School Bus YellowYellow!!Old World Romance – yellow?
On the way to school, Jamison and his friend play Banana, shouting “banana” and hitting each other whenever they see a yellow vehicle. (Are school buses reallyyellow?) Banana replaces the rainy-weather game of Padiddle: hitting the ceiling of the car upon seeing a vehicle with a burnt-out headlight.
Melissa is preparing to repaint her room and is looking for the perfect creamy yellow. Some of the walls at work are painted a color that might fit the bill, but they look like many different shades of yellow, depending on the light. For that matter, I’m not convinced they are a single shade of yellow. Regardless, my camera can’t seem to accurately transfer it to bits, even with a custom white balance.
Color swatches to the rescue!1And possibly the willingness to paint more than once…
1
And possibly the willingness to paint more than once…
Yup. All day — nothing. If I was going to get a heart today, it had to be in the mail. Sure enough. There’s another card from Melissa with a heart cancellation mark.
After twodays of hearts, I couldn’t really expect another.1Though I did hint, hoping to improve my odds. I didn’t count the retweet. Sure enough, evening arrived — cold and heartless. That’s when Jamison suggested we go get the mail. Sorting the mail on the kitchen counter, I discovered a card from Melissa. Inside Melissa had written individual notes to Suzi, Jamison, and me. I searched the card for a heart. Maybe Melissa had drawn one. No such luck.2Although Melissa did draw a smiley. :-)
I wasn’t giving up yet. Could Melissa have drawn a heart on the envelope? That’s when I discovered my third heart!
Thanks, Melissa!3And thanks, U.S. Postal Service. Dare I hope for a fourth? ;-)
1
Though I did hint, hoping to improve my odds. I didn’t count the retweet.
2
Although Melissa did draw a smiley. :-)
3
And thanks, U.S. Postal Service. Dare I hope for a fourth? ;-)
We took a quick trip to the Oregon coast this afternoon, visiting Cannon Beach.
After arriving, we ate a quick picnic lunch in the car and then headed to the beach. Bundled-up people and the happiest dogs greeted us as we walked toward Haystack Rock. I was taking pictures of the clouds and noted, “Looks like it could rain soon.” I turned to continue on my way to Haystack Rock. Suzi wisely suggested we head back. Even though we did so immediately, it rained and hailed on us before we reached the sea wall — and then it stopped.
We toured our favorite art gallery, selected our favorites, and left them behind. We explored the nearby toy store, playing with bristlebots and finding a large metal bug sculpture that would look great (ha!) in the garden.
On the way home, we discovered the storm that had dumped rain and hail on us, snowed on the passes of the coastal mountains.
Sunday. What an awesome day! We had an open house for Melissa and a couple of her classmates to celebrate their graduations. Among the three families, we had lots of food and lots of guests. I counted about 75 people in our backyard at one time, with more scattered throughout the house, coming and going.
As the open house was ending (or maybe I was just tired), Dane, Tyler, and Jamison had an impromptu jam session on electric guitar, drums, and electric bass. Hearing Dane play my guitar is both inspiring and disheartening at the same time. It is nice to hear how nice my guitar can sound in the right hands. I’ll need to practice a lot more before those hands are mine. Thanks to the absence and/or tolerance of our neighbors, no officer knocked on our door to shut us down.
Later in the evening after most of our guests had left, we gathered around Suzi’s new firepit and made s’mores. All the fun of camping with none of the mess. :-)
Monday. Jamison’s 6th-grade promotion was Monday afternoon. One last opportunity to take a picture of Jamison with his teachers.
That evening, Jamison and I went to guitar group to prepare for church — and have a bunch of fun.
Tuesday. Suzi and Melissa left for Melissa’s senior class trip to Sun River. I wish I could have gone. This is the class I went to Mexico with and once to Wi-Ne-Ma — a great bunch of kids. Turns out that many of the adult sponsors were the same as the Mexico trip, too.
Wednesday. Jamison’s 6th-grade class had an end-of-the-year pool party. I dropped by to say “hi!”
Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, my group taught a couple of sessions at the server Technical Bootcamp Series about our tools.
Thursday. More training with the team. It’s great fun to see our friends from Taiwan and PRC. Celia always comes prepared with gifts. I’m looking forward to trying brown sugar sweet potato candy.
