Author: John

Posted on by John

I flew to Washington, D.C. last night, so that I could visit a new potential client that asked us to come see them on short notice.

So, last night I checked into the hotel around 10:00 p.m., and I checked my email.

I had an email from Mauricio Zuazua (who I’ve written about before). Mauricio had just returned from spending the summer in Brazil on a consulting gig, and was letting us know that he’d finally settled in D.C. with his long-time girlfriend Kristina.

So, I shot him back an email, and told him to call me, so we could get together for lunch today, if it worked out.

Turns out he doesn’t start work until next week, so he had time to come meet me.

Mauricio picked me up at the client’s office… we dropped my co-worker off at the airport (his flight was leaving earlier than mine) and we headed off to find somewhere to eat.

We enjoyed each other’s company for about an hour at a Japanese steak house that had a sushi buffet… mmmmm… sushi!

It was too cool to be in the same town as Mauricio even if only for a little while…

Anyways, we chatted about many things: life, liberty and the pursuit of Brazilian women happiness. We also promised to try and see each other at least every 3-6 months… and to stay in touch.

Traveling for work isn’t so bad, if you can mix some personal time into it.

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Posted on by John

Here’s a few links to some of the more recent photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 298 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This past weekend, I sort of helped Raymond reprogram his sprinkler controller for his yard’s sprinkler system.

I’ve been thinking about mine for a few months now, as it quit working at the beginning of the summer for some reason.

The system at our house must be 25 years old, at least… It was an old Weathermatic RM Series sprinkler controller:

The problem I was having was that the sprinkler system worked very sporadically. Zone 2 would work all the time in manual mode, Zone 1 seemed to only work before 7 a.m. and Zone 3 would only come on after 6 p.m. The timer and automatic controls were worthless, and none of the zones would shut off after 30 minutes like they were supposed to.

My solution for most of the summer was to just turn it off, and to water the yard by hand, or with a sprinkler I attached to the end of a hose or two.

So, now that I’ve lost some grass from the insane 100° months we’ve had this summer, I finally decided it was time to fix the problem last weekend.

I looked at the manual. No help… the manual told me a little about the wiring, but was no help on the servicing side (too bad I didn’t know there was a service manual available online a week ago).

So, I thought about just replacing the controller. I have no idea where the valves for the zones are, so troubleshooting those didn’t sound like an easy task, and besides, they worked, when I could get them to come on… so the problem had to be in the controller.

I took it off the wall last weekend, and looked at the wires… It was a big jumble of wires, none of them the right color, and also not labeled. The 25 year old wire coming from the yard had all weathered to be the same color, and none of it had any markings…

So I asked Raymond about it, and he agreed, I should replace the controller.

Christine and I stopped at Home Depot on the way home from the lakehouse on Saturday, and she drove Jack around the parking lot (he was sleeping) while I ran in and bought a $50 RainBird PC 506 Sprinkler controller (it looked simple to operate and was under the $50 limit I’d set for myself – besides Raymond had a RainBird controller, so it had to be a good brand, right?)

When we got home, I pulled the old one off the wall (after I disconnected it from the power) and nearly dropped it on my foot. That think weighed a ton. I deposited it in the trash, then tried to figure out the wires coming out of the wall.

No help.

I connected the wires, in what I thought was the right order, connected the power to the new controller, and made it cycle through one cycle of all the zones.

I blew a fuse on zone 2.

So, I disconnected that wire, and started cycling through all of the zones… and guess what?

It worked.

So, I arranged the zone wires like I wanted them, powered it up, set the schedule, and watched my sprinkler system run through a quick 1-minute-each-zone test cycle, and then stood back and admired my handi-work.

But there was a problem. I have one wire left over that’s not connected to anything:

I have no idea what that wire is for, but it seems to not be needed… maybe I have a 4th zone I don’t know about? I’ll leave that job for another day.

Hopefully now I’ll have greener grass in a few weeks without any more work.

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Posted on by John

Jack is too cute, and I just have to share this story, and capture it for future recollection.

This morning, right before I sat down with Jack to feed him some peaches, I made a pot of coffee. While I was making the coffee, I gave Jack a few Gerber puffs.

Prior to Jack having a tooth, he would gum the puffs in the back of his mouth, moving them from side to side with his tounge, before they finally dissolved in his mouth to be replaced deftly by his hands with another puff.

This morning, with the addition of a tooth in his mouth, Jack is now experimenting with new ways to eat.

