I created a visual org chart for my group and the other group in my space during our first reorganization, and last Friday I updated it to reflect the new organization. Originally, there were four leads with direct reports and a group of college students. After the last reorgnization, there were four leads, the college group, and a new group that's sort of unrelated to our core mission. Additionally, most of the leads picked up a new person, and one of my leads picked up several extra core people. When I laid it all out, it looked sort of like this.
Which, fortunately before distributing, but after printing, I realized would look like this upside down. Believe me when I say it looked even worse with people, and despite no one having seven fingers, it was very obvious what it looked like. I pictured 19 direct reports hanging their org charts upside down on their cabinets and defensively proclaiming, "But Scooter sent it to me! I can't help it if we have bad tape!" I split the center line into two lines to avoid the issue.
Eryn is seriously happy. We have Pappa's lawnmower for a while until he comes back to pick it up after doing us a solid and thatching our yard. She's getting more enjoyment out of it than she ever did her toy Gator (no offence to my parents, she was just never the right size at the right time for that toy).
In case you don't think she's actually driving it, but just sitting on it:
Because a guy on YouTube who showed me the chords for Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy noted that it's a song liked by teenage or almost-teenage girls. Damn it.
This is actually a pretty good rendition. I like her chords better than the Am D G C chording, which is probably more accurate, and it's easy to see her strumming technique.
It took exactly 24 hours to find a phrase to add to my list, and I don't add them lightly (although I thank Shawn for his recommendations). Long pole. As in, what's the long pole? There are a bunch of small issues, but what's the long pole? The long pole is the hardware as there's a six month wait. The long pole is the power consumption, as we might never make it to the floor. The long pole is Scooter. He's going to hold everything up. He always does. I'm not sure why, all I asked him was what he felt was the long pole. The long pole is we keep using the phrase long pole and it's pissing people off to the point they're leaving the project.
Amended phrases I will never use: 1.) The Perfect Storm
I blogged once about how much I hate the phrase "the perfect storm". I would like to add the phrase "special sauce" to my list. As in, "our program has that special sauce" (software and agile folks love to use it) or talking about anything and adding, "that's the special sauce" or "it still needs that special sauce." Or, Klund would be just another tall guy, if it weren't for the special sauce. Or special sauce would be a great catch phrase, if only it had that special sauce. Or Scooter seems to be missing that special sauce, perhaps because he never says, "special sauce." I get the willies just typing it that many times, let alone hearing execs say it over and over and over.
Ming, Kyle...I dare you to watch every movie on this list and this other list:
http://www.netflix.com/AwardPage?awardId=76 && http://www.netflix.com/AwardPage?awardId=77. Those are the Razzie Award pages for worst actor and worst actress for the last 29 years. Paris Hilton in The Hottie and the Nottie. Mariah Carey in Glitter. Bo Derek in Ghosts Can't Do It (and others). Pia Zadora. Liza Minelli. Bill Cosby in Leonard Part 6. Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone (I think that's the one with Dolly Parton if I remember the trailers correctly). Norbit. Little Man.
If you can watch all of them. ALL of them. I'll give you something special. A bottle of something special for Kyle if he can do it. An extra $70 toward whatever I get Ming for his birthday if he can do it. But you have to watch all of them. It's a trust dare. Kyle should be able to - he's already sat through part of Shortcut to Happiness, and that's not even on the list. The rest should be simple. Ming, I'm not so sure of. There are movies older than Forrest Gump on the list. You could watch them together - do it MST3K style like Joel or Mike and the Bots. A mere 116 hours out of your lives to watch movies if there's no overlap, and you've probably already seen a few of them so you've got a head start. Sounds like a good dare to me.
A good Father's Day. Pooteewheet made me breakfast and coffee and Eryn gave me a hug. I also got a nice new shirt from Threadless, a ride for me and a friend (Pooteewheet) around Minneapolis or St. Paul on Segways (3.5 hours! Better do it before winter), a coupon book from Eryn for hugs and cleaning her room (among other things), and a card where the punch line was that Eryn had farted in it. Definitely my daughter.
