Wednesday, September 17, 2008
volleyball
Yesterday I participated in my first volleyball game in the competitive league at work and had so much fun. Of course is helps when you are on a really good team. Two people are really great setters and make it easy for me to spike the ball. Two of the other people on the team are great at spiking and in general excellent players. Most points I just enjoy watching them make great shots. It is more fun for me than playing basketball or football as it is not a contact sport! It seems like I get injured when colliding with others is involved, so this is a safe sport for me that can enjoy and get exercise. Of course today I have to return to running as I cannot give that up and on Sundays I have to play cricket.
internet connection
So my next to oldest son calls last night and wants me to help him find a way to get internet in his apartment. The first task at hand was finding any place close to him where he could get free internet access. He tried Starbucks since they are every where in that part of the land, but they only provide it if you buy something. That is also a mini story as he tried to buy something and his debit card was rejected, but more on that later. Since we have wonderful internet access, I quickly used Google Chrome to search for "wireless hotspots emeryville ca" and 3rd link had exactly what I was looking for wi-fihotspotlist.com. It showed that a Borders bookstore was right around the corner from his apartment and they had free wifi. He mentioned that a couple of people used ComCast in their apartments, so I went to their web site which he went off to Borders. The ComCast web site looks nice and clean and I quickly found the selections available. All was well until I hit the last step, except it was odd that I was never asked for a credit card or any form of payment. I was put into an on-line chat program for the final step. It did not work as I needed a new version of Java to support the chat plug-in on Vista. The download itself took several minutes and then I had to refresh the browser twice and finally I saw I was next in line for a chat person to talk to me. Once she arrived at the chat window she asked me to re-confirm what I entered and the last 4 digits of social security number to verify something or the other. Then the selections I had made we for existing customers, so everything changed when she found out this was a brand new service. Pretty good prices as just for internet access was $25 initial fee and then $25 a month for the first 6 months, for service that is slightly faster than Time Warner, which is what we use here. At the last step she gives me the account number and order number. I try to copy-n-paste it from the chat window but it does not support any type of selections. I asked her to email it to me and she said she was not allowed. So I wrote down the information and then emailed it to my son. The whole process started off nicely, but was a bit rough at the end. At least no up-front payment and no payment at install time, so that was a nice bonus.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
busy weekend
Friday when I got home from work, my wife started mowing the yard. This means that I have to finish since it takes too long for her to complete the whole yard. No problem as I think of mowing as walking exercise.
Most of the remaining weekend was spent cleaning the garage and fixing stuff around the house. My day started off removing the downstairs toilet as one of my next to oldest son's friend's dropped his cell phone into the toilet and flushed the toilet thinking the phone would remain in the bowl. All his friends had fun trying to get the phone out by using a clothes hanger and finally after a couple of hours gave up. I was neglecting it hoping it would fix itself, which never happened. I removed the toilet and went to Home Depot to get a new one. Once I got home and took it out of the box, I saw the toilet was cracked, so I returned to Home Depot. Not a good start to my Saturday morning I must say. I got the next better model for $99 and with a little effort had the new one working. While feeling handy, I started working on the downstairs bathroom as the ceiling looked pretty bad. This is a mini story in itself as last year one of the kids broke the upstairs toilet by accident and the water leaked downstairs through the ceiling. I did not complete the ceiling repairs as I should have, so I spackled the ceiling and then repainted it.
The next task was to help my youngest son as he is switching rooms. He decided to paint the walls VaTech orange and maroon colors with two walls maroon and the other two orange. The clothes dresser, which used to be in the room, covered up my handy work, where I ran a TV cable from the adjoining room and left a hole in the wall. I had to repair that hole with drywall and spackling and then repaint it. For once I left the painting to other members in the family. Just as I finished my handy man tasks, I had to quickly clean up and be preentable.
It was time to attend a very good friend's graduation ceremony at the Dean Smith Center at UNC (my affectionately known as the Dean Dome). I remember watching so many Tar Heel basketball games when I was a kid, but have only once been on the UNC campus. To actually be inside the Dean Dome was like holy ground for a UNC graduate. They had photos of every UNC basketball team since the late 1970's in the area where you walk inside the dome. Inside the dome itself there were tons of jersey's hanging from the rafters as well as conference titles and championships.
Today I took some rest and walked with my wife and then took off to play cricket with some Indian friends. Last season I practiced my batting skills, but this year I am practicing my bowling skills. I had fun today as I really bowled well. Once I got home I had to finish working on the downstairs bathroom and take some stuff to the local thrift store in order the finish the garage cleaning ceremony. After so much activity I had to take the Sunday afternoon ritual nap to round out an active weekend.
Most of the remaining weekend was spent cleaning the garage and fixing stuff around the house. My day started off removing the downstairs toilet as one of my next to oldest son's friend's dropped his cell phone into the toilet and flushed the toilet thinking the phone would remain in the bowl. All his friends had fun trying to get the phone out by using a clothes hanger and finally after a couple of hours gave up. I was neglecting it hoping it would fix itself, which never happened. I removed the toilet and went to Home Depot to get a new one. Once I got home and took it out of the box, I saw the toilet was cracked, so I returned to Home Depot. Not a good start to my Saturday morning I must say. I got the next better model for $99 and with a little effort had the new one working. While feeling handy, I started working on the downstairs bathroom as the ceiling looked pretty bad. This is a mini story in itself as last year one of the kids broke the upstairs toilet by accident and the water leaked downstairs through the ceiling. I did not complete the ceiling repairs as I should have, so I spackled the ceiling and then repainted it.
