Sunday, April 30
Sometimes I'm amazed that young boys make it to adulthood. I went running today on the trails by the bayou, and stopped to talk to two eight-year-olds who were throwing rocks at a cottonmouth, hoping to confuse it so that they could catch it. At least they thought it was a cottonmouth, but they also thought the dead possum near the snake was a cat. And they thought the snake had just killed the "cat", even though the "cat" had obviously been dead for at least a day. Nevertheless, it was all very fascinating to their demographic. I don't know if they succeeded in catching the snake. I pointed out after a few rock shots that the snake was not dead, just staying still because rocks were hitting it. So I delayed their demise at least for a few minutes.
Please remind Aidan and Nico not to tease poisonous serpents.
I forgot to mention yesterday that when I went by the house with the hardware, the edge of the yard had been dug up so new pipe could be laid. When the builder showed up, he told me that the plumbing inspector had failed the rain runoff pipe. John had used the wrong kind because he didn't know there was a code for it (this is his first house from scratch). It's just the pipe that delivers runoff into the storm sewers. He said he won't make that mistake again (it cost him $500 to replace the pipe). Everything else passed with flying colors. And we were very pleased that the appraisal by the mortgage company came out higher than we're paying for the house. We were actually a little anxious about that, since prices seem so inflated that we worried we were overpaying. The appraiser said she rarely saw new houses built that well. Of course, she didn't see the drainage pipe!
Saturday, April 29
Ed must have made it out this time, because I haven't heard from him yet.
We went to Expo, the big home decorating store, this morning to get all the hardware for the house. We made it $150 under budget, so the $100 I went over budget with the lighting is taken care of. We got some neat knobs and pulls, although we limited the whacky stuff to the laundry room and the built-in drawers in my closet. This really is a cheap way to dress up cabinetry. Most of what we got was between two and four dollars apiece.
I met my friend Ellie this afternoon to go to a garden festival. We ended up not going in to the festival after all, though, because it didn't look that big and they were charging $5 to get in. We went to a huge nursery instead. I'm meeting her and another friend for a movie tonight. In fact, I'd better run and get ready.
Friday, April 28
Ed was flying out to Myrtle Beach today, for a fake business conference involving five days of golf and poker. So I went to the Johnson Space Center with his friends Bob and Linda and his other college friend Andy, as well as Andy's wife and daughter. Andy, his wife and ten-year-old daughter were visiting from Connecticut as part of a tour to see the orphanage from which the daughter was adopted. It's closing soon, and they wanted her to get the scoop while she could.
The Space Center was really good. They hired Disney to come in a few years ago and "Attractionize" things. Now there are several good films, an IMAX theater, lots of exhibits, and plenty of interactive playthings for the little ones. I really enjoyed it. Near the park featuring actual rockets was a collection of live longhorn cattle, and I liked that, too.
Unfortunately, the shuttle launch that was due to take place this week was delayed due to weather, so Mission Control was pretty dead. I'd like to go back when things are more active, but really, that was a small part of the day anyway.
One thing I enjoy at space museums is seeing my birth date prominently featured. I'd always heard that I was born during a space shot, but it's fun to see exhibits based on that day. The Space Center had patches for sale commerating every NASA mission, so I bought one for Mercury 9, the last Mercury liftoff, May 15, 1963.
Ed's flight was cancelled after all, so he'll be leaving for South Carolina tomorrow.
Thursday, April 27
Ed and I met at the house at lunchtime today to try some hardware samples for the kitchen and bathrooms. The back deck was being stained a reddish brown. The railing is painted wood with columns that match the front porch. The brown looks nice for the deck floor because the window trim is Cherokee red. After that we went for lunch with his friend Scott (who had come along to see the house) at a deli in the Heights. The walls were covered with historical photos, including one of an 1895 snowstorm which dumped 22 inches on the neighborhood. I'm hopeful that we'll get snow here next winter. Ed and Scott just laughed at me.
I think I need to deactivate my resume on Monster.com. It's been viewed 394 times since I posted the new one three weeks ago. I'm sick of getting phone calls. And as I typed that last sentence, I received an e-mail with the subject 'gotta position here in Houston'. And damn, there's the phone again. It rings about four times an hour during the day, and most of those calls are recruiters. I let the voice mail pick up a lot of the calls. I think it will be fine to be represented by just three or four recruiters.
