Paul, Lament

April 26, 2006I just read that Paul is having to take steroids for his health.  This is hard news, as he will be disqualified for the special olympics, in which we expected him to medal this year.

Nice Lawn: Priceless?

April 25, 2006[Lawn] - No pain, no... pain.

2 Rakes - $17
4qts of weed killer - $45
1 bag weed and feed - $18
Hours Spent - 50ish
Nice Lawn - $90 and 50 hours

My back hurts.

Well, we've filled up two of those big trash cans with grass and weeds.  Hopefully, we won't have too much garbage, since trash day isn't until next Monday.  I can't see us getting more than one more bag in there (there's only one now).  I'll be mowing the lawn again tomorrow, and then comes seeding and watering.  I know it will all be worth it in the end, but I'm starting to run out of steam.  I nearly stopped today when I only had 5min left of work, but I managed to finish up.  The lawn is staying relatively dandelion free, though there are the occasional rebels.  I take care of them, though, so the lawn is looking nice and green.

[School] - Gambling
Well, I took a gamble and it seems to have paid off.  I spent most of the weekend grading papers, working in the yard, and preparing for our thermal design oral report, which was Monday morning.  What I didn't do was work on the 10+ page lab report that I had to turn in Monday at 5:00pm.  See, prioritization dictates that you first do what is most important and most immediate.  I only needed about a 50/100 on the report to get an A in energy systems lab, so I decided to wait until I first finished assignments that I needed to do well on.  So I basically had from 10am-5pm to finish.  I actually did it, though.  I had the report done by 4, and I think I did pretty well.  Even if it was bad, it was worth 50 pts.  It could have used another day of work and revision, but there are only so many hours in the day.  Today I did my last speech in... well, speech... and finished my last quiz, so I am done with that class except for an extra credit assignment I'm planning on doing.  I have only a thermal design final left in that class.  Overall, my classes are winding down, and my schedule is opening up.  I'm happier and less stressed than 2 days ago.  :)

[Job] - Official
Well, I confirmed with TRW that I'll be working with them, so I'll be starting in June.  I'm really excited!


Liz made cupcakes!  She loves me.  I must go  and consume one.

New Morgan Group

April 23, 2006We have enough Morgans to justify our own group!  Click to join "Morgans Unite"!

Broken Home

April 22, 2006Hehe... not the marriage kind, of course.  We had a couple mishaps today that I figured I'll share.

To help the grass in the front lawn grow in thicker and greener, I embarked on the task of ripping up the thatch with one of those heavy-tine rakes.  With so much stuff built up, it takes a while and requires a lot of force.  Pretty exhausting, really.  Back to the point.  The head of the rake was just jammed into the handle, without any support.  After a composite of about 10 hours (most last spring) of use, the head started coming off.  Unwilling to relent, I simply pressed the head back in as well as I could.  Well, it started slipping more frequently and finally didn't want to reattach.  Some.... convincing... ended in the head being bent way out of shape, and the rake being rendered ineffective.  As I see it, not trying to fix it would have definitely doomed it, so at least I got to take out some aggression.  So the rake is done.  We'll need to get another soon.

After putting the rake back in the garage, I attempted to shut the door, but it signalled something was block the sensor.  I moved everything away from the door, but it still wouldn't close.  Liz and I messed with the sensors, trying to make them line up.  We took them off their mounts and put tried to make it work, we twisted and pulled and rotated but nothing worked.  I was about to see if I could hardwire the thing until we decided to see if the lights were working right.  One was on, and the second was supposed to be.  We stuck them back in the supports, the second light came on, and the door shut like it was supposed to.  I don't know what the problem was, since we put it back basically how we found it.  Oh well.  At least its working.


