John and Derek’s Blog

Greetings from nice day in Iowa…

The weather has been very up and down this past week.  On Thursday evening we had a snow storm roll and drop 3″ of the white stuff.  Then today it was in the mid-50′s with most of the snow melting…

John finished his finals a week ago.  He received an A in his networking class, but has not received grade back from the web development one.  Assume it will also be an A… Tonight he is getting ready to start his next two classes – one is SQL/Database and the other is project management.

He was in Milwaukee Monday through Thursday working for the trucking company.  Believe he spent most of his time helping a new manager get settled in and “getting with the program”.  I was stuck driving in the Thursday evening snowstorm to pick him up at the airport.  The roads were not good – was difficult to tell where the different lanes were.  Was happy when a truck finally pulled out in front of me so I could follow in their tracks.  His flight ended up being 30 minutes late.  Then on top of that, he waited for his luggage in baggage claim, but it did not show up.  One of the employees said it was lost and to go to the ticket counter to make a claim. Walked across the terminal to the counter, waited 15 minutes and the guy who told us it was lost, suddenly found it…  John blames it on the fact that Airtran was bought out by Southwest Airlines and has gone to shit during the transition…  John drove us back in the snow – roads were a bit better on the return trip.  Made it home by 11:30pm.  Could tell that John was happy to be home in his own bed…

We meet with our tax preparer and know how much of a tax refund to expect.  Will be getting federal refunds, along with refunds in all three states I worked in last year – Wisconsin, Oregon and Iowa.  Will be interesting to see which one arrives first.  Several were e-filed, so should receive them by the end of the month.  Was very glad to have the returns  professionally done this year.  Now have the taxes setup properly for the apartment building with depreciation and etc.  Makes things a bit complicated when we live in one of the units.  Need to keep money spent on repairs we do to our unit separate from the other three..

We went shopping for carpeting this weekend.  We will probably go with Flooring Gallery.  They had a nice selection of commercial carpeting and spent time with us explaining the various options.  We have tentatively picked out a polypropylene carpeting make by Mohawk.  We were advised that the polypropylene will not hold stains as much as a nylon carpet would.  They have nine different colors to choose from.  Our favorite of the moment is called Green Vally.  Has beige and green fibers in an interesting texture – is located in the middle of the sample board:

Most of the colors would work...

Let us know if you have a color opinion, or inside information on purchasing carpeting.

We have started to look into obtaining a storage shed for behind the apartment building. John received a quote for a 10 ft wide by 12 ft long shed from the Tuff Shed company. Came to around $3,400. Comes fully painted and with an optional workshop package (adds work bench and peg board). Seems a bit expensive, but like the idea of being able to simply order it, have it arrive fully assembled a few weeks later and then it is done. Easy.  Like the fact that is is assembled and painted in a climate controlled environment.  John is checking out some other vendors to see how much prices vary.  Let us know if you know of any good storage shed vendors.
My ice skating lessons were canceled last Monday (2/20) because it was raining out.  Did make up lessons on Saturday morning out in the frigid cold.  Was only in the low 20′s, but was not so bad once I got going.  Best part was that the ice was really good – nice and solid.  We spent most of the lesson learning how to skate on one foot, then pivot around.  So skate forward on one foot, pivot around and continue skating backwards..  This video shows the technique:

I kinda sorta have the hang of it.  Main thing is that I need to pivot on the front of my blade and slightly lift up the back of the blade – feels weird to me.  Tomorrow (Monday) is the last lesson in this session.  Hope we continue working on the same pivots…

Have signed up to continue lessons at the indoor Metro Ice facility in Urbandale, IA – just 5 miles away from apartment.  These lessons are sponsored by the Des Moines Figure Skating Club.  Cost of $70 for seven weeks of lessons is on par with what I paid for in Portland…  Is cool that I can continue taking lessons into the Spring. Have made some “ice skating friends” and enjoy seeing how far I can take ice skating…

Went on a 90 minute walk today. Went on a paved bike trail that goes along the outskirts of town – past Vally Junction. Was quite relaxing and enjoyable listing to music on my iPhone as I went along. Here’s a few pics of the trail:

Just a little snow left

Nice wide bike trail on the left, road on the right...

Work has been very busy for me and I expect it to get much worse this next week. Have a large project that needs to be ready for testing on March 6th. Main issue right now is that it relies on a web service to obtain data from. Having to wait for another set of developers to make changes to the web service so my programming can use it. Hoping they will have it in place in the next few days. My project is part of a much larger project that involves several groups of developers. I do not want to be the one who is holding everything up. If that would occur, would start to “make new and exciting friends in middle to upper management”…. if you know what I mean…. So expecting to put in extra effort to get my part done sooner then later.

Not much else going on… going to play computer games for a bit, watch TV and head to bed around 10:00pm.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The weather was warm enough today (in the low 40′s) to melt some of the snow we received last weekend and yesterday. We had around 3 inches of the white stuff this morning. Now there is only snow where it was piled up or drifted. Forecast is calling for more snowfall later this week.

