Way back Tuesday

Click here for the link to an old diary entry.

Beverly isn't in the Hotel Hilton today. So Jonny is here all alone again.

Over the weekend Jonny called Kristina. Then after a while he spoke to Wendell. Within minutes Wendell invited Alberta for a December break trip to visit him in Arlington. Of course Jonny was less than enthusiastic regarding the expected turn in the conversation. They haven't spoken in 2 months and boom "when are we seeing our grandkids". The line gets old. Jonny said he would forward on the information.

Immediately Angelina said no.

afternoon Friday

Jonny is up to page 121 of Wikinomics. He is up to page 93 of Rachel & Leah. Orson Scott Card wrote that book and he is a Mormon. So Jonny is suspicious of how his religious origin will send the book in a non-Jewish direction. So far it isn't much different in style from Marek Halter's Ziporrah Moses's Wife. Jonny discovered that Orson Scott Card wrote a book called Stone Tablets that incorporates the Mormon book of Moses.

Jonny has been extremely sleepy lately. He fell asleep at 9:45 AM today for a short nap.

Angelina was supposed to replace the gas meter today. Unfortunately the gas company who's idea it was to replace it decided oh no that is November 29th.

Jonny tried to call Krisitina and Wendell. He left a voice mail on their cell phone. They are very into Halloween.

Last night Jonny went to a charity event. It was a fundraiser. There was pumpkin carving and a haunted house. Jonny took Jesse, Lorraine and Annabelle. Today Jesse's class is having a Halloween parade. Angelina just called and she is on her way there.

Wednesday

Today Jonny listened to Nitzavim parsha.

Tomorrow Alberta is going to visit Kristina and Wendell. Hopefully Angelina will swallow her pride and take her to the airport. She is a little bit upset with her teenage behavior.

Last night there was seldom a short break in the complaining about Alberta. Angelina took a break from her yelling at Alberta to watch Criminal Minds with Jonny.

Jonny and Jesse grew grass over the weekend. They did a little tree trimming prior to the grass planting. This was accomplished via the long handled expandable trimmer. It was done only until the compost bin was filled to capacity. Also over the weekend father and son went to Lowes to buy a belt for the mower. They begged Angelina to let them buy a fire pit. But alas the allocation of funds was forbidden. Lowes was letting the fire pit go for a pittance $79.

Jonny is closing in on the end of Exodus. He is on page 484. He wanted to finish watching the movie with Alberta last night but there wasn't enough time to do everything.

beach trip return

Jonny and Jesse have returned from the their beach trip to see Kristina and Wendell. The trip was fun. They played catch with a baseball and softball. Jesse played with his DSI too. They played frisbee. They watched DVDs: Incredibles, Squekwell and Bolt. Kristina really liked Bolt. She made baked zitti. Wendell made dill flavored lox and chocolate brownie creation. They brought some back for Angelina. They went to the ocean at night and Jesse got a light that they brought back on the plane. Also they went to the beach during the day and played in the sand and cooled off in the waves. The waves were rough. Also Wendell BBQ chicken called beer can chicken. He also made BBQ zucchini. Jonny's parents took them for a bike ride and to the pool. Another adventure was kayaki. Also another adventure was fishing. Wendell bought them a tee-shirt and a sweat shirt to take home. They brought back some Delaware peaches. They went out for lunch to dumsers. They went out to dinner at baja's. They also had mango, corn, pancakes, french toast, watermellon, green beans, carrots, brisket and knishes. Kristina got the Jewish food made from potatoes from a store called Harris Teeter. The workers answering the phone at that store had never heard of that particular food so they didn't even know they sold it.Kristina made smoothies. Kristina bought Jesse a game for his DSI, Mario Cart.

beach trip

Jonny finished Deception Point. He also finished The Cardturner. He looked up the reviews on AMAZON for The Cardturner and they were very good. Jonny thought Deception Point was even better.

Jonny still hasn't gotten approval from Angelina for a beach trip. Below is some emails from Kristina. She lays it on thick.

As you try to work out which weekend to come visit us, consider having the whole family come to the beach for a week long vacation after all camp and summer classes are done, but before the fall semester starts. We could join you at Bethany on the weekend, leaving everyone a chance to enjoy different activities.

Hi Mom,
I think at some point in the future we might consider a week long trip to your beach house as it is a very generous offer. This year will be extremely difficult if not impossible to find that week. Maybe next year.

In the 11 years we have lived here I think you and your family has maybe visited us once. It's easy to say "next year". but I wonder if it will ever be.

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.

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.

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.

weird corned beef dream

Jonny had a dream about corned beef. Lyman's wife was making lunch for Jonny. She was going to make grilled bacon sandwiches. But Jonny had better ideas. He had just gone to Hiller's grocery and purchased a small 1/4 lb of Boar's Head corned beef. So he said, here take this for the lunch too. But leave me 3 or 4 slices for my lunch another time. Then he began to think, why didn't I buy 1/2 lb instead of a mere 1/4 lb of this delicious delicatessen meat.

