Today is not busy. In fact, it is very quiet here in the office. Most everyone is at work today primarily because we have to take five days vacation during the last two weeks of the year so people don’t want to burn vacation time over Thanksgiving. While I think that some work is getting done, there just isn’t a lot to do today.

I have a new Sprint PCS phone which is capable of taking pictures. The pictures aren’t all that great and it takes a long time for the phone to take a picture and then send it in e-mail. The phone takes a picture at 640 x 480 resolution, but when the image is sent in e-mail it’s about a third that size and resolution upon arrival. It is kind of fun, however. I took this picture in my office. I’ve got a fairly new Dell laptop computer running Windows XP. One nice feature in XP is the ability to run dual monitors. So, I’ve got the laptop set up on the right of my big 21 inch monitor and can put stuff on that screen for reference while I’m working on something on the main monitor. This is particularly useful during web conferences as I can put the video on the other screen. I like the capability a lot and think I need to do something similar at home. Two monitors at home would be pretty cool! Don’t know where I’d put both screens….

Heather and family are on their way to Colorado Springs and will arrive sometime in early evening. Daryl is coming over with them and Jared will also be down tomorrow. I enjoy having people here for Thanksgiving! A significant sign of becoming a grandparent is when the kids start coming to you for Thanksgiving rather than you going somewhere else. We’ve arrived at that point! It’s hard to think of myself being almost sixty years old. Even when I look in the mirror I don’t see a really old man; I just see me. I’m sure I look like an old man to others, however. I’ll probably be saying the same thing when I’m eighty. Meanwhile, my boss’s staff meeting starts in a few minutes. It’ll go for a couple of hours and then I’ll be done for the day. Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve spent most of the week in Milpitas, California. I’ll fly back to Colorado Springs this evening so I can get a flu shot tomorrow morning. It’s been a good week, most of the meetings have been worthwhile, and the weather has been quite good. The shopping trips to Frys have also been fruitful. It’d be nice to have a store like that somewhere in the Colorado Springs / Denver area!

This morning I drove over to another building for a meeting. We have people in several buildings in a four or five block area, so we call it a campus, but in our case it’s a campus with lots of other companies interspersed. As I turned into the parking lot, this large sign was positioned right at the entrance into the parking lot. It caused me to chuckle a bit. Our’s is the large building in the background. Unlike the buildings on both sides (which are vacant), men are working in this building? Or is it that there are only men working? It might also possibly mean the men are working but women are not? After I got into the parking lot, I discovered that there were folks in the trees trimming them. Perhaps it means that only men are in the trees, or it might mean that although anyone can be in the trees, only the men are working…. I’ve pushed this far beyond what it’s worth, but it gave me a chuckle this morning.

It’s quite possible that this sign is intended to limit liability. A year or so ago there was quite a wind storm in the area causing a large tree in the back of this building to break down and drop a very large limb on a very expensive sports car. The car was smashed beyond repair. Even though people were working in the trees around the building this morning, cars were still parked underneath the trees. I’d guess that if someone drove past this large sign, parked under one of the trees being trimmed, and had a debris fall from the tree doing damage to the car, that the sign might possibly limit the tree-trimming-company’s liability. But, this is California where logic rarely prevails. There are people here who would deliberately park underneath one of these trees just in case something might happen and they could sue….

Bright and early Friday morning, Nina’s kid sister Pam headed back east after about a ten day visit here in Colorado Springs. A great time was had by all! Nina and Pam were literally on the go every day she was here. I think Pam’s three favorite places would have been Pikes Peak, Victor, and the Garden of the Gods. The best day probably was her first Thursday here which we spent at the Denver Temple. They did the temple work for their mother and some other family members and were sealed to their parents that afternoon. We did indeed have a great day at the temple, which was perhaps the busiest day of the year so far. However, the Highlands Ranch Stake took over the top spot a week later!

Pam’s visit was a lot of fun. It’s often surprising to me how much they sound alike. They are indeed sisters in every sense of the word. So now it’s put life back into normal gear and get back into everyday activities for Nina. For the most part I just went about my normal business while Pam was here.

