Thursday

Not much happening today. Jonny called Kristina and Wendell. He spoke to his parents individually for a combined 20 minutes. They as usual nagged about the Jonny birthday visit to the beach with Jesse. But it wasn't that intense.

Jonny started a new book No Man's Dog A detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mystery by Jon A. Jackson. The good thing Jonny found after 5 pages is that the book is set in Detroit suburbs. Also the main character's mother is an elderly environmentalist. She enjoys bird watching. Jonny is now on page 11 of that book. He is on page 217 of To say Nothing of the Dog.

focus

Today Jonny listened to half of the parsha Emor. Somehow the navigation bar disappeared in access. He is trying to get the gridview to remember the scroll position. He discovered that if he sets the focus to a button on the page then the gridview scrolls back up to the top. So it is looking more and more like a javascript solution might be needed to force the scroll back down. It is so bizarre the way this asp.net works. Jonny forgot his book To Say Nothing of the Dog again. He rode his bike again. Lorraine has an appointment today. Angelina called and is having some kind of Davis Vision insurance problem at Hotel California. Of course the problem isn't in the hotel proper but in the eye section. So far this excitement of checking web page after web page of technical documentation has kept Jonny awake.

people on medical leave

Here in Hotel California, Penny Fuller's people are somewhat on medical leave. In specific, Dabney Coleman is on medical leave. A pile of work that Dabney had on his desk dating back to January wasn't completed. Penny asked Jonn to look into how much was completed. It is looking more and more like none of it was completed.

Jonny forgot to bring his book To Say Nothing of the Dog to work. He rode his bike to work today. Last night he fixed his shed. The doors weren't sliding. This was because the wood was too long on the floor. It got in the way of the movement of the doors. Last night Jonny and Angelina watched Criminal Minds.

Jonny has entered another link to his old diary. here. Of note in this old entry from the day after Independence Day 5

• he used email in 1994
• was working on a master's degree
• had Leo the 17 year old cat, who was 1 in 1994
• didn't own a steam cleaner but is on his second now
• his shed from 1994 was much better

book club results

Over the weekend Jonny was able to go to the book club. He caught the last 20 minutes of the discussion of The Zookeeper's Wife. The group will be voting on the next book. Jonny is on page 185 of To Say Nothing of the Dog. He is enjoying it. Today he has been kinda sleepy. So he is not quite finished listening to the parsha of Emor. Earlier Angelina called. She says she is behind the 8-ball again. Her sinuses hurt. There is a meeting for soccer tonight for Aberta. Over the weekend there was a soccer game in Macomb. Also over the weekend Jesse and Jonny planted grass seed. It was very nice that there has been so much rain here in Michigan. On Friday Jonny cleaned his bathroom at the Hotel Hilton. But his mop broke. So he took it home. Jonny applied hot glue to the broken mop. He brought the repaired mop to work. Today he cleaned his bathroom again. And again the mop broke. Now it is beyond repair. Also over the weekend Jesse got Jonny a book at the library. That was very nice of him to. It was called something like Lost Dog Last night Angelina and Jonny watched Criminal Minds an older episode. Jonny is still working on his D-Day Collection movie DVD. It helped him with a perspective on the book from the book club.

Friday

Today at 5:45 PM, Jonny will be meeting his son Jesse at soccer practice.

Jonny is up to page 130 of To Say Nothig of the Dog.

At work he is adding a fixed header to a scrollable DataGrid in ASP.NET.

He rode his bike to work today.

Jonny only has $3 so he might not it to the Red Hawk.

Right now he is feeling sleepy. This always seems to happen around 2:00 PM.

This week in the parsha it was a double parsha again like last week. The parshim are called Achaierei Mos and Kedoshim.

It tells the reader to be afraid of your mother. This is because most people are scared of the father, so the Torah wants to balance that out.

Also the first line is "we should all be holy". The word we is used because this means the parsha was taught to all of Israel not just the men.

It tells not to indulge.

The parsha says the more mitzvahs are done the holier the mitzvah doer becomes.

