Villenke
28 August 2006
Pine Sol
Sorry, nothing about cleaning here... this is all about Kayaking on the Pine River and enjoying some sun.
First, here is a link to the pictures that I took during our (mostly) annual trip down the Pine River.
LINK
We went up Saturday after Kate's baby shower. Since Laura was at the shower she went up with Kate and I. The drive was thru a heavy rain, so as you can imagine I was not thinking that this was going to be an awesome weekend.
As we pulled into our regular, but very much overpriced, campground/outfitter (Sportsman's Port) Ryan and Nathan we just checking in.
We waited out the rain and then set up our tents. Thankfuly this was only about 15 minutes. Then as Ryan was quite hungry we set Nathan about cooking our meal in his Dutch oven. This not only went very quickly - goodbye cooking with aluminium foil - it also was really tasty. We had kibasa, potatoes, green peppers, and zuchini.
About 10pm Jason and Jocelin showed up. That is another story which Jason should blog about on his blog.
Sunday turned out to be beautiful. The weather cleared up and the sun came out. The temperature was warm but not hot. The water was cold but only Jason went for an unscheduled swim.
We missed having Dave on the river and would have liked to have had Susan for the first time.
Here's hoping that sometime in the future we can all be on the river again. ¶ 23:05 3 comments
First, here is a link to the pictures that I took during our (mostly) annual trip down the Pine River.
LINK
We went up Saturday after Kate's baby shower. Since Laura was at the shower she went up with Kate and I. The drive was thru a heavy rain, so as you can imagine I was not thinking that this was going to be an awesome weekend.
As we pulled into our regular, but very much overpriced, campground/outfitter (Sportsman's Port) Ryan and Nathan we just checking in.
We waited out the rain and then set up our tents. Thankfuly this was only about 15 minutes. Then as Ryan was quite hungry we set Nathan about cooking our meal in his Dutch oven. This not only went very quickly - goodbye cooking with aluminium foil - it also was really tasty. We had kibasa, potatoes, green peppers, and zuchini.
About 10pm Jason and Jocelin showed up. That is another story which Jason should blog about on his blog.
Sunday turned out to be beautiful. The weather cleared up and the sun came out. The temperature was warm but not hot. The water was cold but only Jason went for an unscheduled swim.
We missed having Dave on the river and would have liked to have had Susan for the first time.
Here's hoping that sometime in the future we can all be on the river again. ¶ 23:05 3 comments
17 August 2006
Hopdate
Here are the most recent photos of the hops:
On the right are the Hallertauer and on the left are the Tettnang.
On the left here we have some Tettnag hop flowers and on the right we have some Hallertaur hop flowers. Not bad for the first year. Surely not enough to use in a batch of bier but surely a good sign for next year.
¶ 17:23 0 comments
On the right are the Hallertauer and on the left are the Tettnang.
On the left here we have some Tettnag hop flowers and on the right we have some Hallertaur hop flowers. Not bad for the first year. Surely not enough to use in a batch of bier but surely a good sign for next year.
¶ 17:23 0 comments
All in? I think not.
The guy I threw under the bus, or out to California, called last night. Things were not 100%. So after a couple of calls last night we left it to today.
Instead of going right to my desk I went right over to our test loop and setup the system to exactly the same thing as what is going on in CA. Then I was able to exactly recreate the problem.
(lots of phone calls and false starts and working go here)
When I left today at 5pm they had run over 400 packages without an error or anomoly. So that implies that things are finally on the right track. If we do not hear from him again tonight and things are still OK tomorrow morning then we might be out of the woods.
I will not be betting any farms on this though. ¶ 17:12 0 comments
Instead of going right to my desk I went right over to our test loop and setup the system to exactly the same thing as what is going on in CA. Then I was able to exactly recreate the problem.
(lots of phone calls and false starts and working go here)
When I left today at 5pm they had run over 400 packages without an error or anomoly. So that implies that things are finally on the right track. If we do not hear from him again tonight and things are still OK tomorrow morning then we might be out of the woods.
I will not be betting any farms on this though. ¶ 17:12 0 comments
15 August 2006
Saved!
but what about my soul.
While it is nice to not have to go out of town at the same time I feel like I have thrown another under the bus. Why am I more important...or more accurately why is my time more important.
