ShibbOleth

And now I am in Thailand...

2002-05-25T18:19:33Z

It is hot here. Big surprise. I am just checking in before hitting the sack. Look for more stuff soon. Goodnight.

I am in Korea!!

2002-05-25T08:57:07Z

But just for the layover on the way to Bangkok. This is big, clean, not very crowded modern terminal. Just different enough to get you the "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" feeling that I love about International travel. Nice flight from LA to Incheon. Strange at first, since we took off from LAX out over the ocean and I thought, well, I guess no more land for 12 hours. But then we looped back over the Santa Barbera mountains and headed due north up the coast. Saw some beautiful scenery until we headed out over the water just around the north point of Vancouver Island. Then we crossed over the part of Alaska that stretches out over the Aleutians, but by then all the shades were drawn as people were sleeping.

Gotta say that first class travel is the way to go when you can get it. I had a nice glass of Johnny Walker Blue label to relax, got a lovely cotton Korean Airlines sweat suit to sleep in, a Korean dinner (with grilled eel... yum!) and later a more continental dinner. The flight attendants are so service oriented on the Asian airlines, it makes it almost impossible to enjoy American flights even in first class. Plus the one that mostly brought me things and checked on me was very cute.

Well, gotta go see what the massage area in the transit lounge is all about. I'll try and drop another note when I get into BKK in another eight hours or so.

T minus 40 minutes and counting...

2002-05-24T12:11:37Z

I am in the Crown Room, they have two computers, which is better than nothing. I am in seat 12G to LA, seat 1A to Korea. How cool is that? Just popped in to see what everyone is up to, I am dead tired from staying awake all night.

Next Stop: Bangkok

2002-05-24T03:30:29Z

My flight leaves in about 9 hours. I fly to LA, then Incheon, then Bangkok. Packed most of my stuff already, leaving rooms for Tonya's gifts. I've probably said that already but I am both tired and jazzed to get going. I've also somehow caught Cranky's cold. Damned infectious LiveJournal!

So it's Wednesday night

2002-05-23T03:04:15Z

And things are lining up for my big trip. I finally got an e-mail confirming my homestays in Daegu and Daejeon. I've been getting inundanted with e-mails from the Sam's Army e-mail list. I have hotel reservations for my first night in Thailand. I have my tix. I have my passport. Korean Airlines called me, which was nice, to confirm my flight on Friday morning. I must be forgetting something.

Oh, yeah, and I seem to be coming down with a cold. I'll just have to will it away, I don't need anything messing with my vacation.

Random Stuff

2002-05-18T17:09:15Z

Carson's last soccer game was today. I think he is still a bit too shy and young for organized soccer, so he'll take next season off. Arielle's game was rained out, which is sad because it's actually turned out to be a nice day. We'll do something else instead.

Went to see Star Wars last night. No other comment unless asked.

6 more days until my big, once every four years trip.

I have been getting a little bit of action on the work in Europe front, but not too much. I hope I'll know a bit more before the end of next week.

It's One Week...

2002-05-17T15:49:05Z

Until I leave for Asia. Work is bonkers busy. So much to do so little time. Still, I'll go to my daughters school thing tonight and then on to watch SW EpII with friends tonight.

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<color=red>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Until I leave for Asia. Work is bonkers busy. So much to do so little time. Still, I'll go to my daughters school thing tonight and then on to watch SW EpII with friends tonight.

<color=red><b>Should I buy the freakin' expensive ($299) Bose head phones for the trip? I can use them with the home computer later...</color></b>

Dead Geese

2002-05-15T17:59:34Z

Yesterday, on the way to my house for lunch, I saw what looked initially like a dead possum in the road by the golf course. Then I noticed that there was more than one. Once close enough I saw that there were several, in total about seven, dead goslings. I have no idea how this happened but it was very traumatic to see a whole gaggle wiped out in the road. I didn't notice an adult body. I can only speculate that one ventured out into traffic and the others were hit as they gathered around the initial injured. It was quite sad. I don't really like all the geese around here, they tend to get aggressive and confrontational and now don't leave because the winters have been so mild. But if someone ran them down on purpose they are sick. This is not a busy road and a driver who was paying attention could have easily avoided striking them.