I’ve also been working on pictures. In a previous incarnation of my website I had several sets of pictures posted. I’ve been working through some of these and getting them loaded into this website’s photo section. I’ve added a series of pictures taken at a mini-family-reunion in Yellowstone Park, a few pictures when Nina visited Trevor and Kendra in Washington, and a series from our New Year’s trip to the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo several years ago. I’m now working through a large number of pictures from Bangkok, Thailand, and will post that whole set of pictures as well. Although most folks aren’t interested in these pictures, I certainly am and this provides me with a good way of cataloging the pictures of most interest to me. I think I’ll move over exclusively to slides since all I really do with the pictures I take is to scan some of the more interesting ones and put them on the computer. Slides are cheaper than film and actually take better pictures. Ive been scanning a whole bunch of slides and putting them into the Ancient History category and am quite pleased with how well recent slides scan and can be manipulated. I’m using Adobe PhotoShop Elements to work with these pictures and I’m quite impressed with the capability of this program. It can make a bad picture presentable and can make a good picture impressive. Just being able to fix perspective so that buildings line up properly is a big capability.

I’m headed for California tomorrow for the penultimate trip for this year. I’ll go once more in December to wrap things up for the year. I’ll only be there through Thursday this week as I need to be back in the office on Friday for our quarterly Corporate Finance Officer’s briefing as well as to get my annual (dreaded) flu shot. This will be a pretty busy week, but perhaps I’ll have time to put up another post or so. I read a statistic somewhere that suggests most web sites are never updated after being setup and most weblogs fizzle out after the first month or so. We’ve survived longer than that, so I’m pleased.

Nina’s sister Pam arrived yesterday for a couple of weeks. She’s been "impacted" by Harmony Kingdom’s inability to pay attention to their customer base and has been reduced to a part-time employee. So she’s taking a couple of weeks’ vacation with us here in Colorado. It’s fun to have her here. Nina and Pam have been working on family history almost nonstop since she arrived. On Thursday is the BIG DAY! Nina and Pam will be sealed to their parents at 4 p.m. in the Denver Temple. Heather is driving over to participate as well. It’ll be a great day in the temple!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was sitting in my cubical in Milpitas. I decided I should document that cubical! Because I’m a Director, I should have a director-sized cubical but since I’m not in California all that often, I have a manager-sized cube. Also, since I’m not there all that much, it serves as a kind of a meeting place and has a small fridge for keeping sodas and water cool for my team out there. I make up for not having a Director-sized cubical in Milpitas by having a hard-walled office in Colorado Springs.

It’s interesting to me how often we move people around in California. Cubicals make it much easier to move people and rearrange things. I’ve the opinion that people often get moved just because it’s so easy to move them to a new location. Hard-walled offices don’t move nearly so often. I think that in a normal year about 20% of the cubicals get rearranged and people get moved. That’s a lot of money and wasted time. When someone gets moved, they loose at least three days of work. One to pack up, one to move, one to unpack. It’s often much more than three days. Cubicles themselves are fairly inexpensive, until an occupant has special needs such as repetitive stress injuries or other handicaps. Hard-walled offices are much easier to adapt than cubicles, which were meant to have no variations!

From the outside, cubicals are equally nondescript. This is cubical row where my office in Milpitas is located. Just for the record, my cube is the first one on the left. It’s in the center of the building, far from any windows. In this same row are a group of people who work for me. A few months ago they moved out of this area over by some windows in a kind of a power play. The cubes over there were empty. In fact, much of this part of the building consisted of empty cubicles, remnants of the downsizing that had been going on. Further, this particular building was the most expensive building in our campus in Milpitas, making it less interesting for folks to take up residence there. Some changes were made to the way that Facilities charges for space and whole bunches of IT folks were moved into the building from other locations around Milpitas. In that move, my folks were sent back to their original location, well away from the windows and the natural light.

I’d like to figure out how to have a large office building with lots of windows and light around where people are working. People just do better when their light is something other than florescent lighting, no matter how much green-filtering is put into the light fixtures to make the light more "natural." People want to see what’s happening outside, even if nothing is happening. I always keep curtains open in hotel rooms, for instance, as long as it’s daylight.