Liz was keeping me company while I was changing the oil in my car.  Once I got it drained and changed the filter, Liz volunteered to refill it.  She did, and then I shut the hood and went inside.  It was raining later and as I arrived for an interview at a nearby light manufacturer (day before I accepted job at TRW), I noticed that there was more than just steam coming from under the hood.  As I approached the front of the car, I saw a dribble of oil going down the right headlight.  I opened the hood to find oil pouring out of the holes in the hood and dripping over most of the components.  And the oil cap was off.  Liz thought I was going to put it back on, I though Liz already had.  I should have checked, but I didn't think about it at the time.  I didn't lose much oil, though, and no damage.  And amazingly, the cap was sitting their on the engine, so I just had to screw it back in.  I'm still surprised I didn't drop it somewhere.  Of course, I hear Liz's mom made it back from the shop with a wrench sitting under the hood, so I guess engines have some sort of magical magnetic/gravimetric super-duper sucking power.  Hmmh... I think "magnetic/gravimetric" sounded a little more scientific than "super-duper".  I'll have to choose an 'administrative assistant' wisely some day.

So yeah... stuff is falling apart.  But only some things.  Oh!  And the toilet wasn't flushing right, but I just had to mess with the chain a little. 

[Baby] - Fountain of Youth

Daniel has a little virus and the fount of drool springs eternal, but he's doing okay.  He seems to be generally regressing with his cup-drinking abilities.  He'll drink, but he'll start to just chew on it, and milk will begin pouring out of his mouth, dripping down his chin, and drenching his outfit.  My guess is he's just teething, taking advantage of something warm and squishy in his mouth.  Until he got his first teeth, Liz and I volunteered fingers for that position.  After that first emergence, however, the domain of babytoothgumville is rather treacherous, as professed by yelps and frantic waving of fingers.  Now, he must resort to synthetic replacements, most avaible during feeding time.  Hence, drenching.  It's like a milk moustache, but with a beard and chest hair to match.

In other news, there is a great Morgan assault on phusebox.  Tremble before us... uh... nonMorgans?  Humph.  TREMBLE!

As options are scary, closure is reassuring

April 21, 2006Today has the makings of greatness, serving as the culmination of hundreds of hours in two landmarks events.  The minor: submitting the paper for Thermal Design.  You know, that class I have been ranting about for weeks.  The project is done.  As I'm sure you're dying to ask, the final paper ended up being 201 pages long.  There were some charts and figures, but much of it was text.  It felt great.  I think we might have made up for our sub-par interim report.  It'll take him a while to grade them, so you'll just have to wait in suspense like I am.  The major landmark: I just accepted the position at TRW.  This means that the next year of my life will be spent as a working man.  I'll put school on hold for a little while and go learn what it means to be a product engineer.  After getting all the details of the positions, I am confident that TRW is the better choice for me.  I'll be working there June 06 to June 07, being involved in what I want to do long term and getting paid half again what Oak Ridge was offering.  So... I'm excited.

The rain has been pretty crazy here, too.  It's good for the yard.  I spent hours last week pulling and killing dandelions.  Wednesday (I think) was also spent in the yard.  Jonathan came over and graciously offered to help.  I mowed, we did the weed eating, and then we did some raking.  Now, raking doesn't mean gathering the newly cut grass.  We have this layer of dead thatch that builds up, so we spent some time ripping it up.  It's not even close to done, but we did get some, and all the rain will help the grass fill in the holes.  We have also planted some Verbenas, and they are also appreciating the rain.  They were growing, but they've really exploded since the first drenching.

You know what doesn't like water?  Aloe.  Now I have to stop making fun of Liz for killing a cactus.  As it cooled down last fall, Liz and I brought the aloe inside for preservation.  We put it on the counter, and it did fine.  By fine, I mean it spent nearly 6 months without additional watering or much sunlight and still looked and felt healthy.  It wasn't getting any bigger, but it was definitely not lacking.  Spring rolls around, we put it outside, water it once, and it shrivelled and died, perhaps from the shock of us bothering to water it.  Hmmh... maybe I should ease back into house cleaning duties, lest Liz share the same fate.  The basil, parsley, and newly added tomato plant are all doing quite well.  The aloe is doing quite dead.  Quite dead indeed.  The kind of dead that can only be portrayed with a picture.

There is other work that must be done this weekend, but for now I will enjoy a much needed break - sit back, sip my slightly flat sunkist, let the tv droll on in the background, and slip into sweep Oblivion.  And of course the capital O indicating that I mean the game, not the void.  I find slipping into the void rather... dull.