Friday. Friday was another great day. Together with my admin, we were able to accomplish something that on Tuesday had looked impossible.
Suzi and Melissa got home from Melissa’s senior class trip. We went to Darla’s house for hot dogs and s’mores.
Saturday. Church and family. Jamison and I played for praise sing with guitar group. I played Ashley’s acoustic guitar unplugged and in the back. I’m not sure anyone even heard me, probably a blessing. ;-)
Saturday night offered one more chance to use the fire pit — and we took it.
Books
I didn’t really read this week, so I won’t claim to be currently reading anything. I discovered the following book while wandering through the science section of Barnes & Noble:
My books page provides more information on the books I’ve read or discovered this year.
Blogs and Other RSS Feeds
I started reading the following blogs:
Simple Justice. “A New York Criminal Defense Blog.” A tip of the hat to Ron Coleman for this discovery.
Daniel Payne Photography. “As Vice President for the Portland Metropolitan Photographer’s Association, I’m involved with continual education in my craft. I used my first 35mm film camera in 1980, shot my first wedding in 1982 and turned pro in 2001.”
The Points of Light Blog. “Points of Light Institute is organized to innovate, incubate and activate new ideas that help people act upon their power to make a difference. Read and respond to our reflections on 21st-century volunteerism here.”
As always, my blogroll lists the blogs I read.
One more awesome week for the record books. ;-)
So, how was your week? Let me know in the comments.
Sunday. This week started in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Dave and Rachel volunteered to help us move Ashley’s and Heather’s stuff home from college. So, a little before 6 AM, I rang their doorbell, ready for the drive to Walla Walla. Better yet, I was ready for the ride to Walla Walla, because Dave was driving and pulling the trailer we picked up from Art the afternoon before. After a short stop at Starbucks, we drove to Walla Walla, loaded the trailer, the back of Dave’s truck, and Suzi’s van with boxes that Suzi and the girls had already packed. We celebrated our quick progress at Worm Ranch (don’t ask — you either know and approve, or don’t and maybe wouldn’t understand), drove back home, unpacked, returned the trailer, and went home to collapse. It was a long day!
Clearly, we have the best friends. Thank you, Art, Dave, and Rachel! :-)
Monday. Busy, busy morning and a frustrating afternoon. I finally got something to work by going home and accessing the site using my home computer. There’s more than one way to skin a cat (do people really skin cats?). Next time I have to access this business web app, I’ll know what to do.
At least we accomplished something at home. Suzi rented a carpet cleaner and I vacuumed and cleaned the downstairs carpets and the stairs. Jamison mowed the lawn. I love that boy. :-)
Tuesday. This was my last Tuesday teaching math to an awesome group of 6th graders (plus one 5th grader). It’s a sad day because these kids are going to different schools next year. I will miss them. (How do teachers handle losing a class of students each year?) I’m also going to miss teaching math over the summer. I’ve volunteered to do the same next year and am looking forward to meeting a new class.
Tuesday evening, we attended Melissa’s senior dinner. I love hearing the parents talk about how wonderful their kids are. Suzi and I joined in the fun. And it was all true!
Wednesday. Wednesday was a travel day. I took the Intel shuttle north to spend the day in DuPont, Washington.
Once at work, I set up my new 28-inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel monitor. Wow, I like it! I’m discovering that some applications and web sites are not designed for wide screens (e.g., non-fixed width web sites). Others could use even more (Excel, Seesmic web).
Friday. I had graduation practice in the morning. Once again, our school board chair was unavailable, so I was able to fill in for him, reading all the graduates’ names. Friday morning, I made sure I could pronounce all the names — correctly.
My books page provides more information on the books I’ve read or discovered this year.
Blogs and Other RSS Feeds
I started reading:
Sherman’s Lagoon: “Sherman’s Lagoon is an undersea cartoon featuring a dimwitted shark named Sherman, his sea turtle sidekick, and an assortment of other coral reef critters who team up to battle the encroachment of civilization on their remote tropical paradise.” Don’t forget the polar bear.
Sarcasymptote: “An acerbic misanthrope teaches squirrely kids math in Brooklyn. Hilarity ensues.” @sarcasymptote is also on Twitter.
