A Day Off

Let me tell you how my day off started. It started with my employer. Recently they changed their vacation policy to accomodate the many old farts like me who work for them. What they are afraid of is that their statistics shows that 60% of energy company employees are going t retire within 5 to 10 years. Now, I’m not going anywhere. I have a fifth grader with autism. (But don’t tell them that!)

What they did was give us credit toward vacation for time in the industry, up to 15 years. So, I instantly went from 3 weeks of vacation (for another 4 years) to 5 weeks. They just handed it to us. So, I’m very happy with the Yogi employer.

Anyway, so I have a few more days I can spend with Sweetie. Her birthday is coming up so I took a day off, courtesy of my employer, and we spent the day together. We went clothes shopping for her. I cannot pick out clothes for her and the problem with gift cards can be that at some stores the clothes are picked over. Plus the good sales are before Christmas.

I told her that this was going to be on the blog, she said no pictures, so no pictures. Sorry.

So we went shopping. She released me from the dress store after the mandatory 8 count. Whew, isn’t she sweet? Its kind of a safety issue anyway. Women’s stores have an excess of estrogen on the floors and so they get real slippery for men’s shoes. Its best for men not to spend too much time in them. I got to look at some of the other stores before going back so I could pay for the purchases.

I almost got my ass kicked while paying. I think I got high on the estrogen fumes. While I was waiting for Sweetie to finish I was talking to the cashier, “Char'” Char’ was sorting a bunch of % off tags into nice neat little piles and tieing them off with rubber bands before putting them into a basket. I stupidly said “It looks like you just go through with a big sale.”

She said “They drive me crazy with all these different prices. I have to switch the tags all the time and then resort them.” I furthered my stupidity by saying “I would just throw them in the basket if I were you.” She said “Then I would throw the crap away just like I did with my first husbands stuff when he didn’t do what I told him.” She didn’t have a smile on her face either. So I backed away slowly and didn’t make any sudden moves.

Don’t mess with Char’ is my advice.

Something else we did was pick SuperPizzaBoy up after school and take him to see Santa Claus. That was fun. SPB has to be prompted to look at Santa and has to repeat his list a couple of times.

It was cramped in there with Santa and couldn’t get a good angle but I got a shot I like coming out. SPB looks like he got away with something. Sweetie looks relieved and Santa is like, who is that kid? He was a cool Santa. SPB was actually supposed to be the last kid but somebody else slipped past the rope, and the way Santa handled it was say, “Come on in here young lady!” That made me feel good.

Off to Starbucks for SPB’s hot chocolate, and my yearly double tall gingerbread latte with no whipped cream. Sweetie got her usual drink. It is a very complicated concoction that takes about 5 minutes to order, like double tall, half whip, no caff, half skim, double pump, half kick, shuffle ball chain, heel toe, heel toe, step, dosie do, latte. Or something like that.

Last Pack Meeting

SuperPizzaBoy’s Cub Scout careeer is winding down. Last night was his last Pack Meeting. He started five years ago as a Tiger Cub and is now a Webelos II. We still have a Pack Christmas Party next week and in January a Pinewood Derby Meeting and then he graduates during the Arrow of Light Ceremony.

I don’t know if he is going on to Boy Scouts or not. We’ll just have to see. What he would like his some sort of videogame ranger organization.

Below is Cubmaster (and Patrol Leader) Rick leading the kids in a song. Rick has really been a blessing. He has a heart for scouting and the kids and has worked very hard, along with many of the other parents, to make sure that SPB had a good scouting experience,

After the meeting, I chatted with a few of the parents and then couldn’t find SPB. I found him outside the gym in a reading nook that the school had. SPB used to go to school there and it seemed to me he spent most of his time in the nook. The kid always has his nose in a book.

Special Exhibition

Several months ago fellow blogger Baloney posted about an art project that her son did in school. Baloney had the art made into various objects and I ordered a mouse pad.

I am not using it as a mouse pad, I put it up on a file cabinet that doubles as my map wall. It has generated a lot of comments and I have told the story of its origin several times.

I see the young artist from time to time. I may have to get him to sign it for me.

Book Review “The Best American Short Stories of 2008” edited by Salman Rushdie

I am addicted to short stories. I even liked them in the English Lit classes in High School. It is easier, I think, for an author to sustain a mood, or intensity level, or tension than in a novel.

