And after:
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch, a terminally ill professor whose earnest farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University became an Internet phenomenon and bestselling book that turned him into a symbol for living and dying well, died Friday. He was 47
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Roadshow pic
Finally, here's our pic from the Antiques Roadshow (I think they caught me before I was really ready):
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A nice end to the day
Man, I'm stuffed. Mom & I are back from having dinner at Stroud's, not too far from the campground. They're known for their pan-fried chicken, and man, was it good. I ate way too much, though, and feel like I can't move.
The afternoon was pretty rainy, so we kind of waited it out until about 3:30, then went to Botanica, which has about two dozen different gardens. It was really pretty amazing. They didn't have their fountains going because Wichita is having some kind of water problem, but the grounds are really beautiful. They seem to really like lantana, which Mom does too. She has several in the front garden at home along the sidewalk. It was neat to pick up some ideas of what else I could plant at home, too. We got rained on a bit, but it also was nice and cool to stroll the gardens.
We'll head home sometime in the morning. It's been a nice break from the routine.
The afternoon was pretty rainy, so we kind of waited it out until about 3:30, then went to Botanica, which has about two dozen different gardens. It was really pretty amazing. They didn't have their fountains going because Wichita is having some kind of water problem, but the grounds are really beautiful. They seem to really like lantana, which Mom does too. She has several in the front garden at home along the sidewalk. It was neat to pick up some ideas of what else I could plant at home, too. We got rained on a bit, but it also was nice and cool to stroll the gardens.
We'll head home sometime in the morning. It's been a nice break from the routine.
That was fast
Well, our "Antiques Roadshow" experience is over. It's really pretty fast and efficient the way they have it set up. Our ticket entry time was 8 a.m., although we went early, getting to there about 7:15 (in the pouring rain) or so, and we were done by 8:30. I imagine that later in the day, you probably end up waiting a lot more, though, as they had the place set up so lines could wind around and around and around before you get to the actual appraisal area.
I took the sketchbook of the African safari, and the appraiser was real interested in it, but she also had a time making out the artist's signature. She had a laptop to look up information, and found someone who might be the artist, but that's not 100 percent certain, since she couldn't compare the signatures on the computer images too well with what was on the book. But she liked the detail of the work in the book, and appraised it at a decent number. Not enough to quit my job, or even pay off the car if I wanted to sell it (which I don't), but it gives me an idea.
She also looked at Mom's watercolor painting, and she really liked that. She conferred with another appraiser, and for a moment I thought they might want to put her TV with it, but it didn't turn out that way. Mom also had some family jewelry looked at, and that turned out about the way she thought, she said. So no big surprise treasures for us, but we had a good time.
The local PBS station was there, and we had our photo taken. They'll have that available for download late next week, so check back Thursday or Friday to see! And I won an Antiques Roadshow tour T-shirt!
Afterwards, we walked around Wichita's Old Town for awhile and had breakfast at a little soda fountain/cafe that's been there since the early 30s. It's ironic we have to go east to Wichita to find a good dish with New Mexico green chiles. Now we're just crashing in the camper and maybe we'll do something later on.
I took the sketchbook of the African safari, and the appraiser was real interested in it, but she also had a time making out the artist's signature. She had a laptop to look up information, and found someone who might be the artist, but that's not 100 percent certain, since she couldn't compare the signatures on the computer images too well with what was on the book. But she liked the detail of the work in the book, and appraised it at a decent number. Not enough to quit my job, or even pay off the car if I wanted to sell it (which I don't), but it gives me an idea.
She also looked at Mom's watercolor painting, and she really liked that. She conferred with another appraiser, and for a moment I thought they might want to put her TV with it, but it didn't turn out that way. Mom also had some family jewelry looked at, and that turned out about the way she thought, she said. So no big surprise treasures for us, but we had a good time.
