Lots of travel

And lots of nice visiting. Jenna and Sarah both have very nice houses. Completely different. At Jenna's I shoveled a path through the snow to get to the truck. At Sarah's we arrived to the sound of the lawn care guys mowing the neighbor's yard. Of course, Sarah only has had the boxes from the moving company for a few days. Still lots of boxes around but you can tell that the house will have lots of neat family memories. Lots more room than their old house. And Jenna's has that very comfortable feel already and they still have much potential. Great houses.

Now if it weren't so darn many miles between them. And between them and our house. And if I had a job.....another story.

Okay, so let's try something different...

Tomorrow we hit the road. I'll keep checking e-mail and the voicemail here at home and do just enough job searching to keep the unemployment folks happy. Who knows. Maybe less is more.

And so we sit...

and wait and wait....

At least the nasty little bug has been beaten back into the background. I am still not sure that it is completely gone (and I am SURE that Alice is not sure she has it beaten back yet). But we are both WAY better than we were. I haven't had that bad of a bug in a LONG time. I was flat out miserable.

And the folks in Colorado still haven't made a decision on whether they want me for the contract job and have given no indication which way they will decide or when. At least, when they reviewed the interviews that they had already with the contract company they didn't say that I was "unacceptable". They didn't say that they wanted me either. Just noncommittal. Bleah.

And the folks at Crane still haven't posted that job.

And so I know NOTHING! Which is driving me crazy.

A pretty nasty little bug...

All I can say is wow. From Sunday evening until now (and yes it is ongoing though less) my body has been turned into the Saudi Arabia of "natural gas" production. I am not talking polite little belches, I am talking Homer Simpson, mouth wide open, vibrating the tongue, darn near flame throwing belches. And, yes, Virginia the gas does come out the other end too. All in all not a pretty sight. Yesterday, I finally resolved to drown the little rascals and doubled yet again my liquid intake and finally this morning it is "better" but that is only in a relative sense.

And meanwhile the job hunt drags on with nothing definite.......sigh

Hurry up and wait....

Out of no where yet another "opportunity" has arisen. Of course, nothing is concrete, nothing has been offered, YET. I haven't even talked to the hiring manager yet. But hope springs eternal in the optimist.

So for those keeping score, I now have two permanent positions in less than optimum locations "simmering" on the back burner. And this new contract possibility that came out of nowhere already on the verge of boiling that is dead center in the middle of a "target rich environment". If I were there, I think that it would be much easier to work the connections to find that elusive permanent position. And, besides, six months from now who knows what the economy will be like but I am betting that the companies will have figured out how to deal with it by then. But, alas, no boiling yet.

I am finding (or reaffirming) that I am NOT a very patient person.

Happy 82nd (a few weeks late)

A couple of weeks ago we went up to see Pop and take him and Loretta out to eat to celebrate his birthday. The next morning we took a couple of pictures before we left. Happy 82nd Pop!

A rose between two thorns for sure!

Weekly update...

Okay, so another week has gone by. I got my hopes up when I found not one but two new job listings to apply for and a phone call from a head hunter with an interesting sounding job and since then.......nothing. No feedback. Just silence. I tried to call the headhunter back and first she was at lunch and then when I tried the second time she had 'left for the day'. So the receptionist put me through to her voice mail. Hopefully, she will call back tomorrow. I also called the guy that "interviewed" me at the Raytheon Job Fair a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it really shouldn't have been his job to get back to me (he is the manager that I would have been working for) but he gave me the 'uhhhh, we've already made all of the offers that we are going to make at this time....if you haven't heard from us......' You could tell he was REALLY uncomfortable but I would have been too in his place. Just another reason to be disgusted with HR people the world around. There were probably 150-200 people that showed up at that job fair and each of us had to fill out a "questionnaire" to get in the door. Why didn't some HR flunky take that stack of papers and cross check it against the list of people that had been made offers and send out "ding" letters? Because HR people just can't be bothered with doing their jobs I guess. End of today's rant.

Like some other people I try not to discuss politics but just can't stand to let the opportunity by to say, like the old saying, be careful what you ask for. I heard the word "change" bandied about a lot over the past few months. That is a lot different than "improve". I guess it just depends on your point of view. I hope that the changes lead to improvements for all of us but I fear that somebody is going to end up footing the bill for all of those changes and for them the change might simply be that they get to pay higher taxes. It is just not clear to me who that somebody is but I have a sneaking suspicion that I know who....end of that rant, too. :-)

An experiment.....

Okay, I decided to allow myself to post when I was logged into my gmail account, not just when I was logged into blogger using my old aol account. Isn't this exciting :-) NOT

Of course, even more exciting is that I just figured out that at least the first two Purdue basketball games are going to be on the BigTenNetwork. The first game is this Saturday at 9pm EST. Sports bars near you should have the game on!

