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Sunday, March 29, 2009
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Just a subtle reminder...
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Make sure you all wish Mrs. A a happy birthday today!!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:58 AM | |
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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Ramblings
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I was going to post this yesterday, but did not want to intrude on the Greek Independence day post by Mrs A. So a few belated random items from a somehow odd day: Got out of bed this morning at 4:05AM after a somewhat fitful nights sleep. I was wide awake, which is sort of what happens to me. At some point, my brain decides that I am just done sleeping, and snaps to "full awake" mode. I almost never wake up groggy. This has happened to me for a very long time, I used to try to fight it and lie in bed and try to get back to sleep, etc. That long ago proved to be a waste of time, so now I just go with it and get up. I like the early morning anyhow. Before I got out of bed this morning, for some unknown reason I had it in my head that there was a good chance that I might get a look at Reverse-A-Skunk today. Reverse-A-Skunk is a curiously colored skunk that lives someplace around the neighborhood. Rather than the typical skunk black-with-white-stripe motif, R-A-S is nearly all white with black feet and tail. He's been spotted several times by me and a few of the neighbors. I think he raids our trash sometimes. But I love seeing animals around, and was hoping to this morning. But I looked outside for a bit, but there were no skunks to be found. So I got ready and headed for work. I stop at the mini-mart near work for fuel, look in my wallet and note that I have a few bucks in there. Feeling both wealthy and a touch hungry, I spring 99 cents for a six pack of mini-chocolate donuts to go with my economy unleaded. I like starting work early, those first few hours are often my most productive. I got there around 5Am, and there was a request for a repair to a part of one machine that we refer to as a "spinner." It does just what the name implies, slowly rotates part of the workpiece. So I spent some time on it, tracked down the problem, found parts and made it work. Returning to my desk, I logged out the repair, which sends email notifications to everyone that needs to know, that the system is fixed. This includes the operator who runs it. Around 10AM, this guy comes to my office and asks if the spinner is fixed. "Yes", I tell him, "I logged it out, did you get the notice?" "Well yeah but it seems to still not be working" he says. Thinking I may have missed something, we both walk across the building to the machine. I step up to it, flip on the spinner switch and turn the speed control knob up. It spins up to speed smooth and nice as can be, and keeps on running. "What did you do?" he asks. "Um, I turned it on, and turned the speed control up." "Was the switch off?" "Yep, I turned it off when I was done testing it." I reply. "Oh, well that's the problem. I NEVER turn that switch off, I just turn the knob down." "Maybe so, but it still needs to be ON for the spinner to run." I say, and get out of there as fast as I can. Note that the switch is 1/2" from the speed knob. And this guy has been doing this for years. And he likely sat around for a couple of hours waiting for me to fix something that I already told him was fixed. This guy is not dumb, but, sheeh. I return to my office, and "Bob" appears asking to borrow a tool. I give it to him, and he proceeds to assault me with several minutes of drivel. Wishing that Reverse-A-Skunk would arrive and spray him, I finally pretend that I need to make a phone call, just to get Bob to leave. Getting back to my task, I realize that my Pencil is missing. Not just any pencil, but my PENCIL! The nice mechanical one that I have used for maybe 8 years. Gone. Derailed, I go on a hunt, asking around, but it is nowhere to be found. A coworker takes pity and gives me one of his spares. I appreciate the gesture, but it is just not the same. I need to grieve and adjust. I mean the new pencil is nice, but we don't even know each other yet. You need time to get acquainted and learn how things work. How do you know this is the right pencil for you? Lots can go wrong. But there is lots of work to do. I consider going home early. I decide to give the pencil a fair chance. The lead clicker is on the side, rather than on the top. I still keep clicking the top to get more lead, tough to break that habit. I'm having second thoughts about this new pencil, but I am not sure of the correct protocol. Do I give it back, or just stick it in a draw and get another one? I am in the middle of doing a program for a logic controller, but am having trouble trying to get my brain around the flow of the thing. I think the pencil is distracting me. If I get this wrong, it will either cause expensive damage, or hurt someone (most likely me...), so I switch to another less intense task that does not require a pencil and do that until it is time to leave. On the way home, I stop by a friend's house to pick up some firewood. The exertion is a good diversion from the emotional turmoil over my Pencil. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 9:10 PM | |
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Happy Greek Independence Day!