My new threadless t-shirt:
Eryn wearing my sunglasses after we biked down to Blackhawk Park together. She wasn't impressed with the heat or the uphill ride on the way back. I think she was a little worn out from LissyJo's yesterday and helping in the neighbor's garden and slip and sliding today. I would like to make it a point to tell Izzy's that their policy of not closing until the last customer was out the door, which allowed us all to enjoy a cone at 10:45 p.m. last night, is just incredible customer service. My Summit Oatmeal ice cream and coffee grounds laced Izzy were delicious. Eryn walked in wearing her pajamas. Pooteewheet actually found two other people who were there who'd been at Rock the Garden.
LissyJo was very nice and took Eryn yesterday for almost 9 hours while Pooteewheet and I went to Rock the Garden at the Walker (at the Sculpture Garden) on two tickets I won at work (yep, Twins tickets and Garden tickets. It was a good week). Particularly nice as my brother in law was out of town and she already had two girls and a sushi date.
The event was great. There was Retribution Gospel Choir, OK Go, Sharon Jones and DAP Kings, and MGMT. The last one was the one I was excited to hear, although I really enjoyed OK Go as well, and the others were just fine to listen to on a sunny day in the park. You'll have to excuse that last post about the New Pornographers. Apparently I was on a previous year and had a mixture of bands in my head that suit my disposition.
OK Go doing a bells number. The women in my hometown Methodist church had a bells group that used to tour the state. Good to see it's gone mainstream. I did enjoy the secular version considerably more than the religious version.
Sandal Summit! Built in coasters. The ability to get Summit EPA was wonderful.
Stupid sunglasses guy. Maybe he has an ailment? I hope so. There was also stupid dancing girl near us. She was a teenager, so she probably deserved a bit of slack, but there were two teenage sisters sitting next to us who were incredibly amused, so she doesn't deserve too much leeway. I asked one if she was amused and she replied, "No. Confused." Later their mom told us they were referring to her as the Elaine on Seinfeld dancer. I have video, but it was too dark for it to be amusing enough for publication.
His glasses from another angle.
Pooteewheet's ex, from junior high that is, and his wife Ginger. I don't think they'd seen each other in 20 years or more. Luke is a cofounder of The Nerdery, which is cool. A brush with local geek fame. He does indeed have two beers and a dixie cup of heavily vodka-ed juice. He was riding the bus home, so he didn't need a designated driver.
Some videos from the bands that were playing: MGMT Time to Pretend:
Klund is concerned I may not be geocaching. I am. I'm just not doing a very good job of logging my finds. I went geocaching during the manager offsite this year with a geocacher from Rochester (New York). And even taught a few management types how to geocache. They stood around for quite a while trying to find what I'd already found. Just to add some clarity to this weird cache, it looked exactly like the other bolts in the same area. You had to come to terms with the idea that it required three bolts to hold up one strut of the park structure instead of two like the twenty other struts.
I have this urge to put an exclamation point at the end of all of my post titles. I'm sure that would make the blog much more exciting.
On Wednesday, Eryn and I went to the Twins game courtesy of my company. Apparently the Twins tickets are very difficult to win because everyone wants to enjoy the new outdoor stadium. I won on my first entry (I did submit for three separate games, but still, I appreciate not having to fill out more entry slips). I also won Rock the Garden 2010 tickets for this week, so I get to listen to the New Pornographers, among others. It's an 8 hour concert in the sculpture garden. LissyJo is taking Eryn for the day to hang with her and the girls so we can go. I'm not so sure I'm hip enough to pull off Rock the Garden, and I'm sure there's a Millennial at the company who would curse me if s/he knew some old fogey was going.
But...I digress and encroach upon future posts. Eryn and I parked about six blocks away and actually found a free spot to park, but she was pretty tired by the time we figured out where we were sitting.
