presentation and discusison of current theory, practice and trends in business strategy, processes, operations, globalization, leadership, professional development, and management of technolgoy."

and

765: Program Management (3 Credits)
"Planning, control, and leadership of technical projects and programs. Justification, scheduling, risk management, cost analysis, resource management, program control, information technology, and multiple-project management."

So we will see how this grad school thing goes. It will trash my summer I am sure. 765 ends the week EAA runs so that week will be insane for me.

Sat early afternoon i headed to see Mom. We went out to dinner and saw StarTrek. I really liked it as did mom. We use to watch Trek all the time, this was a good reboot. There where things I was not happy with but we will see how they handle things.

Sunday AM I went to breakfast to our fav cafe in the area. Next up was doing a wireless sight survey of her library. She wants to set up a wireless network for the public. In the long run she wants to move all public access computers to this new network and off their private network they are on now. Funny thing is the public terminals log into an Active Directory server though it hands out nothing (no printers, no drives, no recorded data, etc.) and has no password so really not sure why they have them linked to the AD server... So I told her to have them pulled from the AD server and set up as stand alone computers. Then when that is done we will bring them onto the new network that will also host the wireless and have 100% separation and isolation of there internal network from the public.

Then i hit the road. I went to 5 Wisconsin State Parks to inspect their camping facilities.

( Camp site reviews )
All in all i really liked Mirror Lake and Roche-A-Cri (though no showers may be an issue.) I have a bunch of papers and stuff w/ more info too

I just noticed it has been for ever since i mentioned this subject. My 5 sessions of lessons went well. Looking back the instructor was ok but I really did get a lot out of it. Since then I have open skated about a dozen times. Since the local rink closed I have now found a new place but it is a bit of a hike compared to the 7 min drive. The Oshkosh YMCA is about 25 min away and has a real nice facility. It has open skate 3 days a week that i can attend (Fri, Sat, Sun) but if I take off work I can get there other times. The other facility about 20 min away does not have open skate on the weekends and only durning the lunch our M-F so that is disappointing. The YMCA also has beginner Co-ed hockey in the fall though spring so I will look into that later.

I feel comfortable going forward, doing left and right crossovers, t-stops and one foot snowplow stops (though only with right foot at this time), gliding 1/2 or more of the length of the rink on 1 foot (left is better then right but working on the balance on the right a lot recently). Going backwards is still very foreign how ever I have worked on that today and really saw some improvement until I got tired. The last two times I have been out I also have been much more in turn with my skates and noticing how they feel with weight on the heal and ball of my foot and edges of the blade. I am falling less though today i fell hard (thank god for shin guards and elbow pads) when trying to switch from backwards to forwards. Last 3 times I had not fallen at all even when working on stopping, though i am not taking as many risks as I was early on, just working on getting better at what I know. Though now that I am working on going backwards I am sure I will be falling more.

I have a few more items to buy and i will be done with all the basic gear for hockey as well. I want to fully blame (not in order/degree of blame): cbrus, horny_oryx, invncble, nitropup, rocketpup, Randy and a few others. I am now ice skating, thinking about hockey and watching the playoffs (though I have misses a few games and not cheering any any particular team, only against certain ones.) Love ya all, thanks for the constant encouragement!

Went to help dad tonight. His sump pump broke and the basement got some standing water, all the carpets are wet and some minor damage to trim and some furniture (book shelf, etc.) I packed my car with my fan and dehumidifiers and then promptly locked myself out of the house... ugh. So i broke into my house, only minor damage to the window I knew i could get into. Little bend in the frame and I had to remove the screen but that was ripped anyway. So will be a few bucks to fix it nothing big. It is good to know I can break into my house... Though it means someone else easily can too but I figure if they want in the would break the windows anyway so...

The other bad karma was on the drive over to dad's. I hit and killed a adult fox with the car :( :( :( it dashed out from the ditch and there was no missing it. It hit the bumper then passenger side front wheel then rolled under the car and hit the rear driver's wheel. It was loud and felt like i hit a large pot hole it shook so much. Blood and guts everywhere too on the road... will get the car underside washed tomorrow kuz i am guessing there might be.

*sigh* that sucks

Need to find something that will give me good karma.

In Florida there is an air show called Sun 'n Fun Fly-In, like EAA Oshkosh's AirVenture thousands of airplanes fly in for the show. This Sunday a pilot, Kyle Davis, had a problem with his engine and made an emergency landing on a street! Check out the story. Or Better yet... THE VIDEO!



He had a small video camera recording the flight. This is something we do at EAA all the time and my friend Mark makes these rigs including ones now that shoot 1080P video! The low ends are very cheap now it is amazing.

This also reminds me of the T-6 landing on US 41 during EAA '07


Thanks eagle_beagle for the story link.

