Trip to the Dr. for T.S.

T.S. had to go in for a bit of maintenance this week. There is a heat shield recall that is applicable to that model, so I took him in to get all fixed up. Also, the last time I took him in (June), I asked them to check out a couple of things and possibly adjust the idle. It seemed to be idling very low after riding and then stopping for traffic lights. Then, when it was time to take off, the throttle would kind of hesitate and "stumble". I really had to give it the gas to keep it from killing. They supposedly adjusted the idle in June, but it's still having the same problem. So when I took it in this time, I left it running (barely) and then hijacked a mechanic on his way back from a donut run. He wasn't thrilled, but he agreed that it was idling low and he's the one who used the phrase "stumble". He said the throttle cables seemed loose, as well. So I told all that to the guy who checked me in, and hopefully they'll get it right this time.

If not - anybody interested in purchasing a year old bike???? Well, I have a few other options. A guy at work who owns a couple of motorcycles, and works on his, told me to ride it to work and he'd check it out for me. Also, I have a few old friends from high school who are pretty mechanically inclined (hint, hint).

Say a prayer for T.S. - I know he's nervous being away from home.

Redemption for Some

Just want to congratulate David, and his Wolverines on the stomping they put on the Fighting Irish this weekend. And also to say that although LSU skunked Middle Tennessee Saturday night, that I am a bit disappointed with the 3 field goals. If you're #2 and playing a nobody in your own house, there is no reason to have to settle for 3 points.

The score should have been 56-0, at least. Shape up, Tigers. You're only #1 in the fan poll, and everyone knows how crooked elections are down here. USC jumped farther ahead, and Florida is creeping up from behind.

The Harder They Fall

This post isn't really a commentary on anything. It's just a way for me to get the picture below to my friend, David. Is David my "friend"? I guess so. Maybe I should say, "my former co-worker, David." Even that wouldn't be quite right. Maybe it should be "one of the hired project consultants on a project I worked on at a former job." Yeah, that sounds better.

Oh, wait. I did guilt him into sending my a Christmas card every year, beginning a few years back. And he and his wife (also one of the hired project consultants on a project I worked on at a former job - but now a full time state employee in that agency) have been to several Mardi Gras balls with us, where another friend (yes, really a friend this time) and I made him the meat in our bumping and grinding sandwich on the dancefloor. So, maybe he really does fall into the category of "friend" afterall.

Anyway, David is from Michigan, and is a 1,000,000% dedicated, diehard fan of the Wolverines. Their loss last year to Ohio State, which kept them out of the championship hunt, killed him, so you can imagine how he felt a few weeks ago! (And last week, too, for that matter.)

My mother's parents, on the other hand, are originally from a small town in North Carolina, called Lenoir, just a hop, skip and jump from Boone, NC - home to.....the fighting Mountaineers of Appalachian State University. As such, my mom has occassionally vacationed in the area. About 10 years ago when she was there, she brought me back a T-shirt. Said T-shirt was used as a sleeping garment for a good while, but has been hidden away at the bottom of my T-shirt drawer for quite a few years. But now it's been revived, and here it is, and me, in all of our glory:

I know I'm taking a big chance by posting this picture for him, what with LSU getting all of this hype this year. But I figure, what are the chances that he'll go out and buy a T-shirt at the Bama bookstore and post a picture somewhere, if they happen to beat us in November????

Sorry about your team, David. But there is always next year.



Quack, Quack. Go Blue!






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Here are the outtakes. I depended on Ray to take the picture this morning, and his skills with the camera are questionable, at best:

Too much background and belly

Nice blue shirt, huh?

Cut off my hair

I finally had to frame the shot for him

Scenes from Nevada

Well, it looks like I did take a few (very few) pictures during the trip, after all. I guess once we got to Sparks, I must have figured that there wasn't much worth preserving for the ages.

