cafe plaid
I am sitting here at cafe plaid, the coolest spot next to campus. I think I fit right in.
I just got done rewriting an abstract for a conference in February in California. My writing skills are not exemplary, as you all know. so it takes me a while of reading and rereading. I have noticed that I am a more aggressive typer when I have some cafe plaid coffee in me (faster more mistakes).
My professor came back today from his 2 month vacation in hawaii and the west coast(nice career choice). I asked if he had decided on any career changes. (hawaii can do that to a person) and he said that he and his wife looked at houses on the island of kuai. I don't think that he is headed there very soon, but I would not be surprised if he retires there soon after I am gone, which explains the deep desire for me to get done.
I am officially on vacation although I had a lot of loose ends to get done, like the abstract. I also have yet another appointment with the dentist tomorrow, yep another cavity. I think this one is from too many sunflower seeds. I will ask if she can put some sort of sunflower seed shield in the one spot. The lady on the phone asked what type of pain, I dismissed this question knowing full well what a cavity feels like. She didn't know she was dealing with an expert.
Zeke and I are proud owners of some nerf dart guns and 36 nerf darts. We have been shooting each other constantly for the last few days. We had to make a rule today "no shooting mommy" because Zeke grazed her along the cheek. One bad shot ruins it for all of us. Judah on the other hand has yet to get hit, he seems to dodge them well maybe cause he rushes whoever has a gun and starts chewing on the darts. We might bring them to Wisconsin to shoot my brothers but I am afraid they will find there way in the car and I will be driving and getting pelted my darts. We also take target practice and have set a target on dusty to facilitate moving target practice, this was an especially good idea since I am vacuuming the floor at the same time.
today is Finals day
I am standing here watching my class suffer while they take their final, I will look for cheating of course. If that happens then it will happen toward the end of class when people are desperate. I have not had to deal with that yet. The final is pretty hard, I took it and actually couldn't do one of the problems that I had on there. No I didn't give them that problem I switched it my hypocrisy has some bounds. I should walk around and say hmmmm or hmm mm or uh ohhh.
Angie and the boys are coming home tonight, I am looking forward to that. I really miss them, single life is fun for a little while but becomes old really fast when you are used to living such a deep life with kids ... albeit chaotic. We will rest this weekend and play play play then next week I have to meet with my boss and finish up an abstract for a conference he wanted me to try out for. We will see if that happens, I really need to publish some papers if I will ever have a job at a larger college.
Matt and I went to Tim's last night and set on the back porch talking, Tim is leaving on Sunday for a real paying job. God's speed Tim..... sucker!
Trail rated.
Dr Wang just left, he is the Chinese visiting Dr in MEchanical Engineering that I am helping in English. Today he read to me from the Jeep Commander sales brochure that I picked up the other day at the dealership. Interesting experience.
Angie and the boys are still in Branson, I get a call from them everynight and I talk to Zeke before he goes to bed. He tells me all about his day and usually he throws in a lot of sound effects with it. I really miss them and I am looking forward to taking off a couple of weeks in August to spend with them. Zeke likes to talk about the hotel that they are staying in, we have theorized that a machine comes in everyday and cleans and makes the beds for them. we agree we need one of those at home.
Monday my prof comes home after two months of travel and we are to have a "chat". not sure what that means, not sure if he has decided to go some other direction with his career or not. Anymore I don't care as much what he thinks of me, I guess that is progress.
Today is review day for the final that is tomorrow in the class that I am teaching, I am thinking about doing the Dave Mitchel (preacher from wichita) thing and throwing out candy for the right answers to my review questions, if nothing else it will give me a chance to throw things at a few of the students. So it is therapeutic for everyone. I still have to write the test but shouldn't take too long, it will be hard for them but I think they will do fine, most will anyway.
All alone again.
Angie and the kids are in Branson with my sister. I think Angie is going to need some time alone after that trip for sure. You know that it is bad when your wife calls to ask that you pray for her and you hear kids screaming in the background. On the way they ran into some rain and had to pull over, Zeke melted and was scared. I wonder if my sister has regretted asking them to come along yet. I talked to Zeke last night and he really liked the fireworks they had and the rides he had been on already. I couldn't understand all of it but there were several exploding sounds that he made.