As you can see in this picture of one of the Rockies batting, our view, and our seats, were incredible. Between third and home. At least until the two people in the seats in front of us, who were missing the first hour, finally showed up. Then our seats weren't quite so child friendly. We'd have been better off in the upper, steeper seats, where Eryn could have looked over a few heads. She was more interested in her tricolor bag of cotton candy, however, so I'm not sure she was missing much. But she did ask dozens of questions about the score boards, and the pitcher numbers, and batter numbers. And we both made fun of the people on the video board who didn't realize they were on camera because they were so busy texting on their cell phones.
Eryn and the two empty seats in front of us. She was excited about the game and even though we left about 9:15, she told me I had to wake her up and tell her whether they won or lost, particularly after hearing on the radio that the Rockies had men on second and third. There was a big woo-hoo! when I told her the Twins had held on to the two points they'd had when we were there and the Rockies had only picked up a point.
On the way to the stadium, a few pedicabs had passed us before we had a chance to catch a ride. Eryn asked if we could catch one back to the car and I told her sure (after all, the game had only cost us $20 for food). She waved one down herself and I gave the guy $20 (floating fee) because even though Eryn is light, I felt I was a bit of a burden. He told us about training for a triathlon and about his girlfriend being on the Twins video board, but how he'd never been to a game himself, only watched them from the nooks/peak areas outside the stadium. I think this is the bit Eryn will remember when she's older.
When we were at the Jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin, there was a girl standing next to us in line that had a shirt on that said "Bridesmaid Eryn". Eryn's not a very common name. You certainly can't find it on keychains and coffee cups, much to Eryn's dismay and the benefit of our pocketbook. So it was exciting to meet someone who not only had the name, but had it displayed prominently on her shirt. Not that Eryn's don't exist. There's Eryn Brooke: actress, model, singer, dancer. And even another namesake. And I know from talking to people at work, that there are even other Eryn's immediately related to coworkers. HOWEVER...most of this Eryn, Sydney, etc stuff is based on trying to find a unique name by substituting a Y where normally there would be an I. That's it. End of story. That is not why Eryn's name is Eryn. I realized I had never really mentioned this, and it's probably important to note for when she gets older.
You see. Eryn's name is absolute, well, only slightly diluted, geekdom. Her name has nothing to do with liking Erin and dropping in a Y. It has to do with liking the science fiction show Farscape, in particular the character played by Claudia Black (yum), and Pooteewheet telling me it wasn't ok to name her Aeryn because teachers and classmates would call her Ay-rin, or Ay-ear-in. So the compromise was to drop the initial A and proceed as though we weren't uber-nerds. I'm still slightly disappointed we didn't use the A, because other Aeryn's exist, so it wouldn't have been that peculiar.
I quote from Wikipedia:
"Aeryn Sun (pronounced /ˈɛrɪn sʊn/), played by Claudia Black, is a former Peacekeeper pilot and officer. Although she appears to be human, she is in fact Sebacean, a species indistinguishable from humans in external appearance. At the time John Crichton appears through a wormhole in the beginning of the series, Officer Aeryn Sun is in her Prowler battling to retake the Leviathan Moya, which has been seized by escaping prisoners Ka D'Argo, Rygel, and Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan.
However, Aeryn's prowler is caught up in the stream of Moya's starburst and is towed along with the escaping Leviathan. Aeryn is brought on board Moya as a prisoner, but when she and Crichton encounter her commanding officer Captain Crais, she defends John from Crais' allegation that John deliberately attacked and killed Crais' brother, saying he isn't brave enough or smart enough to have done so. In return, Crais declares her to be "irreversibly contaminated" from spending too much time with an unknown life form, which means a death sentence. John Crichton and D'Argo soon escape the Peacekeepers again and, having nowhere else to go, Aeryn reluctantly becomes a fugitive alongside them.
Aboard Moya, she learns to think beyond the strict, militaristic confines of her Peacekeeper upbringing. Born in service aboard a Command Carrier, it is the only life she has known, and thus is very well skilled in hand-to-hand and weapons combat. She also becomes a valuable and important member of Moya's crew, and a companion and romantic interest to Crichton during the series. It is only after leaving the Peacekeepers that she can begin to find out about her parentage. In season three she discovers that her mother, Xhalax Sun, was a Peacekeeper pilot who—against Peacekeeper regulations—fell in love with an older officer, Talyn Lyczac. They deliberately had Aeryn, a child born of love, and Xhalax sneaks into Aeryn's dormitory one night to tell her so, which is strictly against regulations. To redeem her crime, Xhalax was forced by the Peacekeepers to choose between the two, and she executed Talyn so that Aeryn could live.
