The Only Constant is Change

We recently went though a large reorg of IT. However, even after that was touted as complete, moves between departments and positions continued, including a total revamping of the department we used to be part of. I suppose we are not really calling this a reorg, so I imagined how else we must be spinning it.
I think the director of the East Valley Chorale must have worked in Wal-Mart or something because we are already getting ready for Christmas. It starts earlier every year, doesn't it? Last night, we practiced two Christmas songs and he had two others he will probably get to in the next practice. We also have a Fourth of July song we went through. Since he is thinking ahead, though, maybe it is already for July 4, 2011?

Kathie and Ali (and Lyndsay) are working out using P90X. It sounds like a crazy, frenetic workout. I got tired when they showed me a couple of the exercises. Kathie said she has some soreness, but it is a good routine.

I brought in a couple more of our photo books today to show the photographer team member. Let's see if she has some suggestions on improving my techniques.

Ouch. It seems that a couple of the quarterly metrics that I submitted yesterday do not match the same metrics as tracked by another org. I hate when that happens. So now, my mind is already wondering about that and how to compare/contrast our numbers. I will leave you now since I am already working. I am sure it has to do with milestones that were completed on time, but not flagged as closed until after the daily totals were taken. OK, goodbye.

My Third 'Second' Cartoon

OK, that is enough on how someone can misinterpret phrases whose middle word is 'second.' Here, read it and let's move on.
I used my new pool vacuum stuff last night and it looks so nice. Now I just need to replace the fill valve so it will not overfill and all will be golden. Or at least a lovely blue like pools should be.

Alison took on an enormous challenge last night. She is trying to get me to be able to play Luigi in the Mario Wii game with some level of.... Well, skill is too strong of a word. More like without total embarrassment. We played for about 30 minutes and I only went through about 11 lives. That is pretty good, but it is more like she was playing cautiously than I was demonstrating any gaming knowledge. Oh well, I've got to try.

Hey, y'all check out Lindsay's daily photos and drop her a comment. I know she would appreciate it. I think Brenda put up some new shots recently, too.

Speaking of photos, I brought in one of my photo books to show that lady on my team who also runs a photo business. I came away still not knowing if she thought I took good shots or not. Oh well. They are good enough for me. I do want to create a book from the New Orleans trip, but I need to contact Rick, Keith and Carey to get copies of their shots. Would one of you remind me?

I think I am creatively empty today, so I will leave you with on final thought. No, I guess I won't, since no final cleverality came to me. I'll try to stay hydrated today and be on top of my game tomorrow.

June is Almost Finished Busting Out All Over

Can you believe it is almost July? The year seems to be passing by so quickly, it will be Thanksgiving by August. Bella could be in college by 2012.

Something that seems to drag on forever, though, is having to read a new Clarity of Vision each day. Go ahead and get it over with now.
OK, with that behind us, let's proceed with the rest of today's blog. The Grands start swimming lessons this week. And to support that, we are going to have swimming night at the house each Thursday evening. That will be fun. I had to replace all the equipment for pool vacuuming and cleaning. Over $200. And that does not include a new pool filler thingie, which Leslie's said I can only get at Home Depot.

I though I had lost the new card game KLIK gave me for Father's Day. It was not in my game bag and I couldn't find it at the house. I had left it at Dad's last time we were there. So, we played the Monopoly cards game and Take The Train card game this weekend. We also did a bit of Wii. Then last night, I played with my Wii Pinball Classics game. They did a good job with it.

Hey, do any of y'all know anyone who has installed one of those energy management computers on their house? Here is a quote from one of them in Phoenix. "Our Energy Management Computer allows you to pay less. Instead of paying 12 cents a kilowatt-hour, we GUARANTEE you will pay 8 cents a kilowatt-hour. So your $300 utility bill will drop to $200, even though you will still be using the same amount of power that you always have. WE GUARANTEE IT OR YOUR MONEY BACK." Sounds intriguing, right?

It always seems to happen just about this time. Real life intrudes and I need to do some work, or at least act like convincingly enough to keep getting paid. Have a marvelous Monday.

A Toy Story Weekend

We are planning on seeing Toy Story 3 tomorrow with the granddaughters. While I know it costs more, I am thinking we should see it in 3D, What do you think? Will you pay an extra $3 or so to see 3D? After that, we will head over for a game night. Kyle said to be sure and include our Wii controllers.

