Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Jeremy beat me to the punch on making a post remarking about how hot it had been this past week.

I ran to HEB (grocery store) today and well it felt like it was the hottest it has been so far this season.

I am sure that it was more likely not the hottest day so far, but rather the fact that I was outside around 2pm and in a parking lot (that had been collecting heat all day).

Regardless of whether it was or wasn't the hottest day so far, even the breeze was hot.

Not "sort of warm", not a "mildly refreshing" breeze, but hot, sort of like a hot breath on the back of your neck.

Needless to say I got inside the store quickly and made my purchases.

I have a little bit of a cold. Speaking of which my OJ should be ready, I am going to go and drink a glass of OJ and take a nap (which might turn into tomorrow, but who knows).

Laterz

Let me first apologize to everyone out there for the lack of updates.

It has been a crazy three months.

So, I am on my way back from the ETech show that just wrapped up in sunny San Diego, CA.

I ended up waiting until almost literally the last minute to book my flight out here.

In looking for flights that were not going to cost me the company an arm and a leg for my screw-up, I found several flights that were OK in price. There was one absolutely STEAL of a deal, like $250. However, it was going to be leaving too early for me to assist with the breakdown of the tradeshow booth and what not.

As it turns out there would also have been another problem with that flight as well. It was going through Dallas (if memory serves).

Dallas, is currently experiencing what we in Michigan would call a normal day of snow (mixed with a little bit of sleet).

Now, I am not saying that planes are better at landing in snow and sleet in Michigan than they are in Dallas, but I know that the airports in Michigan are equipped and experienced on how to handle that kind of weather.

I took an early flight from San Diego to LAX, hoping to catch an earlier flight to Austin.

No such luck. When I scanned the departures board for a flight to Austin, I was dismayed that I saw a TON of canceled flights to Dallas (DFW).

My co-workers Bill and Jack are based in Dallas and quite possibly will not be making it back home tonight.

I feel for them. But I am very happy that I didn't end up with a flight that would have gone through Dallas.

So, back to me being at LAX for 5 hours.

Seeing as I caught the earlier flight out here, that meant that I consolidated my time here at LAX, rather than breaking it up between the hotel lobby, San Diego commuter terminal and then LAX. I was already going to have about a 2 hour layover here anyway.

But ultimately, I think I much prefer to be able to find a place to sit down and catch-up on stuff, rather than have to worry about getting from one place to another in a set amount of time. That same mentality could by why I get flustered when playing RTS games when the 12 year olds that I always end up playing against (when not playing against Jeremy) rush me and win the game. Too much going on at once to concentrate on, plus I am absolutely sure they are cheating.

I have had the opportunity to catch-up on some work while I have been here. I need to find a power outlet, because even though I now have a 12-cell battery, there is always the Eternal Search For Power.

I need to write up a more formal post and put it on the Jaduka blog about my ETech experience.

But I will say this, I think it was a good tradeshow for us, the conference sessions were wildly diverse, and I did not have to look for a power plug while in the conference sessions (they were under the chairs). However, I did not have a lot of luck finding a chair in the couple of sessions I was able to attend (standing room only in the Google:Android session).

Laterz

Update: Found power at a "Samsung Mobile Charging Station" I will upload a picture later.

I hope that it doesn't happen until I get back from Dallas, but the conditions are getting right.

There is a cold front that has been lingering around Austin, dropping the temperature down to the freezing mark. Just before the cold front came through we had quite a bit of rain.

They are predicting some rain and sleet for the rest to show up later in the week.

I am heading up to Dallas tonight for some customer meetings tomorrow.

I am running about an hour behind schedule, so I definitely need to cut this post short and hit the road.

Entry from Ice Storm 2007.

Laterz

I have been sleeping a ton the last couple of days. I hope it is just me recovering from fatigue of sort almost burning the candle at both ends the last couple of weeks and not a cold.

I have been wrapping Gina's gifts over the last two days, I am still not done yet. Partially because there are quite a few, but also because I keep falling asleep on the couch with the Emma and Buddy.

I would have been picking Gina up from the airport at midnight tonight.

However, because of the weather in the Mid-West, she was rescheduled to fly out tomorrow morning. I hope she doesn't get delayed again, otherwise she might miss out on the holiday festivities that are planned. (We will be watching x-mas movies with the Arntz's tomorrow night.)

She is due in at 10:20 AM tomorrow morning, I will make sure to set an alarm, even though I have not needed to the last few days. Even with as sleepy as I have been, I have been waking up between 7:00 - 7:30 AM.