Aeryn evolves from a cold, detached soldier into a valuable friend and crewmate. Her relationship with John Crichton evolves also, Aeryn ultimately becoming a compassionate wife and loving mother in the end of the show. They name their son D'Argo Sun-Crichton, after their dear friend who seemingly lost his life in the Peacekeeper Wars."
Our daughter should be happy I like warrior women, which saved her from being called Zhaan.
On our way home from Chicago, we took a tour of the Jelly Belly factory/warehouse in Wisconsin. In some respects, it reminded me of the in-laws cookie factory. Mostly a lot of shelves. There just happened to be a tour train and videos. I did appreciate the free jelly beans at the end. Some of the foreign tourists went a little crazy and filled up shopping baskets with Jelly Bellys and other candy, and posed with their baskets and candy (peace signs and other weird poses). We don't have any of those sorts of pictures, although I did buy some candy. It wasn't considerably cheaper than the store, unless you were buying Belly Flops, which are jelly beans that don't make the cut. Their Super Fruit mixture is perhaps my new favorite mix.
The factory from afar.
I kid. It looked nothing like that. That was the nearby power plant. But for a while we were concerned that's where we were headed and it would turn out to be some sort of Willy Wonkaesque adventure. Eryn and me posing outside the store.
Eryn didn't like her hat at all. She wanted it off as soon as humanly possible. Up and to the right are the Harry Potter Jelly Bellys - Bertie Bott style. So you have your pencil shavings, centipede, vomit, sardine, and the like. We didn't buy any of those, and didn't even bother to try them at the tasting counter. Eryn once had a package with sausage and sardine in it and, although they sounded intriguing in Harry Potter, the reality was much less romantic.
Pooteewheet, on the other hand, loved her hat and the pictures of conservative presidents rendered in Jelly Bellys.
Eryn and Mom posing next to the Jelly Belly slug bug.
Our second day in Chicago, we hit the Museum of Science and Industry. We've been there before, but Eryn hadn't been on the U-boat since she was really little and couldn't remember it. It was a timely trip as we went to see Indiana Jones at the Trylon last weekend, so we could talk about U boats. Just a random observation, while we were sitting in the food court at the museum, I asked Pooteewheet, do you see any black people here who aren't working here? We eventually noticed a family, but there were virtually none. The reason it was strange was that we had just come from The Original Pancake House only a few blocks away, where we were definitely a minority. So at least on the day we were there, it seemed as though the museum was a favorite of tourists, and not of the people in the neighborhood. Maybe it's just because we weren't there on a school day. But the contrast between breakfast (delicious, by the way) and the museum was a bit dramatic.
The U-505. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The tour guide was very enthusiastic. The tour I had of the sub (non-Nazi) in Australia was much better. I liked getting a tour from an actual Aussie bubblehead better than the 25 year old at the museum. Primarily, the U-505 capture is a story about incompetence (failing to throw the plug over the side, etc.). But I did find it enjoyable to see that the submarine had a great big plug in the bottom, just like a bathtub, so that it could be quickly scuttled. It reminded me of people in Monticello that used to claim there was a big red button in the nuclear power plant that could make it explode. Except the plug in the sub was real.
The line before the tour. The perspective is correct. Eryn was playing rock, paper, scissors. The tour guide asked us all where we were from. We said Eagan. The woman next to us said, "China." And the people next to her said, "Right next door." Pooteewheet replied, "To China?" The Chinese woman did not even crack a smile. She didn't seem amused one bit.
There's a ship tagging game in the periscope. Eryn had to wait about ten minutes for a guy to make space, so she made sure to spend some time enjoying it.
She's the right size for a berth.