Sorry that the video is dark. This was the room we stayed in when we were in Vegas. The Venetian is an "all suites" hotel, and I have really wanted to stay there since we visited in November. One funny thing about the floor layout: when you get off the elevator and step out of the elevator lobby, you're in a circular room, with halls leading off in three directions. On the archway above the first hall it reads, "Suites 100 - 199". The second hall is labeled, "Suites 200 - 299". The third hall reads, "Ice Suites 300 - 399". We were in Suite 317, so this was our hall. When Beth checked in the following night, she got a room on our floor, but in a 200 suite. I was so curious to see how her room differed from ours, because she had just a regular suite, but I had an Ice Suite. When I got to her room, I couldn't tell any difference (other than her view was much better). It was puzzling. Then, later that night, when we were returning to the room to pick something up between dinner and the show, I voiced my puzzlement to her. In the instant that the words actually left my mouth, I realized that I was reading it wrong. It didn't say "Ice Suites". It said, "Ice Suites". Yep, my room WAS special. I was closer to the ice machine than she was. What a dope!

After arriving Wednesday, we "took a nap" from 4:00pm to 4:30am. When we woke up, we walked down the Strip for a healthy breakfast at Fat Burger. Deeelicious. We walked back up to Caesar's Palace, and then decided to walk downtown. On the way, we saw that it would probably take all day to walk there, so we decided to ride the enclosed double decker bus that runs up and down the Strip. It's called "The Deuce", and for $5.00 you have unlimited on and off privileges for 24 hours. We caught it going the wrong way, so by the time we reached downtown, we had traveled the entire Strip. It was actually pretty fun, but Ray and I did both escape into our books after about 30 minutes. Below are some pictures from the front seat on the top deck of The Deuce.

Friday, we drove over the Hoover Dam and into Arizona to the Grand Canyon (West). Below are some shots taken at Guano Point (so named for the bat guano that they used to mine). Some shots with people...

Some shots of scenery...including the Colorado River, the drop off the side of the trail (pictures don't do this one justice), Guano Point, and the top half of my head in front of the Canyon.

Saturday, we got up and drove from Vegas to Reno/Sparks. Beth had already warned me that it was a monotonous drive, with very few places to stop on the way. I still had no idea. Here are some pictures from the scenic drive.

This one below, to me, was the most scenic part of the trip (aw, how sweet!):

The only pictures I took once we reached our final destination were the three below. We decided to drive to Carson City, which is up the mountain from Reno. It was a nice drive, and the houses that people are building on the side of the mountain are really something to see. Some of them were amazing. About half way up, we got to this scenic overlook that looked like it used to be a place for camping. There were some old brick fire pits and what looked like old campsites. I don't mean old as in the 1890's. I mean old as in maybe the 1980's. There was also an outlook/alcove little thing that we climbed up to in order to take these pictures. If you're wondering why I have that look on my face, it's because I'm deathly afraid of sitting on either a used condom or hypodermic needle. Yes - it is used for things other than camping these days. The smell was like an elementary school bathroom, but the pictures were nice, with the valley and hills in the background.

That's all I got, folks! Hope you enjoyed it.

That's "NeVADa"

My friend (make that BEST friend) Beth, tells me that she has run into very few true "locals" since moving to Las Vegas last year. Almost everyone who lives in Vegas is from somewhere else. So those folks may not take the time to correct you in your pronunciation of their state's name.

However, on a recent trip to Reno (actually to Sparks, which is to Reno like Gretna is to New Orleans), we were fortunate to run into a few locals who love their state and will quickly set you straight on the pronunciation. It's not "Nevaaaada", but "NeVADa". They say the only people who pronounce it the first way are either "not from here", or are hoity toity. These gals were Sparks locals, so there was not a scent of hoity toity on them! But I don't blame them. It's annoying to hear someone say "New Orleeens" or even "N'awlins". What's wrong with just plain old "New Orlins?"

I was not too good about pulling out the camera on the trip, but fortunately Beth has written an extensive and humorous post on her blog, complete with a few pictures. Here's the link, if you're interested and haven't already read it.

http://thejackson4-lasvegas.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

Scroll down until you get to "Ray and Susan Visit" and then read all of the stories through the end of that page. We had a great time, and I miss her and her family, as usual.

I'll get the camera out and see if I have any pictures from Reno (I mean, Sparks), but I don't think I do. It was fairly uneventful. Ray and I didn't even go on the group outing for the Lake Tahoe cruise. The highlights (for me) were going to Long John Silvers (of course!), the Reno Harley Davidson shop, to Boston Market twice, and to In 'N Out Burger almost every day. Man, I wish we had a Boston Market and an In 'N Out Burger here. Yum!

Sorry if I took the easy way out on the Vegas trip, but Beth is so much more eloquent than I am. I didn't even remember half of the things she wrote about until I read her blog.