Just for those of you who don't follow them, the Purdue men's basketball team was voted by the media (one guy from the newspaper in each city where there is a Big Ten team - and maybe one guy from the closest TV station) that they are favored to win the BigTen this year. I am READY for basketball to start since football has been so terrible.

A new post....

Well, Alice told me that I needed to make a post on my blog and since I ALWAYS do what Alice tells me to.....here is a new post.

Maybe the reason that I hadn't posted is because I have nothing to say?

At the end of last week I completely tore apart my resume and completely changed the format. I have sent it out to a couple of places so far. We will see if it gets any different results. The final nail in the coffin that killed the old one was that a recruiter called and told me, literally, that it was terrible. He didn't really have a job that I was interested in but we must have talked for half an hour with him giving me pointers. At the end of the conversation he also gave me the e-mail address of a person who he probably shouldn't have. But, at this point, I will take help where I can find it. We will see if I can have any luck with the new resume when I send it to this lady.

As most of you know I am a BIG Purdue football and basketball fan. I even went to BW3 yesterday to watch the football team because good old Brighthouse took ESPN Classic off our cable. Let's just say that I am sure looking forward to basketball season.

Still sitting...

At least I am not painting.......at least not at the moment. I think that we have finished painting for a while. Now it is just getting rooms finished. For instance, we could scrub on the tiles in the master bath all day and not be done. And we could pack up the quilt machine (after we find the quilt machine again). And we could start packing the books in the study. We haven't even started the study. Ugh. And I have to put the basement ceiling back together (now that I have run the new water line for the ice maker - even though we aren't hooking it up to the fridge because the ice maker in our current fridge is broken but we could hook it up if we wanted to). And, of course, sometime in the next day or two I need to mow the grass again. Beats raking leaves I suppose.

And I have gotten a little bit of response in the job looking area. No interviews let alone no job offers but at least I am starting to get a little response in the way of e-mails from real humans instead of just the computer generated ones. Who knows....something IS going to come along......someday.

Here we sit....

Well, yesterday I finally got the quarter round down around the floor in the kitchen and the molding around the tops of the cabinet (where they meet the ceiling). We keep trying to forget the one inch strip above the back splash below the new range hood that is one inch shorter than the old one. We gotta do something about that one of these days. Alice is talking about the curtains for in there (I am pretty sure she got the material today). Then we will be DONE with the kitchen. Much more work, and much more time than I ever would have guessed.

This afternoon we started packing books in our bedroom. I hope we can finish that tomorrow. Then we will have to rearrange the furniture. We presently have too many dressers but the new night stands should provide some "stash" space since they each have a drawer and a shelf with doors. And what won't fit gets packed. Simple really. NOT!!

The job hunt continues. Got an early tinkle of a lead today. More like a rumor really. I have applied to several companies and for a couple of the jobs I sound like a perfect fit (at least to me) and the companies haven't even acknowledged that I exist. I am now working harder on the few contacts that I have in companies there. We will see....

Meanwhile in better news. I have lost a few pounds. Stress is not exactly the recommended weight loss program but I am also trying to watch the portion sizes (yes, daughters I can hear you).

Busy, busy....

An emergency appendectomy is not what I was expecting last Wednesday. No, not for me but for Alice. Surprise! Luckily she listened to her body and we got to the hospital and she got it taken care of BEFORE it burst. Burst appendix is a MUCH bigger deal. Of course, nonburst appendix is still a deal. She is feeling better (I can tell just by looking) but she is still moving pretty slow. It will be another week or so before she is really back at it.

Well, my new resume is ready and I have started "officially" applying for new jobs. Seven applications since last Thursday. And those are just for the ones that have real job openings listed and there are probably another two or three that I will apply for in the next day or two. Then there are another 15 places or so where I will submit my resume even though they don't have an appropriate job listed but I know that they do the kind of work that I am looking for. Who knows maybe it will hit somebody's desk and I will get lucky. That is through the front door. Next I have to start working the connections. Contacting people that I have worked with over the years to see if I can get an intro to folks that are in the right place to hire me even if they don't have an opening. Maybe I my resume will spur them to open something up?? Who knows. And meanwhile I am starting to hear from headhunters. Maybe they will have something.

And, meanwhile, work continues on the house. The kitchen is coming together. Counter tops are done, floor is scheduled and cabinet doors and drawers have been primed (at least their fronts). Door painting will continue tomorrow. Hopefully, by the end of the week everything will be done in there and we can move everything out of the family room back into the kitchen where it belongs. Except there are going to be some leftovers. After we get done painting (doors and drawers) there will be more room in the garage. And the excess furniture and more boxes will probably go there for now. We really need to make a decision on the storage options. I will think about that tomorrow.