Speaking of California, the recall election is finished, the current governor Grey Davis has been recalled, and Arnold Swarzenegger has been elected to replace him. The changeover hasn’t happened, yet, and all kinds of backoffice things are happening as lame-duck-governor Davis is ending his term in office. It’ll be interesting to see in the future whether or not this change makes any difference.

Yesterday was election day here in Colorado. Voter turnout was low — about 26% — but those that voted were pretty emphatic with their votes. Every state money issue was soundly defeated. The stupid proposal to put slot machines into race tracks was soundly defeated. The incumbent school board members were voted out and replaced by a group that sounds interested in bringing some educational reform into District 11 schools. That would certainly be a breath of fresh air. I can’t imagine how our schools could get much worse than they are.

So, we’re headed to the temple tomorrow to seal a family together. It’ll be a great day. Welcome to Colorado, Pam!

Danielle’s baptism was at 1:30 this afternoon. She looked like a little princess all dressed in white. I took some 70 pictures before and after the baptism. One of the wonderful things about digital images is they are so very easy to delete!

Heather arranged the entire program which included almost the entire family. She lead the music, Grandmother Husky played the piano. I said the opening prayer and Ritch said the closing prayer. Stephanie sang a song, Michael read a scripture, Nina and Christopher gave talks. Of course, Ty did the baptising and confirming. It was a lovely afternoon.

We’re now eating, visiting, and watching TV. Ty’s mother and stepfather just left to drive part way home to northern California. The weather their direction is forecast to turn badly tomorrow afternoon. There’s plenty of good food. I’m enjoying life!

Congratulations, Danielle!

It’s a lovely Saturday morning in Orem, Utah. I flew back last night and the flight was early! It was snowing. I’m sure those two facts didn’t have anything to do with each other, however. There isn’t a lot of snow on the ground, the snow is very fluffy, and the ground isn’t cold enough yet for it to stick anywhere except on trees and grass.

We’ll leave tomorrow morning early in order to get through the mountains in daylight. It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow — into the mid 50’s.

We’ve enjoyed our time here in Utah. Nina feels that we haven’t been here nearly long enough. She’s enjoyed the opportunity to visit with the grandchildren and with old friends. Being here in the RV has also worked out quite well. Nina has figured out the best sleeping arrangement for her. It’s been cold enough that the furnace is getting a good workout. Hopefully there’s enough propane to get through the night tonight. We won’t need it again until we go on the next trip. As it looks right now, that trip won’t be until next year.

We’re headed to Arizona for Christmas. No RV on that trip as there’s no place to put it while we’re there. The company has decided to shut down during the holiday. I’ve already scheduled all of the days off except one. No problem — we’ll just take another day of vacation! I’m sure we can find something to do with that day. However, having to take that time off is a bit ominous … revenue must not be coming in as expected. Third quarter was just OK and that’s usually our best quarter of the year. I’d like for business to get a whole bunch better as I’m looking for a $25 stock price!!

Today is a busy day and the reason that we’re here. Danielle is being baptized this afternoon (pictures to come). All the grandparents are here for the event. She’s the last of Heather’s family to be baptized. Stephanie played in a piano recital this morning. She played two duets with her piano teacher and played very well. She has a lovely talent — and not just at the piano. She’ll be singing a song at Danielle’s baptism this afternoon. Stephanie just seems to excel at everything she does. Stephanie is on the right and her piano teacher is in the red dress. Recitals are a bit different here than I’m used to. Students not only play, but get evaluated by other teachers. It’s hard enough to play well and adding the judging to it must really add to the stress.

Every once in a while a little snow shower breaks out, but the snow is melting faster than it comes down from the sky. It’s a lovely day in Utah!