The Freaks Come Out

Even though I pretty much know the working or home life status of each of my 6 faithful readers, I'm going to pretend I don't. So, whether you work and have to attend continuing education courses; or if you teach adults in a work environment; or if you can think back to your time attending college classes...you'll get this post 100%.

Last week I was out of the office a lot. I had a 1/2 day class (taught by my stepmother, no less) on Tuesday, and then a 1.5 day class on "How to Conduct an Effective Interview". Both classes were actually very good, and I know I can use some of the things taught to help me in my job. In the Tuesday class, I was very curious about these reports that were being taught. And seeing as how Sylvia was the teacher, I was not at all reluctant to ask lots of questions - and re-questions when I needed her to follow up. At one point fairly early on, I realized that all of my questioning was probably getting on some people's nerves, so I decided to shut up and just listen. After all, I could just call Sylvia after the class and get her to clarify anything that was still unclear.

Then comes Thursday, and day one of the Interview class. I have come to realize that in every class, there is always as least one major freak. (Please note that I stopped myself in the Tuesday class so that I wouldn't become that freak.) So we're in this class of about 30 people, sitting at 6 different tables. Based on overhearing certain conversations prior to the class starting, I was already homing in on a freak or two. Then comes the introductions. "Tell everyone your name, where you work, how long you've been with the state, and what you expect to take away from this class." Blah! So we get to Table 2, and "The Soapbox" from the DMV introduces herself. She decides to stray a bit from the standard intro and tell the rest of us how hard they work at the DMV, how much they've had to do since Katrina, and how because of this, and the fact that they are so underpaid, that they can't keep anyone. Therefore, they are constantly interviewing. She finishes up with, "I mean think about it, people!" The room was silent. Well, not quite totally silent. You see, Freak #2, aka "The Parrot" was sitting back to back with me, and she's verbally agreeing with The Soapbox. It was like we were in a non-denominational church or something. "Yes, you're right. Uh huh. You know that's true." Oh, I knew this was going to be a long day and 1/2.

So, the class is trudging along (after the 30 minute fire drill in the blistering sun), and the Soapbox keeps doing her thing, and the Parrot keeps doing hers. Then we get to a video, which was cheesy, but amusing. So we have to discuss the video, and the teacher is fielding questions from the class, and the Parrot is answering them. It was DRIVING ME CRAZY! It wasn't that she was disagreeing with the teacher, but she was answering them as if they were being directed at her. At one point I was asking the instructor a question, and she paused for a minute to consider, and Parrot decides to answer. I just kind of ignored her, but she kept on. Finally, I said, "That's great, but I am REALLY interested in what SHE has to say on the matter." It shut her up for about 3 minutes. Later, someone asked about taping or recording interviews. The instructor said that you could do that, but she didn't really think that was a good idea. And, because you have to treat all interviewees the same, you have to get permission from all of them if you decide to proceed in this manner. So I (being the fascist that I am) said, "Well, couldn't you just tell them when you are scheduling the interview that it is the department's policy to video all interviews at that level? And if they weren't interested, they didn't have to interview at all." The instructor: "Well...." The Parrot: "Oh, no, you can't do that. They all have to agree. Otherwise you're violating their rights!" Me (pissed off): "Well, by that argument, then if they walk into the interview and see that there is a panel of 3 interviewing them, they could just decide that they want a one on one interview. You're allowing them to control the way you interview." The Parrot: "Blah, blah, blah, blah violation of privacy, blah, blah." Me: "Whatever. That's just ridiculous."

Don't think that The Soapbox was quiet this whole time. No, sporadically, she would pipe up with her opinion on things, both on and off topic. Her main sparring partner seemed to be an LSU cop who was taking the class. He was loud, but funny, and not offensive. However, she seemed to want to argue with him about everything. At one point, he was trying to pin down the instructor on what would be the best way to react when someone tells you some personal health problem they have (when you're not supposed to react at all). He kept asking, and The Soapbox kept answering him, and he finally said, "Look. I'm sure all of your encyclopedias have already been sold, so I'd really like to here HER opinion." I'm not really sure exactly what that meant, but I'm pretty sure it meant "Shut the f@*k up!" And she did - for about a minute.

So, all of this to just affirm that no matter how old you get or what kind of group dynamics environment you find yourself in, there is always a Freak in there, and sometimes, it just may be someone besides yourself!