Flyover Blog

Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches I've once again paused to give thanks. I'm thankful that I have family, someone to make my life fuller, good health and an easy job that lets me live a secure life. I apologize for those people, things, concepts and any gods I have left off that short list.

I had an enjoyable weekend. Kenzie spent the night with her Uncle Paul last Friday night, so when the cat is gone the mice will play :) Annette and I went out on a date. Instead of the normal dinner and movie we do it in reverse, we catch the movie first then have dinner. This tradition started when Annette kept falling asleep during the movie. Actually it works out well since we have an easier time getting a good seat at the earlier show and by the time we get to the resturaunt the rush is over and we usually have no problem finding a table. We decided on seeing an independent film since the last one we saw wasn't too bad. We settled on a movie called The Squid and the Whale. It stars Jeff Daniels (who I like), the preview looked good and the reviews were favorable. Look up the word “stinker“ in the dictionary and you'll see this movie. Very poor storyline, weak characters and overall a disgusting film. I think the person who wrote this trash was a pedifile. So it will take some time to get Annette to follow my lead with independent films again :)

Saturday we drove out to Uncle Paul's new house way out in Troy Mo. It's about an hour drive in which the last leg of the journey was through some of Missouri's finest parade of hooshier front yard refuse. In Missouri we call rednecks by an equalling denigrating term, hooshier. No, they aint from Indiana. So Paul is Annette's sister, Sheila's ex-husband. He is Kenzie's godfather so he stays in the family. He's a real good guy and has remarried and in the process of making many babies with his new wife, Marcy. They had a birthday party for their first child. It was like a kindergarten classroom there with all the relatives and their kids. Ankle biters all over. Kenzie had a blast. I found a couple of older boys and went out in the back and tossed the football with them until it was time to blow out the candles. Annette really enjoyed the party since there were so many relatives, something she wished she had in her family. Marcy said she really enjoyed spending time with Kenzie. She said she was like a little pal, helping out around the house getting ready for the party, giving her ideas, fixing each other's hair. She told Annette she really hopes her daughter(s) grow up to be like Kenzie, she can't wait. High compliment :)

Saturday night we decided to go shopping for Thanksgiving since Annette hosts it every year. She grabbed her long list and we headed up to the cheap grocery store. Kenzie like most kids never dresses for cold weather and was freezing by the time we got to the store. We tell her over and over you have to dress warm. Falls on deaf ears since she doesn't want to bother with putting on all of those clothes, uncomfortable I guess. So instead of enabling this behaviour I told her no she doesn't get to wear my coat. So I was pushing the cart as Annette picked goodies off the shelves when up comes Kenzie between the cart and me and tries to wrap my coat around her. Too cute. So I had her hop up on the cart's back axle and I would try to warm her up as I pushed the cart around. Well it turned into let's drive the cart together and act crazy.

On Sunday's Kenzie has been taking Irish dance lessons. It's the kind of dancing that you see in stage shows, like Riverdance. Kenzie has a natural talent for formal dancing so she's doing very well. We found out that her class is going to be in the annual St.Patrick's day parade downtown this year. She's excited about it as expected. Ah the little Celtic star.

Gene (Annette's mom's husband) delivered a truckload of wood for us. Got caught up on their life. Gene shot a big buck deer (8 pointer). He gives the meat to his church. Kind of like fishing, I love to fish but I don't care to eat them. Catch and release, it's catching -- popular Missouri bumper sticker. So we are loaded up with wood, plenty of fireplace warmth for Kenzie in her shorts this winter.

Annette's latest master plan is to build a second story on to her house. She's made a drawing of where she is going to put each of the rooms. It's a really cool idea but with a few snags. One is she is running her business from her house now and would not be able to take construction noise. Manicures and massages require silence. The second snag is well money, that's an expensive project. I don't want to be the wet rag so I'm trying to balance it out with my own enthusiasm. We'll see, more to come I'm sure.