I know it is early but there have been some great news this last week. EAA (Oshkosh) will have the Airbus A380 super jumbo! (Link to EAA new release) This will be the first time it has been to an airshow in the US! They will be giving tours and doing flight demos as well. It will be interesting how they handle it on the ramp and runways. There was damage to airport taxi way signs (jet blast blew them up) the last year when a 747 Dreamlifter was there and this is much larger.



Also at EAA this year will be the first public demo of Burt Rutan's latest (drug induced?) creation White Knight 2! This is the mother ship for SpaceShip 2. This is a twin boom (fuselage) aircraft with 4 jet engines (two out side each boom). It is such a radical design, I cant wait to see it.





EDIT:
Sad note, the old tower is now more :( an icon of EAA since the 60's has been removed. I have been up there for an airshow more then once, it was sure a great view. Got to see a C-130J demo flight from up there, that was something.


Link to Video

I only check my snail mail about once a week. This week i got a nice little check from grand dad, nothing big but will buy groceries so that is nice surprise. Then there is letter from UW-Stout...

They have accepted me into the graduate program I wanted (MS in Technology Management) and can start as early as this summer, though I don't think I have the pre-recuriements for the classes this summer, I will have to check. I need to fill out some paperwork (aka they want to know how they will get their $, student ID, etc.), I need to call my adviser to set up a meeting, set up first class schedules, etc. So we will see how it goes from here. We will see if this is the program I stick with long term but for now it is where I will start.

FWA was good over all. Travel down was not a problem and I ended up getting rock star parking at the airport. Flight was fine and transport was easy for earendil31 and I via MARTA. The first night was a long one w/ no sleep (as sated before) but it lead to hanging out w/ aldebron and one of his friends who where working security all night.

Sat night alias_pup (aka woofie/rubberwoof) took me out to an amazing dinner at Nikolai's Roof. There we had the Chef's Menu so our only choice was "beef or lamb," we both selected beef. There where many new foods for me including: Piroshkis (beef, pheasant, shrimp) I loved the beef and pheasant but I am not a fan of shrimp anyway so that was good but still shrimp, scallops w/ Osetra Caviar was very nice. The Borscht w/ Kobe Beef was also new to me and very good. The Orange sorbet w/ caramel infused vodka was sooo good, never have had sorbet w/ a vodka before, it was very refreshing and the vodka was so cold that it was thick like a syrup and just so smooth. They had a cheese course, and two desert courses (a souffle and then cookies and chocolate covered strawberries.) For drinks I had two different infused vodkas, one was lime and the other was Russian tea with orange zest, aliaspup had Grand Marnier. I have to say the presentation and service was what made this dinner amazing, our lead weightier and his assistant where amazing and they explained all the dishes to us very fine detail. They where very very on top of things and treated you like one should be treated at a 4 star restaurant. We where the youngest there for sure and only one other couple was dressed below our business causal. The other neat thing was every woman got a rose when they left and there where 2 women who had birthdays and they gave them a wonderfully tasty looking cake on top of the 8 courses (the menu shows 7 but they came w/ the cookies/strawberries for the 8th.)

Sunday aliaspup pup and I had more good food at a Italian cafe with two of his friends and a nice burger place, though we walked though a bad area of town w/ a soup kitchen. Was able to hang w/ jaeger_fuchs and Tig. Had good time hanging w/ friends and meeting new people. Over all I had a good time once I got to sleep (and all the amazing food and good friends helped too,) thanks so much for letting me crash in your room Tig, Jaeger, and woofie. Monday the flight home was fine though a bit late, drive back to work was longer also because of weather and work was fine w/ out too many issues. I did get my tape library up and running fully saving the company $10k for a new one. It turned out it was just a broken spring.

I just submitted my first application to grad school! Requested a summer start but that might be pushing it time wise so most likely will turn into fall request for enrollment. We will see how it goes but I think it will not be a problem since I graduated from there, have more then enough GPA, work history, some donations to alumni association, and have family history there (not that the last part will matter much there since it is not a private school.)

Now I just need to get off my ass now and start reading books and also studying for the GMAT so I can apply to other colleges.

Gonna Git Me an Edumication

Still kicking around the idea of going to FWA (Friday night to Monday morning). How ever I don't have a room mate yet so I am somewhat looking for a room mate. Not looking to be the 5th who sleeps on the floor or that stuff. Only people I know/trust. So if you have an opening or looking at going and need a roomie let me know, comments are screened.


EDIT: All set for roommates. Thanks guys!

Some times there is nothing nicer to see then large flakes of heavy wet snow slowly falling and then sticking to trees.

HDTV ROCKS!!!