We had a nice, cooling time in the pool last night, and Bella did a great job practicing swimming with her folks. They both start swimming lessons soon and it seems Bella is ready.

Today's Clarity of Vision is about how we can interpret the same set of words more than one way and the consequences of same.

I used to use the Title field to sort my cartoons by publication date. In Windows 7, you can no longer access that field. I just did a Google search on how to get there and many people are quite upset with the loss of this functionality. While I do not have the option of returning to XP as many of them did, I am not sure it is severe enough to want that anyway. Still, it is a loss of convenience for me.

Right now, we have three cooking-related shows we are watching, and it is confusing me as I try to remember which contestants are on each show. Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef and Next Food Network Star. Last night, we watched Top Chef.

Yesterday, we tied our record low humidity with 2%. Apparently, we have reached that five times. They said it would be highly unlikely to get below that, It did make for some nice cooling after we got out of the pool for dinner, though. So, last night, I set up the humidifier when we went to bed.

I need to get my workday started, so I am leaving you now. Don't forget to scoot by Lindsay's blog and see how she is faring on trying to post one picture a day. We've seen bridges and babies and all sorts of things.

I Like Betty White

We watched Hot in Cleveland last night, the new Betty White sitcom. I liked her character, but am not totally impressed with the others, played by Wendy Malick, Jane Leeves and Valerie Bertinelli. I will certainly give it another try. We did not get around to Wii-ing last night (well, how would you make Wii into a verb?). I definitely liked her when she hosted SNL.

As you can guess from today's CoV, it seems my mind is jumping between thoughts too quickly today. Let's see if I can concentrate enough to finish this post.
Swimming party at our place tonight. Sure, we had to pick the first 112F day to do this. At least we won't worry about being too cool.

Sure enough, I have already flipped over to email and started thinking about work. This could be a scatterbrained day. I think I will leave you. I imagine each of you has your own To-Do list, so go on. To-Do it.

I Still Love You, Leigh

Once I wrote yesterday's cartoon, I played with the Four Horsemen phrase, trying to find other ways to present the same sounds. This is the only alternative I could find. Then, as I was creating today's CoV, I needed something for the ladies to say. I remembered a phrase a certain niece who shall remain nameless used when we were playing Catchphrase. I will you figure out which one it is.
I led the first half of East Valley Chorale practice last night. That is always fun. Another man led the second half. Why do we split it? I don't know, but our styles are certainly different. I tend more towards getting the notes and rhythms right. He focuses more on dynamics and making sure we are feeling it as we sing. I conduct fairly precisely and cue as many entrances as I can catch. He moves his hands in time to the beat and trusts the group to come in at the right times. No, I am not criticizing him at all. He has a lot of fun with it. I was just pointing out that our styles are complementary and together, we are almost a director.

I did not have much time for TV last night, and no time for Wii. Oh well. We are almost caught up on our DVR backlog, and now that I have the Wii, I can play it anytime.

It appears the automatic filler on the pool is on the fritz. It does fill. In fact, too much. Luckily, though, it is not overflowing, but it is full just above the level of the skimmer opening. I suppose I need to check it out Saturday.

I think we have a game night coming up this weekend. We will probably play the new game KLIK gave me. And we will probably carry our new Wii games over there, too.

Have any of y'all watched Leverage on some cable channel? I taped one to see if it is any good. And we also taped the new Betty White show on another cable channel. It is getting great ratings, according to tvbythenumbers.com. The ads look kinda fun. We taped something else that looks good, but I do not remember the name, so I will not ask you about it.

I am still getting used to my Mac Pro. So far, I find little reason to boot up the Mac side, so I just boot into Windows 7. I used an Outlook addon called Neo Pro for improved searching and filing, but I am not an admin on my new machine, so I cannot install it. I have asked Tech Support to install for me, but no luck yet. I also cannot choose a different screen saver than the Univ of PHX default one. I suppose I understand the reason to no longer allow us to have admin rights, but change is hard. You did hear the slight whine in my voice there, right?

Well, the old clock on the wall says I must leave you. Actually, there are no clocks on the wall, either here in the work area or in the break room. I have to look one foot to the right on my desk and see the time on my desk phone. Or I could look 8" to the right in the lower corner of my screen for the Windows clock. Yes, life is hard.