Another year has come and gone

Well, it is official. Another year. The Indiana State Fair Giant Balloon Race is behind us once again. And I tied for fifth!! Of course, it was a 24 way tie for fifth. Only four guys managed to get their baggies in the same field with the hare and none of them were actually close enough to score with a 200 foot tape measure. We are talking several hundred feet. But I had a good flight ably assisted by great crew and somebody else paid for the propane. And I actually managed to stumble across a really nice landing area where one of the other pilots let me use his tarp to keep the envelope dry.

Now it is back to painting. Blehhh!

Unemployment is a roller coaster...

Yesterday I got invited back over to Thomson (along with all of the other guys who got layed off plus about ten people that are still employed by Thomson) to hear a presentation from the manager of the group at ADI that would manage the ADI Indy design center if such a thing were to come into existence. Listening to him he is very convinced that such a design center will exist. Of course, there are MANY questions regarding how many people such a center will employ and WHEN those people will be employed and would I be one of them and so on....

Every week we hear that we will know more in a couple of days or next week. This has been dragging on. I have now given my resume to two different head hunters (guys paid by the companies to find specific job skills). I am thinking that it might be time to start talking to the paid (by me) head hunter that can start to get my resume out there. I am not sure that we can get our house ready to be on the market before Grandma has to go east and I am not sure that she can get it ready by herself if I have found a job in Timbuktu after she comes back. Ahhh something will work out. The mystery is to know what it will be....

Sometimes you get all dressed up...

and discover you have no where to go.

The "development" that I mentioned yesterday was that I was asked to go back to Thomson for an hour or so to to discuss my "skills" with two guys from Analog Devices (aka ADI). Their company has been considering purchasing remants of the old Thomson Silicon Components group for some time and this is another step in the process. All of us who were laid off last Friday got together last night for dinner to discuss the discussions and we were all confused by process. It seems that these guys that came in yesterday were plucked from their offices on Tuesday and told to go to Indy for these "skills discussions" yesterday. They had no clear information about the prospects of this deal going through and even less information about what shape it might take if it does go through. We have heard lots of rumors but I fear that most of them seem to be based upon wishful thinking.

Bottom line, one of these days this might turn into an opportunity. The big question is whether we can afford to wait long enough for it to do so????

Think good thoughts my way this afternoon please

More update later but there has been a "development".

Please think good thoughts my way this afternoon and I will post more this evening with details.

The end of an era....

I don't know how else to describe it but today was my last day at RCA/Thomson. I had an eerie thought the other day that about three years ago the managers in Indy all started spouting the same "we are not RCA any more, we are Thomson" speech. We had been Thomson since 1986. Since they all started doing it at about the same time this had to come down from on high (from France). What a coincidence that at about the same time is about the time that our division started spinning around the drain. Ah well, can't be bitter here.

We did get to live in France for two years (and play tourist like crazy). Growing up as a "hick" in Indiana I NEVER even imagined such a thing. And there were some great people to work with (and a few that were "challenging"). But overall it was a good bunch.

But it was/is still VERRRRYYYY bitter sweet to walk out the door for the LAST time.

Time flies...

not only when you are having fun but it seems to fly ALL the time. I just notice how long it has been since I posted. Of course, with all the excitement of Sarah and Raley being here kept me distracted.

I decided last Wednesday that I would call and "pull out" of the balloon race in Muncie. There was just too much standing water everywhere (makes it tough to find either launch or landing sites that don't either trash the balloon or get the truck stuck in the mud or just tear up the field and leave ruts). And, I wasn't "current" (FAA-speak meaning that I haven't done enough take-offs and landings within the previous 90 days to take a passenger). And with all of the stress from my dad's surgery, all the extra people in the house (over and above Sarah and Raley), and my job situation I just decided that I had too much going on to go. I sure wish I could have gotten a couple of flights in (I am guessing that most of the guys that showed up did-though I haven't heard) but, as the old saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor. I have often said that the hardest part about learning to fly the balloon was to learn when NOT to fly the balloon. The bottom line is that I am "content" with my choice.

On a lighter note, I have been riding my bike again. I rode last Saturday (14.5 miles) and Tuesday to work and back (14.8 miles and 8.9 miles). On the way to work I took the "scenic" route and rode by Jamie and Alex's new house. Of course, from the street you can't tell much but it looks like a nice neighborhood and the neighborhood pool was already bustling at eight 0'clock on a weekday. I haven't been nearly as regular riding as the last couple of years but I am going to try harder.