Submarine simulation. We made it through safe and sound. It's a little less complicated than the Wii, the only options being spin toward each other, spin away from each other, or really get mixed up and do something else.
Engima machines are not little girl friendly. This is why they shouldn't let someone else encode what you get to decode. It was a step up from the drunk guy in our hotel screaming in the hallway at 2:00 a.m. "Your sister's a fucking whore!" Pooteewheet was amused when he was yelling "Don't touch me! Don't fucking touch me!" And someone put a hand over his mouth. "Don't touch me! Don't fucking touch mfphfh!" Security eventually arrived to quiet them down, but not before they left behind a leather trash can full of vomit for the morning cleaning staff. That was a real treat to smell in the hallway as we were checking out. He's probably the guy who left this message for Eryn to decode.
I think I published a picture of this guy a long time ago. I know I'm supposed to be reflective, but he makes me smile. It looks like someone took his puppy or ice cream sandwich. It's the same face Eryn used to make when she was annoyed/sad, except she added a little nostril huff as she made the face.
Eryn and Pooteewheet in the wind tube. Gusts of up to 80 mph. Yet their hair seems strangely unaffected.
Avalanche exhibit. Not really worth watching unless you're trying to hyponotise yourself. Visitors control the spin of the exhibit. The various video games around the hall were more interesting as they encouraged a kid to be a forest fire fighter, fireworks display coordinator, and jet fuel/car fuel creator. They were little adventures with numerous endings and Eryn spent quite a bit of time checking out what a mixture of marshmallows and oxygen would do to a car, and learned that dumping fire retardant near a river is a no-no.
You could control the light mixture in this exhibit. Eryn was fascinated that by changing the colors she could make certain flowers on her shirt disappear.
Train! Gave me flashbacks to the locomotive at the park in Sidney, Montana. I used to play in that thing all the time. I think it has wire around it now because it's not safe for modern children.
SWEET PICTURE OF FATHER AND DAUGHTER ON A COW!
GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A PERVERT BECAUSE HE'S SITTING ON A FAKE COW ALONE!
Pooteewheet and Eryn in the circus exhibit.
After the museum, we went to Tsuki for dinner. As I mentioned yesterday, Eryn thought she'd prefer Friends Sushi. But when we got to Tsuki they told us Sundays were for kids and their meal was free and available in a bento box. Eryn picked the Hello Kitty bento box. The meal wasn't some kid-sized knock off, but a full chicken meal and free ice cream. They gave her a balloon when she left as well. The chef, the owner, or someone involved in the restaurant really likes kids.
Bubble gum flavored soda. Ugh. There's a little glass ball in the top that comes with many warnings about not trying to extract it.
My food! And Pooteewheet's. The two pieces in the foreground are smoked duck. Yum.
Spicy Pinenut Tuna Maki roll. Delicious. A great mix of crunchy, spicy, and various textures. One of the better rolls I've ever eaten.
Our first day in Chicago we went to Navy Pier. That's pretty much all we did. Drove down to the pier, almost got stuck in Memorial Day parade traffic, finally found a $20-some parking spot near the pier, and then enjoyed the pier, the ferris wheel, a cheese borger at Billy Goat Tavern, an architecture tour on one of the boats, and then wandered over to Friends Sushi about half a dozen blocks away.
Probably Eryn's favorite part of the whole day. The fountain just before entering the pier. She made us go back to it later so she could play next to it again. I was glad she was having so much fun, except that the second time round she was melting cotton candy on my leg.
You might have to click through to see the panoramic photos. This one is funny because I caught the same kid twice. It's sort of creepy.
Fun around the fountain:
What's that smell?! No vacation collection would be complete without me inappropriately enjoying the local statues.
Eryn about to check out one of the sailing ships off the pier. She was excited when they touched off their cannon.
Very end of the pier. We were getting in a bit of exercise for the day (I was tired when everything was done for the day as I topped it off by swimming with Eryn in the hotel pool where they were having "Dive In Movies." Ali asked me if I'd be willing to do a mini triathalon with him this year, so I tried a few laps of crawl in the pool. For the next two days my arms felt like they were slightly separating at the shoulder joints).
