Avoid Becoming One with the Pavement

Yesterday was not memorable, although the weather was beautiful and I got to eat outside for lunch. We spent time discussing how we'd rather be service monkeys than software engineers. Somehow that grew out of discussion about eating salsa and chips in the car. It was unbearably hot inside and it always makes it harder, knowing that it's gorgeous out, just a few feet away. I got home too late from work to do much more than eat and watch CSI: Miami.

This morning was memorable, since I almost got run over by a steamroller. I usually take a shortcut in the mornings and cut across a part of IBM's campus, in order to avoid a busy intersection at the corner of Alexander and Miami Blvd. They've been widening Alexander for well over a year now and they keep moving the lanes. This morning they were putting cones out, partially blocking the lane for my shortcut. Well, it wasn't clear whether it was still possible to get through or not, until I was suddenly playing chicken with a steamroller. Fortunately, it wasn't going very fast. Several workers put their hands on their hips and were obviously thinking "What is this idiot doing?". I sheepishly went through the cones and got back in the other lane. It seems as if they should put out all the cones before they started using vehicles five times the size of my van, but that's just me.

They were supposed to be fixing the air conditioners at work today, but they weren't working by the time I left (7:30 pm). It was 81 F most of the day and some people were thinking it was cooler and possibly improving, but it was only in the 40's outside, which makes a big difference. Four degrees of difference. Like I told my manager, the maintenance people didn't give us sizings for how long it would take to actually fix it, so it could be a while.

I watched American Idol when I got home. Everyone's hair was so strange. They gave Jon Peter Lewis a perm, which looked terrible. La Toya London had bestial hair extensions and they made Diana DeGarmo look like a conehead. I wonder if the normal stylists were on vacation. They were on something at least. I thought most of the performances were just so-so, but I think part of it was just poor song selection. I wonder how many songs they have to choose from and how much freedom they have. Considering how often the judges criticize their poor choices, each one probably only has two or three from which to choose.

Waiting for No Show

Tonight, I left work early (6:40 pm) so I could go to a Skywarn severe weather spotting training class, taught by the guy who gave the talk to the DFMA a couple months ago, Jeff Orrock. Well, I was talking to CL, so I left a little later than I had planned. I listened to the "talk-in" amateur radio frequency along the way and was pleased to hear, a few minutes after 7, that the class instructor hadn't arrived yet either.

I got there at 7:08 and he still wasn't there. It was being held at a church in Durham and quite a few people were waiting in the fellowship hall. I ate a peanut butter sandwich and a smoothie, but he still didn't show up. Some of the guys called the 800 number for the National Weather Service and got through to the local office. Apparently, he had downloaded the directions to the church onto his laptop and the laptop died on the way. After an hour, we finally gave up and drove home.

TiVo was happily recording tonight's American Idol, so we started watching that as soon as we got home. I probably enjoyed Jon Peter Lewis's performance the best, but most of them did a great job. My mom said that she thought he reminded her of Howard Dean, which I thought was hilarious. I may agree with her a little. I was thrilled to see that George Huff shaved off his moustache. He looks so much younger. I haven't liked any of Leah LaBelle's singing, so I thought she was very consistent.

Two Days

Last night, I didn't leave work until 8:30 pm and then I watched a TiVoed American Idol results show. I was pleased that the "pen salesman", Jon Peter Lewis, was America's choice. I like it when American people vote and I agree with the results. It happened with Clay Aiken in last year's wildcard vote. It happened this time. Let's hope it happens in November.

I've had so much work to do lately and it doesn't feel as if there's an end in sight. Of course, by some respects, this is a good thing. It's a little tiring, though.

My dad drove the van to Kernersville (near Greensboro) to get everything checked and lubricated. He vacuumed everything inside before driving it over there, so it's nice and clean. It's always comforting to have things checked, because occasionally they have found broken bolts and other problems. This time, it was fine.

Tonight we had takeout food from Neomonde I mostly ate labneh, pita and tabouli. It was delicious.

Yesterday, my parents went over to see the new house. They said all the sheetrock is up. The coolest thing is that they apparently used stilts for attaching it to the vaulted ceilings. That must have been neat to watch, but they weren't using them while my parents were there. I'm looking forward to going over there this weekend to see how it looks.

No Goop For You

I don't remember what I did other than work yesterday, so it must not have been important.

Today I worked, of course. When I got there, I was eager to have an egg and cheese biscuit, but they were out of biscuits. I tried a cheese omelet instead, but it wasn't nearly as good. MS told me that I needed to ask for a "fresh egg" omelet so I'd get freshly cracked eggs instead of the egg goop that the grill guy, S, has in his container. MS is always happy to give me tips like that. According to him, if you get egg goop, it has to go on a biscuit or bread. I was enlightened.

