Week of August 20, 2007

Good:
1. Jen went over to SeaPines on Friday to visit with everyone as well as a couple old friends Jen and Joni - who stopped over to visit as well. Unfortunately Keegan didn’t exactly cooperate so Jen and Keegan had to leave a little early.
2. Neil and Kelly found out that they are having a girl. We are really excited for them. Their dog Gauss (http://gausspontificates.blogspot.com/) seemed really excited as well.
3. The software team was successful in selling off their software. They had a couple touch and go moments throughout the week but it turned out well. They worked very hard and we celebrated with a Pizza Party on Friday. It was fun.

Bad:
1. Thursday afternoon Keegan came down with a little fever. It lasted through the evening however it broke and had passed by the next Morning. The poor little guy was very warm and just wasn’t himself. I felt really bad he had sweated so much we had to change his clothes. I told Keegan that we wasn’t allowed to get sick. Apparently that worked because he was better the next day.
2. I felt a little under the weather on Saturday. It wasn’t terrible – my throat was scratchy and I was a tired. I feel better today so hopefully I beat this.
3. Juicy is very upset that Jen and Keegan are leaving. He can tell – mostly because of the big packed suitcase in our bedroom. I’m not sure if he can tell though that I’m staying behind. I’m sure he would be much more relaxed if he knew that.

Week of August 13, 2007

Good:
1. Jen was driving past an antique toy store and noticed they were selling a used jogging stroller. We decided to go check it out on Saturday. First we realized that it didn’t really seem to be an antique or a toy. If it was an antique – it was a nice antique. They were asking $59 bucks for this guy. It is a Schwinn – its German – the Porsche of jogging strollers. The front break needs to be tweaked. I’ll have to see if I can get some help adjusting that. Anyway we were able to get it for an even $50. I can’t wait to take it for a spin. On a side note – of course we decided to celebrate the purchase by going to Cold Stone Creamery to get some ice cream.
2. We got the switch back from manufacturing and ran it hot and cold so far so good. The customer is coming to our work on Tuesday to check our progress – among other things. We are planning to take a trip to California the week of September 10 to help them integrate it. So it really has to be ready to go by then.
3. Personally I think Jen is beautiful, amazing, the love of my life so I love her just the way she it but she is excited that she only has 6 more lbs to lose to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight.
4. Our friends Rob and Tonya – who live in Kentucky – are due in March. We are really excited for them.

Bad:
1. We took Keegan to the doctor to get his 4 month shots. They gave him 3 needles in the leg and make him drink some sweet medicine. It was really tough to watch our little boy get stuck like that. He was rather uncomfortable. Jen was proactive this time and gave him baby Tylenol to make sure he didn’t get a fever. He was tough and did really well, though he his little legs were swollen last night. He’s seems better today – Saturday. In addition to the shots the doctor confirmed that his head is small. She wasn’t overly concerned that his head was small though she didn’t like that the space between the growth plates on the top of his head was a little small. There’s not much we can do except monitor his developmental progress. He seems really aware to me, he improves every day. I really think that it helps Jen stays home and interacts with him. That’s about the most we can do.
2. Jan (Jen’s alter ego that comes out while she sleeps) needs a night guard. Apparently Jan grinds her teeth at night so that is causing Jen’s teeth to be more sensitive than normal. Stress is a (rhymes with witch) . . .
3. I had to go to work late on Thursday night – from 11:30PM to about 2:00AM. I had to run some thermal tests for the switch. I had to be back at work by 9:00AM the next morning. We are running continual thermal tests through out the weekend. I “volunteered” for Friday. Tena volunteered for Saturday and Tam for Sunday. Hopefully all will go well. My shift went well. But my schedule it kind of messed up now. I had to take some WallQuil – that’s wallmart’s version of Nyquil to get settled down.

Week of August 6, 2007

Note to readers:

As you can see the web site now has a sponser. It was interesting to see that our plumbing story generated enough interest for advertising. Why did I decided to allow advertising? It is not for the money. It takes 50,000 hits to the web site to generate $1. At most I think the site gets about 10 unique hits a week. That means it will take 500 weeks or ~10 years to get one dollar. I decided to allow advertising to support Google. I don't have to pay anything in order to publish this site and they seem to keep the posts around for quite some time. Anyway that's the reason.

Good:

1. The drain is now unplugged. We went to Home Depot - which had a much better selection of snakes. We got a 25' rooter. It has a hand crank on the top. It worked much better than the original drill driven snake - although it cost twice as much. I won't tell you the rest of the story but the bottom line is that we can now use the shower in the master bathroom!

2. We fired up the Switch Friday. It took us a little while to get it up and running - basically about 1 day. So far so good. We still have a bunch of testing to complete but we were all excited about our progress so far.

3. Tim, Shannon, and Bryce had us over for a cook out. It was good - in fact it was like Christmas. They gave us all of Bryce's old clothes because they found out they are having a girl. We were excited for them and it really helps getting a leg up in the clothes department.

Bad:

1. Jen hasn't felt 100% the last couple of days. There was a woman at my work that had come down with something. I felt a little bad myself - my throat dripped a little and I had a headache. Jen had the same sympotms but I think they bothered her a little more.

2. We found out at work the flexes for the box due 9/4 are not going to come in until the 8/20 and 8/21. That really does not give us much time at all to finish building the two boxes by 9/4. We will be sprinting to the end.

3. Keegan cut his little toe. Jen took him outside and he pushed off on the side walk and scraped his little toe. It really isn't that bad but he keeps kicking off the bandaide.

Week of July 30, 2007

Good:

1. The File Server successfully passed Risk Reduction Vibe Testing. We only tested one unit however that provides hope that we will be successfull when we go into Qual testing. The door latch still isn't great - we need to fix that design. However that will have to wait and be a product improvement for the future.

2. Keegan seems to be eating on a much more regular schedule - about 4 times a day. He typically eats between 6 and 8 ounces at a time.

3. Jen and Keegan made arrangements for a trip up to PA - from August 28th to September 4th. I'm not real happy because I will miss them however it is good timing. We have two sets of deliveries one for the 4th and the other for the 7th so I'll be busy. It will be nice for Jen and Keegan to visit with everyone up north.

Bad:

1. In addition to the vibe testing we completed thermal risk reduction testing. We identified a problem at cold and at hot. We were able to make a modification to some code to fix the hot problem. The cold problem we're not so sure about. We've decided to screen the next handful of cards before building them all up. I tested another unit at cold and it did not have the same cold problem. It is possible that a solder joint crack could be the cause which is a manufacturing defect - not a design defect.

2. Jen has been feeling a little tired. It has been helpful with Keegan sleeping so late however Jen does get up a couples times a night to put his bink back in this mouth. It will get better - plus she has gotten to sleep in the last couple of days.

3. Jen got another snake for the bathroom and it broke as well. Last night I got another type all together. If this doesn't work I'll have to call the plumber.