OK, let's chat more tomorrow.

Does This Mac Signal The End?

They swapped out my Dell laptop for a Mac Pro 17" yesterday, plus the honking large 24" monitor. Sure it looks cool, but my productivity has gone way down. The Microsoft Office stuff is just different enough to be weird. It looks like it does not support the font I have used up until now in Clarity of Vision. I need to copy and rebuild my file organization that I had on the Dell. Maybe this is a sign of the end times?
All this change has even sapped my thinking ability. I don't know what to write about today. Hey, no comments from the back row.

We purchased a few Wii games last night, including a pinball game, The Simpsons, and a Lego Indiana Jones game. That should do us for a while.

I have to lead Chorale practice for the first half tonight. That's always fun.

See, I told you I'm struggling with verbiage today. I will go ahead and stop, but you can think about how clever I usually am and what I might have said. Hopefully, my mind will be back tomorrow.

Almost There

I found a media card reader that let me read the 16GB CD card holding all my photos from the recent reunion trip. So, soon, I should be able to share some shots with you. In fact, I am copying them to my work machine even as we speak. Well, even as I write.

I had a nice Father's day (thank you for asking). I got a black Wii, the card game Sets, an exercise game for the Wii, and some lovely homemade cards from the Grands. We also attended a first birthday party for a niece.

Let's get the cartoon into today's post.Just a comment on how the meaning of words has changed over the years.

My friend just got back from her Caribbean cruise. It sounds as if she had a great time, although she confesses she drank too much one day. Wow. That is something I just cannot imagine. I never drink too much. In fact, if you drink, can it be too much? Ha ha.

It seems my blogger creativity all of a sudden ran out, so I will quit while we are both ahead. My copy of photos is just now on 221 of 583, so it will take a bit longer. right now, it is copying shots from the air boat ride. That means no photos today. So let's see if we can share some photos tomorrow, OK? Until then, vaya con Dios.

Collegian Humor for Cabud

Let's all think back to our college days and imagine what we might have done for term papers if they had been as accessible as they are now on the internet. Might we have looked around a bit? Some of us, maybe. Well, not my readers. So, Keith's youngest son, Caleb, recently wrote an amazingly complex paper that was well reviewed. So today's cartoon intimates that he found an unimpeachable source to create it for him. Of course it's a joke, people. Anyway, the name is because his niece, Emily, calls him Cabud.
I used Dad's media card reader last night and was able to recover the RAW files from our trip. Yeah! Now, I need to get a machine that can run the latest version of iPhoto (which is where all my previous photos live) and Photoshop and I can publish some shots of New Orleans and family.

The girls arrive at the house today around 1pm. Hopefully, I can get out a little early. I am sure we will swim tonight and get them nice and tired so they will sleep all night. At least, I know I will get nice and tired and sleep all night.

So, remind me that Dominion is a good game when I am ready to buy another one. No hurry since it is around $50. And if we want to play with more than four, we have to buy an expansion game for another $50. Gaming is not cheap.

I am a bit disappointed that the Lakers won last night. I was pulling for Boston. Mom said Neen used to watch the Celtics back in the day.

The clock on the wall says it is time to get to work. I wish that clock would mind its own business. Have a good Father's Day weekend. I will be visiting mine on Sunday, whether he likes it or not.

From One of the Small People to You

Did you hear anything about the statements by the CEO of BP yesterday? He noted that they cared, and so does Obama, about the "small people." As you can imagine, the commentary by the radio announcers I listen to on the way home had a field day with that. They are guessing he had a phrase in mind in his native language and mis-translated when he spoke in English. Anyway, that made me decide to create a CoV about how they could maybe spin the disaster into a positive, at least for them.
The cat came back! After being gone for a week, we heard Chino last night in a storage shed of our neighbor. I know the grandgirls will be glad, and Alison is, too. It brings to mind a song from Sesame Street years ago called "The Cat Came Back."

I have not gotten my RAW files off the memory card yet. I may have to go to a Photo company or a Computer company. No, I will not lose any photos if I cannot recover them, but there are a few that I would really like to have the RAW file for use in Photoshop. The only thing I do not have another copy of is the XLS of physical and email addresses of everyone.

Speaking of granddaughters, I heard they are spending the night Friday so Kyle and Lyndsay can celebrate their fifth anniversary. Whoo Hoo. And congrats on reaching the five year mark.