It was supposed to snow today, but I didn't see anything other than rain. The ground was too warm for it to stick, so it didn't make much difference, either way.

I worked late again, but I got home in time to see American Idol, with TiVo's assistance. I was not overwhelmed by the wildcard show. I think I liked the "pen salesman" the best. Note that the only time I've ever voted for anyone was when I voted ten times for Clay Aiken in the final vote.

Melting at the Office

Today, it was so hot at the office. 84 F is just a little warm for thinking. It was getting to lots of people and several called it in. There were rumors that they were working on fixing it, so hopefully it will be better tomorrow. I think, just before I left, there was air coming out of my ceiling vent, but I'm not entirely positive. It was making noises and there was a dangling string that was wiggling, but I didn't actually feel any air blowing out of it.

It was beautiful outside today, which probably didn't help our morale.

I could have gone to a friend's house this evening, but I was just too beat. Instead, I watched the second half of a basketball game. Duke lost to Georgia Tech. I also watched the American Idol results show and was very happy to see that John Stevens, the redhead, was a finalist.

Time to get some sleep...

Clay Aiken Concert

Last night, I went to the Clay Aiken concert in the RBC Center, in Raleigh! My mom met me in the parking lot at the office and we left, two hours before the concert was supposed to start. The traffic wasn't too bad and we found a parking space fairly close to the stadium. That isn't always guaranteed, based on an ice skating show I went to, last year. There were cars decorated with Clay slogans and people waving signs. There was a huge crowd of people in a line outside, all waiting to go through security. There were random bursts of screaming emanating from young girls everywhere. Fortunately, the line was moving fairly quickly and we made it in. Our seats were in section 229, which was in the corner, opposite from the left side of the stage. It was far away and people setting up the stage looked like ants, but we did have a completely clear view. I ate a small Goodberry's cup of chocolate mint chip "frozen custard" for dinner. I was thirsty, but neither one of us wanted to go back downstairs and pay $4 for some water.

At 7pm, the Beu Sisters came on stage and performed as the opening act for approximatley 20 minutes. It seemed longer. They were okay, but the sound was so loud that their high pitched voices were distorted. The songs weren't terribly memorable. After an intermission, Kelly Clarkson started performing. Unfortunately, her voice was distorted for some of the songs, too. It was good, but I haven't purchased her album, so I hadn't heard a lot of her songs before. I enjoyed "Miss Independence" and "A Moment Like This", but again, they were familiar. Of all of her other songs, I probably liked the ballad, "Beautiful Disaster" the best. I was still thirsty. Every song was another delay before Clay's performance. Believe me, during the first season of American Idol, I liked Kelly Clarkson a great deal and definitely thought and still think that she was the best singer that season. Kelly did have fun making the crowd scream, every time she said Clay's name.

After her performance, they had to completely rebuild the stage, which took what seemed like an eternity.
I kept eyeing bottles of water of water being consumed by people in neighboring seats and wondering how much I would be willing to pay now. When Clay emerged, singing and walking through the crowd on the way to the stage, all feelings of thirst disappeared. He had a marvelous performance and his voice was low enough, such that there was little or no distortion. The change in his confidence since he started on American Idol last year is amazing. One of the cute things he did was spontaneously take someone's cell phone and hold it to his hear while he was singing "When You Say You Love Me". That had to be a treat for the girl who was on the line.

Of course, I bought Clay's album not long after it was released, so I knew all of the songs he sang. The one that was still going through my head the next morning was "No More Sad Songs". (Note that Willam Hung's rendition of "She Bangs" had similar lasting effects, but that's different.) He just has a beautiful voice and a great personality. My mom was disappointed that he didn't sing "This is the Night", but I think he made up for it with all his other selections. I took several pictures (visualize: ant with green shirt on stage, possibly fuzzy) and I still need to look to see how they turned out. Finally, Kelly and Clay did a duet of "Open Arms" for the encore.

I wanted to buy a program as I left, but there was a mob of people around the booth. Once we waded through all the people and got outside, we realized that we had no idea where I had parked. Oops. In the future, I will make a note of that. We wandered around and then a woman approached us saying that she had no idea where her car was either, but she knew she parked near us so, so she asked to tag along. Eventually we talked to a perosn who worked there who convinced the woman that her car was on the east side of the building. My mom reasoned that we were on the west side, so that's where we headed. I noticed that, by that point, there weren't many people in line at the souvenir booth, so we got a program! We also found the van and told a security/traffic guy to call on the radio to tell security that the woman's car was, indeed, on the west side.

By that time, there wasn't a lot of traffic and it was easy to leave the RBC Center parking area. That made it a lot more pleasant than having to fight one's way back to I-40. We were cruising along. We noticed IBM's lights, which were visible from the freeway. We drove along. We almost passed downtown when my mom pointed out that we'd forgotten her car in the IBM parking lot. Oops. It wasn't a big deal, because she could ride in with me in the morning, but it proved, once again, for the second time in one evening, that I'm a space cadet.

