Up Early

Hello all,

This morning Zac and I were up early to go to Home Depot for a new leaf vacuum / blower. As we rolled the cart into my personal toy store, I was ready to shop. We picked up an Echo brand that I thought would do the bob nicely. I was pleased when we returned home and assembled it. Zac was a big help getting it ready for a test run. He passed me every part I needed.

Thank you bud!

-Andy

Payday Friday

Hello all,

Today was my first payday with eVergance. It is good to see that direct deposit come in. I know that all the kinks have been worked out of the system over the years, but I'm still not 100% confident until I see the first deposit hit my account.

Tonight Jennifer and I have Cyndi York's spa at our house. There will only be 4 people there so it should be a good group. Hopefully our sales will be decent. I promised Ali ice cream last night but did not finish mowing the yard until after dark. I will try her ice cream before 7:00 tonight to make good on my promise.

-Andy

Mowed the yard again

Hello all,

I got the yard mowed and trimmed in 2 hours tonight. It only took three tripped to the compost heap that my neighbors and I are using for our grass clippings. It was an easier cut this week vs. last week. I think I have gotten in front of the yard for a change and can keep it at a manageable height.

-Andy

Up and walking

Hello all,

This morning I was up and walking 2.2 miles on the treadmill by 5:30 AM. It felt good to get up and get my heart going this morning. This is the second time this week that I have gotten up and walked. I'm hoping this gets me going for the summer. I don't like being as worn out as I have been after pushing the lawnmower around the yard.

-Andy

Royals lose a heart breaker

Hello all,

Well, I wish I could say that the Royals won, but they did not. The lost 4 to 3 against the Twins in 12 innings. Tonight, Vanna, Diane, Jennifer and the kids and I all went to the game. It was a nice night to go to a game. I wish the play was as nice as the weather!

Better luck next time!

-Andy

Ceiling Fan problems

Hello all,

Last night Zac's ceiling fan almost fell out of the ceiling. The person who installed it did not put a reinforced bar in the ceiling. They mounted it on the plastic mount that you would use for a light fixture. What a joke! I crawled up in the attic and replaced the broken piece of plastic with a bar that could hold 70 lbs. I then re-attached the fan to the new mount. All was complete by 11:00 AM.

I would like to thank my son Zac for bringing the fan to my attention. The little guy is very perceptive!

Good night,

-Andy

Bad Weather in Nebraska

Hello all,

Good morning. I woke up early this morning and to check the weather. After visiting the Nation Weather Service's page I made the reluctant call to cancel our trip to Nebraska for Dade's birthday party. After the tornado that went over our house this month, both kids are VERY sensitive to the weather. The last thing I wanted to do was put them both in a car and try to drive through the bear cage of a powerful mid-west thunderstorm. Those of you who have done it know that it is not something that you would like to do anytime soon. Right now, it was not the right time to put them in the car and see how they do with it.

-Andy

Grilling out at Diane's

Hello all,

This is a quick note to let you know we all went over to Diane's this afternoon for a cookout. It was a lot of fun. The kids played Mario Cart on the Wii.

-Andy

Mowed Yard Tonight

Hello all,

Well, it had to be done. I have put it off for two extra days now. The weekly task of cutting the grass was tackled this evening. It only took me 2 hours to cut it. I started at 6:00 and finished at 8:00. I was very happy to come inside and get cleaned up with that chore behind me this weekend!

-Andy

Rained this morning

Hello all,

Well, the rain is falling today. My drive took over an hour to get to work this morning. There were three accidents on 435 which impeded my progress to Overland Park. I walked in the door at 8:15 this morning and got to work.

Tonight Jen and I are heading to the gym to get a workout in. I'm hoping to get some time in the gym and start building my endurance back up. Anything is better than where I am at right now.

-Andy

Making good progress

Hello all,

It has been eight days since I started at eVergance and I am feeling great about my decision to leave Embarq. In these days, I have built a Javamail server from Sun. I have also learned how to compile Java classes from a WSDL using Tomcat's wscompile. This shop is built around the philosophy of smart people solving difficult problems. Embarq is nothing like this place. There is too much dead wood around that place and people like me get mixed up in the mediocrity of the environment.

-Andy

It's my birthday!

Hello all,

Today is my birthday and I want to thank my wife Jennifer to a wonderful day today. She and the kids sent me a plant to work with the card reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! ALL OUR LOVE, BEAR, BOO & BALL. It was a perfect gift for a guy who is new to an office. I didn't want to walk in today and say Hey, it's my birthday!!. It is not in my nature anyway. It was nice to have my new friends wish me well on the day. Thanks Bear!

Tonight we went out to Olive Garden with Diane, Vanna, Kellen, Jen and the kids. We had a great meal and then went back to our house for cake. Jen and Vanna watched American Idol while Kellen and I laughed at their infatuation with the show. We will all laugh about this entry in 10 years and ask? What was American Idol? Just for our records, it is a reality TV show where they are trying to find the best singer.

Good night! Thanks for the perfect birthday Jennifer!

-Andy

Working on getting pictures out

Hello all,

I am working on getting pictures into the gallery for your viewing. The new camera is VERY nice and Jennifer and I really enjoyed taking pictures of the kids at Mercury Gymnastics the other day.

-Andy

Ride around the block

Hello all,

Today was a first for Ali and Zac. They both took a ride around the block on their bikes. They each had on a helmet and their bikes had training wheels. Mom and I were both proud of them for their stamina. The hills are hard you know. :)

-Andy

Gymnastics Sprint Fling

Hello all,

This afternoon Ali and Zac put on a performance for the world to see. Yep, Mercury Gymnastics put on their annual Spring Fling where each of the students could show their skills on four disciplines. Zac's class demonstrated skills on parallel bars, high bar, pommel horse and rings. Ali's class demonstrated balance beam, trampoline, uneven bars and floor exercise.