Flock of Canadian Geese across the street from apartment building.

Found a card and box of candy on my desk this morning from John. Was very sweet of him.  I did the same for him…  We just got back from Paradise Italian for our Valentine’s supper. I enjoyed a yummy penne pasta shrimp dish and John had a steak. Last time we were there (shortly after moving here) we went and had shitty service. Tonight we had good service. John did not care for his entree – said the steak was not that great…. Think we will stick to their pizza and calzones in the future…

Work has been “interesting”. Was working with the help desk to get newer version (8.5) of the Lotus Notes client and Designer installed on my PC. They were unable to get my existing version of Lotus Notes uninstalled from Windows XP on my laptop, so they ended up formatting my hard drive and starting over – reinstalling everything. Ended up going to the downtown office for them to do this. Process started at 1:00pm, and I did not leave until 7:30pm. It was like watching paint dry – just sit there and watch things get automatically installed. What really stunk was that the battery on my iPhone went dead, and then an hour later the same occurred with my iPad. Ugh… So just sat in an empty office watching, waiting and hoping the stupid thing would finish. Eventually called the help desk and had them see if things were almost done. They did some magic and quickly finished up the installation and configured my remote access – so I could connect to the corporate when I got home.

Then on Saturday I ended up working with the help desk to get the new version of Domino designer installed. This is the development software I use to do my job. Without it I can’t work… Long story short – they were unable to install Domino designer on my PC. Ended up working with a coworker to get it done without the help desk on Monday….. So much fun. Was finally able to get back to programming after dealing with everything since the previous Thursday.

Been going ice skating several times a week.  The last few times the condition of the ice has been really bad.  To the point where your skates can barely glide along.  Ends up hurting my feet because I have to push extra hard to get any momentum.

Last evening (Monday) had my weekly lessons.  Went really well because the ice was freshly Zamboni-ed – nice and smooth.  Really makes a difference.

Zamboni machine getting the ice groomed. You can tell it snowed earlier in the day.

We are starting to work on more advanced skating techniques.  My favorite one was where you skate on just one foot, then you arch slightly to one side, then while still on the one foot pivot 90 degrees so you are then going backwards.  After 10 minutes of practice got the hang of them.  The Adult class I’m in has around 20 people in it.  Half are absolute beginners, and the other half are more advanced.  The teacher does a good job of splitting us up in two groups and working with us back and forth.

We are starting to plan some trips to take in the Spring.  We are tentatively thinking about spending two weeks in St. Louis, MO in mid-April.  The “major financial institution” I work for has a presence there.  Can probably work with one of my co-workers there that I have never meet in person – just on the phone.

John received phone call from our “tax lady” – she will have them done in the next few days.  She said both of us will receive refunds – but did not say how much of one.  John is getting anxious to have them done because he needs figures from them to apply for financial aid and grants to help with cost of college.  Hoping we are pleasantly surprised with the amount.  That along with bonus from work should help out with our long list of expensive projects to complete.

Not much else going on.  Going to work on some programming for awhile and watch some TV.  John is watching Glee – not my favorite show.  Seeing 20-somethings pretend to be in high school, attempting to sing (via auto tune) popular music where the original version is much better.  Fake crap tv…. John says I don’t like it because I’m addicted to reality TV.  At least RuPaul’s Drag Race keeps it a bit more real  Had to giggle while watching it last week when Logo had tampon commercials airing around the Drag Race.  Think they missed their target audience

Greetings from the slushy wonderland of West Des Moines, IA….

It snowed all day Saturday with really large, wet snowflakes. Ended up with two and a half inches of the wet stuff…. Went out and shoveled at 3:00pm while it was still snowing. Afterward was warm enough that the sidewalks kept themselves clear. Snowed enough for the snowplow guy to come and take care of the parking lot. Then it snowed again for a few hours on Sunday morning with really fine flakes. Enough to be irritating… Some kids made a snowman in the front yard. Was looking a little sad when I took this picture today:

Snowman still hanging in there...

We did not do much over the weekend.  I’ve been working on learning some new programming techniques – things I saw at the Lotusphere conference.  John has been battling a head cold that has been making him feel crappy.  Poor John….

Sunday I kept busy doing laundry, grocery shopping and ice skating.  Went down to the rink and skated for 30 minutes.  My right foot was really bothering me so stopped.  Think I did not warm up enough before skating hard, going backwards and etc.  Was also not wearing my thick cushy socks…  Kinda sucked because the rink was not very busy….

We watched “Revenge of the Electric Car” on Netflix via our AppleTV. It was a narrative of the ups and downs of the electric car market. Follows the development and release of EV cars by Tesla, GM and Nissan. Was well worth the time. Makes me really want to purchase an electric car. Mitsubishi is coming out with their MiEV this year for around $28,000 that may be promising. Their web site give a price of $21,625 after tax savings. Would up being cheaper then what I paid for the Subaru 6 years ago…

We did not watch the Super Bowl. John hates sports with a passion so was not worth trying.  Did watch Madonna’s half time performance on You Tube and thought it was really good.  Favorite part was when she did the mash-up of Music and LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem.  Ended up watching the whole thing four times on my iPad while working today.