Hey, is it time for another vacation yet? No, I don't have any days yet, but let's work something out.

OK, if I cannot take vacation, I guess I'd better do some work so I can earn more days off. Y'all enjoy the sweet anticipation of knowing some photos are coming soon.

Post 715

This is my 715th post in the last five years. Who'da thunk it? I am sure you believe that I could talk enough to have material. I am speaking more to the fact of actually taking the time to keep it going. I also always try to comment on every post from my Family and Friend's Blog list.

While we were on vacation, my sister, Carey, suggested today's CoV. Let's see if Obama is reading this blog.

I mentioned yesterday that it was my Monday. Well, I fooled myself and forgot about East Valley Chorale practice. After all, it was Monday. I am supposing they practiced. I will drop the director a note today apologizing. I wonder if the folks went? So, today is not Tuesday, it is Wednesday. I am reminding all of us, just in case we forgot.

Well, I have not been able to read a 16GB SD card that is holding all of my RAW images from the vacation. It also contains an XLS with all the family contacts on it. I tried two different media readers and four different computers. I guess I need to go to a camera shop or computer shop and see if we can get the data off. This is not good. I do have a JPEG of all the images, but I usually tweak the contrast a bit starting from the corresponding RAW image.

I have 15 action items from my five days off. That's like three per day. That is just wrong. I should have worn tennis shoes because I'm going to be running to get this stuff done.

Since I'm going to be busy, I will sign off for now. I will get some photos up soon. Once you see the flower shots, you will see why I need to save up for the 300mm lens. Maybe I should look at selling copies. I just need to sell 8 if I can find people who will pay $1000 each. Hey, I'll sign them. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Life on Pause

While a vacation seems like you are experiencing life in Fast Forward because you do so much and come back exhausted, the life you return to shows you it was actually on Pause. Everything is still here. The same problems at work. The same leaky shower stall. The same traffic-laden commute. The only difference is that you have great memories to carry you through that did not exist before.

Speaking of vacation, New Orleans was fun. I will get some photos posted soon. I must give special thanks to Uncle Poo and Aunt Martha for hosting the event in Central Louisiana. Next time, though, I hope they tone down the humidity a bit. Here in AZ, I cannot remember the last time that my glasses and camera fogged up when I went outside.

Speaking of CoV, here is a non-vacation cartoon queued up from before our trip.

Speaking of family reunions, we saw cousins and aunts and uncles and brothers that we haven't seen in a while. We ate our way through New Orleans and Jena. We had all of us taking pictures of just about everything, including each other taking pictures. We celebrated Aunt Francis' 90th birthday. I am certainly glad we had this opportunity and thank Dad for making it possible. It may be that the Lord calls some of us home before we could do this again, so we chose this trip as our summer vacation.

Speaking of photos, thanks to Mark for letting Keith and I use his $8000 300mm lens. Whew, that was so fun and an opportunity I would not have had otherwise. Unfortunately, I liked it a lot. However, the price plus opportunities to actually use it mean that I will have to wait until I see Mark again to use it. Still, we did and I got some great people and flower shots with it.

OK, work calls, but I will say that those baked beans with venison were really good. It all was. So were the Cafe du Monde beignets. You should try them. That is all this 24x7 restaurant serves and yet we had to scour to find a table.

It Is My Friday

We head out to New Orleans in the morning for a brief vacay and a family reunion nearby. So please do not waste your time sitting around your computer waiting for the next CoV. It will be a week from Tuesday before it will be back.

Now, that does not mean there may not be a post between now and then. You never know what I might do, although that also depends on finding internet access. Who knows? Maybe the leaking oil corroded the wires that provide the link? Still, I would say do not sit around waiting. Go out. Have a life. Have a beignet. I plan to.

Another statistics-based CoV. Sorry for you non-math types. Let me break it down for you. It is a self-deprecating cartoon implying the majority of them are weird and none are worth reading. I actually do have some stats on which cartoons have been commented on, but this is not about seriousity.

Dad loaned me his Mac laptop to load all my photos onto so I could leave for vacation with empty memory cards. That is done, but I have not taken the time to upload any for here. In fact, weirdly enough, I did not even carry my camera to the beach or The Grove on Saturday when I was in LA because I did not have room on my cards. Lyndsay got a bunch of shots, though, although you'll need to find her on Facebook to see them. Maybe I'll have her burn me a disc with them so I can share a few here. Several were cute. I even tried a couple of nighttime fountain shots.