After all of the work that we put in over the past two days getting the software in much better shape I feel like there probably will not be any problems. But that does not stop me from not wanting to go. Also, every time I think about the project my stomach knots up and my brain goes into overdrive fretting over all of the potential problems that could happen. Now that I am not going back, at least this week, I still get worked up. I suppose that I feel bad that I think there could still be problems. And I am scared that I could still end up out there next week or later.
Funny, I used to like traveling. Now, I would do almost anything to not have to. It may just be with Kate being pregnant or it may be that I am experiencing burn out.
As the product line has picked up speed and the projects have increased in complexity the cracks in the product have begun to show. I am nervous about rolling it out to the rest of engineering and the revolt that could be on our hands. Sure it is not my product line, but I have been the application engineering liason and there is the possibility that if things are not acceptable they may ask why I did not raise a warning. The simple answer is that our group was tasked with both critiquing the product line so that development knew where to improve and also putting a positive spin on the product line so that application engineering would not be down on it.
Being pretty much the only controls engineer involved from the application side anything what is not fixed or identified could be seen as my deficiency. Recently I have been thinking about how I could temporarily get out of this, but then there would be nothing gained from the last 18 months. Hopefully, after I get through the next 9 weeks and then after the respit after the baby is born things will be better and I will feel recharged. ¶ 20:45 2 comments
While it is nice to not have to go out of town at the same time I feel like I have thrown another under the bus. Why am I more important...or more accurately why is my time more important.
After all of the work that we put in over the past two days getting the software in much better shape I feel like there probably will not be any problems. But that does not stop me from not wanting to go. Also, every time I think about the project my stomach knots up and my brain goes into overdrive fretting over all of the potential problems that could happen. Now that I am not going back, at least this week, I still get worked up. I suppose that I feel bad that I think there could still be problems. And I am scared that I could still end up out there next week or later.
Funny, I used to like traveling. Now, I would do almost anything to not have to. It may just be with Kate being pregnant or it may be that I am experiencing burn out.
As the product line has picked up speed and the projects have increased in complexity the cracks in the product have begun to show. I am nervous about rolling it out to the rest of engineering and the revolt that could be on our hands. Sure it is not my product line, but I have been the application engineering liason and there is the possibility that if things are not acceptable they may ask why I did not raise a warning. The simple answer is that our group was tasked with both critiquing the product line so that development knew where to improve and also putting a positive spin on the product line so that application engineering would not be down on it.
Being pretty much the only controls engineer involved from the application side anything what is not fixed or identified could be seen as my deficiency. Recently I have been thinking about how I could temporarily get out of this, but then there would be nothing gained from the last 18 months. Hopefully, after I get through the next 9 weeks and then after the respit after the baby is born things will be better and I will feel recharged. ¶ 20:45 2 comments
14 August 2006
Saved! (?)
So I spent last week in Torrance, CA. It was amazingly different than Moreno Valley, CA. I consider them both LA but they really are about 85miles apart. The difference between the two could not be more apparent. Torrance is near the ocean and keeps a near constant 85F while Moreno Valley is nearly in the desert and stays nearly 110F.
It would have been much nicer had the job gone a lot better. First, the parts that were supposed to be on-site the Friday before were not there on Monday (they would eventually show up on Wednesday). Second, the special code that development was to write for me was not complete on Monday when I got there. Third, because the parts were not there we could not apply power to the system so we really could not do any serious work. Tuesday afternoon, I got some of my "spare" parts that allowed me to apply power. Then I realized how not ready the code from development was. I spent nearly 400 minutes on the phone over the next three days getting the code to a place where I could leave.
So what happened today. I got a call at 2pm saying that everything was no longer working and that they could not get it going again. So As you can imagine after spending that much time on the phone I was not really confident that when I got back out there I would be able to make it any better. I suggested that the "master" developer go with me. Instead, his manager suggested that instead of me and the master we send out one of his development guys. This is music to my ears. Since I began the phone calls last week I was thinking that one of their guys should be out there trying to get their questionable code working...in addition to realizing how not ready it is. Now instead of me paying the price it looks like they will.
We will see what happens tomorrow. If he somehow cannot go then I guess I will be back on the hook and not saved.