Also like her new single “Give me all your Luvin’” – purchased the video of it on iTunes this evening. Checked my iTunes library and I have 196 Madonna songs in it. Most are from when I collected remix albums in the 90′s. Have many versions of the same song – like 14 different mixes of Don’t Cry for me Argentina… and 7 versions of Keep it Together and so on…

Will be keeping an eye on the news tomorrow to see what the appears court’s Prop 8 ruling is. After years of political posturing and waiting, will be nice to have it finally over with. I expect they will rule against Prop 8 and let same sex marriages continue in California, but never know…. Same sex marriage is allowed in Iowa, so John and I will probably go tie the knot sometime this year. Want to make sure getting married does not mess up any of his financial aid and told him he needs to stop being such an ornery poop…. We will have to plan a big party and invite everyone we know (and a few we don’t) to “John and Derek’s big Gay Wedding”

Went to ice skating lessons tonight. Was the first one in the next four week session. Is a bit sad because the outdoor rink will close in four weeks. Each week I pay an extra $5.00 to take both 30 second sessions. Tonight we had a large class with 15 students of all skill levels. It is a handful for the teacher because she splits us up in two groups – very beginners and more advanced. She then works with each group back and forth – leaving us with things to work on while she goes back to other group. Get stuck going over the basics each session, but it is not all bad. I’m working on making the basic skating techniques as poised and effortless as possible. Also working on the bad habit of looking at my skates all the time. When I was in Portland I would look at the stores in the mall while I skated, but here the scenery is a bit more boring…

Work continues to be a challenge. Still working on getting several large projects into production while trying to get paperwork completed for several new projects. Between all of the paperwork I’m not getting much programming completed. Out of an 8 hour day, I’ve been actually programming for less then 90 minutes… Is also not helping that I’m “on call”t his week and get to handle all of the help desk tickets that come to our group. So far it has not been too bad. I needed to keep my iPhone with me at all times just in case a high severity help desk ticket gets called into our group. We only get a few of these a year, but with my luck it will be during my watch….

Not much else going on… Going to relax a bit before calling a day… I’ve subscribed to “The Daily” on my iPad. It is a daily newspaper that gets downloaded to my iPad each morning. Then new content gets pushed to it throughout the day. It is like receiving a daily magazine. At 99 cents a week it really is a bargain when you look at all of the content you receive. I like how the articles in it are well thought out and have more meat to them compared to most online news sources. Like how it is well organized, and all in one place. Is also neat how they have interactive content – like for the Superbowl they have a large 3D photo of the winning team on the field that you can rotate around with your finger. `e4

Greetings from a warm West Des Moines, IA

The temps have been way above normal all week.  Week started off with highs in the mid-60′s, but today only got up to 52 out.  Still really nice for this time of the year.  Has been nice to be able to open the office windows and let some fresh air in for a few hours each day.  Tomorrow a nasty storm system is approaching from the west.  So far looks like Des Moines will be on the edge of, but will probably still get some storms, rain and snow…  Yuck!

Work has been busy.  Going through a transitional period. Finishing up several large projects while starting some new ones.  Seems like I have double the work since I’ve been back from my two week vacation.  This afternoon I had two back to back meetings where I needed to present information.  First was to go over a functional design document for one of the new projects, then did a presentation about what I learned at the Lotusphere conference.  Both went well…

The previous evening I ended up working until 7:30pm.  One of the business lines needed a special report out of one of the systems I support.  Some of the data was in a main database, and the remainder was in several archive databases.  So ended up writing a program to obtain the information from several databases for a list entities sent to me in an Excel.  Have done reports like this before, so not overly difficult – just time consuming to make sure it is correct….

Had my annual review on Tuesday.  It went well – was rated “Highly Effective” in my job.  Received pay raise and a bonus.  No complaints here. Can’t remember the last time I received an actual bonus from an employer.  Perhaps when I was at Johnson Controls eons ago?  Not sure…..

After supper this evening I went to the Valley West Mall for a hair cut.  I like the Cost Cutters there.  Seems like I never get the same stylist, but most of the time they do a good job.  The mall was quiet tonight – not many people at all.  So after my beauty treatment went and browsed several department stores just for something to do.  Ended up purchasing some coffee pods on sale for our Keurig coffee machine at Yonkers.