Today I took a "personal business" day from work and stayed home to meet the realtor. She presented us with a nice binder with statistics on other houses in the neighborhood and said that she and her "assistant" (who accompanied her today) would put together a "marketing" plan and get back with us before we leave for our cruise. Interesting stuff.

Who is it going to be???

At the bottom of the column on the left of the page there is a counter that is counting visitors. At last look it was at 995. Who is going to make it go to 1000? And how will I know???? It seems kind of like cheating when I check back because that bumps the count (I think).

What a week!!!

WOW!!

My dad had open heart surgery last Friday (of course, must of the folks who read this already know all of this...but it is probably good to write it down).

The night before surgery I got about two and a half hours of sleep. And it went down hill from there. I am still working on catching up. However, he went home from the hospital today and I think that he will probably behave himself for the first week or so. After that, it is a crap shoot. He will expect himself to be able to do more than he is capable of. I fear that it will be VERY difficult for Loretta to keep him "under control". Prayers might be in order.

And, news from work just "sucks". Conformation is probably coming next week. But it looks ominous. And that probably means LOTS of work on the home front. To coin a phrase just for Reid "I'm getting too old for this crap".

Another ride to work

and home again too :-)

No National Ride to Work Breakfast today but I rode anyway. Good to leave the Suburb home though.

Today I went the "medium" route both ways. It frustrates me that I have to literally stop and wait until I get a break in traffic to make a dash past one house to get from the exit of a subdivision to the beginning of a bike path (where it meets the Monon Trail). No sidewalk, nothing, past that one house. Luckily, there is a stop light a quarter mile away and when it changes you get a break in the traffic. And you dash. Other than that there are a couple of other places where there are 100 yards where a bike path would be nice but the traffic isn't nearly so bad. Patience works. I'm generally not in THAT big of a hurry. I can wait thirty seconds or so for that break in traffic.

On the way home I had a pretty stiff headwind. On the way to work I was just pokey. It took me about 37 minutes each way (its about 8.5 miles - or 13.1 mph).

National Bike to Work Day

Well, it was a tad bit chilly this morning (with a breeze out of the northwest that is almost always a bad sign) but this being National Bike to Work day I had to ride today. I even stopped for my free bagel at Carmel's Central Park and got to talk to our esteemed mayor (cough, cough). Anyway, his office is making a big push to introduce new bike routes in Carmel. The only problem is that they have money to put up signs but nothing else. So the streets are still too narrow but Real Soon Now they will have a pretty sign designating them as an official bike way. I am not sure what that accomplishes but maybe a little public education will be a good thing. Anyway, it is six and a half miles to work the way I came this morning (I might take the long way home tonight - less traffic). A pretty easy ride. And it leaves the Suburban parked at home where it isn't burning four dollar a gallon gas.

Limbo

Hmmmm....an update.....but what about? There is exactly NO news from work, it has been raining every time I turn around to think about either biking or ballooning. I did stop at the shop this morning and spend a hundred bucks getting the serpentine belt replaced on the Suburban.

I guess the only "news" that I have is that I went with my dad (and Loretta) down to talk to Dr. Fehrenbacher about his surgery. I told the doctor that I remembered him as a much younger man. He did my mom's first bypass surgery 24 years ago. He laughed and said we were all a lot younger then.

Just stuck in limbo waiting for something to happen at work.

LOTS of turmoil

And it is amazing how much the "view" of the future hasn't really been cleared up all that much. My impression is that most people are pretty darn sceptical that any of our jobs have much future but on the other hand we haven't been laid off so here we sit. Hopefully meetings with my project leader this week will help clear up some of the murkiness but I am not all that hopeful. As somebody said earlier today 'we're all just hanging on by our fingernails'.

And to top it off we got a call late Saturday from my dad and he ended up in the hospital. Yesterday afternoon he had a heart catherization. Of course, the doctor pronounced his heart (with the exception of his aortic valve) is "disgustingly healthy". Bottom line, they scheduled him an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon on May 14th. In all likelihood he will have surgery sometime soon thereafter to get that valve replaced. But other than the valve he is in very good health and therefore he has many less risk factors than most patients his age.

I am sure glad I don't have any stress in my life :-)

The boom has been lowered....

and it missed me.....for now, at least.

As most of you know by now 18 people in my group here at work were layed off yesterday. This is out of a total of 56 people, so it was a pretty significant chunk. I wasn't one of the ones layed off though I had been offered the option beforehand to "volunteer". Sitting around in the aftermath one almost wonders if I just shouldn't have. It is very strange to talk to some of the folks who were layed off (their layoff date is actually May 2nd and they were given the option to come in and "finish" up things if they wanted and they had a meeting this morning to discuss their benefits during their "layoff" -so many of them have been around today). And it is equally strange to talk to some of the folks who are still here as we try to comprehend both what was said and what wasn't said by the managers here. And, of course, some of the comments that have been released to the press have been dissected looking for "meaning".