Wednesday, April 26
I had an interview today with a technical recruiting firm. I really liked them, so I'll be having more interviews through them. I had one yesterday that I don't think will go anywhere.
Last night I met Ed at his darts bar, The Harp. He was practicing with one of his teammates and some other guy. Unfortunately, their team, the Big Macs, is in last place in their division. Ed is really improving, although he has only 2 quality points. Whatever that means. But he joined the team late, and has only played in two matches. Maybe I'll join the Novice Division. But really, those matches are way too long.
I had a call from Karen LaVigne last week. She lived across the hall from me in Cubley, and in my apartment on Elm Street junior year. She lives in Dallas now, and next week Donna Gilbert and Kim Brown are flying in to visit her, so I'm going to go up and see them all. I'll probably drive.
Monday, April 24
Here is Erica's updated Flash project. She really enjoyed doing this. This summer I will teach her more of it.
Sunday, April 23
Happy Easter!
Saturday, April 22
We've been on the go all week. Today we went to Astroworld. Greezed Lightnin' is still there, although we didn't go on it today. We got Erica a season pass, though, so we'll be back this summer. It is much greener than I remembered. I guess it was probably fairly new when we went in 1978.
Thursday we went to visit Ed's friends Bob and Linda in Kingwood. They're the ones whose daughter got married in Galveston (Bob went to college with Ed). Erica knew them when she lived here before, so she was really looking forward to seeing them again. We spent the night there, then decided to try to get tickets to see the Astros in the new baseball stadium. We couldn't get them for Friday night, but could for Easter Sunday, so we decided to scratch our original Easter plan of going to Linda's sister's house for lunch, and go to the baseball game instead. Bob and Linda and their daughter and new son-in-law are going too, so I guess Linda's sister might have a smaller family get-together than she had planned. I'm actually looking forward to the baseball game because the stadium looks pretty neat. It's right downtown. The Astrodome will stick around for awhile to house the Rodeo, but the new football team will get it's own stadium near the Astrodome.
After Erica leaves I will be able to resume daily writing.
Wednesday, April 19
Sorry I haven't been writing much. We haven't been home a lot lately. Yesterday we took Erica to see the house. I think she liked it; she was surprised to see some of the older houses which aren't restored (or torn down) yet, though. They put the appliances in since we saw it last.
Then we had lunch at a nearby Victorian teahouse. That will be withing walking distance (when it's not too hot) of our house. We stopped in a few antique stores and boutiques in the neighborhood, then went looking for cabinet hardware. There is a store here called Expo, owned by Home Depot, that has thousands of choices. It made it too hard to choose, but we can postpone that for awhile. I also picked the carpet for the bedrooms yesterday. It will be Berber, but a bit browner than the ones I've seen elsewhere.
Then we went miniature golfing. Snooze. Ed and Erica are golfing now. The big kid kind.
Monday, April 17
Here is one of Erica's first Flash projects.
Saturday, April 15
Well, yesterday was a sad day in Sadville.
Today, though, we were able to have a little fun. Ed and I and Ellie, my frequent house tour companion, went downtown to watch the Art Car Parade, a Houston tradition that Ed has talked about since I've known him. There were over 200 cars in the parade, everything from low-riders to vehicles that seemed to be more floats than cars. My favorite was a car that looked like a giant cockroach. Art cars are a big thing here. There's even an art car museum in the Heights (although I can't get to the page today - it worked before). There's an Art Car Ball tonight in a parking garage downtown, but we need to go get Erica at the airport soon, so we're skipping it.
The parade was part of the Houston International Festival, which is a lot like the Three Rivers Arts Festival but with an international theme. This year the featured country was Brazil. We watched a really weird Brazilian circus. The performers were sometimes dressed like kids, sometimes like gorillas, sometimes like sailors and sometimes like frogmen. We didn't really get it, but it was interesting.
I had an interview yesterday for a consulting firm, Analysts International. I didn't really like it, though. I think I'd rather work for a company directly.
Time to go.
[Journal entry - Stock market crashed - the Dow was down 6.. and the NASDAQ was down 3.. . Interview at Analysts International. Ed's despondent. Don't know what to do.]