John’s classes continue to be going well.  His semester is 3/4th done.  Next week he will get his last assignments turned in and start to prepare for his final exams.  He’s starting to think about planning some camping trips around his school breaks.  He has off April 23rd thru April 29th for Spring Break.  Then June 25th thru July 1st for a Summer Break.  Told him I wanted to go to Canada (never been there) and want to go to Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  Both of my ideas will probably be vetoed…

Squealed with delight when I found that RuPaul’s Drag Race new season started this week on Logo.  Watched the first episode and found it to be more over the top then usual.  The part where the contestants had to rip cloth and rags from the drag queen zombies had me giggling like John does after his third beer

Not much else going on. Looking forward to getting through work tomorrow and onto the weekend. Hope I’m not stuck shoveling snow

Greetings from Des Moines, IA…

We made it back last night at midnight – later then we had anticipated.  Both of our flights were delayed.  I was on Frontier and they were still dealing with delays caused by an early morning snow storm in Denver.  My flight from Orlando to Denver ended up leaving 45 minutes late.  No big deal.  Then in Denver they had the Des Moines passengers leave the plance first and go directly to the connecting flight.  I hopped on the plane, took my seat and in 10 minutes was back up in the air.  Arrived in Des Moines an hour later at 10:45pm.  Not bad.  All in all had a decent experience with Frontier.  Their Airbus 320 planes are quite nice and comfortable.  I paid $20 extra for their “Stretch Seating”.  The extra foot of leg room makes a big difference for me.  Is also nice how they hand out fresh baked cookies… yummy…

John took AirTran from Orlando to Milwaukee.  His fight left on time at 6:00pm.  He then ran into an hour delay leaving Milwaukee due to crappy weather.  John said that the Milwaukee airport was very disorganized.  They were waiting for one plane to onboard because it could not find an open jetway, but there appeared to be many open.  They finally put the Des Moines bound passengers on a different plane.  AirTran is going through their merger with Southwest and may have been part of the problem.  He arrived in Des Moines by 11:10pm.  Again, not too bad – could have been much worse.  John likes how he can be easily upgraded to first class service on Airtran to receive larger two across seating for an additional $50.00.  Hope that is something that continues with Southwest, but I doubt it…

By the time we picked up John’s luggage, walked to the Jeep in the economy parking lot, paid and drove home it was midnight.  Prince was ecstatic to see us – meowing non stop for 15 minutes.  He was telling us all about his week and what we missed.  I was happy to see that he did not make any messes and the apartment was pretty much like John left it – just with an extra layer of cat hair..

John’s dad called this morning to check on us.  He returned to Appleton, WI by noon on Friday.  Then he spent the afternoon working on cleaning out the chimney for his wood burning furnace.  They are expecting some significant snowfall, so wanted to “Git’er done”.  In the process he managed to slice a 2″ gash in his hand and ended up in the emergency room for stitches.  Not good….

So… backtracking a bit…. Our last full day in Florida (Thursday) we went to Epcot with Betsy and John, Sr.  John was able to take a break from his school work and go along.  Betsy and John, Sr. and not been there before and were looking forward to it.  The remainder of the group went to Disney Hollywood Studios.

We had a really nice day of wandering around and checking out all of the rides, exhibits and attractions.  Betsy was having a great time taking lots of photos with her fancy camera.  We attempted to have a late lunch at the German buffet but they were not taking any more walk-ins.  I ended up calling Disney’s dining reservation hot-line ( (407) WDW-DINE) and made a reservation for 7:15 pm.  For lunch we wandered over to England and enjoyed fish and chips.  My favorite ride was Soarin’.  I was a bit worried when I stepped into the room where the ride was.  It’s rows of roller coaster style seats in front of a big screen.  I could see this ride whipping me up, down and all-around.  Not my favorite thing by far… Glad I went through with it… it was more neat/fun/cool then anything.  Was crazy how the IMAX movie in front of you really makes you feel like you are flying over California.  When you flew over orange trees, you could smell the oranges….  Was hoping I could do it again before we left the park, but did not work out….

Supper at the German Bier-garden was just as good as John and I remembered.  Enjoyed bratwurst, red cabbage sauerkraut, pork schnitzel, potato dumplings and etc…  Then the little german band came out and did their thing – adding to the fun atmosphere… along with the large mugs of beer.  Yes, despite the potential for my gout to return, I enjoyed a 1/2 liter of german beer..  was well worth the risk

Little german band going through their routine... was cute..

John, Sr. enjoying his mug of beer

After supper he had 20 minutes before the fireworks show – so we wandered around and found a good place to watch it from.  Were just right of the boat landing in front of “The American Adventure” theater.

The fireworks show was neat.  Have seen it before so was a bit predictable, but still was pretty cool.  They ended around 9:20pm.  Was hoping to be able to do the Soarin’ ride one more time on the way out of the park, but it was closed by the time we got close.  No big deal – the gift shops were still open  Only trinkets I purchased all weekend were two leather bracelets with our names on them.  One from Animal Kingdom and one from the Magic Kingdom…  John actually wore his to Epcot…

Friday morning we needed to be out of the time share by 10:00am.  I spent an hour packing our stuff and making sure we did not miss anything.  Main issue was the extra backpack I received from the Lotusphere convention.  To minimize the amount of carry on items I was able to pack it inside of John’s suitcase… barely….