On his third or fourth puff, I noticed Jack was putting the puff in his mouth, about half-way, holding it there with his hand, and sucking and blowing on the puff. As I got closer, I realized that he was actually trying to chew the puff with his one tooth.

It’s almost as if he was trying to figure out what the new sharp object jutting out of his lower jaw was for. As if he’s thinking:

I’ve got this tooth in my mouth, now what can I use it for?

There’s got to be a rhyme and reason for this tooth…

Let’s try chewing…

It was pretty cute, and as he finished his jar of peaches, I gave him a few more puffs. At this point he was kind of tired, so he wasn’t actually eating the puffs, rather, he’d place one half-in/half-out of his mouth, munch on it a bit, and it would inevitably fall out of his mouth, before getting stuck on his chin, only to be replaced with another doomed puff.

At the end of his meal, he had two puffs sticking to his chin, four on his lap, and three on his legs. Wesley made short order of the seven that weren’t on his chin. Those two are a great team when it comes to cleaning up after a meal.

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On Saturday, Christine, Jack and I headed out to the lakehouse to visit with Debbie, Raymond and Miss Shirley.

We got there around 11:00 am, at lunch, and then headed for the pool. Jack got out around 1:00 or 1:30 and took a nap. When he woke up, we headed home. Jack had gotten his good tanning session in for the day, and Christine needed to pack for her camping trip this weekend.

I grilled T-bones without any marinade, just some seasoning salt (need to use the marinage next time) and we had peas on the side around 8:00 p.m.

Christine stayed up late packing. I tried to go to bed early, but we didn’t end up turning out the lights until midnight or so.

On Sunday morning, I got up with Jack around 6:30 a.m. We played, and ate breakfast, and then walked around the block. I woke Christine up when I was leaving the house for our morning walk (about 7:45 a.m.) so she got up and finished packing and getting ready.

Christine was heading out to an all girls weekend camping trip/bachelorette party for Kim (of Kim and Brad fame). Elise and Michelle were supposed to pick her up at 9:30 a.m., and she still needed to wrap presents for Kim.

When Jack and I got back from our walk around the block, Christine put Jack down for his morning nap.

Elise and Michelle showed up around 9:45 a.m. and the girls headed out. Jack woke up around 10:15 or so. I loaded him up in the car after a quick bottle and dirty diaper change, and we headed back out to the lakehouse!

Jack had pretty bad diaper rash again, so I had to be pretty careful about changing him often and making sure he was doing okay.

Jack took a nap around 1:00 again, and then we all went swimming when he woke up. We ate dinner (hamburgers and bratwurst – man Jack loves bratwurst) and said our goodbyes and drove home. Jack fell asleep in the car.

When we got home, I woke Jack up getting him out of the car, so we changed his diaper, fed hima bottle, and then rocked to his music. He was out within 30 seconds of me putting him in bed.

Jack slept until 7:15 this morning (alright!) so we got up and drank a bottle, then walked around the block before eating a whole jar of peaches.

I just put him down (9:00 a.m. or so) and he’s finally asleep after about 20 minutes of playing in his crib and talking to his toys… too cute to hear that through the door.

Needless to say, we’re both pretty tired little boogers right now, and can’t wait for mommy to get home!

update: Jack never did really go to sleep, so around 9:45 I went in, got him out of his crib, changed his diaper, and gave him a bottle. He was asleep before he finished the bottle ;).

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 277 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine’s cousin David Redmond is in Iraq. David is a Command Sergeant Major (the highest rank on the enlisted side you can reach) in the Army. He’s serving now as the CSM for an infantry unit over there, and he sent this update through Mary:

From: david.redmon@us.army.mil
Date: August 31, 2005 10:48:00 AM CDT
To: Mary Kamp
Subject: Re: Hi

Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank,

Thanks for the nice e-mail. I just got my system working in Baghdad and have started going through the hundreds of messages in the queue.

I am doing very well. We are quite busy as you can imagine. I sent that letter out so that the family would know what was going on.

Living conditions are almost like in garrison. My boss, Lieutenant Colonel Pacher, and I share a trailor. As a Command Sergeant Major it is the first time in my career that I have rated a shower while on deployment. The work is long and tedious. The job requires 16-20 days, 7 days a week. During my last 7 month deployment I did take half a day off. We will see how this one goes.

I do leave the forward operating base to patrol out in town, but we are a well trained and well armed outfit. That is the positive and down side of being in an Infantry Brigade.