The local PBS station was there, and we had our photo taken. They'll have that available for download late next week, so check back Thursday or Friday to see! And I won an Antiques Roadshow tour T-shirt!
Afterwards, we walked around Wichita's Old Town for awhile and had breakfast at a little soda fountain/cafe that's been there since the early 30s. It's ironic we have to go east to Wichita to find a good dish with New Mexico green chiles. Now we're just crashing in the camper and maybe we'll do something later on.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Three years and counting
Today was another in my six-month checkups with my oncologist. And everything is pretty good. The X-ray and mammo are good, and my blood test was "perfect," she said. I did discuss with her the fact I seem to have had an upset stomach more often than usual for the past month or so, and she decided I should have one more exam -- a colonoscopy. Yeah, fun times ahead! Oh, I did get a rectal exam while there too. That was OK. Well, the results were OK, the procedure wasn't something to look forward to.
When I got back to work, I told my co-workers who were there everything was good, but a couple of them were out for the afternoon, so we still need to do our celebratory ice cream run. I see my surgeon tomorrow, but that should go well, too, so maybe we'll do it afterwards.
I checked on my blog at work, because I knew it was close to when I first found out I had cancer. I was thinking it was the 18th. But it's not. It was today. Three years ago this afternoon, I got my biopsy, and Dr. K said she could tell with near-certainty that it was cancer. It hit me hard, reading that blog entry again. I had to step outside for a bit, in fact. Three years. And I'm doing fine.
All right!
When I got back to work, I told my co-workers who were there everything was good, but a couple of them were out for the afternoon, so we still need to do our celebratory ice cream run. I see my surgeon tomorrow, but that should go well, too, so maybe we'll do it afterwards.
I checked on my blog at work, because I knew it was close to when I first found out I had cancer. I was thinking it was the 18th. But it's not. It was today. Three years ago this afternoon, I got my biopsy, and Dr. K said she could tell with near-certainty that it was cancer. It hit me hard, reading that blog entry again. I had to step outside for a bit, in fact. Three years. And I'm doing fine.
All right!
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Rock in America
Almost forgot about the best part of my July 4 weekend. Night Ranger played in concert here Thursday night, and it was totally awesome! They weren't the biggest band of the 80s, but I had forgotton just how many good songs they really had (and of course, as soon as I got home I downloaded their greatest hits album). And they still put on a great show, even if Jack Blades seems to like the sound of his own voice. Forgot the comedy, man, and just play the music.
They did a terrific version of "Goodbye," first introducing the piano player, Chicago's Christian Matthew Cullen, who played a few minutes of blues, and then went into the song, with Kelly Keagy on the vocals, accompanied through most of it by just the piano. And then BAM! the rest of the band joined in full-force for the end. Great work on a great song. I don't know that I cared that much for the one new song they played off their new album "Hole in the Sun." And on the video screens they had some weird animated dancing robots that without any kind of context didn't make much sense.
Best of the night had to be their best-known song, "Sister Christian," which of course they saved for the encore. I was sitting about midway through the seating area and you could easily hear the audience singing along through the whole thing. They finished off the night with "You Can Still Rock in America." Overall, it was better than I expected. A lot of times at this festival, they get the "old washed-up rock stars tour," but these guys are far above that.
Oh, and the guitarist, Brad Gillis? Damn hot. He was walking through the crowd before the show and was about 10 feet away from me several times. I didn't realize who he was until he was onstage, though; I just thought he was another guy on the crew because the guy he was walking around with had "roadie" written all over him. If only I'd known.
They did a terrific version of "Goodbye," first introducing the piano player, Chicago's Christian Matthew Cullen, who played a few minutes of blues, and then went into the song, with Kelly Keagy on the vocals, accompanied through most of it by just the piano. And then BAM! the rest of the band joined in full-force for the end. Great work on a great song. I don't know that I cared that much for the one new song they played off their new album "Hole in the Sun." And on the video screens they had some weird animated dancing robots that without any kind of context didn't make much sense.