After leaving the timeshare we had a few hours to spare before we needed to be at the airport.  Ended up checking out three different flea markets.  They were a good way to waste some time, but were really boring.  Vulgar t-shirts, knock-off Disney junk, glass crack pipes, cheap imported stuff in boxes and the like.  Did not find a single thing to spend money on…  was disappointed, but did not have to deal with how to bring it home….

Walking around looking at junk made me a bit hungry, so we stopped at a Miller’s Ale House for lunch.  The food was good… I had a quesadilla made with Zingers (boneless chicken strips in buffalo sauce).  It was good… the buffalo sauce had a nice flavor to it – not as vinegary as some are with a good level of hotness..

Then we made it to the airport, placed the van in the parking garage and went to the ticket counters.  We were plenty early, but we were pretty much done with Florida and did not mind waiting…  Frontier’s ticket counter was not open yet – so waited 20 minutes.  No big deal – they had a sign explaining when they would be open.  We ended up in different terminals – so said my good-bye to John and we went on our separate ways…  Took me 30 minutes to get through security complete with a full body scan.  Then took me another 20 minutes to take the shuttle to the adjacent shuttle and find my gate.  Lots of walking.  Really ended up waiting two hours at the gate.  Spent it watching movies on my computer – so it went by quickly.

So that was the end of our great Florida adventure.  It was a real treat to be able to spend two weeks in the warm weather.  Big thanks goes out to Betsy and John, Sr. for planning the trip and including us.  This was the first time I’ve stayed at a time share type resort and can definitely see the attraction.  Makes me want to go on another cruise vacation sometime in the next few years…  I have two more weeks of vacation this year – will probably spend most of them doing extended weekend camping trips around the Midwest.

Now it is back to reality here in Iowa.  Will spend few hours this afternoon doing my expense report for the first week I was there.  Mainly the hotel room, a few cab rides and several meals.  Then need to go through the stack of mail, pay bills, balance checking account, do laundry, play with Prince and go grocery shopping.

It is nice that we returned on a Friday and I still have a full weekend before starting work on Monday…

Greetings from a warm and sunny Florida!

Temps have been been getting into the 80′s all week.  Been able to wear shorts and t-shirt comfortably.  Paying for it a bit with a nasty head cold today.  Been blowing my nose every 10 minutes in hope that the sinus pressure will let up.  Stayed at the time share with John while everyone else went to see Winter the dolphin with no tail in Clearwater.  Believe the rest did me good – feeling better now…

Been having a busy week on vacation.  Everyone arrived on Friday as planned.  John was the last to arrive because of the bad weather in Milwaukee.  Took time to de-ice the plane and wait for the runway to get cleared.  Think he is lucky to have made it….

The timeshare unit is nice.  It has two bedrooms – one on each side with a main kitchen, dining/living room in the middle.  Has a washer/dryer so been able to have clean clothes all week.  The complex itself is nothing overly special, but we’re not really doing much here…  Seems like it was built in the early 90′s and is in need of some TLC….

On Saturday the group of 12 went to the Kennedy Space Center south of Orlando.  It had grown since the last time we were there.  We did the bus tour to see where the rockets were launched at.  Was cool that the bus went right past the launch pad for the Space Shuttles.  We also did the Shuttle Launch Experience ride that simulated blasting off into space.  Here’s a few pictures:

John exploring Mars

I'm going on Space Walk at the International Space Center..

Command Center simulation

Rocket type used for manned mission to the moon

Van used to carry astronauts with their support packs to the launch pad

Sunday we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was a bit more crowded then I anticipated.  Seems like we spent most of our time in the Africa section of the park.  Went on the jungle safari and then onto paths to look at the primates on display.  Got to see a large male silverback guerrilla up close.  My favorite ride was the Kali River Rapids – except for the getting wet part.  Went in the early afternoon – so felt good.  Also liked the Dinosaur ride – kind of a Jurassic Park thing going on.  I about lost my shit when we were going rapidly downhill in the dark and a big dino jumped out at me  We made it back to the timeshare around 7:15pm and we prepared a yummy supper of chicken parmesan.  It is nice to have kitchen to cook in – except for doing dishes  There is a dish washer, but stuck on meatloaf is a bit much for it…

Getting ready to board the Jungle Safari

Then on Monday we went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  It was busy, but did not seem as crowded as the previous day.  I had enough of doing “the group thing” and did the park by myself.  John stayed back at the timeshare to do school work.  I did most of the rides in the park.  It was the first time I did the “It’s a Small World” ride – John always refused on previous trips here.  I had so much fun basking in the tacky wonderland of dancing/singing dolls that I did it twice.  I ended up doing most of my favorite rides multiple times because by 8:00pm the lines were down to 5 minutes.  My favorites of the day were the Carousal of Progress, Tiki-Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Hall of Presidents.  Didn’t think the Obama robot was a very good likeness….

Watching people board the "It's a Small World" ride..