Jesse and Jonny went to the hardware store.

Jonny spoke to Kristina.

Alberta and Jonny went to a double header soccer game in Wixom.

The weekend went by fast. It was all a blur.

At the Hotel Hilton, Jeremey turned down an full-time position. Beverly was given the option and she took it. the Two of them are in the hotel, but so quiet, Jonny almost feels alone at times.

Jonny is up to Chapter 7 of The DaVinci Code. He is up to Chapter 8 of The Zookeeper's Wife. Jonny is listening to The Cat Who Smelled A Rat, with headphones. He watched two episodes of Scrubs last night. Angelina and Jonny watched Without A Trace. She has been too busy with her class to watch much TV.

This week in the chumash, Jonny listened to Tzav. The question of the day is why not speak directly to Aaron?

Angelina called, one of many times. She got in trouble with Jesse's teacher. The teacher was upset with Angelina, because she read in the classroom incorrectly. Angelina was supposed to get in depth with the characters.

Wednesday

On Tuesday Jonny had a meeting at 2PM and didn't get a nap at all the whole day.

Tuesday:
8:30 Walk
8:45 hugs his ride
9:00 take off snow pants
9:15 water plants
10:00 got coffee
10:45 file emails

Wednesday
8:30 drop off Jesse at Edie's house
8:45 crowded bus ride
9:00 Brita filter
9:15 email
9:30 unknown cancer
9:45 Parsha Bo with Grossman
10:00 liver codes
10:15 relax and let go
10:30 pestering VASE support about duplicate records
10:45 playing with mirrors
11:00 make lunch
11:15 eat lunch
11:30 Breast DB
11:45 bathroom
12:00 called parent's cell
12:15 unknown cancer data from billing
12:15 breast db
12:30 Angelina called school nurse for Jesse about bully who kicked him in the area where he has only one kidney
12:45 Extraction tool broken for form names: called VASE support
1:00 Hemangiosarcoma
1:15 stretch
1:30 VASE Help desk wrote back about error
1:45 peeps
2:00 more peeps. Rob has jury duty. His underlings complain to Jonny about the new FIG tablet PC project
2:15 back up the stairs
2:30 DBArtisan
2:45 now

get some sleep

Jonny is up to page 66 of The Throat. It is written by Peter Straub in 1994.

dentist appointment

The day has flown by. It is almost 2:10 so it is time to write in the blog. Angelina and Jonny watched Criminal Minds. Angelina had a 10:00 AM dentist appointment. Jonny had the 11:00 AM dentist appointment. They go to the same dentist. Jonny is angry with Angelina. Wendell sent him an email about coming to visit. Wendell and Kristina are going to Florida on Jan 28. They will see Elizabeth in West Palm Beach. Jesse would love to see Wendell's sister. Jonny would love to see his aunt. Angelina said no. Jonny is up to page 282 of The Eight. Jonny forgot his book and his shoes. Angelina brought the book and the shoes to the dentist appointment. Jonny put off eating lunch until after the dentist appointment. He went to see Penny and Rob before 11. They were both not available. Then just as he was going to lunch the computer said no I don't think so. Jonny ran to his 1 PM meeting with Penny. He ran into the PI and the stats guy. They were at the right place. But the PI said no meeting today. Penny wasn't even in the office. Again Rob wasn't in his office. Jonny got some hand sanitizer for the Hilton Hotel. Branden isn't here either. Jonny left a note on Branden's cube. He did it because Branden always leaves his light on and Jonny turned it off.

Friday

Jonny might go to happy hour.

He rode his bicycle to work. Jesse and Jonny rode to Jesse's school. Then Jonny continued on to work.

No headache.

Jonny is up to page 59 of the bed book.

Lunch was a burrito, nachos, apple and coke. He couldn't finish the whole 8 slices. So he saved the other 4 slices for later.

Jonny just listened to the parsha discussion twice of Vayera Sara. He also listened to the Torah chanting.

Over the weekend with Wendell and Kristina Jonny raked leaves. He took Alberta to a Bat Mitzvah at Chabad. He took Lorraine to her art class. Angelina sold parking for the football game. UM lost to Purdue. Alberta had a soccer game at wide world. The game started at 6:30 PM so Alberta, Wendell, Kristina and Jonny waited until after to eat dinner. They ate at the Seol Garden. It is a Korean restaurant. This has become a tradition. That is because once they stayed at the Sheraton. On that occasion, Alberta went with them to dinner very late. The restaurant is right across from the Sheraton.

Jonny has had a pain in the neck literally all day.

