Day with Zac

Hello all,

After church today, Ali went back to Grandma Diane's house for the afternoon while Zac came home with me to do guy stuff.

This afternoon Zac and I just played games on the Wii and played around the house. It was nice to just have the day with him.

-Andy

More Practice...

Hello all,

Just a short entry today about Ali and her bike riding lessons: This afternoon we again worked on balance and pumping her feet. She progressed in her skills and can now ride with confidence in a straight line. Turning is the main issue with Ali. She ran into Mr. King's bushes on the right and hit the birdhouse pole on her left. Both of these obstacles she hit with some force and bruised her ego. We sat on the front steps and talked about it for a while. I assured her that EVERYONE learns to ride a bike like this. NO ONE just gets on it and rides without falling down. That did not help as much as I had hoped.

Good night,

-Andy

Training and Testing

Hello all,

Today I attended JUNIT training. It was an 8 hour course with that had a test at the end of the day. The test was 11 questions long and in order to pass the class I needed to get an 80% or better. Needless to say it was a little stressful...

On the bright side, Ali continued to make progress as she learns to ride her bike without training wheels. She can go straight and brake. She is still learning how to turn and not tip over.

Good night,

-Andy

Java 5 Training

Hello all,

Today I attended my first training session on Java 5 training. The most important part of class was the topic of Generics and how they assist with development. In short, the programmer can instantiate an array or list with a default data type. That will really help in keeping the array's from being used or filled with objects that they were not intended to be used for.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow I'm in training on JUNIT testing. I'm sure I'll learn a lot more there...

-Andy

New Season of Gymnastics

Hello all,

It has been a good day for me. I was able to test my first software change for Vision. It is a simple change. I'll be doing some javascript validation prior to the page being submitted to the server for processing. I know that it is not the most fantastic thing I've ever coded in my professional life, but at least I have something to show for my efforts now after three weeks at DST.

Tonight is Ali and Zac's first day of Fall gymnastics. I'm sure the place will be packed with plenty of kids that watched the Olympics on TV and think they are going to be the next superstar. I am realistic. Both of my kids will more than likely be over 6 feet tall. Ali is predicted to be 6'2 and Zac 6'8. If the Olympics are in their future, it will need to be in a tall person's sport like volleyball or basketball.

I hope you are all having a good day.

-Andy

Long Day

Hello all,

It was a long day for our family. Jennifer has been battling a migraine headache for two days so that is a bummer. The kids had school and then went to Grandma Diane's house after school while Jennifer and I attended Oakwood Manor's parents night. I came from work to the school. We listened to the principal go over some of the changes that they have made since the beginning of school and highlights of the coming events for the Fall and Winter quarters. It was then off to visit with Ali and Zac's teacher.

The event was over at 7:30 and I went to Diane's house to get the kids to allow Jennifer to return home and lay down. I walked through the door to my house at 8:05. I fixed myself a scrambled egg and toast for dinner and then helped get the kids ready for bed. All was quiet by 9:15 and I could finally settle down for the night.

-Andy

Kids Days...

Hello all,

Good evening from the Scott household. Today was an uneventful day for most of us. The kids had a great time at school. Zac's favorite thing today was playing on the scooters in PE. Ali enjoyed going to art today and working on her project. Jennifer and I didn't do a lot out of the ordinary at work. I went to a few meetings and participated in a team discussion about source code control procedures. Let me tell you it does not get much more exciting than talking about source code control. Maybe paint drying is more exciting...
To round it off, Jennifer had a good day at work. She has not caught up on her paperwork, but she says that she never will. I guess that is job security.

Good night,

-Andy

More Birthday Parties

Hello all,

Today we went to Riley Louder's birthday party at Mercury Gymnastics. The kids had a great time playing on the equipment and showing mom and dad what they can do. Zac really liked swinging on the rope and jumping into the foam pit. His smile was great.

After the party we came back to the house and mom showed the kids that she had skills playing Wii Carnival. I sat in my chair and watched the kids cheer mom on as she tried to win prizes at each of the virtual game booths. Way to go Jen. You are a rock star.

Later this evening we went to the grocery store for the weeks supplies. It was not as bad as it could have been, but it still hurt the pocket book a bit. After shopping everyone helped to carry the groceries into the house and put them away. Then Ali and Zac helped each other set the table while Jennifer and I made dinner.