Made it back to the timeshare by 9:45pm – enough time for me to say hi to John, shower and fall asleep.  I was way done for the day  Then woke up at 3:00am with nasty sinus headache and drippy nose.  :(  Ended up sleeping in until 8:30am and staying in the room most of the day……

John did school work all morning, but took a break to run out for supper at a nearby Sweet Tomatoes .  Was a yummy treat for us since Des Monies does not have any of them…

Not much else going on.  I went to Walgreens and picked up some Sudafed and it seems to be helping.  Hope I feel well enough to do Epcot tomorrow with John’s Dad and Stepmom.  John has an online lecture later on this evening.. Been thinking about poor Prince being along most of the day at the apartment in Iowa.  Hope he is getting along well with the neighbor kid across the hallway.  Really hope he is not angry at us and pee pee’s all over the place…. Time will tell… guess there is more then one way to get new carpeting

Greetings from Florida…

The weather here continues to improve each day.  When I arrived on Saturday it was chilly with lows in the 40′s and highs in the 60′s.  Today it was clear skies and in the upper 70′s with lots of sun.  Bit better then Des Moines – they had a high of 36 today… Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything

Florida...

Des Moines....

Blog entry is being typed up from my 101 Dalmatian room at the All-Star Movies Resort.  I’ve call this place the “Disney Ghetto”.  It’s not that bad, but just feels cheap and low rent compared to other Disney resorts.  The dining experience here is a food court like at a mall.  My room is clean and modern and the hotel is quiet and not very busy.  Been taking a tour bus shuttle from the ghetto to the Swan and Dolphin where the conference is at.  Takes 10 minutes and is a non event.

Outside my hotel room...

The conference has been lots of fun and went by very quickly.  The opening general session is their big spectacle “rah rah” speech on Monday morning.  They opened it with the group OkGo performing three of their songs.  Was a good way to wake up at 8 in the morning.  Each year they have a celebrity speaker, but keep it a secret as to who.  This year it was Michael J Fox.  He talked about how social networking has been a large part of his Parkinson’s foundation.  It enables people with Parkinson’s to work together with others for support and researchers around to world.   Also went into his personal life, what it was like to slowly acquire Parkinson’s and the cool things he has done in his life.  This blog entry by another Lotusphere attendee (TurboTodd) does a very nice job of summarizing his speech:  Turbo Todd’s Blog Entry.

OkGo...

Michael J Fox....

Remainder of the week I attended lots of technical sessions.  The big push of the conference is around enabling businesses to have the tools for social collaboration.  Their vision is like having FaceBook, Google Mail and a file sharing system (SharePoint/DropBox) mashed together in a single business system.  You then join communities around work functions, and then able to be productive by having social interactions augmented by other business tools.  Found it to be a logical extension of what the Lotus products have done in the past.

The remainder of the sessions centered around geeky programming and administration topics.  Saw lots of demonstrations of new techniques, extensions and different ways to accomplish once complex tasks.  Took lots of notes using iPad during the sessions using an app called VooDoo Pad.  Made it easy to organize everything by topic…

Waiting for a session to start...

On Wednesday evening the conference had rented SeaWorld from 7:30pm until 10:00pm.  Was not a huge amount of time, but was able to see most of the park, have supper, do a few tame rides and catch their 30 minute Shamu Rocks show at the very end.  The park felt quite empty because most of the attendees were in line for the big roller coasters rides – Kraken and Mantis.  The Shamu shows was impressive.  Can’t imagine how much time and effort it takes to train the wales to go through their series of tricks.  Shamu was not as large as I envisioned, but was still cool to see…

Coworkers waiting for the show to start...

My view of the tank/stage during the show...

The closing general session was today.  They had Andrew Zimmern from the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods as the celebrity speaker.  He talked about his adventures with  different African tribes and how he is a better person when he travels, experiences new cultures and food.  He was quite personable and took lots of questions from the audience.

Crappy iPad picture of Andrew....

So the conference is done… Took my last shuttle ride back to the Disney ghetto.  Glad I got to go – gave me a chance to understand what IBM/Lotus is doing to stay relevant as the web/technology continues to evolve.  It’s encouraging to see they are building off of the core skills I have (Java, JavaScript, HTML, XML, CSS) and using newer technologies (DoJo, Server Side JavaScript, XPages).  Now feel like I have some direction for skills that I should continue to work on to stay employable and productive as a programmer.

Tonight I’m just going to relax at hotel room and grab a bite to eat at the food court.  Have not spent much time at the resort so will be good to walk around and explore what I missed.  Tomorrow will take a taxi over to the timeshare and wait for John, his Dad/Step-Mom, Sister/husband/3 kids and her inlaws  to arrive that evening.  Will have a total group size of 11.  (If I counted correctly  )  Hope the timeshare has laundry facilities – my clean wardrobe is down to one change of clothes..

General plan for vacation next week is 5 days at Disney, 1 day at the Kennedy Space Center and just hang around the timeshare.  Should be a great (albeit expensive) week…

Greetings from a frozen West Des Monies, IA.