Thursday, April 13
(This is an update on the day's activities, detailed below). I called the recruiter I had originally been talking to (the one who found me the job at Baker Robbins) and left him a voicemail that a) we'd found a house, so I'm ready to work and b) I had been contacted by an inordinate number of recruiters, but wanted to give him a chance to find me something since we had already established a relationship. He called back just now with a couple of openings. The big one would be with an on-line bank, CompuBank. I've heard of this company (based in Houston) because one of Ed's banking friends had been interested in it. I think that I would have less risk in taking a job there than a banker would...it would be serious e-commerce experience, and so would not be a liability if the company failed. The recruiter (who is not like a telemarketer, by the way) is also going to get on the stick and actively look for something. So various balls are rolling.
I spent nearly all day on the phone. I talked to a lot of recruiters. Well, I guess only four. I have twenty-four still on voicemail that I haven't gotten back to yet. It's too confusing - I'm taking notes when I talk to them, but I still get what each of them said mixed up. And they're like telemarketers. It's the same type of person who becomes a recruiter, and I don't particularly like dealing with most of them. Anyway, one job sounds interesting. It's with a startup that's pretty well established already. It's a combo of database administration and web design, and I'd be able to pick up some new skills. We'll see. The other people who call are more vague. I guess they want to meet me before telling me much about the job, which is understandable. They have to sell me to an employer after all. I'm just not sure I like this way of finding a job. If I was just sending my resume out, I'd make a decision and then send it. This way, I have to make dozens of on-the-spot decisions.
I'm also trying to find something for Erica to do this summer. The Houston Zoo has camps for kids twelve and under, and a volunteer program for kids fourteen and up. What about thirteen? I called to see if they'd take her for the volunteer program (being in with the little kids would never do), but haven't heard back.
And I have to make an appointment to look at carpeting tomorrow. I have an interview in the afternoon with a consulting firm over that way, so hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone. It's just hard to get excited about finishing the house when I'm worried about money.
Still having fits over the stock market. When Ed got on his plane in Baltimore, things were up. When he lands he'll find out they were back down. I think he's a little more comfortable with that now, but it would have been better had today ended in the black.
[Journal entry - NASDAQ down another 190 points after rallying a bit.]
Tuesday, April 12
[Journal entry - The stock market is cratering. We're really in danger of not being able to come up with the down payment. Ed is quite upset - he doesn't want to sell now in case it comes back up.]
Tuesday, April 11
Cable's here! What a deal! A month or so ago, they were hooking it up at our neighbors and the guy told us he'd give us a deal of a month free. We asked Mike (our landlord) if he was interested, but he wasn't, so I threw the info out. When Ed asked me to order cable, he didn't think they'd honor the deal without the technician's name, but I asked, and they did. They just gave me the invoice, and installation was free, too. Also, I asked the guy if he had an extra cable jumper in his truck so I could hook up the VCR, and he brought me two. I would have bought one, but this way it was free. Now to go watch some TV. Ed's in Washington all week, so it gets quiet here.
I'm just sitting waiting for the cable guy. Erica seemed pretty incredulous that we didn't have cable (she'd never heard of that before, I guess), and Ed decided it would be better to have something for her to do here. So we'll have it for one month.
Here's an educational site that's worth looking at. It's about a sailing exhibition to Antarctica in 1914. A photographer was on board with movie and still cameras. Some of the photos were even in color. They're amazing; make sure you click on the small ones to enlarge them.
[Journal entry - Went to the house, met the agent and builder to discuss light fixture, etc. Went to Heights Lights to pick the entryway & dining room lights - they had a Sierra style, so I went for that. The NASDAQ dropped a lot more.]
Monday, April 10
Here's the floorplan of the house. It's a little hard to make out what's what (even on the copy I have), but here's a summary. On the first floor right side, there's the porch, then the living room with the fireplace on the left. The stairs go up to the left of the fireplace. There's a built-in bookcase about halfway up the stairs. Behind the living room on the right is the dining room. That opens back into the butler's pantry, which in turn opens into the kitchen. Behind that is a mudroom by the backdoor to the deck. Also in the back is a family room, which we'll put the TV and stereo in. We're also going to use some of it as the kitchen eating area.
