Early Morning Surprise

Hello all,

To my amazement, I was called by Amy Krohn this morning. It seems the changes I made to one configuration file for PAT caused the web server to fail to initialize. I was certain that the changes I made were benign, but alas they were not. I have spent the majority of the day testing my configuration changes and answering to management. Today is the big move to Tulsa for PDAA0207. Wish us all luck.

-Andy

Shopping with Jennifer

Hello all,

Tonight Jennifer and I went shopping for some new clothes for her winter wardrobe. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit and steal an hour away together. You looked great tonight Jennifer! I love you very much.

-Andy

New Class for Zac

Hello all,

Jennifer and I have had enough of Zac's instructor for gymnastics. I'm sure Mr. Mark is a fine instructor for children that already are knowledgeable of the gymnastic skills he is trying to improve; however, Zac is a beginner and Mr. Mark does not have patience for my son. Zac was in his class for 45 minutes before he received any type of personal instruction. After watching for 20 minutes, Jennifer and I had seen and had enough of this treatment. I asked Mrs. Lauren to come and observer our son's class with us. She was disappointed with how Mark's class was organized. She apologized for the instruction and worked with us to have Zac moved to a new class that meets at 5:30 on Tuesdays. I hope this class is smaller to allow Zac a better opportunity to learn and have fun.

Good night,

-Andy

Hard day at work

Hello all,

I'll make this short and sweet. It was a difficult day at work today with Steve retiring. I'm very sad.

Good night,

-Andy

Out of Options

Hello all,

I have always felt that I could find a way to keep my team together. We have been outsourced, resourced and spun-off over the last 10 years. I found out a few minutes ago that with all of my political connections, I can not find a way to solve a problem here at work. In the coming days, I will write more about it.

-Andy

Chiefs and then Laundry

Hello all,

The Chiefs lost a heart breaker against the Oakland Raiders today in a close game (20-17). This team is just not very good this year. Hopefully our draft will be better than this years draft and we can compete to win a division next year.

As for the laundry, I was able to get seven loads washed and put away tonight. That is a great accomplishment for a Sunday night. I normally work in Sunday laundry through Tuesday.

Good night!

-Andy

Saturday Resting

Hello all,

Everyone in the house is resting today. It must be from all of the turkey we ate on Thursday. The house is really starting to take on a holiday feel. Jennifer and I worked on putting the lights on the outside of the house this afternoon and it really looks nice. It was too cold to take pictures. We were lucky to get what we had up finished before the wind drove us inside for the remains of the night.

Good night,

-Andy

The Anatomy of Putting Up The Tree 2007

Hello all,

Hey Steve Brown, this one is for YOU! I grabbed my digital camera and started snapping pictures of the annual Scott Christmas Tree construction. I hope you like the slide show. Ali and Zac had a ball putting their ornaments on the tree. Ali was able to read every one's name and the year it was given. Then I asked her to subtract the current year from the year on the ornament to give me the number of years that have passed. Ali, you did a great job on this exercise. Ms. M would be very proud of you!

Here is the slide show.



The room did get a little warm for Zac, so he thought he needed to take his shirt off. Needless to say, he found it a few minutes after we finished with the tree.

Good night,

-Andy

Happy Birthday Zachary! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hello all,

Today is my son Zachary's 5th birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUY!!

This morning we went to Perkins for Zac's birthday. The wait staff was very nice and gave my son a pancake stack with a candle on it. I wish I would have taken a picture of Zac's face when he first saw the cake. It was full of excitement. We had breakfast and then I took Jen and the kids over to Diane's house. I returned to the house to pick up the turkey from Keith Bennett who is cooking it in the deep fryer.

The turkey was finished at 12:05 and I was off to Diane's house to carve it for dinner! The turkey was very salty. I should not have put the rub in the inside the turkey! Oh well, the turkey was still great and everyone enjoyed it.

After dinner, it was time to curl up on the couch and take a nap. I don't know what happened for a while, but when I woke up Diane, Jennifer and Susie were making plans for tomorrow's shopping adventures. I guess they are leaving the house at 3:45 AM!!!