Last night

2002-05-15T14:43:16Z

We had our season end volleyball tournament. We ended at first in the standing, but last season we were ignominously dumped from the tournament in the first round. Again the fates conspired against us as our first round opponent was the second place finisher (which makes no freakin' sense) and all three games went long (25-23, 24-26, 25-22) but we survived. Then we had to wait for two other teams to play, then we played in the final starting at 10:30. Our opponent in the final was pretty good but tired (we had a bye in the first round) and we won in two straight, 25-23 and 25-17. Got home about 11:15. I'd intended to work some more last night but it was too late and I needed to shower and sleep.

Salmon of Doubt and a couple of other Random Things...

2002-05-14T17:19:20Z

I made Kay salmon for Mother's day. She said she wanted fish and we have a nice, simple salmon recipe. Only I left out the butter for the marinade and it just wasn't right, not rich enough, only sweet. I tried to salvage it but the kids weren't biting. So we had a lot of leftover salmon on Sunday night. These were some expensive-ass leftovers. But then last night I made pasta and worked the salmon into it and it was delicious, so all was not lost.

Today I talked with Sophie on the phone after lunch, which was a nice treat. Her kids are sick again, mine are mostly okay.

I hate my dialup connection at home; definitely have got to get a cable modem when I have some time. Damned Earthlink! Must be some leftover juju.

Had dinner with Tevya and her husband on Saturday night. They are both sweet and still kiss all the time like newlyweds but have been married 6 years or so. Tevya is very good with kids.

Our soccer practice and games were rained out on Monday night.

And finally, in ten days I am leaving for Thailand. So much to do so little time syndrome for now.

Two Weeks

2002-05-11T02:03:10Z

So I'm looking in my Friends' live journal and there is some good stuff but a lot less traffic since those losers went to St. Thomas. So, since we don't have them to torture us anymore, I thought that I'd torture you all for a while.

Two Weeks from today I will fly to Asia for about 26 days. Ten days or so in Thailand, where I'll create my own itinerary, and then 15 days in South Korea to follow the World Cup (yeah, I'm not the only American to do stuff like this but it's a small club). Apparently South Korea is geographically small, about the size of Indiana, but has a pretty decent population density. It a new country for me so it should be interesting. I'll try to post some interesting tidbit about each country every day until I leave, but that may be a bit ambitious for me.

Today's Fortune Cookie:

2002-05-09T18:35:18Z

"New and rewarding opportunities will soon develop for you."

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<size=1>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

"New and rewarding opportunities will soon develop for you."

<size=1>Oh, and my lucky numbers are: 5, 12, 19, 26, 33, 44</size>

In sickness and in health...

2002-05-07T15:46:52Z

I've been worried about sick kids lately. My son got a fearsome virus early last week, and his little glands are still swollen up so that he can't turn his head very well. He's been a bit cranky, which is unusual and I was really worried about him for a while, but the doctor swears he'll be good as new in a couple of more weeks.

On Saturday, just before my girls (that's who they are now) started their soccer game, the mother of Kara, the fiery red head, let us know that she's undergoing a battery of tests for her heart. Overall she's the best player on the team and one reason is that she was always going 100 mph. Now she's been told to tone it down until they're sure of what the problem is. It shows on her and the team. She's just doesn't enjoy herself when she's not allowed to go 100 mph, she kept asking me to put her back in her normal position so that she can run and run. I had to keep telling her that she couldn't. I do hope that she's okay, and not just because she could be a damned fine soccer player when she grows up. It's not fair that any child should have to rein in her natural energies.

Diplomacy

2002-05-01T21:24:03Z

Yikes, what have I gotten myself into? I'm sure that Pucette can help!

Bandwagoning...

2002-05-01T13:25:12Z

Yeah, I wanna be just like all of the cool kids...

My son is named for a woman.