It is important to listen to the rules of Shabbos.

Fear your parents means don't sit in their chair.

Respect your parents means help your parents.

All these make sense but Jews do these because the Torah says to.

A person is closer to Kadish Barchu on Shabbos.

The Kohen Gadol had to change his clothing 4 times.

Wednesday

So far no nap today for Jonny. And he is up to page 100 of To Say Nothing of the Dog. That just reminded him of something. He needs to update his linked in to include some of the books he has been reading.

Jonny called and spoke to Kristina for about 6 minutes this morning.

Angelina is getting closer to buying that hitch for the minivan for $500.

Lunch today was the final sandwich in the turkey Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday lunch trilogy.

Jonny listened to the Achaierei Mos parsha.

Mood is a good one

For Jonny the mood was a good one. He was happy and jolly on the bus and in the lunch room. Then boom the after lunch coffee and the after lunch lulls. He feels kinda groggy now because he had what Angelina calls "her 20 minutes". Jonny woke up around 1:45. He got right back into programming ASP.NET. He hasn't done anything else today. No other data entry tasks. He has no plans to go to Red Hawk. Jonny went there on Friday and had two Great Lakes beers. Jonny also went there on Tuesday. But right about now he is running out of money. Today it was too cold in the morning to ride a bike to work. So he took the 8:17 #14 bus, which gets him late to work. Lorraine picked him out a new book. The book is called To Say Nothing of The Dog. And Jonny is on page 40. Cell phone. It was Angelina of course. She was calling to complain about her students. Over the weekend Jonny froze at Alberta's soccer game. Also over the weekend Jonny talked to Wendell. But Jesse got him off the phone before Wendell could wine too much about the beach or the Shenandoah. Tonight is a concert at Jesse's school. Again this week is a double parsha. So Jonny listened to Acharei. He didn't really pay that close attention. OK if Jonny were trying to hit more tags... Over the weekend Lucy the dog had a blow out. It smelled so bad so yep, he pulled out the cherry flavored scented candle. He played with that most of the morning. Today Jesse has a doctor visit at 3:20. This visit is for his hand. About two weeks ago, Jonny and Jesse were wood working. Has the splinter ever come out? During the week Angelina bought some lox, because she was in the mood for it. Even thought Jonny has been programming hard:

10:25 water plants
10:32 timesheet
10:44 fonts of email
10:46 adjusting volume

Jonny thinks his book has hidden English humor. He needs a laugh track to tell him when the jokes are being told. It starts slow like One Man Running did. Cell phone. Angelina wants to know how much texting will cost.

completed some stuff

Yes Jonny has completed some tasks. He made brisket chili over the weekend. he finished his 8 shelf by 34.5" built in to the wall bookshelf. He also finished some books. Jonny is done with The Zookeeper's Wife, 340 pages. He is finished with the The DaVinci Code, 454 pages. He has visual studio, and visual source safe running properly on his computer at work. He rode his bike to work today. Yesterday Jonny went to the Red Hawk and had some Great Lakes Edmondt Fiztgeralt Beer. He listened to the parsha Tazria discussion for the second time this week.

Monday

Jonny was real busy last week.

He finished a book. He finished reading The Zookeeper's Wife. This was 340 pages, including the details explaining the chapters. There were reading group discussion notes as well. Jonny is on page 327 of The DaVinci Code. So he plans to finish that book tonight.

Over the weekend he made brisket chili. It is super hot. No one else in the family will eat it.

This week there is a double parsha. Last week there was none. Last week was a repeat of Shemini. This week is both Tzaria and Metzora.

Jonny has been struggling to load software. He is in the midst of getting DbArtisan and Visual Studio.

The bookshelf is finished. It is 8 shelves 34 inches wide. Last night Lorraine helped load some books onto it.

VASE is running slow.

Angelina obtained a 20% discount one of Lorraine's camps.

Anglina wants to buy a portable DVD player. Jonny researched a nice Philips brand for her. They have them reconditioned at Best Buy for $69.99.