Good luck with that Jennifer!

I'm tired again...

Good night!

-Andy

Working From Home

Hello all,

It is a COLD day outside today. Amy has allowed the team to work from home today and Friday which is very nice of her. Zac is home with me today. Ali is at Grandma Diane's making pies. I am working on the Turkey. It is going into the peanut oil tomorrow at 11:30 AM.

I better get going!

-Andy

Walked over 3 Miles Today

Hello all,

Well, the weather man says that today will be the last nice day until Spring. It is in the high 60's today, but tomorrow it is going to only get to 33. We may even get snow. In light of that news, Chris, Steve and I went around the campus 2.5 times. When I finished, I was very hot. I'm glad I was able to get out one last time with Chris and Steve.

-Andy

Walking

Hello all,

Today at lunch Steve and I walked our three miles. Then tonight I walked another mile or so while the kids were in the bath tub. I am getting prepared for the Thanksgiving Feast at Diane's house!

-Andy

Riding Bikes

Hello all,

Well, yesterday was Zac's birthday and one of his gifts was a new bike. I put the training wheels on it this afternoon and the rest is history as you will see. Jennifer and I moved the couch and dining room table out of the way to give them a circuit through the house. I hope you like the slideshow!

-Andy

Zac's Birthday

Hello all,

Zac had a great party at Air Zone today! He had several of his friends over for an hour of jumping, running and good old fashion fun! Here are some of the pictures of the event!

Trying something new here:

 

Zac going down the obstical course slide.

 

Zac inside the obstical course.

 

The gang.

Back Row:
Walker, Charles, Zac, Kristen, Ali, Reilly, Jackson

Front Row:
Selena, Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Iva

 

Jackson, Dad and Zac going down the slide together!

Layoffs

Hello all,

Today has been a rough day for me and many of my friends. Embarq is laying off 40% of the client organization. That number should be right around 100 people being let go. I have already learned that my EMS and ARC clients are being let go. I do not know if my SODS client will also be released.

-Andy

At work

Hello all,

Today I went back to work and left Jennifer at home to recuperate. I found out this morning that it is already my turn to be on secondary for EMS. It seems that time flies these days. Wow, it was only a few days ago that I got off of primary, now I get it again next week.

-Andy

Home

Hello all,

I am working from home today to take care of my ill family members. Not a fun time on the ranch today.

-Andy

Under the Weather

Hello all,

I am writing you from my chair in the living room. My wife is ill upstairs. Zac and I are watching Transformers on DVD downstairs while Ali is doing her homework at the kitchen table. I guess this is what is Winter is all about. I hope Jennifer gets well soon.

-Andy

Day off, not really

Hell all,

My day started early. I called my supervisor this morning and asked for the day off, which was granted. I then took Ali and Zac to Burger King for breakfast to celebrate the day ahead. After dropping Ali and Zac off at school, I headed to Time Warner Cable to complain about my service being out and demanded to have someone there to fix it today. They said they would work on getting it taken care of but could not promise me anything.

While leaving the cable office, I got a phone call from my kids dentist office. They have dental appointments scheduled for today at 11:00. So, I rushed home and plugged in the new cable box and headed out the door to pick the kids up.

Jennifer met us at Dr. Feldhaus's office and went back with Zac while he had his teeth cleaned. Both kids did great! NO CAVITIES!!!

After the dentist, Zac and I went to Home Depot and picked up a small flashlight and a garbage disposal and headed home. We had the garbage disposal in after some initial frustration, but all was working by the time mom was home.

We spent the remains of the night listening to Ali read and watching some TV with the kids.

Good night!

-Andy

Sunday Night

Hello all,

It is Sunday night again. Laundry needs to be done and the garbage taken out. On top of that our cable is out. And the garbage disposal does not work any more. Looks like I get to have a fun time tomorrow getting things fixed.