Monday started the beginning of the 3 day work week. I got a new cubemate with more planned next week. Ah the noise has returned. Didn't last long. My friend Chris has started back to work after a 4 year sabbatical. I'm glad for him, he's overdue to start making money again. But to be honest I miss him being at home emailing me all day long while I work. It was a great way to take a break from work. He's a very intelligent person with genius qualities so the exchange was always way more interesting than work :)

Keeping the dog in

This weekend Annette and I updated her fence in her backyard. It's one of those wood slat fences but has a few inches below the boards where little dogs and cats can shimmy under and wander out in the busy street that runs in front of Annette's house. We bought some chicken wire and cut it to width and stuck it under the fence. I had to rebuild the gate since it had essentially fallen apart due to rot. It all looks good, although we have yet to test it out. Dixie the cat is the one that knows the fence best and if there's a way, she'll be the one to find it. Wily indeed.

Saturday night I met up with some friends from college at bar downtown in the Soulard area. Soulard is a cool district that has been going through a big rehab for several years. It surrounds the Anheuser-Busch plant and headquarters. Anyway one of the “saloons” had a blues guitarist “on tap” for the evening's entertainment. Fantastic musician. He ran the gamut from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Jimi Hendrix. I think I figured out the magic of a blues guitarist. He doesn't need to sing with his voice, he makes the guitar do the singing. Interesting crowd though, only about 50 people. Mix of grey hairs who were there when Hendrix wrote the songs and a group of young kids who think they “know the blues“. One young girl there got so drunk that she decided to dance for the guitarist that reminded me of somebody trying to limbo. Well as expected she fell on her ass which got a laugh from everyone. I finally had to leave after the second set. The cigarette smoke was killing me. I wonder why bars just don't include a giant bong with multiple receptacles that everyone can hook up a hose to and suck off of. The would be no ashtrays, no cigarette taxes and well it would add a communal feel to the night. I think smoking would be less stressful too since smokers count how many cigarettes they smoke. This way it would be just like one long cigarette.

I talked to my mom and found out she needs to have her gall bladder removed. She's been having some medical issues lately that the doctor has been trying to figure out. She's kind of worried as expected, anathesia, surgeory just aren't something you care to deal with at her age. It's not fair that this is how we round out our lives, our body just falls apart. Mom was telling me she doesn't like to shower that much since it dries her skin out so much. Getting old even zaps your skin's vitality. She said it seems like as soon as she fixes one thing, another health problem comes at her. Kind of like an old car, fix the radiator and then the oil pump goes out next week.

I saw a good movie with Annette on Friday, it was called Shopgirl. It stars Steve Martin who also wrote the novel the movie is based on. I've taken quite a liking to Steve Martin novels lately. I picked up a few of his books in audio book format recently and really got into his writing style. Somebody on amazon.com said he has a Zen way of telling a story. I'm not sure what that means but it fits for some reason. The stories aren't amazing but they are told in a slow amusing way. Kind of like taking a hot bath, it's slow and calming and you never want to get out. I watched part of a show on pbs that presented Steve Martin the Mark Twain award for humor. They showed a lot of clips from his arrow through the head beginnings, SNL days and all the way up to his recent movies. I have to say, I really don't appreciate his humor, he never really made me laugh that much. I did like him in the Jerk though. The scene with him working at the gas station and the sniper trying to shoot him but keeps hitting the oil cans. Steve is amazed and says “wow, come look at these oil cans, they're sprouting oil!“. Really funny. Anyway Steve Martin got on stage finally to accept the award and said he has one quote from Mark Twain he really liked -- “When I die, please don't name an award after me“. Typical Mark Twain :)