On the left side, the front room will be the office. Behind that is the guest bathroom, and behind that is the guest bedroom. Then the laundry room, and a little powder room that is accessible from the family room.
Upstairs is just the master bedroom, two closets and the bathroom, which has a jacuzzi.
It's pre-wired for speakers in the living room and master bedroom, and pre-wired for surround sound in the family room. Also prewired for security and LANs.
I'll probably be able to take some pictures next week. Erica arrives Saturday night for Easter, and I know she'll want to see it.
[Journal entry - Met Ed at the mechanic's - his air conditioning isn't working. Then drove hime to the airport for his flight to Washington.]
Sunday, April 9
We have a house! We knew he was bluffing. We'll close in mid-May, then have construction right next door for six or seven months, but still. We really like the inside of the house, so are pretty happy with the choice.
To celebrate not having to go to open houses today, we took a long motorcycle ride to Lake Conroe. It was cool here - low 70's I guess.
[Journal entry - Ed came up on the bid a bit and the builder took it. No open houses today! We rode the motorcycle to Lake Conroe and stopped at a lakeside bar and sat in the sun. Ate at home.]
Saturday, April 8
As if I wasn't sick enough of traipsing through houses in the Heights every weekend, I actually paid money to do the Houston Heights Historical Home and Garden Tour. I went with the same woman I did the Azalea Trail tour with. It was really fun to see these houses. There were two Queen Anne's, one old and one new, one Craftsman bungalow, a new Italianate style house that looked like a San Francisco house, and one other Craftsman house that had been in the same family since it was built in 1902. This last was particularly interesting, since they had pictures of it from the beginning when it was a tiny square house with no kitchen or indoor plumbing. I got some interesting ideas.
Ed bid on the house from yesterday today, but the builder said he wasn't going to take anything less than the asking price. We'll see if he means it. He could sell the house tomorrow at open houses.
Exciting new feature! Search this site using the button at left. O.K., so you really don't need to use a search engine to find anything on the four text pages of this site, and there really isn't much vital information in it yet anyway, but I was pretty impressed with this engine from Atomz.com. It will even index Acrobat and Flash files. It's free to use for small sites, too. And it will give me incentive to add more meaningful content. It automatically re-indexes once a week, but I will try to remember to do it more often.
Sorry about the whacked link to the house yesterday. This one will work. Another copy and paste error.
[Journal entry - Ed bid on the house. I did the Houston Heights Historical Home and Garden Tour with Ellie LaPorte. It was great - particularly one house, owned by an artist. Stopped in some shops. Mexican for dinner, then got in a fight over immigration.]
Friday, April 7
We're back from seeing the house (it's not crooked; that's just the picture!). They've done quite a bit since we saw it last, including finishing the wood floors, putting the black granite on the fireplace (the mantle is mahogany) and installing the granite kitchen counters. They were putting some landscaping in today, including jasmine and bougainvillea. Ed and I both liked the house better this time than last. Mike (Ed's friend who is serving as our agent) had some quibbles about it, but they were mostly do to with differing tastes. There are negatives to it, though, foremost among them price, tiny lot, and construction on at least one side. The lot didn't seem so bad this time, though, maybe because of the plantings. The construction lasts for a finite period, and the price is probably justified by the quality and size of the house, as well as location. We know that prices here are very high close to the city, and I don't think that will change anytime soon with traffic as bad as it is. Plus, it's pre-cabled with Cat-5!
Ed flew to Monterey, Mexico yesterday on a client's private jet to get a tour of the client's galvanizing line. He was excited to go, but got nervous about the flight because he was listening to the transcripts of the Payne Stewart crash. He's back safe and sound, though, and enjoyed the trip. When they landed in Laredo on the way down to go through customs, an agent approached them, pulled on a latex glove, and asked "Which one of you is from Houston?". Unfortunately, Ed was in the bathroom, so he missed it. At least the border guards have a sense of humor.
We're going to look at a house today. It's the new one we saw at an open house a couple of weeks ago.
[Journal entry - Met Ed and Mike at 1229 Rutland. We liked it even better this time. The landscaping was started. The yard didn't seem as small, and we noticed interior features we hadn't seen the first time. Went out for wings for dinner.]