Wednesday

Over the weekend Jonny's parents came to visit.

Right after the last post, Jonny started to drift off to sleep. Then he realized he parked his car in the 2 hour limit residential permit zone. So he packed up for the day. He ran to the car. Luckil there was no ticket. First he drove down some streets, the Jonny doesn't know the name of until he go to State Street, near where State Street ends on the north side of town. He drove south on state street towards the Red Hawk Bar. It was parent's weekend in Ann Arbor in more ways than one. For some reason the U decided the weekend of the Purdue game was a great weekend for students to have their parent's visit them.

Jonny struggled to make it 4 blocks through bumper to bumper traffic. His nap interrupted he was getting cranky. In definite need of a beer. Happy hour as a matter of fact. But Wendell and Krisitina had checked into their hotel. They too struggled to follow the GPS directions from North Campus to the South University and State Street area. Jonny had only $0.75. This wasn't enough to park the car for even 1 hour at a meter. But he did park at a meter 1 1/2 block south of Red Hawk. He was between South University and Madison. His parents arrived later to give him more money for the meter.

At one point the meter only jumped from 54 to 57 minutes with the deposit of one quarter. Gosh parking in Ann Arbor is expensive and a major pain. They went inside and ordered a duck quesadilla. Despite blogger's objections this is the true spelling. They also ordered a pitcher of the rotating tap for $15.95. But since it was happy hour, all alcohol was half price. The beer had a hint of citrus flavor. Believe it or not the beer was probably from Cleveland. Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale is what is what it was called.

Next the piled into their separate cars. Jonny arrived at home around 5:25 PM. He and Jesse walked the dog up to the gas station. They were excited about the arrival of Jesse's grandparents. Later at around 6 PM they all went into Angelina's minivan for the Harvest dinner.

Lorraine was in the garden club. She was at school already. Alberta was at school already, she got accepted to the basketball team, so she stayed for the daily practice after school. Unfortunately the couldn't all sit at the table. Jonny took several pictures. Lorraine, then Angelina and then Jonny sat in a row with Lorraine at the far left end of the table. She was the table's server as part of her club duties. Alberta sat alone at another table behind Jonny and his back to hers. Two tables in the other direction, sat Jonny's parents. With Jesse flanked but his grandmother on his left and grandfather on the right.

Tuesday

Jonny finished a book. He was listening to Machievelli, Philosopher of Power on CD. He finished listening to this in the car and it was 6 CDs. Angelina is returning it to the library.

Yesterday was a boring meeting in the Hotel California. It was at 3 PM and Jonny had to sleep the whole day as not to be too bored in the meeting. He still took a bathroom break in the middle. And this was when they were discussing the change management process. He tried to call Angelina but she didn't answer.

Wanda is still in the hospital. That is 10 days.

Jonny spoke to Kristina early Sunday morning. The clocks were changed back over the weekend. He told her about Wanda being sick. At this point Angelina isn't making a trip back home. Mitchell has been doing all the work. He has been commuting back and forth from Philadelphia to Harrisburg where Wanda is in the hospital.

Jonny called Kristina and Wendell again this afternoon. That is because he just found out he has a meeting at death valley at 10 am on Friday. Penny is in the meeting as well. If she drives Jonny and herself to the meeting from Hotel California, that would be convenient.

Jonny is reading the book Blue Blood. He is up to page 450.

Simchat Torah

Today it is raining.

This morning Angelina said to Jonny "you are so fvcking lazy." He was siting on the couch in the living room with Jesse. They were watching The Fairly Odd Parents on TV. Jonny's crime was to laugh a little to loudly. To help let off steam, last night he watched Futurama. It was funny. One of the main characters Bender a robot thought he was pregnant. He and the other characters fed into that story. Bender has a large stomach and they made beer in there. While they waited for the yeast to ferment he knit sweaters. It was quite silly yet funny. He watched another show called Scrubs after he took a shower and before bed. In this Scrubs episode, the whole cast was out of the hospital. They all went to the Caribbean to celebrate the janitor getting married. This was an episode from the last season. The new season will take place in the same hospital but with almost an entirely new cast.

Tomorrow is Simchat Torah. Angelina reminded Jonny they're going to the temple to celebrate this holiday.

Yesterday Jonny called his parents. Kristina answered the phone hurriedly. Wendell and her were both scrambling to work that morning. Jonny was outside at 8 AM waiting for the bus. He was trying to confirm that they were still coming to Michigan on the weekend of November 7. Krisitina said that she was sending emails back and forth to Lorraine. She hasn't seen the girls since Alberta's bat mitvah celebration back in June of 2008.

Alberta went to a soccer game at Pioneer. So last night Jonny had to pick her up.

Tuesday afternoon

The day is clearing up a bit.