If you like short stories then try out this book. I have been buying these books for over 20 years. There is a different editor every year, generally an author of some renown, who selects the stories so you get a little insight into what they like. Also, they have a small bio of each author selected that is interesting and they write a little about what inspired them to write the story. Often is just an image they had in their mind. It is amazing that some of the stories have been years in the making and sometimes dozens of drafts.
This book contains the latest craze, a vampire love story. It also has failed redemption after cold blooded murder. Also science fiction, love turned cold. All sorts of genre’s.
I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.
Try the 2007 edition. Steven King was the editor. Not only can he write, he can pick out stories.

Chocolate Martinis and Pancakes

John and Donna came up from Little Dixie to impart a little culture to us Rubes in Tulsa. I hope that we didn’t embarrass them too much.

First, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Two in our party got a little carried away. I don’t what these two are doing except Sweetie was talking about her favorite television show as a child was “The Flying Nun.”

Then we went home where John taught Sweetie how to make chocolate martinis. Back in school I took all sorts of chemistry labs. I had never seen anything so complicated as the preparation of these drinks. It was taking them a lot of time. I was having to drink beer in between rounds to keep my buzz going.
I don’t know what all the fuss was about. Those martinis were not any good.

The next morning after we came to, I mean woke up. I made pancakes. My one or two readers know that I’m very particular about the 1/4 cup rule and face centered cubic structure and all that but there is one exception. The “dog cake” traditionally the last of the batter is made into a large pancake and given to the dogs.

I changed the tradition some time ago, to the consternation of the dogs. Now, I get the dog cake. Of course I eat in honor of the dogs so the spirit of the dog cake is preserved. Just to make sure that nobody gets confused about whose pancake it is I monogram it.

All good times must end so we had one last party pic. SuperPizzaBoy and I were headed to a Cub Scout Meeting. Unfortunately Mr. Rick wasn’t going to have us work on the bartending merit badge. SPB might have been able to meet the requirement for Specialty Drinks.

Good Advice

The economy is in a shambles. The price of oil is just above $40 and according to some is headed to $25 next summer. Worried about your job?

I’ve never been laid off (knock on wood) but I’ve been through the downsizing process plenty of times and “sold” 7 times.

Here is some good advice.

Major Sponsorship Opportunities Available

The accompanying video is by my friend Tom, local celebrity engineer, inventor, mexican food gourmet, violin builder, beer expert, and crusty bike rider, thanking his sponsors for the money raised for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for the MS 150 bicycle race he rode in last summer.

Tom, does the ride every year, I am looking forward to sponsoring him again next summer. I’ll also be letting my one or two readers know of the sponsorship opportunities available. As you will see from the video, Tom takes care of his sponsors.

Space

I think that many men and women of my generation got involved in science and technology not because of computers and video games but because of Space. The race to the moon was a big deal when I was a kid. It was a national mission.

It is kind of hard to get worked about it today for some reason. Even with two tragic accidents it seems pretty routine. The only reason the last Shuttle mission got an press was because somebody lost their toolbag up there.

The big things in technology now, are computers, (yawn) and biotechnology (“YAWN”).

Every once in a while though something comes around that ignites the imagination again. For me it came from the most unlikely source: the Reading Adventures blog. She has an advent calender type thing going which I don’t really understand but it led to a link that literally made my jaw drop. Its a Boston Globe newspaper web feature called the Big Picture which is about news in pictures. They have an ongoing advent feature on photographs from the Hubble Telescope. It is awesome stuff. Show your kids!

Space science has been transformed since I last paid attention from the static to the dynamic. It used to be hey, this galaxy is 50 gazillion light years from us (yawn) to hey look at this star exploding (WOW, look at the pictures), this galaxy has such a strong gravitational field that it is acting as a lens to look at other galaxys (Huh, what’s that all about?)

If you have kids, give them a look, who knows what may happen. Little girls also. When I lived in Houston I was acquainted with three engineers who worked at NASA. Two of them were women.

Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, da da da da da da

Two OU Engineers, Ray & Bubba,were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.

A woman walked by and asked what they were doing.

‘We’re supposed to find the height of the flagpole,’ said Bubba, ‘but we don’t have a ladder.’

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a few bolts, and laid the pole down.

Then she took a tape measure from her pocket, took a measurement, announced, ‘Eighteen feet, six inches,’ and walked away.

Ray shook his head and laughed. ‘Ain’t that just like a woman! We ask for the height and she gives us the length!’