Thursday, April 6
I actually got an e-mail from Tiffany last night. She had just gotten back from a Bach concert, and it was late, so she didn't write much. She said she'd write more today. I'll keep you posted.
I'm off to Starbucks to read my book. If I stay here, I'll keep taking breaks to browse.
[Journal entry - Ed left this morning for Monterey, Mexico - a one day trip on a client's jet to see his galvanizing line. He was nervous about it because of the Payne Stewart crash. He even made a will last night. He made it back just fine, though.]
Wednesday, April 5
Hee hee. Continuing my Jenkins research detailed below, I found this biography page on Alan, complete with caricature. I've kept the gif for future use, because it's actually a huge file that they've shrunk on the web page.....oh my! I'm cracking myself up. I've saved Alan as my wallpaper! Try it! I've also changed my colors to High Contrast White so my whole computer looks like a desktop Alan cartoon!
Obviously, I have been too easily distracted today, probably because I am trying to read a huge technical book. It's called Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming, and it's 1139 pages long. Not only that, but it's really tiny print. And not much of a plot.
After reading the e-mail forwarded by Mom from Barbara, I decided to look up LM, the magazine Tiffany works for, on the Internet. Unfortunately, the first page of their web site announces the closing of the magazine as of March 14th (maybe she didn't tell her mother?). However, I did find in the archives several references to her, including an article written by her about her non-profit organization, Families for Freedom, and others about kids being labeled as sex offenders for exhibiting natural curiosity, disciplining parents, sex crime statistics, and other related issues. She also wrote one about Kosovo. Also a letter to the editor from 1994 (I only know it's the same Tiffany by the address - she didn't work there then) concerning censorship of Serbian films at the Edinburgh film festival. And a review of the book "Children at Risk? Safety as a Social Value". And some little blurbs. And, by the way, LM stands for Living Marxist.
I didn't find a web site for Families for Freedom, but found other references to Tiffany on the web.
Warning: before you open that e-mail, read this.
[Journal entry - Houston's for dinner.]
Tuesday, April 4
I got an e-mail from Monster.com telling me I needed to update my on-line resume using their new format. I finally got around to doing it late last night. The phone started ringing at 8:30. I've had twelve calls and four e-mails. They must notify employers when someone makes a change. I've stopped answering the phone.
[Journal entry - The phone started ringing at 8:30 - recruiters! Twelve by 2:00 - and many e-mails. It makes me a little mad because most don't actually have positions, they just want you on their list.]
Monday, April 3
Update on the note below: just got another e-mail from Uniscribe - the CEO is gone. I'm not sure of the circumstances.
I've been getting a lot of e-mails today from my friends at Uniscribe. People are quitting left and right, and some of those that haven't quit yet are deciding between job offers at other places. It will be a little harder when I come back to visit to see everyone. I imagine they'll be scattered far and wide by then. I only provided the link to their lame, outdated website because I wanted to see if there was any current information on it. There isn't. They're still advertising positions in departments that have long since closed. Even Theresa, the woman I trained with in Gaithersburg, quit last week. She's worked there for decades.
[Journal entry - Put a new resume on monster.com]
Sunday, April 2
We have a tornado watch until midnight. When the tornadoes hit Fort Worth last week, it didn't even rain here. I guess tornadoes are something I'll have to get used to.
Experiment...see if you can listen to this Real Audio file. If you can't open it, you might need to get RealPlayer. I don't really know how this works, so consider this a test. If it works, I'll make longer ones. Maybe a weekly broadcast.
It's raining today, and Ed flew back out to San Francisco this afternoon, so I skipped the open houses. I'm tired of looking.
Saturday, April 1
Yep, we saw Tony Randall last night in a production of Damn Yankees. It was very good. The Arena Theater, where it was staged, is a theater in the round. The set had been designed to make the place seem like a baseball stadium. There were even popcorn vendors, and you could eat and drink beer during the play. Tony Randall played the devil, and was fun to watch. Very well done. I usually don't like musicals, but was invited to go. I'm glad we did.
I wish I'd gotten it together to play an April Fool's trick on this page today. Some I've run across are very funny if they're pages you usually visit. Others, like Salon and Google, are obvious to anyone. Here's another good one.
