Rainy day

After a few days of sunny Spring weather, we're getting the April Showers. Took a day off just to do a few things around the house. (Mainly, get the molding around the upstairs bedroom off the walls so we can get the last of the ugly wallpaper off.) And tonight, a new episode of LOST. We've also been watching DVDs of Freaks and Geeks. We have one last episode of that to watch. That show was so cool, pity it didn't even last a season.

As I'm typing this I got a recorded message from Minneapolis Public Schools about an event at school. I'm really starting to hate these reminders. I much rather get an email about these than have to sit through a recorded phone message. Are they worried I won't read the email? Then they should know that I've been hanging up on the recorded message after the first 2 seconds. I much rather have a place to choose my preference (phone or email)--but I know of no such option on the Minneapolis system.

Oh, well. Back to my mental preparations for LOST. Ommmmm!

Long walks

Tonight Wendy and I had some child care tonight, so we went out for dinner. Nothing fancy--just Davani's Pizza. Afterwards we drove up to the 35W Bridge site, parked the car, and walked across the 10th Ave. Bridge that's next to the site. It is amazing watching the new bridge go up. I think I'm going to try to get back there this weekend with my camera and take some pictures. We then walked through the U campus and ended up crossing the river across a pedestrian/bike bridge that use to carry the railroad across the river. From that bridge you could see where all the pieces of the old 35W bridge have been placed in a U parking lot for inspection.

Back in 1992 when I was interviewing for a job at Cray Research here in MN, I was also interviewing for a job with Cray Corporation in Colorado Springs, CO. It was finally a long walk around Lake Harriet that helped us decided that where we belonged was here in the Twin Cities.

Nice Saturday

Wendy took Tommy to his piano lesson and then lunch. Tony just wanted to stay home and in reality so did I. Sunny day above 32 degrees after too many days of sub-zero weather. Time to get things done around the house and listen to the Met broadcast of Carmen broadcast from NYC. Nice change of pace after a stressful week at work.

A buzz cut

Today I cut my hair. A buzz cut. I was so worried it would be a Britney Spears moment.

I've been going to the same barber for a number of years now. It took a while for me to find one I liked. You see, I want a buzz cut. A nice simple buzz cut. The problem I ran into is that most places that I went to that know something about a good buzz cut also double as a "Right-wing, Red-State, Sportsman's Club, Chest beating, Do you want a porn magazine?, I'm more manly than you" barber shop. Going to a Great Clips really annoyed me. There, most times it was a woman who gave the buzz cut. I'm not trying to be sexist, but for whatever reason I was never happy with these cuts. There was just part of me that said "You just don't get it." (BTW--I did have a great barber, NOT stylist, once who was a woman who did a great buzz cut. But she specialized in men's hair. I think that was probably the point. She had done it enough to really figure it out.)

What I want is an old-man Italian barber shop. This is different from the type of barber shop I described above. They are (or were) common in the area around Pittsburgh where I grew up. This was a man's place, but not in a "I have to prove my manhood" kind of way. It was a place that said (without speaking) "You--you Italian. This is an Italian Barbershop. Be comfortable. You were born knowing how to act. No need to prove. How short do you want it today?"

A Buzz Cut is like Good Italian cooking. It is actually quite simple. The skill is knowing EXACTLY how much and EXACTLY when to do something.

My problem has been I live in Minnesota. There aren't a lot of Italians up here. But I finally found a Scandinavian barber shop I liked. It's a man's place, but relaxed. And they know how to give a good buzz cut. There are two barbers there I really like. But they are both nearing retirement (or actually past it). They have a new guy (who is probably my age). I've had a couple haircuts with him, but each time I'm not happy with the buzz cut I get. Now the barber I like the most is only working on Saturdays and the other one I like only works once or twice a week. Sigh.

So, I decided to take matters in my own hands. A buzz cut. It is the simplest of haircuts. We have a trimmer from back when the boys were younger. I figured if I really screwed it up I'll go find a barber (but not the place I normally go to) and have them fix it. I'll use the longest trim guard so there will be some slack to fix if needed.

I did it. Just followed the contours of my head. I kept telling myself "Take it slow. Don't push. Don't force." I walked upstairs to show Wendy. She was shocked...

"Wow, it looks really good" she said in great surprise. Wendy and I have been married long enough for her to know sometimes you just have to let me make a mess of things and then go fix it. I think she was expecting that today. But instead... "You look like you do when you come home from the barber."

