Lawful Evil

Getting a metallic tinkle, scraping, ping ping sort of noise out of the Prius the last two days. Starts to happen on the way home from work after getting off the pike. Starts with a spring sort of sproing sound which I can feel in the steering wheel. Then it switches to a mix of metal scraping, like the muffler was dragging mixed in with a ping ping sort of rocks bouncing around the wheel-well. Then it transitions to more pure scraping and then in a sudden SCRAPE, it sounds like something falls off and the sound stops.

Bring the car in and let them have it for a day on Wednesday.

Ah.. vacation. Well, I guess that even if I didn't take vacation I'd be off today. Tomorrow.. that'll really be vacation.

Went up to Purgatory with the kids. Tried a new route which made Evan really mad. He didn't want to try it at all.

Last day before I take 10 days off(including weekends). It was quite warm outside this morning and as a result the auto-temperature control in the lab is out of whack. Its quite a bit too warm in the lab for me. I'm sweating just sitting here typing this.

Heading out to Mom's for Thanksgiving. Maybe paint the bathrooms.

I've been tasked with comparing our SW to an independently developed set of SW based on the same requirements. Our systems engineering team build the independent SW and has been using it to model and predict system behaviour.

Currently I'm held up, again, because differences between the two. Yesterday afternoon I identified 5 bugs in the SE version which I'm waiting for them to fix and assess how much that alters their model and prediction of how things should work. This is only the latest batch of bugs I've found in their stuff.

The whole point was to eliminate bug in our production SW, but so far none have been found. I'm up to nearly a dozen bugs in the SE version.

Our hot water heater went on the fritz, sparked by a transformer blowing on Sunday Morning. We got someone in today to price out a replacement, installation, and all that. They will be back tomorrow to install the beast. Hopefully we'll have hot water for the kid's baths tomorrow night.

We got an indirect hot water system which treats the hot water heater like a heating zone of the furnace. Supposed to be efficient. We'll see.

I continue to feel wiped out. My body has started waking me up at 3am. I'm going to try and stay up late one of these nights to see if I can get my clock reset.

I've not been sleeping well. I keep waking up at 4am or so. During the week, I get up and go to work. On the weekend I toss and turn for a couple more hours, drifting in and out of sleep. I'm exhausted by the end of the day and have to go to bed earlier and earlier... which is probably helping me wake up so early.

*sigh*

Well, the big 37 today. If my life expectancy is 72, I'm now on the down slope for sure.

My body certainly isn't what it used to be. I ripped something in my shoulder over the summer which allows it to pop in and out of joint at will. That has healed a little but I can still feel it when I lean on the table. I've been getting killer headaches so I started hitting the gym. 5+ days a week for several months now. I think I may have bulked up my shoulder/arm area but I've not lost any weight. Actually, it claims I've gained a couple pounds. I can't tell if any of my mid-range fat has melted away so now I'm a muscular fat guy.

Been feeling tired lately. Maybe I'm just experiencing a really mild sickness(swine flu?). Headaches and temperature problems as well. I was thinking about taking off today... but didn't. I've got a free-food event tomorrow afternoon at work, so I'll go in for that.

RayPac. I really hate the lobby / political action committee system that has been setup in this country. It really needs to be fixed. Basically, they said RayPac buys access to politicians so that Raytheon's agenda and products can be pushed. This also buys the support of the politicians who will vote on the appropriation of funds for Raytheon's contracts. Seems more like bribes and kickbacks to me.

We'll be heading up to NH to hit Canobie Lake today. Mom should be arriving soon and shortly there after we'll pile in for a day of screaming kids. Hopefully Evan will eventually decide he likes something at the amusement park.

Canobie lake family fun day is Saturday. Supposed to be sunny.. but kinda cool. No doubt Aiyre will want to spend lots of time in the water park anyway.

Sunday morning. Planned on making pancakes but we were out of bisquik and so I decided to take the kids out to breakfast. Ran stopped and the sun appears to be poking through. It'll probably end up quite warm and humid today.

Took the kids up to the lake for the weekend. Aiyre liked the water and the bonfire and such. Evan... not so much. He came down to the beach a little and played a bit, but he has a real fear of his bathing suit. Totally freaks out if you even show it to him.

Playoffs last night. Our first match had to forfeit. So.. onto the Semi-finals. Against the odds... we won two games out of 3. The last game was very close. It was 10to10 and then 20to20 and then we finally pulled ahead.

Finals are next Tuesday along with the cookout.

My other league's finals are tonight. I was out so many games with a shoulder injury that I'm not qualified to play. I guess we'll see if they care.

No tornadoes spotted. Oh well. The rain totally clogged up the gutter which I got totally soaked cleaning out.

Doh.

We are behind schedule at work so they've mandated that everyone work tomorrow. Hopefully they had the foresight to have facilities turn on the AC. If not, it'll be a short day.

Took the kids up to Sacandaga for Friday and Saturday. I had to drag Evan screaming down each time but once there he had a bit of fun. Aiyre enjoyed it but was trying to do too much. She kept opening the door and trying to go down to the beach herself. Even with the doors locked she would go. The first time she left, she took Evan with her and I didn't manage to stop them until they were on the edge of the road.

The vacation wasn't very restful for me.

Summer BBQ day here at work. Remember to avoid the chicken as it is usually undercooked!

I've started working out mid-workday. Seems to be going fine although I'm sore.

Hit the Disney store with the in-laws. Aiyre wanted a Bolt dog and a Doug dog. We gave her the choice and she picked Doug. He talks when you push his paw.

Hot and Humid sucks. Make you want to go to work to get out of the hot sticky icky weather. Of course having the in-laws visiting has its effect too.

Aiyre turned 9 yesterday. My mother and Emily's parent were here for the fun. Aiyre had school in the morning and I worked till two or so, but there was plenty of fun after that. Played a little ball. Jumped a little rope. Tossed around the frizbee. Had some pizza and ice cream and such. It was so much fun that Evan fell asleep at 5pm and we had to wake him up to go to Chuck-e-cheeses.