That is all

Had a good weekend :) Went to duncandahusky and takaza' s place friday night to hang then go to a beer tasting with some more of their friends. I stopped in Milwaukee to get a quick bite to eat with tozier_wah on the way down Friday night. Sat we all went to a beer tasting... nothing was amazing other then this hard cider but there was some good stuff there. Sat night I was going to see a friend in Rockford IL area but his mother had to be taken to urgent care and we canceled things, she is doing all right now. So as a last min thing I called woodychitwn and decided to hang w/ him, Fen and Spork for Sat night/Sunday. We did dinner at one of my fav places Caffe DeLuca with the rest of the furry crew. It was so good to see them all. :) Sunday had breakfast w/ woody, and two other chi friends, babysprout and cyan_icewolf.

Ice Skating:
Class # 3 was today, I have been bad and have not gone out much. So after class #3 it makes like 8 times i have been on the ice total. So i still have a very long way to go but there is progress being made. I only feel once today though almost had one other major wipe that i saved myself some how... We worked on cross overs, stopping (snow plow), more forward maneuvering and balance stuff. I think I may have figured out my mental break w/ snow plow stopping so I will have to work on that some more. I am far far far from being able to do anything productive on ice, everything is non-stop learning right now. Progress is being made so I am happy. I think now that it is not +8F as a high and there is some natural light after work I will try to hit the out door ice rink after work more now.

EAA '08
Ok i know it is like 6 months later... But I finally got off my ass and did the organizing and minor edits to the photos from then. So here you go, hope you like. [LINK] It was much fun going to EAA 08 w/ huskydoggeh and a few other friends. I am very much looking forward to EAA '09 though not sure I will do the entire week this year.

First I have to say I finally got a new battery for my Gen 3 40gb iPod. It has had 20min or less battery power for the better part of a year and really has made it nothing more then an external hard drive when not in my Bose sound dock. It is so nice to have music with me again. I have been trying to listen to more as a way to unwind and center myself again, i still have a long way to go with that as you will see.

( Ultra Long Text Cut )

To everyone at AC, what little time I was there was great! Thanks again for being such fun friends. To though I did not see, sorry, the situation just was too odd this year and as you can see very frustrating to me. FC was not a full write off like I was thinking Sunday afternoon it would be. Even that is something I should not say, any time with friends should be cherished. I have not done enough of that. I have been letting things I can not control get to me. Other lesson learned, stay at the con hotel, then we dont need to drive and maybe cars will not break :P

To Woofie, you are one of my best friends ever and far to kind to me all the time. The lines of communication got blurry this weekend and that caused undo stress for both of us. I am sorry for my end of that, I will try harder to be more clear of my expectations/desires to you and others in the future and take this as yet another learning experience in the course of life.

Sorry for the ultra long post, but I had time to kill at 30k+ feet ;)

Just got back from my first ice skating lesson at the local ice rink. I learned a few things already:

A: I am out of shape, after 45 min on the ice i was sweating and getting tired
B: I cant go backwards to save my life
C: Sharp turns will take work...

I did fall 2x but nothing big and got right back up, both where when trying to do quick turns. Still I can go forwards well and so simple turns... will need lots more work. And with more skating I will get in better shape I hope.

I was w/ mom last night at her place near madison, I need to remember to bring my own bedding, I was soo cold. She is doing well over all and it was good to see her for the first time since... October? She is not comfortable driving her Civic in the snow at all and now living in a small town she drives like 25 in a 35MHP zone because she is scared (I was doing 40 in the same area w/ out concern.) I got the ok from her to start to look for an all wheel drive car so she feels more comfortable. Also told her to get Bridgestone Blizzak tires for the Civic if she does not want to get a new car so she could at least have better traction. Right now it looks like I will be doing some car shopping for her though.

Well I am currently at KGSP, a bit early for my flight back home. Last weekend I was to fly out east to see some friends but the travel gods said no flight for you and giving an early gift of lots of snow. So I took that flight and rebooked it quickly and I decided to go see jaeger_fuchs and his partner Tig_Wolf again. Like last time it was a nice quiet weekend. I left on time (shocking) but leaving Detroit we we pushed back on time... then waited 1.5 hours for de-icing so take off was 2 hours late... thank god for cell phones (even though we where not allowed to use them) I was able to tell Jaeger I was running late. So even w/ late arrival it was nice to get out of the the snow and cold.

We hung out a bit did some shopping, then went with one of their local friends to a new piano and wine bar that another acquaintance has opened called Lilac Wine. Saturday we went shooting at a local indoor range. We used Tig's 357 and as you can see for only the 3rd time using a revolver and there for one that I am not familiar with, I did fairly well. These are at 25 yards.
&

Then that afternoon we did some shopping and walking around Asheville NC. I found this city to be very nice and it had a really nice down town. We had a great pizza and some beers at Barley's Taproom & Pizzeriathen went out to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was very good but left me sad.

Now I am at the airport, seeing that my flight will have 3 babies and one toddler, who are all making noise now, and per normal the flight is delayed this time by "Flight crew delay" I hope to at least get home this evening.