It was soon time for bathes, brushing teeth and bed. What a great day.

-Andy

Shopping

Hello all,

In a word, I'm tired. The day has drained me. We left this morning for a shopping trip to Liberty for birthday presents at Target. After walking around the store several times, Ali settled on a Pet Shop toy and Moon Sand for the two presents for this weekends parties. We ate at Chicago Uno for lunch and then headed home to get ready for Brett York's 3rd birthday party. I was hoping the kids would have a chance to grab a quick nap before the party, but it was not to be. We headed over to the party at 5:30 and left around 7:30 after Ali bumped her nose while jumping on the trampoline.

Everyone was in bed by 9:00 and resting peacefully.... Finally some peace and quiet for dad.

-Andy

Friday Night at the Scott House

Hello all,

It is Friday and that means the weekend is almost here. Tonight the family is having the newly weds Vanna and Kellen over for dessert and then games outside. I'm sure that Zac will want to show Kellen his awesome golf swing.

-Andy

Getting Better

Hello all,

It is Thursday!!! Yippee.

Tomorrow the kids will have completed their first full week of school and I will have completed my second week at DST. I'm getting the lay of the land slowly but surely here at DST. This morning I was assigned my first work item. I'll be adding a logo to the splash page of vision. It is not a challenging task, but it will take me time to learn the process of checking items into and out of the source code control library.

-Andy

Had to take a test

Hello all,

Today was a good day for me at DST. This morning I had a follow-up meeting with my manager and supervisor about the DST culture and how I'm fitting in with the team. They were pleased with my effort to get into the groove and become productive. I know that it will be at least another two or three weeks before I'm in a position to start working on code.

The big kicker came after my 12:30 meeting and I was informed I would be taking a Java 1.5 skills assessment at 1:00 downtown. I had thirty minutes to get my stuff and get downtown. I walked into the classroom at 1:07 and started to take a three hour test. I finished by 3:30 and was on my way home with questions in my head. The big one was the difference between StringBuffer and String. The next one was what is autoboxing in Java 5? At home I gave it a quick Google search and found my answers. I love Google...

Tonight's dinner is Yankee Pot Roast. I can't wait to try this new recipe. It really sounds good.

-Andy

Great Day

Hello all,

What a beautiful day outside today. It is 82° F with a sight wind out of the South -- gorgeous. It is hard to think that I am in an office for the better part of a day with the best weather we have had in a long time just waiting outside. Oh well...

As for the family, Ali and Zac had great days at school yesterday. Ali is really going to enjoy first grade while Zac is LOVING being in kindergarten with Ms. Servatis. Jen and I could not be happier to have two great children.

Tonight, Ali and Zac are going to have a play date with Jackson, Iva and Tilly Smith at our house. It has been a while since Jen Smith has been over and it will do the kids some good to have an hour or two to play with someone other than each other.

Good night,

-Andy

Week #2

Hello all,

It has been another day of reading documentation and setting up my PC for my position. I am using Eclipse as my IDE and Weblogic 10 as my webserver. The company leverages a different source code control tool than I am accustomed to, but I'm sure under the covers it will work about the same as any other tool I have used. After being here a week, the one thing I have noticed is the office is very cold. I sit to the left of a major vent for the HV/AC. I am wearing a golf pullover right now and it is helping to keep the chill off my back and shoulders.

On a brighter note, Ali started 2nd grade today and Zac returned for his second day of Kindergarten. Jennifer took them both to Perkins this morning for breakfast. This is the first year I have not attended the annual feast of pancakes. I took 2 hours on Friday to take Zac to his first day of school and that is about all I could ask for from a team I have only been with for three days.

-Andy

Resting

Hello all,

Today the family is going to rest and recuperate from Vanna and Kellen's Wedding yesterday. We all had a great time dancing at the reception. Zac and Ali were showing the crowd all of the moves they have "created" for the event. Sunday is about a day of rest. We are ALL looking forward to it.

-Andy

Getting Ready for the Wedding

Hello all,

Today is all about hustling around and getting the family to where it needs to be on time for the wedding. Both Ali and Zac are responsible for handing out the programs. This morning I am heading to Liberty to find Zac some brown shoes to match his new shirt and pants.

Wish me luck.

-Andy

Learning...

Hello all,

Today was about learning more about the Vision system. It is a huge system with a lot of moving parts. The good news is my team seems very patient with me.