Angelina called because Jonny didn't fill up the cars with gas while she was away. It wasn't on his list. She also called to get his Trader Joe food order, but he was in Rob's staff meeting. Lea didn't show up for it. Jonny thinks sometimes he would have been better off to follow his mentor's example and skip the boring, heavily laden with network talk meeting.

Angelina's substitute tested out some students. So she is mad about that.

Tuesday

Angelina called Lyman to come over and help Jonny with his shelf again. Actually they needed him to pick up Annabella and to look at some electric work. In payment, one of the new beers that Angelina bought for Jonny was drunk. Jonny had the plum brandy instead because it was still Passover. And Jews can't drink beer on Passover.

Jonny was reminiscing about his parent's visit. That was July 4th 1994. Here is the link. It was a two parter. Here is the other link.

Jonny fell asleep around 2PM today, thus the late post.

Jonny is up to page 233 of each of his books.

Angelina called earlier and she was upset about her class she is teaching. She also said that she was taking Jesse to the eye doctor. This was a regular check up.

book shelves

Alberta had an eye appointment that Angelina had to take her to.

Over the weekend Jesse and Jonny worked on a bookshelf. Fortunately Lorraine's friend Annabella's father Lyman helped. Jonny couldn't figure out why his circular saw wouldn't cut. Lyman discovered it was on backwards. Then he suggested they build the shelf not by using mason screws. So instead of making one shelf 4 feet wide, they plan to make about 4-8 shelves 34 inches wide. Lyman suggested bringing a board from the beams straight down. It worked perfectly.

It is still passover and Jonny had a roast beef, mustard, lettuce and matzah sandwich. He chewed the fat with Branden for almost an hour. Earlier he wasted a lot of time and fell asleep.

The wii has been fixed. Nintendo fixed it for free. They normally would have charged $75. But instead, they provided free $10 worth of shipping. Angelina purchased a federal express box for $5. They replaced the disc drive and the back of the wii. They also replaced two CD games. The games were probably scratched. The replacments were: Mario Brothers and wii sports resorts.

The parsha website claims there is no new parsha this week. So Jonny didn't listen to any parsha.

He is up to page 203 of ZK and 209 of DC.

Friday

Yesterday was Lucy and Leo's 17th birthday. Last night Lucy pooped in her bed. Jesse found her. Jesse, Lorraine and Alberta have no school today. Alberta celebrated by watching two Scrubs episodes with Jonny after midnight. She has a soccer game in Wixom this weekend. Jonny rode his bike today. He rode about 8 times last month and only 2 times last March. So that is an improvement. He is up to page 194 of ZK and page 191 of DC. Yesterday Krisitina called. Jonny talked to her at work for about ten minutes. They are at the beach. Beverly gave him a weird look so he finished the short call in the kitchen. Today the kitchen got a new refridgerator. Today Jonny woke up with a bad headache. He took a tylenol. He didn't sleep much and was juiced up on Slovawitz, AKA plum brandy from Hungary that is kosher. Unfortunately Angelina is getting juiced up for her five day departure on Wednesday. So she is handing out long lists of chores for Jonny. His greatest ambition is to make so brisket chili. He won't be using kosher from Hiller's $10.99/lb either. But he plans to go to Kroger's and purchase the beans you have to soak for 24 hours. That is what makes for some authentic chili. This will all happen either Wednesday or Thursday. Jonny has half days to take care of Lucy while Angelina, Lorraine and Jesse are out in central Pennsylvania. Jonny plans to drop his bike off today at the bike shop on the way home from work. That is because the rear tire is rubbing against the break pad.

April fools day

Today is a beautiful day outside. While inside Jonny has been reading books. He is up to page 170 of The DaVinci Code, DC. This is a very nice story. He is reading a book for the synagogue book club. He is up to page 186 of that book. The Zookeeper's Wife, ZK, is a sad book about the holocaust. Jonny is up to chapter 21. He will finish it long before the reading group meeting in 4 weeks.