Crazy huh?

Anyway, if I could have rented an elf, then I could have slept the last couple of days away completely, while the elf was wrapping the presents and maybe feeding the dogs.

Yesterday Jeremy and I went on a beer quest. It started over at World Market. However, the selection of beer there was not all that great. A couple of decent imports, but overall nothing very spectacular.

Upon my suggestion we headed over to Central Market. Their wine and beer section is quite amazing. They had all sorts of beer, too many to choose from really.

I forget everything we picked up, but I do remember that Jeremy picked up a 'sixer' of some beer with a crazy looking dog on it. And I grabbed a bottle of Chimay (burgandy label) and a bottle of Young's Christmas Ale. I think we picked up a sixer of Abita's Christmas Ale.

Gina request a particular Pinot Noir, something by the name of 'Rus'. She wasn't sure of the name exactly, either way Central Market didn't have anything like that. I picked up a couple of bottle of good looking Pinot Noir while I was over at Target.

I also picked up some popping corn, white and black kernel. The popping corn, beer, and wine are all for tomorrow's movie night.

Well, I need to get back to wrapping gifts. (unless I pass out again.)

Laterz

And I appear to have lost my ice scraper.

I have to scrape my car windows this morning. I borrowed the wife's scraper and at the same time scraping her car.

She is on her way to sunny Florida for some customer meetings.

Yup, some place warm. She is none to happy, given that Texas feels a bit like Michigan does at the moment, which makes her very happy.

I told her that I would gladly trade with her. However, I honestly wouldn't even know where to start in doing her job, I have a vague idea.

Well, I got to work early, but not early enough to beat Jeremy into the office.

He and I have had an unofficial competition going to see who can make it into the office before the other.

Jack and Bill are driving down from Dallas for a couple of days of meetings down here in Austin.

I best get cracking.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

For all of those folks living in or originally from Michigan, I am not referring to Detroit.

Rather, I am speak of Dallas.

I am going to be here for the next couple of days (I just drove in this morning).

I will be driving to Longview Tuesday night for a meeting Tuesday morning.

While it seems like Dallas isn't that far away from Austin, it really, really is. It is about 190 miles to get to Dallas from my house. It is funny, but in the winter I can actually feel the temperature drop as I drive north. Yes, yes that seem logical. But again, this is fscking Texas. You know hotter than H3LL Texas!

But yeah, somewhere near Hillsboro I can generally feel the temperature drop and I usually have to turn on the heat in the car (not blasting, just something to keep it a bit warmer).

The other interesting thing is that given the "Concrete Jungle" nature of Dallas, that in the Summer, I can actually feel the temperature rise as I drive into the city. One time I had a rental car that had the in-dashboard thermometer, it confirmed my notion. The temperature went up about 3-5 degrees from the south end of the city as I drove into the downtown area.

Oh well, it is sunny out with some light overcast. The weather this morning was saying that there are going to be thunderstorms, I half expected to drive through a monsoon on the way in.

I have to get a few things completed before lunch.

Laterz

The tropical kind, like the one that built up in the Gulf (of Mexico) and is hitting land near Corpus Christi (TX).

It has brought some needed rain here to central Texas.

Don't get me wrong, we have had plenty of rain this summer. But the problem is that it has been coming all at once. Combining the heat and the soil composition of much of Texas all of that water just runs off. It can't sink deep into the ground as quickly as it has been arriving.

So the occasional shower is what we need, probably at least once a week or maybe twice a week. The whole rest of the time it could be sunny and nice. Or if it just wanted to do that thing where it rains at night. All for that one. The wife loves its and well I am asleep so the gray skies don't bug me.

Anyway, Jeremy is coming into town on Sunday. So it will be interesting if the weather sticks around for his arrival (and afterwards) like it has on previous visits.

Not a lot has been going on, I was in Dallas the last couple of days.

I have a conference call in a little bit, so I just wanted to get a post up since I haven't in a while.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

My iGoogle homepage says that is 99 out. However, it has to be even hotter out than that.

It is 77 in the kitchen right now, but that is also because Gina was using the oven earlier.

I had to run to the store to get some pasta shells so that Gina could finish making dinner. We also needed some Ice to I hit the 'Ice Shack', I don't know what else to call it. It is this little building, similar in size to those tiny espresso shacks, but without the clerk.

You walk up, insert your $1.75 for a 16 lb bag of ice. You get 20 lbs of ice if you have your own container to put it all in.