Jennifer and I were joined this afternoon by her father Larry and his wife Patty Ann. We all enjoyed watches Ali and Zac beamed with excitement as they showed what they had learned in class over the last six months.

-Andy

Final Paycheck from Embarq

Hello all,

I will say it did sadden me to see my final paycheck come in from Embarq. Ten years were summed up on one piece of paper. That chapter of my life is over now. On to bigger and better things.

-Andy

Making progress

Hello all,

I am making good progress on my mailet program. I am really doing a proof of concept for my teammate Jason. Once I get that completed, I need to work on getting my notes in order to turn over to him Monday morning.

Tonight I really didn't do anything special. Jennifer and I were going to go to the gym, but it took longer to get home than expected and we stayed home. I played a few rounds of Tiger Woods Golf and shut if off in utter frustration. I think they have the game as real as possible since I stink at it. I could blame the equipment, but it is just my swing.... Who knew it could be transferred into my virtual character?

Good night,

-Andy

Working on my mailet

Hello all,

Well, they say no program is written from scratch and I am continuing the trend. I downloaded a sample from Apache today and have been customizing it from the second it came into the IDE. I have been leveraging the JAR files that I have come across and now I have a fully compiled sample program. Not too bad for my third day on the job. I have not written a program like this in a long time. To be honest, I always start out at the beginning. Yep, I had a simple print statement that sent a message of "Hello World" to the console. It was a good feeling to have it actually do what I wanted it to do. As I said yesterday, it is the first week of school and my brain is working overtime to get back into the groove.

-Andy

Day Two

Hello all,

Well, my access card did not work this morning when I tried to get into the building. Oh well, I should not have expected everything to work on the first try. When I finally was allowed access, I came into the office and started to work on my mailserver. We are using James from Apache to act as an internal mailserver for our client. I've never had a mailserver before, but I took the challenge and ran with it. By 2:30 I had it up and running in the test environment. The rest of the world does not know it exists, but I do.

Well, off to work on my mail-let. It is another new word I learned this week. Embarq is SO far behind in what it is doing out there. I feel like it is the first day of school and I've been away for the summer...

Good night,

-Andy

First Day at eVergance

Hello all,

Today I started at eVergance. I have gotten to know a few of the guys on the team and I think I fit in well. I'll keep you posted as the weeks and months progress.

-Andy

Not feeling well

Hello all,

It is Mother's Day and I'm not feeling well. I'm running a fever and in bed right now. Jennifer is having to deal with the kids while I'm upstairs. I hope that they are not making her crazy.

-Andy

Mom is in town

Hello all,

Last night my mom drove down from Randolph to visit the family. It was nice to have her down for the night. Jennifer and I had a spa in Ottawa. Diane and Mom took Ali and Zac to her Brownies meeting.

Mom brought Aunt Dorthy's curio cabinet down for Jennifer and I to have. It is very nice to have this family heirloom in our house. We went out for breakfast this morning and then headed back to the house to let mom get on her way home. Thank you for coming down mom!

-Andy

Final Day at Embarq

Hello all,

This is it. My last day at Embarq. I have been here 10 years, 4 months, 4 days and some hours... I'm planning on leaving here after lunch with Chris at Korma Sutra. I'll let you know how things go.

-Andy

Team Lunch

Hello all,

Just a quick note today. The team took me to lunch today at Cinzetties. It was my final roast by the team. There were a lot of laughs shared by all. I could tell that it will be a long day tomorrow for many of us, including me.

-Andy

Going away party for me

Hello all,

Tonight at 4:00 is my going away party at Fox & The Hound. I was wanting it to be a small gathering of my friends. Now it has turned into a large gathering of people who are wanting to wish me on in style. I hope it does not get too out of control tonight.

-Andy

Packing Up

Hello all,

The task of giving stuff away is starting to occur. I have given away many of the SODS heirlooms to Chris Wilson and Xioaying Fan. I am keeping my books for myself. I have given the Boss Toss toy to Eric Banda. He will be the next go leave Embarq if the trend continues. I am trying to dump as much information into everyone's head as I can. I'm sure I'll be called from time to time, but for the most part I assume that things will slow down a few weeks after I am gone.

Better get going...

-Andy

Last Monday At Embaq

Hello all,

Today is my last Monday at Embarq. I came to that realization while walking through the front door today. I pause to think about all of my friends that have moved on before me. It has been a good 10 years.

-Andy

Resuming Normal Life

Hello all,

It is weird how quickly some things return to normal. There are kids playing in our neighborhood again as the wine of chainsaws reverberate in the distance. I sat on my deck for a while this afternoon taking it all in. We were very lucky in deed.

-Andy

Power again

Hello all,

We regained power at 12:30 this afternoon. Jen and I had just returned from K-Mart where we had gone to pass some time this morning. It is so nice to have power again. We have started the process of tossing food from the refrigerator and freezer. I will mow the yard later this afternoon after I finish cleaning up the yard.

-Andy

Tornado

Hello all,

I am writing this from my desk at work. Last night we had a strong F-2 tornado go through our neighborhood. The hardest hit area was at 77th and Euclid, two blocks away. Homes are destroyed. We do not have power at home, but at least we have a home. When I left the house this morning we have some branches down and some scrapes on the side of the house. Other than that, we have been spared.

-Andy

Thunderstorms Are Coming

Hello all,

It is all over the TV and radio tonight. We are in for a long string of intense thunderstorms. It is almost 9:00 PM and we have been in warning and watches since 5:30 in the afternoon. The sirens have gone off a few times, but the weather has passed to our South and East. The kids are doing fine right now. They are getting ready for bed. So far the weather has not interrupted power. We'll see how that lasts.

Good night,

-Andy