The next task was to help my youngest son as he is switching rooms. He decided to paint the walls VaTech orange and maroon colors with two walls maroon and the other two orange. The clothes dresser, which used to be in the room, covered up my handy work, where I ran a TV cable from the adjoining room and left a hole in the wall. I had to repair that hole with drywall and spackling and then repaint it. For once I left the painting to other members in the family. Just as I finished my handy man tasks, I had to quickly clean up and be preentable.
It was time to attend a very good friend's graduation ceremony at the Dean Smith Center at UNC (my affectionately known as the Dean Dome). I remember watching so many Tar Heel basketball games when I was a kid, but have only once been on the UNC campus. To actually be inside the Dean Dome was like holy ground for a UNC graduate. They had photos of every UNC basketball team since the late 1970's in the area where you walk inside the dome. Inside the dome itself there were tons of jersey's hanging from the rafters as well as conference titles and championships.
Today I took some rest and walked with my wife and then took off to play cricket with some Indian friends. Last season I practiced my batting skills, but this year I am practicing my bowling skills. I had fun today as I really bowled well. Once I got home I had to finish working on the downstairs bathroom and take some stuff to the local thrift store in order the finish the garage cleaning ceremony. After so much activity I had to take the Sunday afternoon ritual nap to round out an active weekend.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
road trip is over
Well, it is official, the next to oldest son's road trip is over. He arrived in Emeryville today after seeing the beach in Morro Bay and then traveling up Highway 1 for a while and then looking all around San Francisco. Tomorrow he has his orientation at school and moves into his apartment.
Even though I was all the way across the USA, my day was pretty exciting in a bad way. My car has not been starting very well since Saturday and then today as I was leaving work my car would not start. Fortunately the person who was car pooling with me knew the number to call for our company's security desk. He showed up within a couple of minutes as he was just driving our way when he was paged. He jumped my car even though it was raining lightly. Instead of going home I stopped by my favorite mechanic. It turns out that my car had a good battery but the starter died. After a two hour wait, I finally made it home. Not exactly what I needed was an extra expense with the road trip, but better this happen to me than my son on his road trip!
Even though I was all the way across the USA, my day was pretty exciting in a bad way. My car has not been starting very well since Saturday and then today as I was leaving work my car would not start. Fortunately the person who was car pooling with me knew the number to call for our company's security desk. He showed up within a couple of minutes as he was just driving our way when he was paged. He jumped my car even though it was raining lightly. Instead of going home I stopped by my favorite mechanic. It turns out that my car had a good battery but the starter died. After a two hour wait, I finally made it home. Not exactly what I needed was an extra expense with the road trip, but better this happen to me than my son on his road trip!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
road trip : almost there
I talked to our road warrior son this evening and he has made it to Bakersfield, CA. They decided not to go to Roswell on the southern route and instead stayed on I-40 on the northern route. They stopped in Albuquerque for the night and then got up late before setting off to see Meteor Crater which I thought was a bit of a tourist trap when we saw it several years back. They spent several hours at the Grand Canyon, which on the other hand is worth every minute you spend marveling over the beauty and majestic of it all. They spent the night in Williams, AZ which is where we spent the night the last time we visited the canyon as it right on I-40 as you exit the park. They were running out of time so did not see my mother in Tucson, but instead continued to California. They want to see the beach and the large redwoods before our son's best friend leaves by airplane to return home on Thursday morning. The great road trip is coming to a close already...
Sunday, September 7, 2008
road trip plus family life
It is official, our next to oldest son has traveled half way across the USA. I talked to him this morning as he was at a rest stop in Amarillo, Texas. After stopping in Nashville, TN the first night and Fort Smith, Arkansas the second night, they now hope to reach Carlsbad, New Mexico this evening after passing through Roswell, NM. I convinced him to forget about the alien's tourist trap in Roswell and go Carlsbad Caves. Plus I told him to go to White Sands National Monument as these are places we have never visited as a family. Hopefully he will make the right decision. As I spoke to him on the phone while at the rest stop, he saw a road runner and was trying to get his friend to look at it. I think sights like these are helping him appreciate the life he has had as we have seen so many things as a family together. Once he arrives in Arizona, then the sight seeing will really begin as he is planning on seeing my mother in Tucson, then drive through Phoenix on the way to Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon.
While holding down the fort at home, my daughter helped me paint his old room in our house and it is looking very nice indeed. This morning I took a break and played cricket with a couple of friends. On the way back home I stopped by a lake near our home and ran around it for some more physical activity. I visited Home Depot to get ceiling paint to touch up the mistakes we made yesterday and when I got out to my car it would not start. I called home twice but no one answered the phone, so I made an executive decision and went back into Home Depot to get a socket set. I took out my battery and in a Home Depot cart I took the battery to Wal-Mart which is in the same shopping center. They tested the battery and said it was fine. When I got back to my car I took a cloth I had in my car and cleaned the battery terminals and my car started. When I got home I used my battery cleaning tool and finished the job the right way. Hopefully I will have no problems tomorrow morning to go to work.
While holding down the fort at home, my daughter helped me paint his old room in our house and it is looking very nice indeed. This morning I took a break and played cricket with a couple of friends. On the way back home I stopped by a lake near our home and ran around it for some more physical activity. I visited Home Depot to get ceiling paint to touch up the mistakes we made yesterday and when I got out to my car it would not start. I called home twice but no one answered the phone, so I made an executive decision and went back into Home Depot to get a socket set. I took out my battery and in a Home Depot cart I took the battery to Wal-Mart which is in the same shopping center. They tested the battery and said it was fine. When I got back to my car I took a cloth I had in my car and cleaned the battery terminals and my car started. When I got home I used my battery cleaning tool and finished the job the right way. Hopefully I will have no problems tomorrow morning to go to work.
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