Meanwhile, life goes on....and we have to figure out what that means.....

another nice day...

I got an update on both daughters (always a good thing) and I went for another bike ride.

In the first half mile my legs were asking if I REALLY wanted to do this again???? So I decided to take a couple of my "shortcuts". I went around the same basic loop but left off a couple of the little side loops. I still expected it to be slower. However, when I got home it was 8.1 miles in 32:15 for an average of 15.2. I was surprised but I'll take it. Now the question comes getting rides in during the week without freezing in the morning.

Anyway, it feels good to have started another year.

It's about time....

Finally, sunshine and warm on a weekend.

I went for a bike ride today (9.5 miles in 39 minutes or 14.7 mph). I would like for it to go a little quicker and it will. The key is to get out there a work up a sweat and get the heart rate up a little. Today I did both. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better weather. I'll probably go pretty close to the same route again. Just trying to work up some endurance (and cut out the "coasting").

I'm really looking for news from both daughters. I'm thinking that they are both busy today (I can't figure out which one is busier but I am guessing that Jenna gets the nod today).

A post for Jenna

Yep, just because she asked :-)

Playing with Raley is good. She went to see the Dr. today. Pretty good all round apparently but I will leave that update to her mommy (hint, hint).

I shovelled a LOT of compost yesterday but Dan and I together only made it through about half of the rather large pile in the front yard. Apparently, the city "advertises" this as mulch but a much better definition would be "ground up leaves compost". Not much sticks and bark. More leaves than anything. It would be really good stuff if you wanted to roto-till it into your garden. It will keep the weeds down though and in a year it will all be gone. But so will Dan and Sarah. So it will work out.

Awww shucks....

Well, the Boilermakers couldn't quite pull off a trip to the Sweet 16 but I think that they far exceeded most reasonable expectations for this year.

But next year could/should be even better. Out of their top nine guys they only lose one senior who only averaged about 10 minutes per game (except in the tournament where he finally started playing much better than he had for the previous two seasons). They have back all five of the starters. And they should be all a year older, bigger and smarter. One of their biggest "problems" this year was the inability to finish "strong" around the basket. When they got a rebound they often got the "putback" blocked. Next year I hope that they will be much better rebounding in general.

And who knows maybe by next year Brighthouse will even have the Big Ten Network so that I don't have to be such a regular at BW3.

That was refreshing!!

A lot of the pundits kept talking about how 'Baylor scores a lot of points' & 'The Big 12 is a lot "quicker" game than the Big 10' & 'The Boilermakers are all so young they will be "dazzled" by the big stage'. And of course, the young "slow" Boilers came out and scored 46 points in the first half (and blew a golden opportunity at the end of the half) and were up by 19. I don't think that the Big12 must play much defense. The Boilermakers had lots of wide open three point shots and they were clearly very frustrated that they couldn't do the "one pass and shoot" offense.

Purdue kind of struggled for a couple of streches in the second half but the lead never got under 10 and in fact the final (90-79) might have been as close as Baylor got.

On to the second round against Xavier. I don't know much about them but they are the #3 seed in the bracket and Purdue is the #6. Apparently, the committee that seeded the bracket thought that they are better (I did hear that they are very "similar" to Purdue just "older"). Hopefully, Purdue's defense can frustrate them too. That game is Saturday @ 4:45 (ET) or so. Please don't call during the game :-)

THUD!!

That is the sound Purdue made in the BigTen Tournament. Hopefully, they "learn" from this that tournament play requires a bit more effort.

They didn't "show up" at the beginning of the game and let the Illini have some early success. When they tried to "turn it on" they just couldn't get it done. And, they let a 31% 3 point shooter go 6 for 6 on 3 pointers for the day. And just enough bone head plays at the end to let them get the game to overtime (Purdue led by 5 with 90 seconds to go in regulation time).

Sigh. I let them get my hopes up again....

I think that they really need to "find" an inside presence before they will do much. I don't know if that means that Jajuan Johnson needs to grow into his body he is a freshman that plays like it (unlike some of his teammates) or if they need to go out and find a "big" body.

Ah well, at least I at pretty sure that they are going to the NCAA tournement just not as highly seeded as I would have hoped.

And now we have conformation!!!

Welcome to the world Raley!

At 7:18 this evening I became a Grandpa. I bet you'll hear more about her here soon.

Yeah for good times!!

Fabulous!! Purdue won and IU lost. That is the very definiton of a good day.