My daughter is named for a character in a Shakespeare play (who may or may not be male, I'm not certain).

My wife, son and daughter all have the same middle name.

...but not enough to list 10 things. Tens probably not nearly enough, plus I don't want to scare you all away.

Arggh!

2002-04-30T13:15:16Z

So last night I attempted to take advantage of a free month ISP from Earthlink. This came with the new computer, as did a free month and setup with AOL, but since I didn't know anything about Earthlink, and have a slight prejudice against AOL decided to try them.

I kept having problems with the setup, some data didn't agree, the e-mail name I selected was taken, the software crapped out, etc. Finally it appeared to be all set and then it said I had to shut the Systems Preferences folder to finish the install. I tried but couldn't get it to believe that the folder was closed. Finally got out of that, then it rebooted my machine and apparently wiped out the (most recent version of ) the OS. Then I spent a half hour "upgrading" the OS back to version 10. I was not happy to end up in bed at 1 am with nothing accomplished.

I've drank the Kool-Aid and passed the cup to my kids...

2002-04-29T17:07:46Z

Yep, this weekend we bought a new iMac. Now we're all dressed like Steven Jobs. What's Next?

Kid's Soccer Weekend and a Lesson Learned

2002-04-28T22:45:38Z

Our girls team won today, they were sooo excited. We had a game both days this weekend in order to make up for a rain out a couple of weekends ago. Yesterday it started sprinkling during the game and just got wetter and wetter. We dominated the whole game, I'm not sure that the other team had a shot on goal, but we couldn't get any of our shots in the net, and in the end it was 0-0. Still, a big improvement over last week.

Today, it looked like it was going to rain again, there were moments of deluge last night, I was a bit surprised when the games weren't cancelled because the field was sure to be wet. Still, the weather broke a bit when we got to the field and soon the skies cleared. But it was, as Pooh might say, a rather blustery day. Just so much wind. Again, we played better than the other team early, but somehow found ourselves down 3-1 midway through the third quarter. Both teams only had seven girls and on top of the game the day before everyone was really tired. At several points in the game we were a player short because of fatigue. I let the girls come over to the side and rest or have a drink of water during the play. Their just small children after all. But we'd finally scored our first goal of the season and you could just see a bit more determination on the girls' faces.

Then Kara, our own fiery redhead, took the ball on her own down the field and scored again to make it 3-2. As the fourth quarter started Olivia, who is the oldest, biggest and strongest girl on our team went down on her face. I ran across the field to check on her and she was okay but I carried her off the field. I set her down, got her a drink, and told her if she felt better she could go back on but that she didn't have to. A few minutes later she went back in. Shortly after she found herself with just one defender between her and the goal. She took a very solid shot that went around the defender and the goalie and found the opposite corner of the goal. Suddenly we were tied! A few minutes later she got to the same position and again put the ball in. For the first time this season they were winning! You could see them almost walking on air. And three of the four goals were scored going into the wind, which was incredibly strong by then.

After the game the mood was a lot more festive than the first game, but everyone was very tired. I made sure that they all knew what a great job that they'd done as they got their drinks; then they sprinted off threw the tunnel that the parents make after the game. We gathered up all of the gear and signed the scorecard and went back over to our cars.

That's when Kara came over to me. "Coach, we didn't win."

"Sure you did", I corrected her.

"No, it was a tie."

"But you scored two goals and Olivia scored two goals so we had four..."

"No, it was a tie", she insisted.

I looked at her for a moment, "You have a friend on the other team, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Okay, it was a tie sweetheart. Have a nice weekend", I replied.

"Thanks, coach. Bye."

I may end up in Hindi Hell

2002-04-26T13:32:16Z

I'm taking a friend from India (he's in town on business) to have steak for dinner tonight. It's his request, but still. I just imagine an angry bovine with a bindi chasing me across my dreams...

Premature to get excited but...

2002-04-25T13:07:10Z

I just found out through the grapevine that my company is looking for people with my skillset to work in Europe for the next year or so doing system conversions. Now I just need to see if it fits well for me (family considerations) and convince my managment that they need me to do that.