I will try and send updates out periodically, but wanted to let you know that I arrived safely (two weeks ago) at my final destination. The weather is cooling down into the 105-115 range and it feels great after 130+ degrees in Kuwait.

Love,

David

We’re all hoping David makes it home safe soon, and brings all the young men and women he’s leading home safe as well.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 156 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

After work today (we got off a little early thanks to Labor Day) Christine, Jack and I headed up to Patterson Park.

It looks like it might rain, but we figured if it did, we’d hide in one of the public buildings up there…

When we got there, we put Jack in a swing. Oh boy, did he have fun!

It was pretty windy, as you can tell from some of the photos and that just made it all that much more fun for Jack.

He loved swinging, and he really thought it was fun to watch the leaves get blown across the park… watch the video of him swinging:

Just a Swingin' Movie
Click Here to Watch the Movie

There are more photos from the trip to the park here.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 156 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

When Christine isn’t around, I make Jack do all sorts of fun things. One of those fun things is learning to stand up on his own.

Now that he’s getting better at it, and he doesn’t fall everytime I let go of him, I figured that Jack and I’d show off for Christine. So, we asked her to get the camera, to take a little video of Jack trying to stand up:

Almost Standing
Click to watch the movie.

You know how they say:

Mom’s play with thier babies.
Dad’s play with their kids.

It’s like that.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 190 user reviews.

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Jack has been pretty grumpy the past two weeks or so during the day… Christine told me that he was teething. His bottom gums have been swollen, and he just seemed to get fussy a lot easier than he used to.

Tonight before bed, Christine put her finger in his mouth to check his gums, and she exclaimed “He’s got a tooth!” with a wild-eyed look on her face of sheer excitement.

She turned to me and said “A tooth! I wondered why he hadn’t been that fussy all day.”

So, we were both excited. We patted little Jack on the back, and told him congratulations. I started to get him a cigar to help celebrate the moment, but thought better of it.

Teething… at 9 months. 89 more years buddy, and you’ll lose them all again…

We tried to take a photo of the new tooth, and this is about as good as we could get:

Yeah, it’s not a good photo, but we tried. Next time you see Jack, ask him to show you his tooth.

p.s. there’s a really cute photo of Jack wearing his new Chicago Cubs hat here (I bought him that hat last week when I was at a Cubs vs. Atlanta game at Wrigley Field) as well as some others of him and I playing “Jump on the bed” and having a good ol’ time.

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Posted on by John

Christine and I were going to uproot the family and move to southwest Austin. We were going to move out to suburbia.

We’re glad we didn’t.

If we had moved, we wouldn’t live next door to so many diverse people. Take for instance the couple that lives in the house next door. They got married last weekend at the anti-war demonstrations in Crawford, Texas last weekend:

WacoTrib: Dearly beloved: Austin couple gets married at Camp Casey II
MichaelMoore.com: Couple weds at anti-war campsite
MySA.com: Anti-war couple are wed at edge of Bush ranch

How many people do you know that would do that?

I know two 😉 and they’re my neighbors.

Congrats Peter and Genevieve.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 299 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

I swear, I wish I were a weatherman. I want a job where I don’t ever have to be accurate. I want a job where I don’t get “held accountable” for my predictions.

Look at yesterday’s forecast. Compare that with today’s:

not so hot

I want to be a weatherman.

(Yes, I realize that the major difference in the forecast is because of the hurricane that’s shifted west, and is now headed straight for New Orleans, but still… it’s not like the hurricane wasn’t there yesterday too.)

This desktop picture is from Christine’s computer… and I haven’t put that shot online yet.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 190 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

I checked the temperature today1: 100°F.

Rediculous.

1: “checked the temperature” means that while I was laying on the couch, I fired up the Dashboard within Mac OS X, and looked at the forecast for Austin… ugh… it’s not getting cooler soon either. And the photo on my desktop is a modified version of this photo of Jack.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 199 user reviews.

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On Sunday Night, we let Jack run around his room naked… primarly because he’s just getting over the worst diaper rash he’s ever had, and it felt like a good night to let him “air dry” if you know what I mean.

Josh and Elise gave Jack and little rocking chair when he was born, so, he climbed up on it, and we put together this quick movie:

Rockin' Jack
Click Here to watch the movie

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Posted on by John

On Friday night, Christine, Jack and I headed to happy hour with the old Freese & Nichols crew. It was good to see everyone again. We learned that Tejashri is leaving FN to go work for Allen Plumber, a competing engineering firm. Good for her! We’re wishing her the best of luck.