Eryn enjoying the ferris wheel.
Certainly not The Eye, but up there a ways (I think it's 1/3 the height of The Eye - we were trying to figure it out with Pooteewheet's Android while waiting in line. We bumped into some Eaganites while in line, which isn't nearly as weird as bumping into someone named Eryn two days later in the line at the Jellybelly factory. She had her name printed on her shirt).
Nice skyline picture from the ferris wheel.
Another. In case you can't tell, I really like Lake Point Tower. Looks like I can buy 1000 square feet for around $400K, and a parking spot for another $67-80K. Or if I make it big, it looks like I can get something around 3000 square feet near the top for $1.65 million.
Little hazy the day we were there.
The highlight of the stained glass museum on the pier. Certainly belongs next to the other beautiful pieces in the gallery.
Eryn at the end of the pier. I was dying to go on a bike ride when I realized the bike trail just keeps going down the side of the lake. Next time we're in Chicago if it's not winter, that'll be a priority for me, particularly as the bikes are so easy to rent, or I can just take my own and Eryn and I can start south of the city where getting dropped off isn't a problem. I realize this means Pooteewheet might have to drive around by herself which, given her sense of direction even with her GPS, might be a recipe for disaster, but she could always try to find us again at whatever location we started from.
WHERE IS ERYN'S HEAD??? My superior photography skills at work.
A nice picture of Pooteewheet and Eryn having some fun before the architecture tour.
Architecture tour. That guy talked nonstop for like 70 minutes. Amazing. I learned that if you take a train (Metra) into Union Station, right across the street/river there's a water taxi that will take you to the pier for a fee. Given how much it cost to park at the pier, that might not have been such a bad option.
River City. Bertrand Goldberg's less famous apartment complex (second to the corncobs of Marina City).
This angel is VERY proud of the dump he just took (it's called the Angel of Peace).
Eryn, worried I'm going to do something embarrassing while taking a picture of the Angel of Peace.
Friends Sushi. I had the sashimi platter and tobiko (they offered all the colors of the rainbow) with uzura on it, much to the Facebook disgust of my former classmate Raquel. It was weird tabiko as it didn't come wrapped in seaweed, but was served on scooped out lemon rind. I have to say it was better than the tabiko the next night at Tsuki, and the presentation with the cracked egg shells on top of little bits of lemon was unique.
The inside of Friends Sushi. I wasn't sure it would be kid friendly, but there was a mother and son having sushi right next to us. Eryn and Pooteewheet enjoyed the steak and chicken teriyaki, although Eryn switched with Pooteewheet when she discovered she preferred the steak. She was dubious about going, but wanted to come back the next night. I'll post about it later, but was much happier with Tsuki when we went there on Sunday night.
I took us on a final detour so I could find a four pack of Dogfish beer at a liquor store I knew to exist downtown, and in order to take Eryn past Centennial Fountain which was near the hotel I'd stayed at a few years ago when I was at an educational software conference for work. It was my belief that if she liked the Navy Pier fountain, then she'd enjoy this one as well. It was a very nice place to wind down the evening.
A beautiful picture of the fountain in panorama.
Eryn doing a ballet pose in front of the fountain. There was a big family here right before I took this picture. A bunch of relations were up from Las Vegas and they were having a great time in front of the fountain.
Eryn and Mom having a great time enjoying the end of the day.
NO MERMAIDS ALLOWED IN THE FOUNTAIN!!! Emily Windsnap would be in big trouble (Eryn's book of choice during the trip).
The fountain shoots a jet of water across the river later in the day. A wedding showed up to take pictures in saris and tuxes. Beautiful wedding party and a great place for wedding pictures.
Close up of the fountain, in case you just need some white noise for relaxing:
The fountain shooting across the river as a boat floats by. A very large speedboat (I suppose it was officially a yacht) braved the fountain later and everyone hunkered down under the rain guard to avoid getting drenched. If grins were umbrellas they would have been perfectly safe.
