McDeevers Tavern |
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A chronicle of your typical 30-ish suburban family.
Neil - Dad. Works for a big ol' company run by old white men with deep pockets. Send mail to Neil Sarah - Mom. Stays at home. Tries to keep kid and house clean and orderly. Succeeds admirably with both! Ethan - First kid. Now 20 months old. Wonderful kid. The apple of our eyes! Baby #2 - Expected Time of Arrival: July 1st.
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Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Catching up... Lots of tidbits from my trip back from Rochester, the Storm of the Century (for 2003 anyway) and returning to work. Unidentified Man Drives 6 hours home, cites Javascript code The last day of class was kind of anti-climatic. Because the DIIT classes are funded by the United States government (National Science Foundation) they require a very intensive evaluation of the class. This sucked out almost 2 hours of the day. I really wished they had the evaluation on thursday after class was over. That way we could have covered more material on Friday. Some observations: 1. The class was great. I learned A LOT about not just javascript, but also LotusScript as well. The pace of the class and the ability to actually bounce ideas off the teacher/classmates was just outstanding. 2. The RIT Inn was a nice place to sleep and set up base. However, the hotel is also being used as an "overflow dormitory" meaning that there were many students in the building. This wasn't bad in itself, but that meant the services the Inn provided were really college-level services. We didn't have a full-service restaurant (it was like a small cafeteria) and the "bar" was just an empty space where you could only play a pool game or darts. No service provided there. 3. When you're sitting in a class for 5 days doing coding exercises, you start thinking in code. var daydream = "rich and famous; for (brain = dead) { do.daydream } else { do.work } Very disconcerting especially when you're spending 6 hours driving home all by yourself. Calm before the storm? Sure! We've been spoiled in the Northeast these past few winters. When the forecast calls for 6 inches, we automatically assume it'll actually be 4 inches. So when the forecast called for 16+ inches, I assumed it would just be a few inches and we'd be done and over with. Ha! By the time Monday rolled around, we'd gotten about 20 - 23 inches of snow (can't really tell at my place because of wind drifts, etc.) And just to think, I went to the store on Saturday and didn't bother getting extra food for the snow-bound days. Needless to say, we survived on leftovers from saturday's dinner and frozen pizza on Monday. Shoveling is the devil's work (or it should be.) When monday morning came and I looked at the huge pile outside the front door, the first words I muttered to myself cannot be reproduced in a forum viewed by family members. After trudging through the messy garage, I finally opened the door to reveal two things: 1. The snow is REALLY deep. 2. The shovels are next to the front door that is sealed shut because of snow. #@$#)@! This is what happened next: Trudging through calf-high snow to the shovels, then starting to shovel. Gave up after 30 minutes of shoveling and only getting as far as the first car. Called Colby and berated his choice of using automated snow removal machines and possibly calling his masculinity into question. Going out shoveling again and wondering if masculinity is overrated. Colby stops by with his 4X4 Jeep and tells me if I help him load the snowblower, he'll come and help me finish up. Completly emasculated, I help load up the snowblower, do the McD driveway, do some neighbors driveways and then return the blower to the Teck household. Many mad mad props to Colby for offering and helping us do heavy-duty snow removal. A spot in heaven (or the jewish equivalant) has officially been reserved for him. Survivor Update: The women won the first immunity battle, meaning that the men had to kick off one of their testosterone-laden losers. I didn't see the episode but Sarah told me that Christy Smith noted how difficult it was for her to communicate with other members of her tribe. I just hope it doesn't be come *whine whine* "poor me!" *whine whine* Thursday, February 13, 2003
Update re: deaf Survivor The much-vaunted premiere is tonight. Here's hoping the networks realize what a ratings kick-in-the-pants it is when they feature deaf/blind/etc. people in their reality shows. Also, I asked the question earlier: Would Christy have an interpreter during the Survivor competitions/meetings? According to a recent deafdigest, they said no interpreter would be provided at all. Bummer. Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Cold. That's it. It's cold today. The kind of cold that sucks the air out of your lungs even though you're bundled up with gloves/hat/hooded jacket. It was 0 degrees this morning with 30 mph winds and 55 mph wind gusts along with two inches of new snow. The class is progressing along nicely. Not much else to report. Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Attack of the Mutant SUVs! Let me preface this by saying its COLD up here. It was 0 degrees outside when I woke up this morning. After a pretty windy snowfall yesterday, the good folks at the Rochester area DOT didn't bother plowing/salting the streets. Some of my classmates are in my hotel and they were taking the shuttle bus over from the hotel to the class. Since the buses only run once every half-hour, its easier for them if I give them a lift. While we were driving, I noticed the roads were VERY slippery so I didn't really even go over 30 mph the entire time. Once again, a mutant SUV passed me on the right. A few minutes later at the next traffic light, we saw the SUV had slid into the drivers side of a car sitting at the light. All occupants were OK and we continued on to the class. We ate dinner at a local restaurant yesterday. Thanks to Pru's expense account, I had steak au poivre and french onion soup. As we were receiving our orders, Sarah came online and told me she and Ethan were having hot dogs and mac and cheese for dinner. Great! Now I feel guilty about having a good meal while my wife and only begotten son are eating college eats! Then again, they're not out driving with the mutant SUVs. Sunday, February 09, 2003