Puppy dog

Annette and Kenzie have been looking for a new dog ever since they put down their 14 year old dog earlier in the summer. He was a cross between a doberman and a greyhound, very good hearted dog. This weekend Annette found a website that is kind of like the ebay for pets. One of the shelters had a litter of white puppies that looked like a match for them. So we found out the shelter was going to be at an area Petsmart so we decided to try our luck and drive there and see if the puppies would be there. It was a nice day for a drive anyway. Kenzie could hardly contain herself, although we told her not to be disappointed if we came back empty handed. When we arrived the white puppies were not there but Kenzie zeroed in on a little Yorkshire Terrier. Well the rest is history and we bought him. The shelter that sold him was apart of the Flawed Dogs network of shelters. They take in breeds that are not “show worthy”. This puppy was too big for show. Sort of a scratch and dent dog. He's a real cute puppy, playful, affectionate, everything you want from a puppy. Plus he'll stay small unlike the last beast they had. Kenzie came up with Jake as his name, we agreed it fit him. We brought him home and my cat Dixie took an immediate dislike for him. She's was thinking, well damn the last one finally died off and now you bring home another one! Tommorow he's off to be neutered and we'll get him back on Friday. I've got Friday off from work (Veteran's Day) so I'll go pick him up. Maybe I'll talk to him about sports and tell him some boob jokes, let him know he's still a guy. At that time I'll get a couple of pictures of him and share them with you here.

Fall colors

Every year around this time I take a drive with my mom out on a backroad highway that runs through the Missouri wine country and then down to Rolla, my alma mater, to visit. Takes about a day to drive it all but it's a good way to spend a day with my mom and to take in the fall colors. We did this a couple of weekends ago but looking at the colors this weekend, I think we should have waited. Gorgeous. Still enjoyed the trip a lot. I find myself asking her a lot of questions about my past that I didn't understand as a youth. Like do you remember dad's friend so and so, what was the deal with him and that German wife he had? Or remember when your friend Rosie use to come visit and would always bring a case of beer and big ol stuffed animal for Jennifer (my sister) and me? Brought back a lot of memories and help fill in some missing gaps I had. I really had a good childhood.

This weekend I'm doing some work on Annette's house. Rewiring some switches, fixing a bedroom door and cleaning out her basement. She hired a contractor over the summer to build a salon in the front part of her house so she could work from her home. The guy left the basement a mess. He was a jackass. Bunch of lumber I just cut up and will use as starter wood for the fireplace this year. I was full of sweat and dust afterwards. The followup shower was wonderful. There's nothing like a hot shower after a messy job like that. If civilization fell apart today, apart from easy access to food, shelter, clothing and medicine, I'd really miss hot showers. Glorious. I often wonder about the people of the middle ages who rarely bathed in their lifetimes. No wonder they were so depressed, they never experienced a hot shower. 

Annette and Kenzie are babysitting two little ones tonite. Kenzie loves little kids and is having a great time. I remember Zach who was my stepson from my last marriage, loved little kids too, was so good with them. Like Zach, Kenzie has a certain level of empathy I admire. I can't stand babies, whiny lumps, I just don't get the joy of babies. When they hit 3 years old is when I get interested. One of the little ones tonite is a 2 year old boy. His dad will sit him on his knee and say what does Freddy the Fish say? He responds with his predetermine response. This goes on for awhile. Annette and I call it the “puppet show”. Kind of creepy.

Tommorow we will probably go bike riding. Last weekend we went to Queeny Park which is close by. Excellent ride, up and down steep hills that were not paved. Great for our mountain bikes. Annette and Kenzie didn't like it since it was too hard. So I guess we'll go back to Creve Couer park and ride the boring flat paved roads. It was kind of cool at Queeny Park. After we pushed our bikes up this really steep hill we were looking at the map and trying to decide which way to go left or right. Out of nowhere these 3 guys on mountain bikes, helmets and biking outfits came flying down the path and down that steep hill we just climbed up. Whoosh. Geez that looked like fun, to have the ability and confidence to fly down those hills without wiping out. Sort of reminded me of skiing in a way.