I have heard that a certain naval family in transition between FL and CA is in town. I'll have to scoot by and say hey tonight. The main thing for tonight, though, is to pack for trip to New Orleans. Yeah!

OK, I am signing off for now. As they say in the movies, "Let's not say goodbye. Let's say 'See You Later.'" So, see you later.

We Made It Again

Another Friday is here. While you may want to get your weekend on right now, you should probably wait until after the workday finishes. That is what I plan to do.

Today's CoV is a Venn Diagram classifying how I would describe the types of humor included in the daily cartoon. Yup. It's a math lesson and cartoon all rolled up in one. Who else gives you that?
I do not like the traffic getting our of this cul-de-sac in the afternoons. However, if the only alternative is staying even later, then I'll deal with it. I'm just saying, don't come in here between 3pm and 6pm.

What's up for the weekend? We shall see. How about you?

Prayer request: My sister's oldest son, Paul, went into the hospital last night for abdominal bleeding. He is on antibiotics and if he is not better today, they will have to do more testing. So, let's pray that he is better and they can find the cause quickly. To make matters worse, his wife and daughter are out of town, so I am sure they are anxious.

I had best get to work so I can get out of here on time. You'd better get to work, too. I'll be back on Monday, but then out of pocket until the following Tuesday. No, you'll be fine. You won't even have to check the blog every two hours like you do now. Come on, you know you do that.

Thursday Thoughts

I did get the shower cartridge replaced, but then I forgot to check this morning if it reduced the leak inside the wall. I'll try to remember to check on that in the morning. I did not get the toilet wax ring done last night.

I talked to the Disneyland crew last night. Kathie and Kendall had just ridden a ride when the others took Bella to a ride that Kendall is not big enough for yet. The weather is apparently cooperating and it was a nice day. That's good. I forgot to ask if it was very crowded.

Without Kathie there to say "Honey, you need to get going," I fell back asleep this morning and did not get to work until 20 minutes later than normal. So, let me drop a CoV on you...
and then, sign off for the day. Sorry for my brevity. Check the Clarity of Vision blog for an explanation of why I chose rainbow chard for the title of the cartoon.

Wednesday's Wonderings

Nooo. Not 112 by Sunday. The only good thing about that is the pool will be easily warm enough by this weekend. Well, maybe the other good thing is.... No, there is no other positive to having temps in that range.

Well, the crew headed out to Disneyland today. Lucky me. I get to work today, then replace a faucet cartridge tonight. And sometime, I need to replace the wax ring on a toilet. However, Dad loaned me his MacBook, so I can transfer some photos. although I may not get to that until tomorrow night. Not the same as Disneyland, but oh well.

I think I heard the phrase diamond in the rough on the radio. I thought of it somehow. Here are today's musings.
I am moved into my new digs at work. We have those short, four foot high cubicles. So I can see everybody and all their screens. I can participate in their conference calls without even dialing in. Not my favorite.

Anything else? No, these new cubes have sucked all the creativity out of me, at least for now. And as usual, I have to get ready for the daily meeting. Why don't y'all sit back and enjoy your work surroundings while I sit and sulk. Maybe I'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Three Days Off Means Only Four Days of Work

Whoo hoo. Where are three-day weekends when you need them? I could get used to this. I hope yours was good. Ours was. Plus, we got to play games twice. Among them were Apples to Apples, Sequence, Take The Train, and Bananagrams. And we saw the grandgirls on Friday, which is always a treat.

One time, we were playing a game when a member of our group sang the wrong lyrics to a song. That led me to remember the web site kissthisguy.com. While the lyrics in today's CoV are not listed, there are some cute ones at that site.


We reach the official 100s-all-the-time starting this week. June is traditionally our hottest month. August and September feel hotter, though, because we've had so many 100+ days by then. We should be 106+ by Thursday.

We are supposed to move to another building today. However, they have not provided boxes yet. I hope they don't move my computer before I can move the rest of my stuff. I'd feel lost without my stuff (whoa. I channeled George Carlin for a second there).

I guess I had better get the first of my four days underway. I will be back tomorrow, even though Disneyland beckons for some members of the family tomorrow.