The weather was great this week until Wednesday evening.  We were getting highs in the 60′s and then all of a sudden the wind shifted and now it is nasty cold out. (21 right now at 4:00pm). Did get about an inch of snow, but the wind strong enough that it is mostly in drifts around yard. It has not been above freezing the last two days.

I leave for Florida tomorrow afternoon.  May get some snow showers in the morning, but nothing that would prevent my flight from leaving.  Orlando has not been exactly balmy the past few days with highs in the lower 60′s.  Extended forecast looks like some highs in the mid-70′s for next week.  Hope it works out like that.

Work has been extra busy for me this week.  Worked hard to get things squared away before my 2 week absence.  Don’t want to leave a mess for my manager.  Have several large projects that will need lots of my attention when I return.  Also have some new projects that are starting to ramp up that I will need to get involved with soon.  Took some time to set my “Out of Office” reminders, voice mails and submit time sheets for the weeks I’m away.  Then made sure I knew how to check the voice mail for my work phone.  Think I’m good to go.

The first week in Florida will be staying at Disney’s All Star Movie Resort.  It is the cheapest Disney hotel available for the conference at $85.00 a night.  Not expecting it to be very nice, but does not really matter because I will not be in the room much.  One cool thing Disney does is provide Magical Express Motor Coach service from the airport to the hotel.  Upon my arrival I go to a special desk, give them my baggage check ticket and board the buss.  They will pick up my luggage for me and have it delivered to my room a few hours after I arrive.  This is done at no extra cost.  Works for me.

The conference is divided into sessions and I have a total of 26 different sessions selected to attend – 5 or 6 different ones each day.  They provide web sites and iPhone apps to help me keep track of it all.  My butt will probably be tired of the conference room chairs by the end of the first day.  Seems like they never have much padding on them.  :)

Brining my Kenwood ham radio along.  It is about the size of a walkie talkie and would enable me to talk via the local repeaters in Orlando.  One of the repeaters is connected to the internet via EchoLink – so it may be possible for me to chat with John with it.  It is more of a geeky endeavor then being practical… but will be cool to try out.

They usually have a celebrity appear as part of the opening session.  Will be interesting to see who they get.  I know they have Anthony Bourdain scheduled for the closing session.  On Wednesday evening the conference has SeaWorld rented as a private party. Not been there before so should be cool to check out.  The remainder of the conference I will be listening to technical sessions about Lotus products, programming, best practices and where they are heading in the future.  My department will be moving to Notes 8.5 as a development platform in the next year – so want to ramp my skills back up for it.

Last week I misplaced my eye glasses.  Can’t find them anywhere.  I’m sure they are somewhere in the apartment, but have looked everywhere.  Decided to order a new pair online using Zenni Optical.  Have seen them advertised online as offering complete glasses for $6.95 a pair.  Their website was easy to use and I ordered a pair for $28.95.  That price includes shipping.  Crazy cheap.  Pictured them being made out of aluminum foil, rubber bands and plastic wrap.  They arrived today and they are actually quite nice.  They seem quite substantial and look like I expected.  Have paid a whole lot more for glasses that are not as nice.  Will definitely order from them again.

Poor John will be left behind with Prince in Iowa.  It will not be all bad for him because he will have less interruptions for his school work.  He seems to like his current classes – networking and web design.  They seem quite technical and involved, but he likes the challenge.

Next Monday he has a meeting with a tax person to go over setting up relations with them.  Now that we own an apartment building we want to be able to take advantage of any available tax benefits.  In the past John did our taxes using TurboTax, but he thinks our situation has outgrown the software.  It would be cool to get a nice tax refund this year.  Would help fund the long list of projects we have:  new hallway carpeting, painting the exterior of the apartment building, build storage shed, have new windows installed, build a new deck on our apartment, replace the front windshields of the RV and on and on.

Not much else going on.  Need to get some laundry done yet tonight.  Plan to pack in the morning.  Need to load some movies onto my iPad to watch during the flight.  Have a direct flight on the way, but go through Denver on the way home.  That will suck.

Greetings from West Des Moines, IA!

Just got back from ice skating downtown at the Brenton Ice Rink.  Decided to practice a bit before my next round of lessons starts tomorrow (Monday) evening.  The ice was decent and it was not overly crowded.  Practiced transitioning from forwards to backwards via the mohawk turn and by a few other methods.  My only complaint tonight is that my feet hurt more then usual.  Tomorrow will wear thicker socks.

The ice rink tonight...

Last Thursday the temps got into the mid 60′s…  so was able to have the windows open for a few hours in the apartment.  John went outside and cleaned all of the apartment buildings windows using the squeegie on the telescoping pole we purchased from Menards a few weeks ago.

Weather has slowly been getting back to normal.  Today it got up to 41 out..  still pretty good for January in Iowa.  Keep thinking we are going to pay for all of this with a nasty blizzard and below freezing temps in February.