Nothing much happened today, except I nearly melted in the 83-84 F heat, in my office.

While watching a basketball game....

Right now I'm watching the Duke/Wake Forest basketball game. It's pretty intense and there are only 5 minutes to go. It's been physically rough and started off on a bad note. It's very close now and Wake is leading.

I worked from home a while and then drove in around 11. It was nice to be in the office, although it's definitely less distracting at home, since it's more difficult for people to come in my bedroom and talk to me. It's fun when people come by my office to talk, though, and it can be very helpful when I need to ask technical questions. I think the commute is actually one of the nicest things about getting out of the house and going to work. I really enjoy driving.

I did watch American Idol and I was relatively pleased with the people who got through. The football guy is very talented, even if I didn't like the song he chose.

Duke lost their second game in a row. Weird. Sometimes when they started losing, I think they were just overrated, but I actually don't think that is the case this season.

Yummy Cookies

The way the weather forecast was predicted, either it was going to start snowing around noon and it would be huge or it would be later and not as exciting. Well, it started snowing even before I woke up this morning and my alarm went off at 7:30am. Early morning wasn't one of the options, so what did it mean? It snowed all morning and early afternoon, but we didn't have the major blizzard that would have brought this bustling metropolis to a standstill. Nevertheless, it was not something I would want to drive in, so I worked from home, yet again.

Again, working from home does have its advantages. My mother brought in a plate full of warm homemade chocolate chip cookies this morning. Yes, people bring in baked goods on occasion, but they are rarely warm. Yes, as I'm sure many will remind me, once I move to my own house, I will have to make them myself. Even if my mom delivered them to my house, they would not be quite as warm and the chocolate chips would not be quite as gooey. Of course, call me crazy, but if I heard rumors that chocolate cookies were being made, I could always decide to work from my parents' house that day, if I could get there. If I could get there, then I could probably get to work, too, but that is neither here, nor there, but over there.

After a long day of work, I finally got to the point that I couldn't concentrate anymore and decided to eat dinner. I also watched American Idol. I didn't think that any of the singers were spectacular this week, but they mostly chose terrible songs.

More Snow? Oh no!

Tonight was yet another evening of watching television, primarily the Duke v.s. UVA basketball game. It was a good game, but I was worried that someone was going to get seriously hurt. Several people fell very hard and I suspect there will be some nasty bruises, at the least.

I wasn't entirely happy with the people who were voted to be two of the American Idol finalists. I really liked Fantasia's rendition of "Proud Mary" in her original audition, but something bothered me about her version of "Something to Talk About". I thought the other finalist, Diana, was very poised for a 16 year old, but vocally not very impressive. Obviously, a sizable percentage of the people voting didn't agree with me. The only time I've ever voted was in the finals last season. Generally, I think the voting is a little hokey, since you can vote multiple times.

It's supposed to snow tonight. We still have lumps of snow from the last storm! Hopefully this one will melt a lot faster, but I'll be working from home tomorrow.

William and Return of the Shadow

I was worried that the most exciting thing to report about my day was that I installed XP over NT at the office. Little did LvA know that he would rescue me from this great peril. He sent me the URL for one of the most memorable American Idol auditions ever. One has to admit that William Hung's performance was entertaining and uplifting. He had excellent rhythm, too. It was very catchy and certainly more pleasant than the torturous rendition of "Like a Virgin" from last season.

In other news, Shadow came home from the vet's. He's been gone all this time, because it's been so cold outside and we didn't want him to return to his normal outdoor life cleanshaven. His bed on the porch is heated with a heating pad, but it was much colder than usual. By the time I got home from work, he was already sound asleep, so I will have to look forward to the greeting ceremony tomorrow.

More Chocolate Bread Pudding

It's time for another season of American Idol. I think it will be hard to top Clay Aiken, but I have to be slightly biased. It's nice that decent guy who can really sing is representing the Triangle area. I have a feeling that I would be a big fan, even if he were from some other part of the country.

Last night RR, AV and I went to ACME Food & Beverage Company. I had wild bass over a New England lobster chowder and tomtato confit. I'm not positive that I've ever had bass before, but it was delicious. The "tomato confit" was basically 5 or 6 warmed whole grape tomatoes in the chowder. That was actually a nice touch. I've found that I really like warm tomtatoes, particularly in pasta. For dessert, I had the chocolate bourbon bread pudding again, which was just as good, if not better, than the previous time I ordered it.

The windows for my house were delivered today. The exterior of the house is 24% windows, so I figure they will have made a lot of progress once they are installed.