Kristina called. She wanted to know who's voice was on Angelina's cell phone recording. It was Jonny's voice of course. Well Krisitina also wanted Jonny's home number. Then Angelina called. She wanted to know why Kristina was calling her?

Angelina hurt her ankle. She is going to put some ice on it.

Jonny is wrestling with Oracle and PL/SQL. Don't forget to use

SELECT TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('12-SEP-96', 'DD-MON-RR'), 'YYYYMMDD') FROM DUAL;

instead of

SELECT TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('12-SEP-96', 'DD-MON-YY'), 'YYYYMMDD') FROM DUAL;

The first one gives the results desired, 19960912, the second doesn't. It assumes that the missing century is the century the programmer is in, which is 2000. Thus it returns 20960912. But the consult happened in 1996 not in 2096.

Jonny has to prepare to request classes to teach for next semester already. He is just getting used to this semester.

Some of his plants are dying, here at the Hilton.

Angelina is complaining only after two weeks of working in the flu clinic. Her complaint is that there is no work schedule in place, yet.

getting to work

A foggy day.

Jonny listened to Haazinu parsha again this week.

On Friday he called and spoke to Kristina a Wendell for 20 minutes each. He was unable to commit a weekend for their visit to Michigan.

Jonny watched Futrama. He saw the fourth part of a four part episode.

Angelina had a snack of popcorn she made on the stove. Jonny had a warm Bud light and ate cheezits.

The book he is reading is called The Last Innocent Man and he is up to page 64.

Jonny rode his bicycle to work today. The trip is only 2 miles.

Angelina worked in the flu clinic. So Jonny had to get Jesse off to school. To do this and still be on time, Jesse was dropped off at Edie Falco's house. Her daughter is now a kindergardener at Jesse's school.

Alberta needed help with homework, that Jonny was all too happy to oblige. She was working on box and whiskers in math.

Over the weekend Jonny planted grass and fertilized the lawn. He also cleaned the garage with Jesse's help. Of course he went to services for the high holidays.

Back from Vacation

Jonny is back from vacation and committed to posting 5 times a week. Ha big laugh.

He wants to play with his candle some more.

Today Jonny listened to Ki Teitzei. He used headphones because Grossman starts out very soft-spoken. Jonny missed Shoftim because that was last week's parsha. This week's parsha talks about how we get credit for the miracles HaShem performs. It also talks about how we are to forgive the Mitzriyam but not the Midians, who attacked the Jews on their march out of Eygypt.

Alberta lost her cell phone charger.

Wendell's birthday is coming up. Jonny tried to call today. He added Kristina and her husband to Jonny's friend's and family. This means he can call on Verizon anytime. There was no answer on either the cell or home numbers. He left a message.

Jonny is up to page 312 of Passage.

Over the weekend he was sorting perler beads. He also put down weed-killer. Jonny played a card game with his kids called apple to apple. Jonny rode with Jesse on the trailer bike over the weekend.

Jonny rode his bike to work today.

Wednesday

Today Jonny is back at work. He did some survey monkey work. He also did some ASP.NET with VB and with C#. Now he is listening to breakfast at tiffany's. All of a sudden the music stopped. Last night Jonny watched a couple of Scrubs episodes, that he saw already. Ah the music came back on. He listened to Torah Gems again. This was the parsha for Korach. The second half of the lecture was this long drawn out chassidic story. Right now Buddy is talking on his cell phone in Spanish. So Jonny cut the music. Most of the lecture he missed because he was out to lunch. Lea is as usual acting strange. Jonny talked to Rob, and Rob said find out what your mentor is working on and get up to speed, Rob said so. Jonny's computer connections to the networks is all messed up. Fortunately he can still remote desktop to his computer over at Hollywood and get connected to all the databases. Here in the Hilton, his computer programs aren't installed correctly that access the database. One is called Infomaker. The other is called Dbartisan. Neither one works right. Jonny popped a blood vessel. So he has been wearing glasses instead of contact lenses. His mother Kristina is giving him a guilt trip about Angelina not wanting to spend time with her. Yesterday Jesse went to a GI (Gastro Intestinal doctor). No word yet on what results came out. The output hasn't been good, ha ha what a stinky joke. it is majorlly hot in Michigan.

soccer

Today Jesse has a soccer practice from 4 to 5 PM.

Last night was Lorraine's concert. It was pretty cool. The family had Chinese food and there was plenty of leftover for Jonny lunch today.

Work has been absolutely boring for Jonny.

Earlier he listened to the chanting of this week's parsha.

He sent Kristina a mother's day card. She emailed back today. Her and Wendell are going to St Lucia for a week. Wherever it is it sounds nice.

Jonny convinced Lorraine to pick him out a book. Jonny is now on page 64 of A Case Of Need.

Last night Jonny and Angelina watch Without A Trace.