Uh oh, he's thinking again... Expanding a bit on my earlier observation on the big Lexus SUV that got stuck: I called it "The poor man's revenge" because I wonder if it is the weapon by which the lower socioeconomic classes exert a type of revenge against the rich folks who buy these montrosities. In other words: we're all driving cheap Ford Focus cars (Focii?) in the same conditions as big Lexus and even though he probably spent 35 thousand dollars MORE on his car than Enterprise spent on my rental Focus, he STILL couldn't avoid getting stuck. Let this be a lesson to you: don't blog when you're tired! The Journey… Sometimes they say the journey is more important than the destination. I’m not sure if that’s 100% true just yet but it definitely was interesting. In any case, I've arrived safe and sound in Rochester, NY for my Javascript class beginning tomorrow. Let it snow, let it snow… By far, the biggest story of the trip was the snow. About 20 miles past Scranton, in the hills of the Poconos, I started getting some serious snow coming down. Prior to that, I saw some snow showers but they were pretty light and didn’t stick. This one did. SUVs: The poor man’s revenge? While the “convoy” of cars, as I called the evenly-spaced out group of about 6 cars driving at 35-40mph along I-81, was heading up a rather steep hill, I saw a fellow in a big Lexus SUV that had passed rather aggressively us earlier on the side of the road. Apparently, he was very overconfident in his car’s abilities, spun out, and was stuck on the side. I couldn’t stop to help him because it was a fairly steep hill and there was really no room to stop. He didn’t appear to be hurt and was already talking on his cell phone. It struck me odd that the much-vaunted “bad-road-capabilities” of the SUV don’t mean squat if the driver doesn’t know how to drive it properly. The convoy I was part of (2 SUVs and 4 regular cars including mine) had no problems navigating for another 10 miles after which the roads cleared up quite a bit. Born to be wild: I encountered a herd of deer and two wild turkeys. I THINK I saw a bear near the PA/NY line but it might have been just a big black chunk of something. Of course, all the wildlife was on the side of the road. Driving Music: The best music to drive to in a snowshower along hilly roads is Eric Clapton’s “Running On Faith”. The song has plenty of crescendos that eerily went along with the hills and the snowfall intensity. Political Sentiments On Board For some reason, I found it odd that there were several “political” billboards in the more rural areas of PA/NY. One was a anti-abortion ad that had “A Woman’s Right to Choose” with “choose” crossed out and replaced with “kill.” I found this ironic because people generally believe that the same set of constitutional rights that allows anti-abortionists to put up billboards like these also gives women the right to have an abortion. I always am amazed at what a disconnect there is when people talk about “rights”. (see what happens when I start thinking?) Walls of Ice I really regret deciding not to bring the digital camera. In some places, there were just huge walls of ice that nicely framed the roadside. Some of the ice plumes had this beautiful aquamarine color. Speaking of Disconnect: Another reason I regret not having brought my camera: There was a log-cabin building business along I-81 that was trying to advertise their homes along the road. One building was burned halfway to the ground. The kicker? The sign in front of the burnt out shell said “Model Home!” Montezuma in NY? There’s something about the area between Syracuse and Rochester. It’s home to a huge nature reserve called Montezuma Nature Preserve. Last I recall, Montezuma met his untimely demise (as opposed to a timely demise?) in the 1500 at the hands of Hernando Cortes. I seriously doubt that he able to come up for the ribbon cutting ceremony for this nature preserve. Arrived in Rochester tired, but strangely looking forward to the week. One of the KapSig brothers who is trying to set up a chapter here at NTID asked me on a last-minute basis if I would mind giving a presentation for the interested gents. I gave as good a presentation that 10 minutes notice will give you. The gentlemen seemed to be very interested and had many good questions for me. OK. Time to TRY and sleep (I always hate the first nite in a hotel. always difficult to really get to sleep!) Saturday, February 08, 2003
Friday, February 07, 2003
Ethan the Terrible Strikes Again! I've gotten 4 e-mails on this already: Ethan is NOT terrible but he CAN be terrible when he starts up his now-famous temper tantrums. The kid is a wonderful addition to our lives and we would never consider him a burden. Therefore, to avoid future confusion, I've changed the introduction on the right-hand side to reflect this. Thank you. You may now go about your regularly scheduled activities. Deaf Survivor Prediction Christy Smith, the first deaf Survivor contestant will be on the premiere of Survivor 6 in the Amazon. I may be cynical, but I'll be VERY surprised if she lasts for more than 3 episodes. I've never been a reality TV fan (even run screaming from the room when Bachelor/ette/JoeMillionaire comes on) but this one, I'm definitely going to watch. Question: will they have an interpreter for Christy during the tribal sessions? Today's Quote I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away. Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972) That happens to me all the time. I meet someone then I completely forget their name. I have to encounter a person at least 5 times before I can fully associate their name and their face. BREAKING NEWS: The United States just upgraded its "terror alert" from Yellow to Orange. Great. And this directly affects me how? I know they indirectly affect me by making me more nervous. However, I don't live in NYC or DC or any major city. I seriously doubt terrorists will be targeting Rochester next week unless they want to wipe out the US's ability to take pictures (Kodak-Eastman). In fact, the more pressing concerns I have in mind are whether it'll snow while I'm driving to Rochester and whether I'll have a job when I get back. This is what I feel is the true disconnect between the dubya administration and the American people. He shouts for tax cuts and gives Congress a budget calling for record deficits. He has no qualms about sending the military to Iraq because none of those people donated to his fat cat republican cronies (they did give him a huge boost in Florida in 2000 with their absentee ballots!). My only hope is that he isn't re-elected in 2004. Winter Weather: It's snowing. The weathermen can't get it right. We were told yesterday that it would be 1-2 inches in the early AM and not much more through the day. I wake up this AM and it was 6 inches and STILL snowing. The drive to work was easy because all the local school districts were closed. My meeting @ Gwynedd-Mercy: Got off to a really bad start. The person I was supposed to talk to wasn't even there. (Faculty meeting or something). I did talk to someone else and they said that the State of PA is splitting out their Social Studies requirement into Citizenship (Civics) and Social Sciences (History). My Government BA would fall into the Citizenship category. However, he said that career switchers tend to be looked at as the "bottom of the heap" (my words, not his) and tend to go to the least-desirable school districts (eg. inner-city, etc). A good dose of reality-check. Definitely something to ponder on my trip up to Rochester. Thursday, February 06, 2003
Good quotes: A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Speech in New York, Nov. 20, 1900 As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something. Hagar the Horrible Einstein Disproved? This is funny... Not the columbia accident... CNN's misconception of ... well, if you have to explain it, it's just not funny anymore. Just click on the link and see for yourself. Blackcore - Tim Kettering's blog site After I'd gotten home from work on Tuesday and cooked dinner, Sarah asked me while she was cleaning the dishes to check to see if any of the bathroom faucets had been left running because there was no hot water. After checking the faucets (all were off), I went to the basement and lo and behold, the hot water heater was leaking water profusely from the top of the unit. After I shut off the gas and the water going to the unit, we called the HVAC guys. Luckily, we caught it in time and a piece of spare carpeting near the heater soaked up all the water before it got into the finished portion of the basement. They told us that we needed a new hot water heater . I had to shower at Colby and Jaime's at 6am and Sarah and Ethan just got back from there using the shower/bath as well. (thanks guys!) They came yesterday and replaced the water heater. Now, if you work in the HVAC industry, please heed these simple requests: 1. Wear pants that fit you. I don't particularly enjoy seeing your ass everytime you move your head under chest level. 2. If there are dead animal parts in any part of the unit you are removing from the home, please remove said carcass BEFORE hauling it up the stairs. 3. Change your clothes AFTER you've worked on oil heaters. Our house still reeks of oil. The joys and travails of home ownership. I have a meeting today at Gwynedd Mercy college with the chair of their education department to discuss their teacher certification program. We'll see how that goes. In case you don't know, my work area here has "merged" with another security area. Lots of speculation about layoffs and stuff. I had a meeting the other day with the new boss of my area. She said that my best chance in terms of staying here are to do more project work and move away from computer programming, etc. However, we already have 3 people in our area devoted to projects so I'm not sure what that means for the "newbie" like me. No definite timeline at this point in terms of a decision as to who goes where and who goes out the door. I did make a "blunder" of sorts when she asked me what I planned to be doing in 5 years and I said I planned to be teaching at that point. In any case, I've been sending out resumes to different places around the area. We'll see how that goes. I leave this weekend for Rochester for the javascript class. . Am not looking forward to it because it just doesn't feel like its the right time to go but I know it'll definitely help with current work and job hunting later on if I need it. But I know I'm going to miss out on some of Ethan's new signs. He's been having conversations of sorts with us when we give him his food. He'll ask us "what?" as in what's that, then we'll say "more what?" and he'll reply with the sign for whatever it is he's eating (grapes, bananas, etc.). This is an introductory note for the McDeevers. Why did I pick McDeevers Tavern as the title? Lack of creativity. We are: Neil - Dad. Works for a big ol' company run by old white men with deep pockets. Sarah - Mom. Stays at home. Tries to keep kid and house clean and orderly. Succeeds with the kid. House is a different story. Ethan - First kid. Now 16 months old. Wonderful and terrible all at once. |