Best of the night had to be their best-known song, "Sister Christian," which of course they saved for the encore. I was sitting about midway through the seating area and you could easily hear the audience singing along through the whole thing. They finished off the night with "You Can Still Rock in America." Overall, it was better than I expected. A lot of times at this festival, they get the "old washed-up rock stars tour," but these guys are far above that.
Oh, and the guitarist, Brad Gillis? Damn hot. He was walking through the crowd before the show and was about 10 feet away from me several times. I didn't realize who he was until he was onstage, though; I just thought he was another guy on the crew because the guy he was walking around with had "roadie" written all over him. If only I'd known.
Some updates
Did a little updating around here today. And everytime I try to change or add to my quotes of the day, the code gets screwed up. I messed around with it for a couple hours this afternoon, and couldn't figure it out, so for now, it's going to stay blank. If any of you know anything about javascript feel free to take a look at the source code and tell me where I screwed up, cause I sure as hell can't see it.
I added a blogroll to the right-hand column, too. There's some I like to read for health information and various tips and tricks about life and work. Karen is a former co-worker/friend who recently quit the newspaper to follow her own path (go, Karen!) ... oh, and she's marrying that Erik guy in the title of their blog. And then there's my mom's travel blog. She only posts when she's on the road, and that won't be for awhile, but you can catch up on her past couple of trips.
Kriss Carr did the documentary "Crazy Sexy Cancer," in which she takes you along on her journey after finding out she has an incurable form of cancer. It aired on TLC and is available on DVD. You should check it out, if you haven't seen it. Diablo Cody is the Oscar-winning writer of the movie "Juno" (which one of these days, I'll get around to commenting on). Her blog just rocks. Julia Sweeney you might remember from "Saturday Night Live" some years back. She's got some new and different projects. And she had cancer, too.
Then there's a few journalism blogs I like to read (although they're somewhat depressing these days). Most are about copy editing. Best among them are Common Sense Journalism, Blogslot and You Don't Say (I worship John McIntyre). Then there's also a couple of colleagues I keep in touch with. Scott Aust is a contributor to the Rapid City Journal's Mount Blogmore, and Down the Road is Joy Leiker's blog of her coverage area for the Muncie, Ind., newspaper.
Anyway, that's the updates. Hope to get those quotes working again before long.
I added a blogroll to the right-hand column, too. There's some I like to read for health information and various tips and tricks about life and work. Karen is a former co-worker/friend who recently quit the newspaper to follow her own path (go, Karen!) ... oh, and she's marrying that Erik guy in the title of their blog. And then there's my mom's travel blog. She only posts when she's on the road, and that won't be for awhile, but you can catch up on her past couple of trips.
Kriss Carr did the documentary "Crazy Sexy Cancer," in which she takes you along on her journey after finding out she has an incurable form of cancer. It aired on TLC and is available on DVD. You should check it out, if you haven't seen it. Diablo Cody is the Oscar-winning writer of the movie "Juno" (which one of these days, I'll get around to commenting on). Her blog just rocks. Julia Sweeney you might remember from "Saturday Night Live" some years back. She's got some new and different projects. And she had cancer, too.
Then there's a few journalism blogs I like to read (although they're somewhat depressing these days). Most are about copy editing. Best among them are Common Sense Journalism, Blogslot and You Don't Say (I worship John McIntyre). Then there's also a couple of colleagues I keep in touch with. Scott Aust is a contributor to the Rapid City Journal's Mount Blogmore, and Down the Road is Joy Leiker's blog of her coverage area for the Muncie, Ind., newspaper.
Anyway, that's the updates. Hope to get those quotes working again before long.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
I are a college graduate!
Just took the online quizzes for the field trip classes I took this last week to finish out a bachelor of general studies degree. And I passed. Looks like I've got a degree.
Or I will come May, since there's only one graduation a year.
Or I will come May, since there's only one graduation a year.
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