I spend the weekends with Annette and Kenzie. I usually keep my cat Dixie over here but Annette gets an allergic reaction to her so I usually have to bring her back home. Last Thursday when I was watching Kenzie, we shampooed Dixie real well. Suppose to help get rid of her dander that's responsible for the allergies. Dixie hated it but behaved well. She smelled good afterwards and I get the feeling she kind of liked it. Silly cat. The babies love her, they keep following her around. Dixie is good, she'll stop to sniff them and let them touch her, then she reverts to her feline nature and finds a high place to observe the small humans.

Hanging out with P

I started the evening by cancelling tommorow's job interview. I looked at their website and was disappointed. It just didn't inspire me, I've got the luxury to be picky. Plus the headhunter told me they work 55-60 hour weeks normally. I'm just not into working all those hours anymore, especially if I'd be salary. They claim to have profit sharing which would be 18% of your salary this year, but that isn't guaranteed. It just seems to me that a company that accepts a 55 hour week is taking advantage of people. If I'm gonna be working that kind of week, I'm gonna be self-employed.

I called Ron, my friend who works at my old company, Epic. Apparently they promoted him to manager of one of their departments. I told him about my decision to find a job that will inspire me and he is looking for a good IT guy now that he's heading up the department. I considered working for Epic a year ago but turned it down since there was a ton of travelled involved. Call me picky again but travelling is as bad as working 60 hour weeks. So it's something to consider again, Ron seemed real excited about the opportunities at Epic now that he has more control.

Tonite, as with every Thursday I watch my girlfriend's (I'll call her Annette, because that's her real name) 9 year old daughter Kenzie. Annette takes night classes, pursuing a business degree at a community college. So it's my opportunity to hang with Kenzie, or as I call her, little pea or just P. We had to pick up a birthday present for a party she's invited to tomorrow (no school tomorrow). I like being with her, she's such a happy kid, it's hard not to get caught up in her energy. I was holding her hand crossing the parking lot and she was skipping along singing some cheerleader song she learned at school. Sometimes when she's in the car with me and it's quiet I'll ask her to sing a song, which she loves to do. What a nice age she's at, on the verge of the teens and old enough to have some adult qualities yet still has the breeziness of a child. She brought home her school pictures tonite, so I got to update my wallet portfolio of her. I keep putting the old pictures behind the most recent picture so I pulled them all out tonite. I was amazed at how much she has grown in the last 4 years. She's losing the baby fat in her face and is starting to get sculpted features. Somebody once said you gotta enjoy kids at whatever age they are because she's only 9 once. Aint dat da truth. So she's really not a little pea anymore, but just the P. She says when she gets her first car she wants her license plate to say LIL PEA. Ha!

New job

I've decided to start looking for another job. I don't hate my current job, it's a pleasant place to work, top notch people to work with, leading edge tech (dotNet, C#) and plenty to do. However it's not fulfilling in the sense that it doesn't really matter if this software gets written or not. Little side note, I work for a large company who has an entertainment division that runs theme parks across the country. I write a lot of software to take reservations for park events, an accounting rules engine that figures out what accounts the money ends up and any other little projects that keep a park running. So really, what's the point of it all other than to increase profit margins. People are still gonna come to these parks regardless, it's just how much more money can they make from them. This is the meaningless for me personally. I want to work somewhere that has tangible effects on people's lives. Such as a hospital or research. True I'd still be there to make sure the place makes higher profits but I'd feel that the software I write would have made somebody's life for the better. I've even thought about getting more into hands on type of work, such as programming devices, similar to my past engineering days.

So I decided to get my feet wet with an interview, which I have on Friday morning. The job sounds much like I'm doing now, it's a company that writes software for the “paperless office”. Booooring right? But the point is to get my brain geared up to be able to sell myself to a company. The interesting thing about this company is they had me take an online personality and aptitude test. I'm already bored by them and I haven't even been hired yet! Haha. The employee search company that contacted me had me take an online exam also but it was geared towards testing my software knowledge. The test was impossible, I'm lucky if I got 25% of it right. I kind of blew it off since so many of the questions were things that were to me not pertitent to being a good programmer. If they really think the scores reflect my ability then I really don't want to be associated with them.

Onwards.

A day in the life of Craig