Anyway, I know this is Texas. SO not really whining, just reporting that Texas summer has come. I am pretty sure the last two days are the hottest we have had this summer.

Maybe I bitched about the rain just a little too much. I would love if it just poured for an hour right about now.

Laterz.

Well, it was a bit earlier than dusk when I started, but it was definitely dusk when I finished.

The front lawn has been growing and growing with all the rain and sunshine that it has been receiving. The backyard has grown quite a bit as well, but for the most part is made up of a finer style of grass than the front yard.

Gina made a joke about how the backyard doesn't get any love. Taking this as a signal that the backyard better get cut too, I cut the backyard first. Normally I cut the lawn with the lawnmower on about the halfway height setting. However, given the height and thickness of the grass, I set it all the way at the top and still managed to choke the out chute a couple of times.

Oddly enough, the front yard's wide blade grass doesn't seem to choke the out chute as much as the smaller grass. I guess maybe it doesn't have the opportunity to clump together quite as much. Don't get me wrong, I can clog it up and choke the chute cutting the front yard too, but generally it just doesn't happen as often.

It is kind of funny, whenever I start cutting the front yard, I look at the stream of green cut grass flowing out of the lawn mower and wonder if that is what the output of a giant salad shooter would look like. Minus the carrots and radishes, mind you.

Now, I will say this, the lawns have been mowed. But I think I am going to have to go over them again tonight. Because, I did it at the tallest height and honestly at that level there are two things that suck.

1. It doesn't look as good, because sometimes the grass gets laden down with the cutting that are thrown on it, so you miss some spots.
2. It has to be mowed again even sooner.

#2 is the main reason I will do the lawn again tonight or tomorrow night, depending upon the conditions (ie maybe it will rain, or maybe it will still be 90+ degrees out).

The grill ran out of propane last night. I have a spare tank, but I never seem to have both tanks filled at the same time. Probably goes right along with my general issue about keeping gasoline in the garage, except this time the stuff is under pressure, so not only does it burn, it explodes. I think I watch too many movies where things blow up.

Anyway, I will have to get one of them filled soon, as Gina and I like to grill during the summer. It cuts down on the mess in the kitchen after making dinner and well it keeps the kitchen from heating up.

Also, I am not sure exactly what it is. But I am allergic to something that is on the lawn. I mean I think it might be that the lawn has been dropping lots of pollen. But whenever I walk through it my feet kind of itch. And after cutting the lawn I sneeze and my arms are itchy.

I guess I should just take some OTC allergy meds and quite whining, but it is weird. I don't remember really ever being itchy when doing the lawn before. The sneezing bit, well that happens to me anytime there is a lot of anything in the air, I would wager that happens to almost anyone.

Well, I best get back to work.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I think I am going to take that pole saw and do some tree trimming this weekend. Along with possibly effectively cutting down two dead trees that are in the backyard.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

So we were supposed to get 10 days of rain. However, it has not been a full ten days of rain.

I guess, on one hand it is a catch 22, I hate the rain but I hate the heat just a little bit more.

It was 90 or 92 today, the billboard sign we passed on the way home said 100. This had to be the heat index as the humidity is still pretty high not the +80% it was over the weekend but high.

Anyway, I have lived here for almost 10 years now, so the idea of a hot summer really isn't new or surprising.

Jeremy did a quick post about micro-blogging. So I guess I should chime in too.

I used Twitter while I was at the Web 2.0 conference, since there was such hype about it at the SXSW conference. I wanted to find out what the deal was. While, it was neat, the whole text messaging thing was a bit annoying.

I have to say that I like the 'status' feature on Facebook, which can arguably be called micro-blogging. Facebook is sort of a swiss-army knife of a site with all the features. Now that they have an Open platform (F8) there is a Twitter application you can install on your Facebook profile, thus merging the two.

I haven't really used Jaiku, I learned about it at the ETel conference Jaduka attended earlier this year. I guess I will need to try it out.

I did try out Pownce, given that I am a bit of a Digg fanboy, so the at least trying out Kevin Rose's new deal is the least I could do.

It is interesting, but not spectacular.

I think micro-blogging is a powerful thing, at ETel and Web 2.0 there was this concept of 'Presence' (more so at ETel) floating around, to me all the micro-blogging sites are a form of Presence that has history, so you can go back and look at what people had previously set their Presence to.

I don't think it is a replacement for blogging. But I think it is a very nice compliment, particularly as more and more micro-blogging sites get added into more and more places, cell-phones, popular social networking sites, desktop widgets, etc.

All for now.

Laterz