Matt and I went over to Oner's house last night to watch "the shooter" pretty good movie, pretty clean other than violence.
I took the Jeep in this morning to get the front end looked at and several other things, I am expecting a pretty big bill. I did happen to pick up some brochures of the new jeeps out, really cool. I didn't stand around long cause you know how the salesmen smell people like me and hone in.
Zeke "God bless slushies"
buhler...buhler....
So Angie spent the day at work with me, and even went to class with me. Show commented on how lifeless my students are and how they just sit there with looks of painful boredom etched into there faces. I don't know what to do different, maybe yell at the top of my lungs every 20 seconds or so. I don't think that the boredom thing is all my fault since they showed no signs of life during the silo video either and we all know how exciting that is.
The summer class is almost over with the Final being next Friday. I will write the final next week and I plan on it being a hard test for them.
I passed a Chinese guy riding the other night and I hear him say
"ohhh soo strong" I laughed and thought that I had better get to know such a wise individual. His name is Ai Fa, I translate his name as "loves umbrellas" but probably it means something else since my Chinese is not that great. I told him that I live in 114-C and he says "oh this world is so small I also live in 114" turns out this guy is my new neighbor living upstairs and across the breezeway. He has a daughter that is 2 years old, we met her last night. There are alos other neighbors upstairs that are not as friendly, we will wear them down though.
Angie will head back to Kansas thursday night and then back on Friday. I will see them over the weekend then they will head back out on Monday to go to Branson with my sister Kathy. I hope that that is not a bad week for them all.
long time no blog
Sorry I have not been a real good blogger lately. Here are some pictures to make up for it. The tree that fell down is from the storm we had not long ago and the bike tire in the water is a part of my daily experience coming home from work. I had to ride in shorts today and change when I got to work.
There is also a picture of the FT sensor that I am working on, I have constructed a calibration table for it and have taken lots of data, so scientific of me. I need to make a 6 channel amp for it and then hit my boss up for 3500$ for a interface board for the computer. We shall see if that happens.
Teaching is going alright, if I can get my class to show up that is. There will be some who don't move on after this class. I have begged them to come to my office, I am even having a help session everyday after class for them. One guy came yesterday to it. I can't make them work I guess. My professor says that the world might be better off not having them as engineers. Today I will give them the evaluation for me, we shall see if it is therapeutic for them or not.
The boys will be staying with Grammy this coming week while Angie and I relax and enjoy life without kids. We are planning on going to the coffee store every night and watching a lot of stargate season 9.
We pretty much ran the tread off of dusty, actually her tread did fall off and I had to order new ones. I had to use the normal vacuum last night and it was a pain in the dirt bag. That little piece of sucking techno goodness has spoiled us and we miss her. Got to get her back in the family and back to work!
Looks like flying to Wisconsin is out so we will be driving, I don't really want to drive our gas eating Jeep there so we are thinking about renting a small car and driving full tilt with the movies playing for Zeke and benadryl for Judah (I am kidding). Maybe we will just turn the radio up when he starts crying.
The sticks are a the stick forest that Zeke and I made as a protest to taking our sandbox. I call it stick henge.
well gotta go.
what is that bright thing in the sky
Well it has been sunny the last few days, there are still several puddles and some really nasty large black skeeters but the rainy season is over for a while at least. Judah just had his 1st birthday (2 parties so far, one to go), he and Zeke are doing well. Both are talking alot and making a lot of noise. Yesterday Zeke and Judah crashed down pillow walls that I made, Zeke would run into them and then Judah would follow crawling.
We are trying to figure out how to get to Wisconsin for our family reunion. Planes trains or Jeeps. We don't really want to drive with the two kids. We are considering the plane idea but we have to get a ride from Madison.
Kids have not been sleeping well at all, we are wearing down.
It rained again tonight, really blew. Several trees had large limbs blown down, pretty cool. if it is going to rain why not blow down some limbs along the way.
first exam
I held my first exam in Statics last friday, I like giving exams except for the people who attempt to come garner answers from me in a desperate effort at understanding. The average was 71% which is not bad, but there are several who are failing my course, today I begged them to come in for help which is something they will not get from a professor. I know that many will not come in for help, nor ask questions in class. I can't make them, I should get their parents email address and hold a parent teacher conference. Maybe that will help. The troubled youth of today.