Then at 8 this morning we got a call that means that today could be even better! But so far we are still waiting for conformation.....

I think that I saw that coming....

For those that don't keep up on such things the Boilers lost in overtime tonight.

Sorry to say but Purdue's young guys just haven't learned how hard you have to go to get wins on the road in the BigTen. Of course, it was a very emotional game for the Buckeyes too. They needed it and in the end wanted it more than the Boilers. Their seniors knew that they needed to win this game to revive their hopes of getting in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, though this will be that "wake-up" call that gets the young Boilers focused because real soon now they start the "lose and go home" part of the season.

I have to say that it sure seemed that Purdue's shooters were "off" tonight. And, tOSU didn't take advantage of their size inside as much as they could have. Wierd game. Who knows maybe they will meet again in Indy.

A new year (and a little help)

When I started writing this blog I said it would probably involve four things, my family, hot air ballooning, bicycling and Purdue sports.

Today is the time to add the first post about one of those topics. About 4 o'clock I looked at one of the TV channels that said the local temperature was 68 degrees. I decided that it was time to get out the bike. I did some streching and added air to the tires and proceeded around the neighborhood just to see if I could remember how. A whole whopping 4.4 miles in 18:45 for a average of only 14.3 mph. But after not riding since October not so bad. It got the juices flowing and I sure didn't want to overdo it and regret it in the morning. Once I get in "shape" (I know it doesn't look like I have been in shape for the last twenty years) I should be able to ride my nine mile loop in just a touch over 30 minutes (or almost 18 miles an hour) and for longer rides (30+ miles) at 16.5 or 17 mph. Looking ahead it is supposed to be near 50 next weekend too. If it is sunny I might get another ride in then. So my total distance for the year so far is 4.4 miles. I'll see what I can do to add to that.

On another of the four topics the IU Hoosiers got creamed by Michigan State today. This was their third loss in the conference. Purdue and Wisconsin still only have two losses apiece. There MIGHT be a conference championship in the Boilers future. I am looking forward to the game on Tuesday :-)

Another one down...

In all honesty the Boilers should have won the game today and they did. It was a little tense in the first half as they didn't play very good defense and didn't shoot the ball very well. That seems to be a recipe for a bad game. But they did much better on both counts in the second half and won rather easily. Now comes probably the toughest remaining game. They have to go to Columbus and play some team in red and silver (or maybe scarlet and grey...or something like that :-). Some how I think that will get a rise out of somebody.

Another one in the win column!!!

Well, it wasn't the "prettiest" game and they got out rebounded by a bunch but they offset that by forcing Minnesota to make more turnovers. And so they moved back into a three way tie for first in the Big Ten!

This is turning into a VERY good year.

sigh....disappointed I am :-(

But guess what? When you shoot less than 35% for the game (and less than 25% for three pointers and ony 11-20 FTs) you generally end up losing. There were positives in the game but not enough of them.

Due to the knucklehead scheduling in the Big Ten however they don't get to have a rematch at Mackey this year. Shucks. I really believe that if these teams played 10 times Purdue would win seven of the times. Ah well, now they have a full week off before their next game (and the next two are at home). Still a shot to win all four of their remaining games (even though they probably will be underdogs at tOSU they should win the other three and they MIGHT win all four). Then they get to go to the BigTen tourney. And in all likelihood the NCAA (I don't see them not making it but weird things have happened).

And the games they just keep getting bigger....

Tonight the IU-Purdue men's basketball rivalry gets back to where it used to be. In the 60's and 70's it wasn't uncommon to say that your favorite two teams were Purdue and whoever was playing IU. Also, a common sentiment was POTFH (Pee on the blank hoosiers for the less informed). Tonight both teams are ranked. They are tied in the loss column (though Purdue has played and won more league games) for the lead of the Big Ten. And it is the only time that they play this year (BAD move by the Big Ten to allow this to happen). AND it is on national TV (ESPN). Lot's at stake but nothing as important as just beating them in anything at anytime.

Of course, I will be watching (and just a little bit of "discussion" with the referees I am sure :-)

Now if I could just breathe.

WOW (but watch out - danger ahead)

Okay, I admit I was talking to the TV a bit in the second half but the Boilers pulled out a tough one tonight. They now have a HUGE game next Tuesday night at the house that Bobby built to the south (also on ESPN for those interested :-) but on Saturday they have what the commentators are starting to call a "trap" game. They play Northwestern. The Northwestern of the highly unusual offense (like nobody else in the BigTen for sure) and who happens to be winless in the BigTen this year. I sure hope they aren't looking past the Wildcats to that game next week.

I am starting to think 15-3 in the BigTen or maybe even 16-2. I say again WOW! And what fun!!!