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 We at Fetafilter wish you a very enjoyable Greek Independence Day. Sit back, have some feta cheese and olives, and feel free from the oppression of the Ottoman Empire. History |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 11:39 AM | |
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Saturday, March 21, 2009
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Sisterhood Award
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 One of my sister bloggers, Liliana, nominated me for the Sisterhood Award. The Sisterhood Award is given to blogs which display great attitude and a spirit of gratitude. I am honored in receiving it, however,I, of all people, need to work on my attitude. I tend to be quite cynical and critical and I think that sometimes it comes out in my blog posts. Receiving this award, however, will cause me to strive to be a better human being. Thank you , Liliana, for the nomination. I enjoy following your blog and enjoy your writing and insight into life. I am thankful for your consideration. Since Fetafilter is a family colaboration, and the Sisterhood Award applies to "sisters", my husband is exempt from changing his cynical and critical attitude. Without it, Fetafilter would never be the same. As to the rules for accepting this award: 1. Put the logo on your blog or post. 2. Nominate at least 10 blogs who you feel are worthy of this award by displaying great attitude or gratitude in their blog! 3. Be sure to link to the blogs you nominate within this post. 4. Let your nominees know about the award by commenting on their blog. 5. Link back to the person who gave you this award. Here are the blogs that I nominate. As you can see, I don't have ten, but they are the blogs I read every day. Their humor, wisdom, style, and love for the Lord are inspirations to me. My friend Jen's blog- is artistic and full of grace. My friend Heidi's blog- is the zany day to day life of a nurse and pastor's wife. My daughter Cassie's blog- what can I say, I love her! My friend Judy's blog- is introspective and honest. My friend Rebecca's blog- I've watched Rebecca grow from a pre-teen to a beautiful wife and mother. I am truly thankful for all these women in my life. A special thanks to Liliana, who caused me to lie wide awake last night, thinking about the women I know and how they've inspired me. |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 7:00 PM | |
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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The excitement!!!
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Yes, just when you thought that National Beaver day was the peak of excitement, this comes up. Of course you all know what I'm talking about. It was Take a Beaver to Work Day! Yes indeed. I hope you all took the opportunity to participate. Of course MMB insisted on going, so he jumped in the van and off we went. He checked out my desk, looking over some schematics for me and he took a look at my test bench. He looked over a machine I am building, and REALLY loved looking around in the controls cabinet! Next, we stopped in to see the machine shop. He loved riding the big CNC mill, but kept trying to make a lodge out of the metal cuttings. He loved the big lathe, and when he heard about another machine with teeth for cutting wood, he just HAD to check it out. That was a bit dangerous, but he tried hard to follow all of the safety rules. After a little snack, we had some work to do. MMB helped me tune a power supply for an ion beam gun, and did a fine job. The guy who runs the system was very impressed! MMB wanted to try his hand at running one of these systems, so we let him. That's him at the keyboard. But as I'm sure you know, MMB is both very curious and just a bit mischevious and all I had to do was to turn my back for a second before he was off getting into things. He is fearless! A few minutes later, I found him checking out the phone system. If you look closely at the center of this photo, you'll see MMB about to pull a lever. Good thing I caught him when I did, that lever is the main breaker for the entire plant! Once I caught him about to get into this stuff, I decided that it was time to keep him close by and go meet a few of my coworkers. So we dropped in on a few of them, who were all thrilled to make his aquaintance! I can only hope your TABTWD was as great as ours!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 8:42 PM | |
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Saturday, March 14, 2009
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New neighbors.
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| Seems the house next door sold yesterday. The family that lived there packed up a moving van and hauled everything away. I think the new owners will be moving in today. I hope they are not loud obnoxious people. | |
| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 8:09 AM | |
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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It's almost time....