-Andy

Mowing the Yard

Hello all,

Will it ever stop?? I have been mowing the grass since April and it is now November! It took me two hours to mow the yard today due to all of the leaves that I had to suck up and throw into the compost heap. I started at 2:00 and finished as the twilight was settling in. It sure does get dark in a hurry these days.

-Andy

Lunch at Korma Sutra

Hello all,

Today was another great day at work for me. Steve Brown took Chris and I to Korma
Sutra for lunch today. It was his turn to buy which made it twice as nice! Thank you for lunch today Steve. It was great.

After work, we went to Red Lobster as a family. Jen had the endless scrimp platter and I had blackened salmon. Ali and Zac both had macaroni and cheese. After dinner we went back home for a night of games with the kids.

Good night,

-Andy

Great Day At Work

Hello all,

Wow, what a difference a few days make! I am off of primary as of this morning at 9:00. Life is good.

Good night,

-Andy

Gymnastics

Hello all,

First of all, it was a great night for Ali and Zac at Mercury Gymnastics tonight. Ali did a great job on all of her exercises tonight. She is improving with her bridge crawl. That is, walking on her hands and feet while looking at the ceiling. She is VERY flexible and I'm jealous of how easily everything comes to her. As for Zac, he did a great job in stretching and following instructions through his exercises as well. He is also a gifted tumbler and had a great time with his class. To celebrate the great night, Jennifer and I treated the kids to ice cream from McDonald's. Zac had chocolate and Ali had vanilla. We were home by 9:00 for bath time and bedtime.

Good night,

-Andy

What a Day

Hello all,

Well, this has been a fine day. One of the projects I have been working on for over two months is going into the toilet and I really don't know what I can do about it. I try to keep my team up to date on what I know. I was in a meeting from 12:00 until 4:00. I helped my teammate Steve Brown out for a few minutes on a SENDSOD problem and then I decided to head home at 5:00.

I stopped at the store to buy some stir fry meat for dinner and then made dinner for the family. In case you were wondering, it was fantastic. I was putting the dishes away when I noticed my phone was blinking. I checked it. I was shocked to find that I had missed 5 pages since 6:15 PM. It was already 6:45. Amy had paged me twice and Outage Management had paged me three times.

I called Amy. She was not happy that I had not answered any of the pages. I joined the call and tried to help. I was caught completely off guard tonight. My mind has been on SODS, Datamaster and 20 other things. I could not remember my password for the windows gateway server. What a mess....

The call concluded at 7:20. I did not contribute one thing to the effort. If it had been a SODS outage, I would have been able to jump right in and resolve any issue. Now I get the night to think about tomorrow and how Amy will want an explanation for not answering her request for help.

What a Day.

-Andy

Busy Monday

Hello all,

Friday was bad, today was a continuation of that day. I walked into work today with questions about Friday and why I did not meet my deliverables that were set out on Wednesday. I feel like I can not win today. I'm looking forward to going home and playing with the kids.

-Andy

Brett Farve

Hello all,

Today Jennifer and I went to the Chiefs game with her Uncle Jerry and cousin Nikki. The Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers and lost to a future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Farve. Oh well, at least Nikki and Jerry enjoyed the game.

-Andy

Date Night

Hello all,

Tonight Jennifer and I had a date night together. We went to Argosy for dinner and a gambled at the penny slot machines for a while. We played for over an hour and only donated 15 dollars to the casino! I'll take that any time. I had a great time Jennifer. Thank you for the wonderful night.

-Andy

Weird Friday

Hello all,

I AM SO GLAD TODAY IS FRIDAY. THE ENTIRE DAY HAS BEEN CRAZY. ONE ISSUE AFTER ANOTHER HAS HAPPENED TO OUR TEAM. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO GOING HOME AND GIVING MY WIFE A KISS AND MY KIDS A HUG. I WILL SEE THIS PLACE ON MONDAY.

-Andy

Chicken on the grill

Hello all,

Tonight was a simple night at the Scott household. Yes, a simple meal of grilled chicken with rice. I had made plans to do some laundry, but I did not get around to it. I guess we all took it easy today.

-Andy