• Helping those who want to see the light

    We had an unexpected visitor on Friday, a little boy who lives down the street. Beth was just tickled to have someone over to play at her house again. Later, when the boy’s father came over to pick him up, he was bathed in the glow of our tech savy. Sitting in the corner was our old bondi blue iMac and our new iBook. “Youv’e got to talk to my wife”, the boy’s father exclaimed. Later that week, the boy’s mother (who works with Cheryl), began a conversation with the words, “after spending time with YOUR HUSBAND….” I knew instantly what was comming next. The boy’s newly emboldened father gave his family the gift of tech enlightenment, a trip to the Apple store. They didn’t walk out with a new computer, but I feel some sense of accomplishment. The war is not over, but a small battle has been won.

  • Working backlogs @ work.

    Is there anything more fun than accumulating a backlog of work at the office? Sure there is…working through that backlog. That has been my chosen task this week, and it can be a little mind numbing – sort of like a lobotomy without the surgery. On Monday we welcomed a new person to our little family on the third floor, whom I will be training over the next few weeks. It’s hard to get a handle on someone in a few hours, but the initial signs are positive.

  • This Week: 5/29/2002

    There’s not much to say about this last week, but I’ll try…

    Dad got out of the hospital on Friday.
    There was nothing wrong with that.
    We had a long weekend, by virtue of the holiday on Monday.
    There was nothing wrong with that.
    I got to sit in bed until 11a.m., on a day when I would normally be at work.
    There was certainly nothing wrong with that.
    I was in bed with the lingering effects of a pesky cold.
    There might have been something wrong with that.

    Dad did in deed get sprung from Moffit on Friday. Mom and I followed our normal hospital routine, and got there around 1 p.m. Dad already had the remainder of this tubing removed, and was pronounced ready to leave. Of course, in hospital speak, this means you are free to go when the paperwork gets done – sometime in the next two hours. Those two hours were like the last two hours at work before a week long vacation. I was once again less than my perky self (yes, you are allowed to laugh) due to a healthy dose of cold medication, which didn’t help. As nice as Moffit was, compared to my other hospital encounters, it was nice to leave. Listen to me, I wasn’t even staying there!

    Our weekend was more pleasant than most. We spent most of our time visiting with friends and family. We went to see one of Cheryl’s coworkers down the road on Saturday. Beth had a good time playing with their little boy, who is about one year Beth’s junior. The evening was spent over at my parent’s house. Dinner was served ala Quizno’s, the entertainment ala New Jersey’s colossal choke. YES!!! Sunday morning we were surprised by a musical sermon in church. Once a year or so, one of the couples from our church performs a series of musical pieces, which takes the place of a sermon. The wife plays the piano/organ and the husband plays a violin-like instrument. They played what amounted to a 30 minute concert, and I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure I can say the same for Beth. Sunday afternoon we saw some other friends for lunch, and had them over to our place afterwards for a Beth – Madelynn play session. As usual, Beth had a wonderful time leading Madelynn around the house like a four year old mommy.

    Memorial Day, a state holiday…a day that we all got to stay home and relax. Only we didn’t stay home and relax. After the aforementioned extended stay in bed, the pressure to “do something” built to a climax and we went out in search of “something to do.” It wasn’t so bad though. Beth got to play at the indoor romper room at the International Plaza, and Cheryl got a darn good cup of joe at the Nordstrom’s Espresso Bar. On a whim, we stopped in on a few furniture stores and plotted the destruction of our meager savings. Prudence won the day and we left the furniture store with the same amount of cash savings that we entered with.

    Beth was a little challenging this week. Late last week Beth earned the death penalty of Kauffman household punishment, an early bed time with no opportunity to play after school. Fortunately, things were much better afterwards. She even earned a trip to the bear store to cash in her poopy sheet. (For those of you out there not reading this who don’t know what the poopy sheet is – you’ll just have to go on guessing.) My favorite Beth image for the week present itself on Friday evening. Beth was gorging herself on drinkable yogurt. After a couple of bottles we advised Beth that she would not be allowed to have any more. Since she could not have any more, she was determined to get every last drop out of the ones that she had. She spent the better part of half an hour walking around the house, looking at the ceiling, with an inverted drinkable yogurt bottle between her teeth.