Greetings from Milpitas, California. As I write this I’m sitting in my cubicle in the middle of the office building in not-quite-downtown Milpitas. Where is Milpitas, you ask? It’s situated between San Jose, Santa Clara, and Fremont. Squeezed between them is probably a better description. It’s not much of a place as size or influence goes. The section of the 880 freeway that goes through Milpitas has long been the major bottleneck. Everywhere else the freeway is 4-5 lanes wide except through Milpitas where it was 2 lanes wide. So, for the past two years (and well into the foreseeable future) they’ve been widening the freeway. It’s now four lanes wide each direction, but only two lanes each way are open. There is no conceivable reason why…. Perhaps there haven’t been enough accidents on this stretch this year?

In the news of the day, a hearse travelling along a motorway near Duesseldorf, Germany, overturned ejecting the coffin, ejecting the corpse from the coffin, and scattering coffin nails along a stretch of the highway, closing the road for more than four hours while police cleaned up the scene. The driver of the hearse fell asleep, woke up startled, and jerked the steering wheel causing the accident. What a wild ride for the corpse and those following behind! Look, mommy, it’s Halloween!

Southern California seems to be burning up. Huge wildfires stretching from the Mexico border to Los Angeles are causing massive damage. More than a thousand homes have been destroyed and many more will be lost until the weather begins to cooperate with the firefighting efforts. One lady interviewed on TV this morning talked about what she had taken from her house. She had gathered up her “computer hard drives and a couple of pictures.” Sounds like someone with the right priorities…!

Today is a day of meetings. One down already and three to go. Life is good — and even though there are billboards everywhere touting California Cheese, I still haven’t seen any. Just lots and lots of crazy drivers.

It’s a Sunday afternoon in Orem, Utah. We arrived early this morning for a short “vacation.” I’ll fly out tomorrow morning early for San Jose and Nina will stay the week. I’ll fly back on Friday evening (Halloween) and we’ll drive back to Colorado Springs on Sunday, November 2nd. The reason for the trip is that our granddaughter Danielle will be baptized next Saturday. The trip over here is part of the business trip. Sure saves money to do the trip in this fashion.

We drove over in the new toy! We finished loading up about 10 on Saturday morning and drove to the temple. We worked there until about 3 p.m. and by 3:30 we were on our way to Utah. The RV is now parked alongside our daughter Heather’s house where it’ll stay the rest of the week. Everything worked very well and the vehicle made the trip with no issues. It took about 9 hours to make the trip from the Denver Temple, including a short stop in Glenwood Springs for dinner. That last couple of hours from Green River, Utah, through Price, up and over the pass and into the valley seems to take a very long time. We were very happy to get here.

Heather had a nice family dinner this afternoon after church — turkey, stuffing, and all the extras that make up a wonderful Sunday dinner. It was almost like a Thanksgiving dinner. Heather sets a lovely table, so it was worth a picture of the table before we all sat down and had dinner. Daryl drove down from Salt Lake City to join us for dinner as well.

We attended church meetings with our daughter’s family. The featured speaker was a recently returned missionary from South America. He had just started speaking when he said that he needed to sit down as he was feeling light headed. An instant later he had passed out at the pulpit. A couple of folks helped him to the floor and a member of the bishopric stepped to the pulpit and began speaking as though nothing had happened!! It turns out the young man has an occasional problem with blood pressure dropping rapidly, generally when he’s speaking in Church! After the meeting, my son-in-law Ty asked when the last time was I’d seen someone pass out in church. I told him it wasn’t since yesterday…. We have a couple of medical emergencies a month on our shift in the temple, including one yesterday. Both Nina and I were sitting there quite flabergasted as the response was quite different than happens with the EMT’s in the temple!

The meal is done and things are being cleaned up. We’re getting a lot of unwanted help from Bradica (the dog). She’s discovered Heather’s Halloween candy and was just now scolded for climbing into the dishwasher and trying to clean off some plates. Fortunately Heather wasn’t around to see… It might have been too much! After I finish posting this, I’ll finish up getting things ready to go tomorrow. The airport shuttle driver should pick me up between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. so it’ll be a fairly short night’s sleep.

The week in San Jose will be, as usual, quite busy. There are a lot of meetings scheduled and I hope to get up to the temple for at least one session.

I’m enjoying the RV and the time here in Utah. I’m looking forward to getting back here in a few days!