There's part of me that is proud and happy. Plus I probably saved about $25 (with tip). But there is part of me that still wants a good old Italian barber.

(However, Wendy pointed out: "You know, you'll still need to go back sometimes to fix that beard of yours.)

Dave is back

Well, Letterman is back! And he has a beard--good for him! I wonder if he is going to shave it off when the writer's strike ends?

A good vacation

Well, tomorrow it is back to work. It is so crazy--I've been resisting the urge to check my work email all day. I think it is just that as a working geek you deal with information all day long. Being on top of that info helps to keep you ahead. BUT... there are times when you really need to just breathe, relax. Those emails will be there tomorrow and another day of resting my mind will help me keep it all in balance.

So.... Ommmmmmm... I will resist the emails.... Ommmmmmm....

Heroes is back on its game

I just watched the best episode of the season so far of Heroes. (Online no less--had a meeting Monday night.) Finally, it is back on its game. We had all the things that make Heroes cool to watch. The Sci-Fi, the secrets, the children, the parents--everything! And I guess just two episodes until this chapter finishes up and we're left to wait for the end of the strike--argh! (If anyone needed proof how important the writers are, this is the episode to watch!)

Recycle, Reuse

A while back I mentioned an IKEA bed frame that we bought last year. Never again! We got a new box springs and mattress for the bed and found that the design of the bed frame allowed the box springs to slip through the frame and get unevenly wedged! So we finally went out and got a new metal bed frame which is great.

The question became what to do with the old bed frame. We felt we couldn't give it away--it was defective. As I was hauling it out Wendy looked at the head board and said "That's a really nice piece of wood. Pity you couldn't use it as a desk."

The light bulb appeared above my head!

IKEA does sell nice table legs. I went and bought a bunch of them. Turned that into my new desk in my study. The foot board turned out to be a very nice elevated shelf for the the back of the desk. So now I don't feel quite as bad about the purchase of the bed frame. But still--I don't think I'll be buying anything like that from IKEA anytime soon.

In honor of Halloween

I've decided to change the colors on our blog in honor of Halloween and autumn. My latest craze has been del.icio.us. To quote from their about page:

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

They have a feature where you can display your favorite tags on your blog or webpage--hence the new item on our blog. Follow one of those links to see the things I've marked on the web.

I think we're going to need a ladder

Last year we bought a new bed from IKEA. The bed frame is great, but the mattress died after one year. (It was cheap, you get what you pay for.)

But now we have the "bowling ball" mattress. (You drop a bowling ball on one side and a glass of water won't spill on the other side.) But, is it high! We need a ladder to get in. (Or a springboard.)

The Feast of Saint Bruce and the Liturgy of the Gin and Tonic

Bruce would laugh if he knew I referred to him as "Saint Bruce". Bruce was a friend of mine who died of cancer on September 12th, 2001.

He had a great sense of humor and he had married another good friend of mine. I had made so many jokes about them as a couple (he was like 10 years older than her) that I had to promise (at their wedding) that I would "support this marriage".

Bruce died very early on 9/12. He and many of his friends had all worked at the same company (including my manager). We all hopped in cars and drove over to his house to be with his wife. Bruce's favorite drink was gin and tonic. Sometime in the afternoon we made a big pitcher of G&T's and all had one last toast to Bruce.

And that is what I'm intending to do today. I'm filing this under "Life is good" because I am very thankful that I knew Bruce.

9/11/2007

Last night I was trying to remember what 9/11/01 was like. I have such scattered memories from that day. I remember walking in the St. Paul skyway from the YMCA to my office and seeing a crowd of people gather in-front of TVs that were mounted in a bank lobby. I slowed down and saw the first pictures of the hole in one of the towers.

I remember getting back to my desk and trying to call home. It seems to me that the phone lines where starting to go crazy and I couldn't get through at first. When I did get a hold of Wendy she told me she was seeing it on TV. I think while we were talking we heard of the second tower getting hit.

Somewhere in all this my manager, Diane, came by to tell me to go the hospital because Bruce was saying "goodbye." Since about January of 2001 my friend Bruce had been fighting lung cancer. He never smoked. For me 9/11 is a tangle of thoughts about loss both national and personal.