Because of Passover, Jonny felt like not eating lunch yesterday. For dinner he had brisket. For lunch he had gefilte fish. For dinner tonight he is having brisket. For lunch tomorrow, brisket. Tuesday night Angelina reheated the brisket and served it for dinner. It was originally cooked over the weekend. Since she teaches and substitute teaches, she is too busy working to cook during the week.

Office 2007 now works properly on Jonny's PC at work. He forgot his iron key. But now he con consolidate all the fake name spreadsheets and back up copies.

Occasionally Jonny will take notes while talking to Angelina on the phone. Today's notes:

• She was making brownies,
• then she made the brownies,
• the wii is coming,
• then the wii came,
• what will Alberta do for 10 days while she is off,
• Alberta has no plans,
• Angelina is fed up with it,
• Angelina says Alberta is a slob,
• Lorraine has new problem each day,
• Angelina has to do all her work,
• Jonny will need to do the grocery shopping when Angelina is out of town, so no sweats allowed in Hiller's,
• take Alberta to the soccer game at 5:30 over the weekend
• tired of dealing with Alberta, the other kids don't want to be around her, she is rude
• how to cut a pineapple
• what is the phone number for blood draws, because the vpn client on the home computers blocks access to all Hotel California websites, only she called it quick points, because she has word 2007 on the brain
• new bottle of peppercorns to load when you get home

an extra post

This will be known as the fake names for 2010 it is still in "draft" form (work in progress).
click here for the fake names as they stood in 2007.

Jonny's Family
Jesse Bradford - Jonny's son. Had cancer and had a kidney removed. In 2nd grade at Burns Park.

Ellen Greene - Angelina's brother's wife. Not a jew but still very nice.

Richard Ziman - Jonny's brother. Lives in San Diego. Married to Nancy Ticotin. Works as a salesman.

Notice Angelina affectionately refers to Jonny's father as Mr P. That is since Wendell Pierce's last name starts with a P.

Kristina Kroft is Jonny's mother

Elizabeth Regen - Jonny's Aunt and Wendell's surviving older sister. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. Jesse calls her and Jonny's parents. But Kristina gets mad when Jesse says Aunt Regen instead of Grandma Kroft.

Coworker's in Hotel California
Rob Schneider - Jonny's boss since 2007.

Don Ameche - Network guy. He sets up all the networks. Also works for Rob.

Lea Thompson - Jonny's mentor. She has been here programming for 30 years. Now she is working 3 days a week as of 2009.

Old Neighbors from 1993

Hume Cronyn and Gwen Verdon. They were Angelina and Jonny's neighbors in 1993 Ann Arbor. They lived in a two family condo. Each condo was separate with a shared stairwell to the basement. When Angelina and Jonny moved to Pittsfield township they stayed in touch for a while. The couple like to drink a lot. They gave them Candace the cat. Hume and Gwen already had cats of their own and this other cat needed a home.

Clint Howard - Not quite a neighbor he was the handy man and electrician that Angelina favored in the early years of living in that house (after they left the Ann Arbor condo) around 1993.

Mickey Jones - Clint later recommended/introduced Angelina to this rough and ready cabinet maker. Angelina and Mickey ended the business relationship with a lawsuit. Clint testified against his friend to an extent but the Mickey's beer bribe forced Clint to remaining neutral.

Coworker's from Jonny's first job from 1990-1994

Jack Gilford - LAN man. Gave the family dog Lucy.

Ron Howard - eventually became Jonny's boss and the reason why it became unbearable to work there.

Maureen Stapleton - Like Penny Fuller she is a manager but not Jonny's direct manager just a project leader responsible for the work he works on. She was into the Hobbit and wanted to have a tween party. In the book tween was when a hobbit turned 33 and official shed their wild oats. Also like Penny she sometimes caused trouble for Jonny. It climaxed in a bad comment or two towards the end of the job when he quit. She also was more friendly towards Ron Howard before he got the promotion from coworker to manager over Jonny.