-Andy

Learning...

Hello all,

Today is my first full day at my office. I have already had the tour and now it is about getting my PC set up.

-Andy

Overwhelmed

Hello all,

I feel like the new kid in school. Everyone is very nice and I'm looking forward to getting to know them all and work with them.

-Andy

Half day of orientation and then on to the office

Hello all,

I had my second day of orientation this morning at the downtown building. So far everyone is very nice and helpful. I did a better job navigating the downtown traffic this morning. I'm sure I had a hard time learning Overland Park traffic patterns at first, too. Downtown traffic is just another pattern to learn. I'll have it down soon.

-Andy

First Day at DST

Hello all,

This morning is my first day at DST. I'll be reporting to New Employee Orientation at 8:00. Wish me luck.

-Andy

Under the weather

Hello all,

Jennifer and I have the stomach flu today. Not the most fun thing to have the day before you start a new position.

-Andy

Last Day of Bowling this summer for the kids

Hello all,

You can feel the end of summer approaching. The kids had their last day of summer bowling this morning. There are back to school ads on TV. Yep, it is almost time to hang up the swimming suits and call it over.

-Andy

Last Friday at home

Hello all,

I straightened up the house this afternoon and did some grocery shopping for the family today. Not a lot to report on other than that.

-Andy

New Haircut

Hello all,

With my first day at DST coming up on Monday, I went to get a haircut this afternoon. It must have been a while since I had it cut based on the hair on the floor.

-Andy

Pool

Hello all,

Today the kids and I went to the pool. We were there from 2:00 until 7:00. That is a long time to be at the pool, but they were having fun playing with the York boys (Toffer and Brett).

-Andy

AC...

Hello all,

Well, I forgot to tell you about what we walked into on Sunday when we returned. Our AC was out. We were attacked by ants that are attracted to magnetic fields. They fried themselves on our capacitor! That was working by 9:00 Sunday then it was hit again Monday morning! Darn ants...

I nuked them now. I went to Lowes and bought some granular ant killer and sprayed the entire unit with ant killer yesterday. So far so good. I could not believe it. Ants that like electricity. Who knew?

-Andy

Rebuilding the computer

Hello all,

Our HP laptop crashed on the Wednesday before we left and I have been working on getting it back up and running since then. I finally have Norton working on it again and now I'm loading the other software on it. It is a painful process of loading and rebooting. I hope that Jennifer appreciates all of this work because it sure is not fun.

-Andy

Magic Quest and Heading Home

Hello all,

I neglected to write about the Magic Quest. There was an interactive scavenger hunt on the eight floors of the hotel. Jennifer and I purchased two wands for the kids to use to complete the eight quests. They finished their final step last night around 9:00. We are done! It is a miracle. We must have walked 5 miles of stairs in the last three days.

We are almost ready to check of the hotel and return the rental car. We rented a Kia Minivan. It is very nice. We may just have to look at a Kia when we are looking for our next vehicle.

-Andy

Day 2

Hello all,

My kids must be fish. We were in the pool for a long time today. I finally convinced Zac to try to go down slides for kids his size. You know what. He liked it. He cried at first, but was eager to get back in line to do it again. Wow... You would think he is actually going to like being on the bigger slides.

-Andy

Day 1

Hello all,

I'm exhausted. Vacation is tough business with two kids that NEVER seem to run out of energy. I took Jen over to the conference center this morning for her 9:00 start. On my way back I stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee and get me ready for what I knew would be a long day. When I returned to the room, the kids had already eaten breakfast (cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins from Kroger's). It was time to go to the water park.

At first Zac did not want to go down any of the slides. Ali was soon bored with the small kids pool and wanted to venture into the wave pool. Grandma went with her as I stayed with Zac. For the next two hours, that is pretty much what I did. I stood in two feet of water and watched Zac slide down an eight foot slide -- slowly. He was happy, but I wanted him to try the bigger slides for kids his own age.

It was soon time for lunch so we headed back to the room to change into street clothes and pick up mom. We were off to Subway for lunch.

After lunch, we all returned to the room for a much needed rest. Zac took a nap while everyone else read books.

For the evening, Jennifer and Diane went over for the conference while I took the kids out for Mexican food and then back for more swimming. At 9:00 I picked Diane and Jennifer up and headed back to the hotel for the night. I'm pooped.

-Andy