And yet another Boiler update

YEAH! Jenna's rooting (see the comments) worked. Now they are in first place alone!! A really surprising win AT Wisconsin. Now they get Michigan State at home. But I think that they can win this one. They only lost by three when they played them early in January and one of Purdue's best players missed that game with the flu. And they get to play them at home this time.

At the start of the season I really didn't know what to expect. Now I am expecting them to get to the NCAA tourney. Maybe this time next week I will be expecting them to win the BigTen. VERY SURPRISING but a lot of fun too :-)

And how about them Boilers

Look quick! The Boilers are tied for first place in the B10!! Of course, tomorrow they play the other team that they are tied with .....on the road. Big game. The winner has the inside track to win the conference. Of course, they played a couple of weeks ago at Purdue and Purdue pulled out a narrow win. I kind of expect Wiscy to return the favor tomorrow but maybe not if we all root hard enough!

Old project update

Good news this morning. Our friends in Rennes actually succeeded in decoding and displaying several frames of video using our new chip. This shows that about 75% of the IC functions in at least one mode. There are a just a couple of major functions that haven't been excercised yet. Of course, now they need to buckle down and start checking all of the nooks and crannies of the ICs and those obscure functions that while necessary in a real system either don't directly influence the major operation of the IC or are just yet another mode that the IC can operate in. Lots of work left before we can actually sell any ICs but still "refreshing" to see early good news.

More work stuff...

Sorry I lost you guys on the solder balls. But they are kind of "neat". The packages that we are using now for ICs have too many connections to the outside world to be made by the old style little legs that stick out of the side of the package. So somebody came up with the idea that they would open up a grid of very tiny openings on the bottom of the package and then heat it up just a little bit and dump a whole bunch of little tiny balls of solder onto the package. The little holes provide a spot for each ball to roll into (or rather a ball rolls into each hole and the excess roll off the edge and get used on the next package). The heat (just the right amount) makes the balls "sticky" when they find metal (they don't stick to the plastic of the rest of the package). Then when the package cools you can pick it up and the little balls provide an electrical path into the package. And when you line it up the right place on the printed circuit board and apply just a little more heat again they both stick down and make the electrical connection. Neat technology that is simple in concept but complex enough to do the job. The "old" leaded packages ran out of pins at about 160 pins (40 on each edge). The design I am working on now has an array of the little balls that is 22 by 22 (or 484 "pins"). And the last design I worked on has an array of 28x28 or 784 pins. Lots of those (on both packages) get used by power and ground because each little ball doesn't handle much current but the old package had the same problem.

In other EXCITING news, I actually got to touch a working oscilloscope this week! For the first time in about 4 or 5 years. It is still really neat to see one of these things that we work on for months and months (and in some cases years) actually get put on a board and DO something. I realize it is a yawn to all of you guys but we were measuring how much jitter there was in one of the clock signals that the chip produces. Needless to say we were impressed that it was only about 300 picoseconds of jitter (on a 5 nanosecond clock period). VBG!!!! I am SURE that you are all impressed too :-) That will have ALL of you saying 'What?????' A clock is a signal that SHOULD have a positive going transition once per clock period. In this case, every 5 nanoseconds (in other words 200 MILLION times per second). Due to noise and other "bad" things sometimes if happens in less time and sometimes it takes longer than it should. The jitter is the measurement of how much those "bad" things affect the clock period. Over time (hundreds or maybe thousands of those cycles) things average out but the "shortest" of those clock cycles is the time that is allotted to do any specific job so it is a pretty important number to know.

Even though I have moved on to a "new" project, I am keeping pretty close tabs on the "old" project. They just got our first samples a few days ago and it is coming up really, really fast and with no known issues yet. Of course, if will take weeks and weeks (actually months probably) to get all of the software written to run on it and to try out all of the wierd corner cases but it is still neat to see it come to life.

Precocious boilers

How about them Boilers? I thought that the freshman class would be pretty good but who knew they would be this good. I think in general it is a "down" year for the Big Ten in men's basketball in general but here they are tied for second a third of the way through the conference season. And they SHOULD win their next three games (or at least be favored going into them). Exciting times once again for the Boilermakers.