Jack had a good time hanging out with all of our friends. He didn’t fuss a bit, and the place we went (the Brentwood Tavern) had a nice sand pit outside, right in front of the live (and loud) music for the evening. Very family friendly.

Christine and Cyndi decided they wanted to help celebrate Erin’s birthday at the happy hour too, so Christine and I stoped by Cold Stone Creamery and picked up a delicious chocolate ice-cream cake on the way there. Mmmmmm… it was good! [photos here]

After the happy hour, we drove home, and got to bed quickly.

On Saturday, we went to Baby’s R Us (BRU) and bought Jack a new car-seat. He’d grown out of his little one, so we got him an Even-flo Deluxe thingamabobber type new one. Man, is that one cool car-seat. Heck, I’d like to have one just like it. Jack digs it too.

After BRU, we went to the mall so I could get my new contacts fitted. It took entirely too long for me to sit through multiple contact fitting sessions, and to leave with a headache and contacts that aren’t right. I’m heading back up there on Monday. Moral of the story: don’t go to a mall based eye doctor … especially not on a Saturday when the mall is pumping with people. Oh, but the Orange Julius’s we got were scrumpious (actually the place isn’t called Orange Julius, but that’s what I know those slushy stores at the mall as).

Then on Saturday night, Jack and I took some goofy pictures on the couch, before Jack too a bath. We then shot some fun photos of Jack in the tub, taking a bubble bath, and splashing in the water:

On Sunday morning, Jack and I got up at 6:00 in the morning. We played until about 7:30, and then we went for a walk around the block. After trying to eat breakfast, Jack went down for a nap around 8:50 (he’s usually only up for two hours in the morning, never three, so this morning was a long morning for a tired and weary dad!)

Christine got up around 10:00 and told me that we were going to church. So we raced around the house, showered and got dressed, then got Jack dressed before dashing to church. We left the house at 10:55 and got to church at 11:03 (or so). We sat in the main chapel until Rev. John started his sermon, then we went up into the cry room (Jack was starting to talk and hit the woman in front of us on the back during the beginning of the sermon – gotta teach that boy some manners someday). We ran into Murphy, Benjamin and Amanda in the cry room. Ben and Jack played together during the sermon and the closing hymns, and couldn’t have cared less… they were having lots of fun. We decided to head to Serrano’s for lunch together.

We saw Erin’s sister Kaulin and her husband and Dad on the way to Serrano’s… we don’t see them often enough.

I mowed the front yard in the evening, and tried to throw down some fertilizer, but the fertilizer I bought was a little too wet, so I set it in the garage and I’ll spread it out later this week after it drys a bit.

All in all, a nice relaxing weekend.

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Posted on by John

Last weekend, Aunt Murrell, Jon and Hanna Weakley (my family – from North Carolina) all visited Austin. It was part of Jon and Hanna’s first visit to Texas.

They got to Texas sometime the week before, and had been touring all over south and east Texas. I know they spent some time in Kima, Beaumont, Houston, and parts in between there and Austin. They got to Austin on August 11th, and Christine and Jack drove out to Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse to meet them and welcome them to our hometown.

I was still in Detroit, so when I got home (at 1:30 in the morning on Friday 8/12) I went to bed, and planned on meeting them on the 12th.

Around noon or 1:00pm on 8/12, they all came to our house in central Austin, before we headed to lunch at Jason’s Deli. Jon and Hanna were really hungry (actually, they’d been eating lots of food all week, so that’s sort of an inside joke). Christine and Jack stayed at the house to take a nap.

After lunch, we headed over to the LBJ Library, and tootled around the exhibits. They’ve got a really nice view of downtown out the 10th floor windows there. And the Presidential Limo that’s on display there is pretty cool. I also didn’t make the connection that LBJ presided through a lot of crap this country had to go through: War, Civil Rights, a depression of sorts, and other stuff… I should learn more about our history sometime.

After the LBJ Library, we went to the Bob Bullock State History Museum. We walked the first floor of exhibits before heading up to watch the “Story of Texas” mini-movie. That was lots of fun. They all enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend it. We then walked a little of the second floor exhibits, trying to figure out what happened at Goliad. It was a massacre.