Wish me luck. ¶ 20:51 1 comments
It would have been much nicer had the job gone a lot better. First, the parts that were supposed to be on-site the Friday before were not there on Monday (they would eventually show up on Wednesday). Second, the special code that development was to write for me was not complete on Monday when I got there. Third, because the parts were not there we could not apply power to the system so we really could not do any serious work. Tuesday afternoon, I got some of my "spare" parts that allowed me to apply power. Then I realized how not ready the code from development was. I spent nearly 400 minutes on the phone over the next three days getting the code to a place where I could leave.
So what happened today. I got a call at 2pm saying that everything was no longer working and that they could not get it going again. So As you can imagine after spending that much time on the phone I was not really confident that when I got back out there I would be able to make it any better. I suggested that the "master" developer go with me. Instead, his manager suggested that instead of me and the master we send out one of his development guys. This is music to my ears. Since I began the phone calls last week I was thinking that one of their guys should be out there trying to get their questionable code working...in addition to realizing how not ready it is. Now instead of me paying the price it looks like they will.
We will see what happens tomorrow. If he somehow cannot go then I guess I will be back on the hook and not saved.
Wish me luck. ¶ 20:51 1 comments
04 August 2006
Here Comes Baby Baker
In case most of the Blog-tet missed the link that I posted in the comment on the most recent hops post I thought that I should try again.
If you are grossed out by pregnant women do not click here.
Kate's Pregnancy: Here comes baby Baker. ¶ 07:44 3 comments
If you are grossed out by pregnant women do not click here.
Kate's Pregnancy: Here comes baby Baker. ¶ 07:44 3 comments
02 August 2006
Synch-o-pation
Kate and I just switched mobile phone carriers. We had absolutely no problems with T-mobile and actually did not want to leave. In June I was in CA and we had an overage on our shared minutes. When we signed up we got 400 anytime minutes. It was always more than enough but now that I am having to make more phone calls back to the office while doing these projects with our new product line we have been getting closer to the limit.
Through work I have the opportunity to take advantage of employee discounts through Verizon Wireless. This would give us 300 more minutes per month for $10 more per month. In addition we are able to waive one activation fee and have a reduced one on the second line. Finally, we could get the swell new Razr phones. The biggest advantage though is that nearly everyone at work is also with Verizon so that would mean that we are all IN and therefore there would be no charges for calls I make to other guys at work.
So we did it. We got the Razrs. One thing that I was really looking forward to was that the phones are Bluetooth enabled and my new iMac is also. I figured that instead of punching in the contacts thru my phone I could get them through the Address Book on the Mac. The only issue is that all of my contact info was currently up to date only on gmail. So I had to export it out of gmail, fiddle with the data in a text editor, and then import it into Address Book. This worked fine except that some of the fields did not come into the right spot....work email, was home email and other such things.
After this I made sure that the Bluetooth was on the Mac was turned on. Then I turned on the Bluetooth on the phone. It was detected by the Mac, gave the pass key that the phone was looking for, and then proceeded to put all of the contacts on the Mac into the phone. Just like that. It just worked.
So I continue to be exceedingly happy with the Mac and so far the phone and Verizon are pretty good too. ¶ 18:29 5 comments
Through work I have the opportunity to take advantage of employee discounts through Verizon Wireless. This would give us 300 more minutes per month for $10 more per month. In addition we are able to waive one activation fee and have a reduced one on the second line. Finally, we could get the swell new Razr phones. The biggest advantage though is that nearly everyone at work is also with Verizon so that would mean that we are all IN and therefore there would be no charges for calls I make to other guys at work.
So we did it. We got the Razrs. One thing that I was really looking forward to was that the phones are Bluetooth enabled and my new iMac is also. I figured that instead of punching in the contacts thru my phone I could get them through the Address Book on the Mac. The only issue is that all of my contact info was currently up to date only on gmail. So I had to export it out of gmail, fiddle with the data in a text editor, and then import it into Address Book. This worked fine except that some of the fields did not come into the right spot....work email, was home email and other such things.
After this I made sure that the Bluetooth was on the Mac was turned on. Then I turned on the Bluetooth on the phone. It was detected by the Mac, gave the pass key that the phone was looking for, and then proceeded to put all of the contacts on the Mac into the phone. Just like that. It just worked.
So I continue to be exceedingly happy with the Mac and so far the phone and Verizon are pretty good too. ¶ 18:29 5 comments