Work has been "interesting". They always say that you should never volunteer for anything but in the past couple of weeks I just had to squeak loud enough that I finally got greased. Unfortunately, there was no one who was paying attention to the task of making sure that the final arrangement of the little solder balls on the bottom of the package (the ones that make the connections to the printed circuit board that the part is mounted on) was acceptable to be laid out on the PC board. If it isn't then our customers can't build a cost competitive product and they don't buy our ICs. This would be bad. Of course, once you decide how the solder balls are to be arranged you have to make sure that the places on the edge of the IC that we are designing are in the correct order to mate up with them. And then you have to make sure that the signals on the chip are assigned to the correct pins so that the IC itself can actually be arranged. The IC we are working on has about 450 bonding pads of which about 200 are power and ground (both digital and about eight different flavors of analog which have to be kept separate). This is one of those jobs that nobody wants (there is a LOT of grunt work getting all of the data gathered and a LOT of messing about with spreadsheets to get all of the data organized) but the guy that they had assigned the task had no idea what was involved and he had about three times as much work as he could possibly do assigned to him anyway and he was just letting it slide. It is not hard but its just messy. It gives me something to do :-)

On the home front I think that I have finally recovered from my cold (only coughed half a dozen times in the last 24 hours) and I think that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Alice and her cold (though she is still fighting it). We've just been pretty quiet home bodies trying to fight this thing all month.

Random thoughts while I munch my lunch....

How's about them Boilers? They have gotten off to a pretty good start in the conference with an actual honest to goodness road win last night. The grumbling that you heard last night was probably me concerning the lack of the Big Ten Network on my cable. I am getting to know the folks at BW3 though (the Parmesan Garlic wings are mighty tasty).

It is now official though. I have withdrawn my consideration of living in Alamosa Colorado in the winter. Minus 35 degrees? You HAVE to be kidding me!?!?! Hmmmm, summers in Colorado and winters in southern California? I don't know how I am going to afford two houses so I might have to have a chat with my dad about that whole snowbirding thing. Or maybe my daughters can work out the "in-laws" quarters thing??

Playing with blogger....a first picture

I am trying to "play" by inserting a picture. This is a "random" shot that I happened to have on my computer of a flight. Yes, that is my balloon (with me flying it - in other words I did NOT take the picture :-)

So let me try it...

and see how the post looks.

My boring life...

I listened to the Boilers on the radio last night because the cable companies and the Big Ten Network can't get their acts together. If they had played the first ten minutes like they did the last 30 it would have been an easy win. As it was they dug too big of a hole and just couldn't quite pull it out. I was encouraged that they didn't fold after they got behind but came back. I sure wish I could see more of the games....sigh.

Meanwhile, the folks at the video card support claim that the problem with getting the new card installed is a hardware problem with the card and that I should send it back so that they can exchange it for me. Hunh???? I sure don't see how that could possibly be but then I have been surprised before.

I stayed home from work yesterday and today I am pretty much dragging. Sure wish this cold would go away. I think that I am "better" today than I was Sunday and Monday but I am ready to move on.

A grey morning....

Wow, it is amazing how a cold can just drain you.

Saturday morning I went over and helped hang some drywall in Matt M's garage. They have a nice new house and his new garage is almost as big as my whole house. Afterwards, I came home and watched the Boilers win (it was a game that they should have won and they did). I then went to sleep and other than a few minutes here and there watching football and the Amazing Race I have been asleep ever since. And I still feel like crap. I am thinking today might be a half day at work and go back to bed.

Wow, what a week (or ten days)

Well, the bad thing from the last post meant that my dad and Loretta (I have a tough time calling her my step-mom though she is married to my dad - but she is REALLY nice and great for him) flew in for a few days and stayed with us while the girls were here. Great to see them all together. It seems that every time I see him the past few years he comes up with another story from his past that I had never heard.

In this case, it was another Leroy and Dianna story. They were my parents best friends when I was a kid and after all the kids left home my parents took them on vacation a few times (since they had never travelled much and my parents wanted an excuse to go). This time he said that they passed a horse who had her foot caught in a fence. They stopped at the next house and tried to find the owner but those folks didn't know anything. They then went back to the where she was and flagged down a pickup truck that was driving by. With the guys from the truck they got her loose but she was on the road side of the fence. After prancing about a bit she ran over to another fence and backed up against it much to the interest of the stallion inside that fence. The stallion pawed the ground, snorted and generally displayed his interest (the old phrase "hung like a horse" comes to mind). Dianna asked Leroy why the stallion didn't just "do-it" through the fence, to which Leroy replied 'I don't think that I would risk it either'. Dianna is the very definition of the city girl and Leroy had the quickest, driest wit of any one that I have ever known.

Meanwhile, both girls brought their parents the gift of a cold. I think I got Sarah's and Alice got Jenna's. Thanks LOADS!!

But even though it was hectic, it was GREAT to see them and get to spend some time with them. I sure would like to strike a balance of getting to see them more while not necessarily seeing them too much. It was good to hear from both of them that they got home safely.

Now it is time to get back to work and settle into the grind waiting for the next big event (scheduled for the end of March).