Thailand and South Korea

2002-04-24T15:01:32Z

So, just so I don't feel too bad about Sophie constantly reminding me about how all the cool kids are going to St. Thomas soon, I'm going to start my own countdown on how long it is until I depart for Thailand and Korea.

Currently it is: 717 hours until my plane departs.

Woot!

A straggler...

2002-04-23T16:24:26Z

My spots:

Portland, Oregon
Medford, Oregon
Albuquerque, New Mexico (so far so good)
Little Rock, Arkansas (huh?)

Santa Fe, New Mexico (that's better)
Fayettville, Arkansas (what's the obsession with Arkansas?)
Eugene, Oregon
Salem, Oregon (I don't mind the obsession with Oregon)
Charleston, West Virginia (I don't think so)
Carson City, Nevada (the brochure is nice)
Frederick, Maryland (maybe)
Santa Cruz, California (can I afford that?)
Corvallis, Oregon
Bend, Oregon
Seattle, Washington (again with the Pacific Northwest; perhaps it's a hint)
Reno, Nevada (my parents were married here)
Asheville, North Carolina (maybe)
Hartford, Connecticut (too much crime?)
Danbury, Connecticut (?)
Cincinnati, Ohio (No... but I'd save a fortune on relocation costs)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin (where'd that come from?)
Tulsa, Oklahoma (I don't think so)
Washington, DC (Maybe)
Baltimore, MD (Been there, done that, did like it)

Smiling

2002-04-23T12:59:27Z

Carson always wakes up smiling. Every single time. He's the only human being that I know of who does that. Everybody should have one just like him.

I learned something on Saturday

2002-04-22T14:24:36Z

My son is afraid of mud. Not deathly so, just enough that he was wholey uninterested in participating in his soccer game on Saturday. It was a mud bath, the field is the drainage basin for a church and an apartment complex. Several of the other kids were afraid, too. One father, whose kid seemed to be one of the youngest, kept sending his son back onto the field crying. I tried to get the Boy to go back out, but it was a losing battle and I didn't feel it was worth an adulthood full of therapy to force him back out there. His coach did an admirable job of trying to convince the kids that mud was fun. He went so far as to do a full on belly flop through the mud. His daughter bought into, but my son, whilst amused, was not fooled. What makes this most difficult to comprehend is that I'm always stopping him from stomping in puddles. So I guess rainwater is okay, but mud and muck are straight out. I think that this will be a long season.

For my daughter's team it was not so bad, there was just a little mud. Our team got beat, something like 5-0. The funny thing is that we dominated the first and last period, but I have to rotate the kids in to different positions (I'm the coach) and some girls are just better than others. When we had shots on goal they all went right to their keeper (who stopped them all) or just outside the goalpost. Some of their goals were good shots, and some just went right by the sweet little girl who begged to play keeper but was pretty much without a clue. One of our girls got a pretty good kick above the knee that bruised up quickly. My daughter was playing goal when she started crying; I thought she was hurt but when I checked to see what was the matter one of the girls on her team "hurt her feelings". These are apparently easily bruised, as well. So far we only have one "soccer dad" who is a bit of a handful, otherwise it was okay.

Family Confluence

2002-04-19T13:41:42Z

My sister, her new baby and her (redneck) husband are in town, more specifically down in Dayton, Kentucky, visiting his mom. My brother and his family (wife and 2 kids) are driving out from Pittsburgh today to see the new baby Sydney (sp?). Yeah, this is the same SIL who scraped up the front of my car last time she was here. They said they are bringing a check, although in the end it was only $250 so I wouldn't ask them if they didn't offer.

Don't know what we're doing tonight, my brother's family should get in some time around 5 pm. Tomorrow my sister, her husband and whomever else they bring will come over and we'll probably just hang around the house all day. The kids are supposed to have soccer but again the weather looks uncooperative. At least I've laid in plenty of wine and beer to get us through the weekend. I haven't seen my sister in about 4 years since they moved to Alaska while we were in Europe, so it should be interesting.