After we were “Bullock’d out” we walked down to the Capitol Building. I showed Jon how you can stand in the very middle of the bottom floor, right under the rotunda, and if you talk, you’ll hear your voice echoing, but no one else will hear the echo. Pretty neat stuff… especially since I remember that from my first visit (my Mom took Allen Hillboldt, Bradley Froebel and I there when we were like 10 or 11 – almost 20 years ago, ugh). We also walked into the House and Senate chambers… it’s neat to be so close to one of the great statehouses in the country. It’s too damned bad our legislature can’t actually get much done (like school finance reform).

Then we met up with Christine on “the drag” just to the west of the UT campus. We went into the Student Union building and got our tickets for our tour of the UT Clocktower. The Clocktower is fairly well known as the place where, “On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, a student at the university, barricaded himself on the observation deck and began shooting passers-by with a rifle. At the time, the shooting was the nation’s worst mass killing. It lasted 93 minutes, ending with Mr. Whitman’s being killed by the police, but its after effects have spanned two generations.”

The tower was closed to the public in 1975, due to a rash of suicides, and was reopened in 1999, to guided tours. The tours are led by student workers, and they’re lots of fun to listen to.

The view from the top of the Tower is pretty cool. I’d recommend the sunset tour, if you ever plan on taking the tour. I’ve heard it’s pretty cool.

We also found Aunt Murrell’s dormitory from when she attended UT back in the 1930s. I think Austin’s grown a bit since then…

Afterwards, we headed to Trudy’s for dinner, but they were packed, so we drove over to Serrano’s on Red River. Great food, but we were all exhausted.

Evan, Shadel and Ella got to Austin while we were eating dinner, so Christine, Jack and I headed home to visit with them, while the rest of the gang (Murrell, Debbie, Jon and Hanna) headed to the lake.

On Saturday, the 13th, the girls (Shadel, Ella and Christine) went to the Mall around 10:00 a.m. The boys (Evan, Jack and I) stayed home and played, then watched a little TV. When Jack woke up from his morning nap, Evan and I took him out to the lakhouse (we got there around 12:30).

We all took a dip in the pool, and then ate lunch. Christine, Shadel and Ella showed up around 2:00 or so, and around 3:00, we all headed to the lake. We’d rented a jet-ski and a pontoon boat from Hurst Harbor Marina. I piloted the pontoon boat, while Evan and Shadel drove the jet ski out. We headed out of Marina Point to the west, and parked in a little bay cove just around Lakeway. It took us around 25 minutes to get to where we were going, so we really only had an hour on the lake.

Jack slept in Aunt Murrell’s arms, all the way there. Ella napped on her Grandma’s lap too.

After parking the boat, we all went swimming in the lake, while we took turns driving the jet-ski. First out was Evan and Shadel, then Evan and Hanna (Evan drove). Debbie went out with Evan next. Then Jon and I went out (we let Jon drive). It was Jon’s first time driving a jet-ski, and he did pretty good. Then he let me take over for a little bit. I was a bit rusty, and ended up throwing us both off the jet-ski in a high-speed (attempted) turn.

Then we let Hanna drive, with me on the back. Ha! That was sooo much fun. Hanna was pretty content with testing out the jet-ski first, and seeing what it could do, then she slowly started pushing it pretty hard after we did a few donuts and figure eights while waiting on the pontoon boat to catch up with us. That was the most fun I’ve had on a jet-ski in a while.

At the Lakeway Marina, I traded in Hanna for Christine, and I rode ont he back with Christine all the way back to Hurst Harbor. It was Christine’s second time to drive a jet-ski, and that was just as fun for me as riding with Hanna had been… Christine was pretty funny… she scared herself good a few times, and forgot to let off the gas because she was gripping the handles so tight.

Then, right before we got to the marina, she threw me off the jet-ski by goosing it good while I was showing off by not holding on to anything.

After we put up the boats, we all piled back into our cars and headed to the lake house. Aunt Murrel cooked a really good shrimp-boil and veggies for dinner. I told Jon that I’d bought him his very own domain: jonagon.com (Jon’s had a business since he was 4 or 5, if I remember correctly, called Jonagon. I thought he should own the domain); so look for more from Jon on his new website.

We celebrated my Mom’s 55th birthday after dinner. She got lots of fun cards, and some great gifts.

When it was good and late, we all said our good-byes and called it a weekend.

Christine got up on Sunday morning and drove Jon and Hanna to the airport. Jack and I stayed home and played… it’s so much fun having him all to myself every now and then ;).

Sadly, we forgot our camera at home during this weekend, so I don’t have any fun pictures to show you, but we all had a great time.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 178 user reviews.

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