That day Bruce said goodbye to many of his friends and his daughter. He was moved from the hospital to some 30 miles away in the country so that he could die at home. I'm pretty sure Bruce was unaware of what had happened that morning. All his friends talked about the events out in the waiting room at the hospital and at his home before the ambulance got there with him.

There was a brief moment at Bruce's home when I was alone with him in the ambulance while things were being prepared for him in the house. I remember I was at such an utter loss for words. Bruce was fighting so hard just to have enough energy to survive the move into the house. I've always wished I could have said something, anything in that moment. I feel like I let him down by being so quiet.

I remember driving home from Bruce's and being aware that I was driving under a sky without jets. Our house is near the airport so the sounds of planes is just background noise to me. On that day it was quiet, and sunny, and blue skied, and so unlike the smoke that rose over New York. So unlike the pain Bruce was in.

And the french word for today is "avis"

And today's word is "avis" (ah-vee), meaning "opinion."

A while back I found the website A French Word a Day. Back in 1994 Wendy and I visited France. Rather than finding the French rude we found them quite helpful if you made the attempt to speak the language. (Having said this I should point out that Wendy is from New York state and I lived there for 8 years.)

Although language was always my weakest subject in school, I had such fun trying to learn a bit of French while we were there. Someday perhaps I'll take a class in it here in town.

So this is "mon avis" for the day. (Hopefully that wasn't a major "faux pas")

A scene from "The House of Gennaula"

(At rise: Father enters dining room. Mother and son, Tommy, is seated at the dining room table. Tommy is playing his Gameboy DS and apparently not listening to the conversation. General small talk between Father and Mother until...)

Mother: ... and Tommy has been a very good boy.

Tommy: (Without looking up from his Gameboy DS) That's what SHE thinks.

(end of scene)

Walk on the Stone Arch Bridge

Wendy and I took a walk tonight on the Stone Arch Bridge. You can still see the wreckage of the 35W bridge. We stopped several times just to stare at it. Normally you could have heard the sound of the traffic from where we were.

But tonight you could just hear the water. The part of the channel that leads up to the lock and dams just above the Stone Arch Bridge was very green and foul smelling. They haven't been opening those locks so the water is very stagnant.

As we were looking for a place to park we actually got pretty close to what is left of the bridge on the north side. It is right next to a childcare center. Since it happened just after six we hope that most of the children were gone and didn't see anything. We think one of the girls that was in Tommy's class last year was on the bus that was on the bridge when it fell. Hope she's OK. We don't think she got hurt, but it must have been so scary.

Happy Sunday

We're having our week-before-labor-day Sunday steaks today. The weather is so great we're not even taking a chance that it will rain next weekend. Time to put those nice T-bones on the grill. Baked potatoes too. I'm marinating tomatoes right now as well to serve.

There is something so simple and elemental about a good steak dinner. We have no plans really for today.

Dolce vita!

Summer is almost over...

I hate August. I hate muggy weather. I'm ready for Fall to begin.

And September will soon be here!

Bridge Down

I thought I’d be posting about the first night of the Fringe Festival.

So far it seems like all of our friends are accounted for. My manager was doing a roll-call yesterday morning just to make sure at work.

Neither Wendy nor I can remember the last time we were on the 35W Bridge. We’ve been avoiding the area because of construction. But Wendy drove over that bridge many times last winter to get to a rehearsal in Nordeast.

The inspection ratings for the other bridges in the area are on the web. The Franklin Ave. bridge actually has a slightly lower rating. I found a report on it and read it. They think although there are problems at the water line and below, it is basically safe because the piers are so massive. Still, I may find other ways to cross the Mississippi. The two bridges I use most often (the Mendota Bridge and the Ford Parkway Bridge) have both been rebuilt (Mendota bridge around 1992-3 and Ford just last year).

It’s so surreal to watch the video of the bridge going down. The west bank pier or truss seems to give out first. I’m not an expert, that’s just what it looks like. Today the WCCO website had video of an area of rust near the pier.

Thank God we’re safe. But you feel so much for the families that have been touched by this. It so easily could have been us.

My kid gets deep on me...

"Dad, when we die, does God delete us?"

--Tommy Gennaula, 1:15pm

Oy Vey!

Today is...

...too darn hot!

93 degrees today. I hate really hot weather. A day to clean out things in the basement.

I may have to renounce my membership in "Minnesotans for Global Warming."