John is getting back into the swing of things with his new set of college classes.  He is taking a web site design class and a computer networking class.  They both look pretty interesting to me.  The networking class is going to have him use a “Cisco Network Simulator”.  He will be changing the programming of routers and get to understand how IP (Internet Protocol) functions.

We’ve been  having fun with the remote control car/tank think John received for his birthday.  One of the neat things it does is let you take pictures from it’s internal camera.  Here’s a few pics from when I chased Prince around the apartment with it:

Cautious yet curious..

Like a deer in the headlights Taken in "Infrared Mode"

Enough already.....

This morning was apartment cleaning day.  John became the “angry cleaner” and complained and moaned about stupid stuff while doing his part.  I did the laundry (including bedding) and cleaned the bathroom.  John cleaned the kitchen, dusted and vacuumed.  Seemed like a pretty even distribution of tasks – except mine lasted all day.  Last load of clothes is in the dryer now.

Have started to read more the past few weeks.  Just finished The Associate by John Grisham – borrowed it from my Dad at Christmas time.  Did not like how it ended.  Now reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I’m 75 pages into the book and so far it is interesting.  Was able to check it out as a digital book for free from the West Des Moines Public Library using their WILBOR eBook system. They purchase eBooks and then loan the copies they own to one person at a time.  After you check them out you are then directed to Amazon.com to download.  I’m reading it with the Kindle software on my iPad.  This is the first eBook I’ve read on my iPad and it is going well.  Not sure I like looking directly at a light source while reading, but it does work well for reading in bed while John is sleeping.  Still prefer my Nook’s E Ink screen but free is free and not complaining.

Next Saturday I leave for the Lotusphere conference in Florida.  Wanted to purchase some nice clothes to wear, so we went to the Valley West Mall a few miles away from the apartment.  First we stopped at Chipolte for supper.  Enjoyed a vegetarian fajita burrito and ice tea.  Like how they grill their veggies – really brings out their flavors.  Then headed over to JC Penny’s.  Nothing like trying on new clothes after eating, but oh well.  Received a gift card from my parents for Christmas – so was able to pick out several pair of casual kaki Dockers, three shirts and a new belt.  The weather in Florida has been rather cool the past week, but today it got into the mid-70′s.  Hoping to wear short sleeve shirts most of the time I’m there, but will bring a jacket just in case.  I’m going to have to pack carefully since the first week will be “business casual” attire, then the second week will be shorts, swim suits, Speedos and vacation attire.  Thinking about brining along my ice skates because there’s a really nice indoor rink not too far from the time-share.  Very much looking forward to the two weeks in Orland, but first need to make it through a full week of work.  Want to get lots done before I leave so I don’t fall too far behind.

Not much else going on…  I squealed with delight when I discovered that Project Runway All Starts started last week.  I missed the first episode on the TV, but was able to watch online via their website:  Project Runway All Stars.  It is just delicious to see some of my favorite contestants back and competing.  The only downer is that the show is not hosted by Heidi and Tim.  Watching it makes me realize how much they bring to the show.

I’m off to play Warcraft for an hour, then watch TV and read until I fall asleep in the freely laundered sheets.

Greetings from Caucus Day 2012 in Iowa….

My work day went by slowly. I’m pretty well caught up with most of my projects and now waiting for others to do their part. I’m starting to go over things for the Lotusphere computer conference that I will be attending in a few weeks. Started going over the list of sessions I can attend and some look pretty good.

Went and participated in the Iowa Democratic Caucus tonight. Why? Because I could. It was held at the local high school (Valley Southwoods). Was an interesting evening seeing the election process begin. The school was decided into two sections along party lines. I walked in and headed to the Democratic section with my voters registration card in hand. They did not have me listed in their paperwork, so had to fill in my information by hand. No big deal.

Democratic Registration Table

After registration everyone went into the school library where a video screen was setup. There were around 250 people in attendance – many people ended up standing because there were not enough chairs. At 7:00pm the “team leaders” started talking about the upcoming election. Think I heard the phrase “Yes We Can” at least a dozen times.

The President giving his speech

Next they had a video conference with the President that lasted 30 minutes. He gave a rah rah speech about how we can spread the word better then any politician ever could. Then we took questions from Caucus locations around the state. Fine and dandy. Then we were divided up into caucus groups by our Precinct. Each group then went to a separate classroom to do the actual caucus process.

Precient leader going over the process in the classroom.

In my room there were 25 people in attendance. So they divided 25 / 6 to get the number 4. Subracted one to get 3 – number of delegates needed for the next caucus event. Three people volunteered and we all voted on them. Next several resolutions were read and voted upon. Things like how judges are appointed, city planning for green space and how corporations should be restricted in the amount of money they can contribute to a campaign. We voted on each of them. Not exactly sure where the resolutions go – assume they continue to percolate up the system…. Then it was all done. Total time was 90 minutes. Glad I went – was interesting to see the election process in action. Also gave me a chance to see what the local high school was like – brand new and spotless.

Not much else going on. Going to take a shower, relax and read a bit before heading to bed.