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Yes, it's almost time for the oven to be fixed!!!! The part has arrived. All we need now is the art aficionado appliance repair guy to show up on Thursday. The excitement is building!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 6:13 PM | |
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Wednesday, March 04, 2009
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Rembrandt and the Appliance Repair Guy
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 Long ago, in the time of olives and cheese, I bought my dream stove. Well, actually it wasn't my DREAM stove. My dream stove would have cost more than the value of all our cars added together. It was my dream stove from Sears :P When it arrived it was pristine (see keep your muffins off my stove). About a month ago, the ignitor for my oven died. We knew something would die eventually, that's why we had thought ahead to buy the overpriced service plan. We never buy service plans because Alan can fix everything, but we knew the electronics in the range would cost more to replace than the plan so...we bought it. The gamble worked out because four years and three month later, the oven kicked the bucket. Now I've had doctor's appointments this past month in Boston twice a week. We've also had dentist appointments and chiropractor appointments as well as music lessons and various other activities which have prevented me from calling the repair guy to come and fix the stove. Alan finally called for me, from work. He spoke to someone in India twice, got transferred to different departments and then back to India before getting someone who could actually make an appointment. (his story could be another blog post in itself). The guy was coming on Tuesday! Monday I spent cleaning my stove. I've always taken good care of it because I figure, I'm not going to be getting another one soon. If your husband can repair anything, you never get new appliances. My microwave was a wedding gift twenty-five years ago. I had a dishwasher that was taken out of the trash and fixed. My washing machine and dryer are twenty-five years old. I once had a mixer that had push buttons that stopped working. Alan drilled a hole in the side and put a knob on it. It worked. It was ugly. I don't think I'll be getting a new stove too soon so I try to keep it looking new. When Andrew came home Monday night, I get his snide comment," What's with the Rembrandt hanging over the stove, Ma?" I had placed an old calendar picture over the stove to try to cover up the wall. Let it be known that I am not a nagger. Most of the time if I mention something once and get an appropriate reply I let it go at that. I think around December of 2004, I mentioned to Alan that I wanted to put something behind the stove to cover the wall , something that would be easy to clean. He mentioned that he had some stainless steel that he could put up. I don't nag. After four years, the uncovered wall looks gross. I've always hung a picture up and replaced it every so often. I decided to hang Rembrandt for the repair guy. To make this long winded, rather pointless story shorter, I'll just say that when the repair guy plowed into my snowed in driveway, knocking over part of my stone wall and crushed my rosebushes, I knew he wouldn't appreciate the Rembrandt. He did stare in obvious dumbfounded thought when I told him my stove was turning five in September. "I thought it was new," he said while checking it out a littler closer. My heart jumped with glee. If HE thought my stove looked new (and he must see billions of four- year- old stoves each year) my stove must really be well kept! My son Andrew asked me when he got home from school, "So what did the stove guy think of Rembrandt?" I told him that the guy didn't even notice, but he DID notice how good my stove looked. Woo hoo!! Andrew stated something about me having an empty existence and I disagreed. I told him my identity and self worth is found entirely in my home. That freaked him out. I think he believed me ;P |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 8:49 AM | |
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Sunday, March 01, 2009
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More on National Beaver Day, 2009
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 Well I'm sure you're all just now recovering from all the excitement of National Beaver Day. I know we are! Even though we missed the big Beaver Day parade, I just thought I would share a few photos from our celebration. I must say that I was surprised when I came home from work, to find this waiting for me, with everyone yelling "HAPPY BEAVER DAY!!!" What a nice family. Notice the unique Beaver Day treats they prepared, Twinkie beavers and Yodel beavers, featuring pretzel legs and Swedish fish tails. And check out the tasty pretezl-stick-and-frosting beaver lodges! How cool is that! And all nicely arranged on the cooking beaver table cloth (a gift from Justin & Kathy M., thanks very much...). But the best was yet to come, as later on that night, I was handed a sealed box sent via secure government courier. When I opened it, I found the awesome hand crafted beaver, custom made for me by my niece Caroline C., that you see in the picture above! This is the coolest beaver around, and he gets along just great with the others who live here. As a matter of fact, he insisted, now that he is here, that we take an updated family portrait. This is going to be difficult to top next year. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 10:52 AM | |
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