Shock

My best friend is now living my worst nightmare. Last night, around 9:10 pm CST, his wife passed away due to a massive strep infection causing many complications, organ shut down being one of them. They have 2 children, ages 5 and 3. We are all currently in a state of shock, just not really sure what to do next. I want to thank everyone who sent their prayers. Please continue to pray for them as we all struggle with how and why this happened. When I'm a little more cognizant, I will post a more detailed explanation. I actually found out about this at 2:30 this afternoon and by 9:30, she was gone. It's a bit disconcerting.

We need the power of prayer

The wife of a very close friend of mine contracted a pretty bad strep infection that has caused kidney failure and then more serious complications. She is not doing well and the prognosis is not good. I am about to head out to the hospital to see what I can do, but please keep them in your prayers. Their names are Tony and Cathy.
Thank you.

Preparing for summer

With summer on the horizon and lawn care duties ready to start, I think I need an upgrade of my lawn mower. I was thinking of something along the lines of a 900 CC Lawn Mower. Now to make this economical, I think cetan and I should get together on this one. We would do my puny 1/4 acre lot in about 1 minute, then do his larger plot of land in 9 minutes. What do you say cetan?

I'm always the last to know

Apparently, the Weekend Scheduling Committee had a meeting recently and they decided to implement a rule change. Normally, I would be allowed to sleep until 8:00 on weekends if the Pipsqueak got up before then. Today, however, I was informed this would no longer be the case. I only get to sleep for 1 hour past when the Pipsqueak wakes up. Of course, I was notified of this change at 7:30, exactly 1 hour after the Pipsqueak woke up. Wouldn't you think a little forewarning would be in order here? I didn't even get to see the minutes of the meeting where this was decided. *sigh* I really should try to find out when these meetings are.

Career Enrichment

Okay, so I don't make a post for over a week, then I slam you all with 3 in the space of 15 minutes. Sorry.
I've decided I want to take some more training outside of work. A couple of friends of mine took courses offered by the Game Institute.com. I really like the courses I see offered and they are really out of the realm that I do now. Just so you know, the main skill set I currently employ at Otorolamay is as an Embedded Real-Time C Programmer. These days, that isn't a very widely marketable skill set. These courses would give me experience in object oriented programming, something I have very little exposure to. It would also give me the chance to program on a Win32 platform instead of my normal Unix. There is all this, plus it would just be cool to know how to program a 3D game. Fortunately, Debbie is totally behind me on this. I think it will be a lot of fun. I'll let you know how it turns out.

New routine

I would like to propose a new routine for the Pipsqueak (I'm trying this nickname out for a while). For 2 solid weeks, she has been getting up at an ungodly hour of 6:45-7:15. Okay ... so it's not THAT ungodly, but it is ungodly for me. However, with Auntie Heather running the Pipsqueak's bed time routine, the little bugger woke up at 8:15 today. HOORAY!!! So, from now on, I would like Auntie Heather to come over eveyr night and put her to bed. What do you say Auntie Heather?

A PSA to my friends in Chicago

If you haven't seen the daily stories about the Dan Ryan Construction Project, then let me sum them up with an actualy quote from IDOT: "Avoid the Dan Ryan for the next 2 years".
Yes folks, IDOT wants to make it very clear that you should in no way drive on the section of 90-94 south of the city. They are completely shutting down the express lanes leaving exactly 2 lanes for the 300,00 cars that travel that route daily. So, as a dutiful citizen of Chicago, I feel I should help spread the word. Go to IDOT's site: http://avoiddanryan.com. Gee, do you think they want us off the Dan Ryan? The alternate routes recommended are Lake Shore Drive and Ashland Ave, just so you know. In 2 years, this will be very nice, but until then ... ugh.