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.

Monday

Jonny's officemate Beverly is working in a different office. So it is quite dead in there. Jonny just cleaned the bathroom. He didn't ride his bike to work today. That is because he took Lorraine to the first day of art camp. Angelina took Jesse to his ultrasound. Zsa Zsa accompanied her. Angelina paid her back buying her a cup of coffee. Wendell told Alberta she could go to his beach house on Labor Day weekend. And Angelina said fine but first she has to clean her room. Yesterday Jesse and Jonny went for a bike ride. They went about 5 miles with the trailer bike. Jonny has been begging for that hitch for 8 months. Now they have it and it hasn't been used once. They will use it for the their up north vacation to Boyne. Jonny hasn't been reading much. His last book was Critical Care. It was kinda gross. Before that was Exodus and he didn't finish it. Jonny reserved it from the library. He also can get $7.99 off a book at Nicola's bookstore if he so chooses to do that. They send that coupon once a summer as a birthday present. Jonny has redeemed two books that way so far. Over the weekend he watched some TV. He and his wife watched several Criminal Minds episodes. They are so graphic, sometimes they have to fast forward past the gross parts. This week the parsha is Ki Sese.

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.

Thursday

Father's Day is coming up soon. Jonny wishes he could give Wendell a present that he was planning a beach trip with him.

Right now outside the Hotel they are blasting music in the courtyard.

Jonny is on page 400 of Deception Point by Dan Brown.

Angelina purchased a half case of Corona in bottles and a case of Labatt Blue Light in cans. All the Labatt is in the refridgerator. Jonny did make the Spanish fly drink one night. It is no fun for him to drink alone.

In the parsha this week is the story of the Red Heffer. It is a mysterious sacrifice that is no longer practiced today. The moral implications are that sometimes a mitzvah is performed because it is a mitzvah and not because it does anyone any good.

Jonny had a day off on Wednesday. On his day off he went and got a hitch for his minivan from the hitchhouse in Livonia. This cost $165 plus tax. They also charged $60 for installation. In addition there was a $5 off coupon.

Monday

Over the weekend Jonny gave Wendell a call. Jesse was having a swim lesson. He told his father that he was spending time with his son. Wendell liked hearing that. Really though Mr Pierce only cares about one thing. "When is Jonny coming to visit? Will he be bringing Jesse? Can he bring one of the girls too?"

VASE is running slow. The new temp just emailed Jonny and asked if he was experiencing slowness too. But Jonny has been busy programming in ASP.NET.

Also over the weekend he put some varnish on the railing. It required two coats. This weekend he will probably put on a third coat.

Jonny is still reading his two books. Page 424 of To Say Nothing of the Dog. Page 236 of No Man's Dog.

Wendell was telling Jonny about his vacation. They went to a super huge bar. They had an actual bull riding area. So Jonny volunteered that in his book, there is a bull dog.

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.

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.

Alberta runs away

Today is way back Tuesday. Sunday July 3rd, 1994. Jonny's parents buy everything. Yet Angelina is still whining. What else is new?

Well today Alberta ran away. She ran to the Jewish equivalent of a convent. Now the latest that Jonny heard is that the people left a note in Angelina's kitchen. The note said she went to school. So actually she got exactly what she wanted. She probably went over to their house and took a nap. Then she went to school in the afternoon, after being well rested and well studied. She had a test today.

Jonny was pretty angry with Angelina. He told her that if she wants to kick Alberta out of the house, Wendell and Kristina would gladly, gladly, gladly take her.

At work, the rebuid didn't work. It took almost all day to get the rebuild to happen today. Jonny had to sit in his office with tech support to make it happen.

He is on page 149 of ZK and page 160 of DC.

baking for passover

Today is a fast day. Jonny is fasting for the fast of the firstborn. So his mood is a strange one today.

He is up to page 122 of ZK and page 160 of DC.

The people working for Rob still want Jonny to read boring stuff on the internet. They want him to learn how to use .NET to configure sharepoint.

Over the weekend Jonny talked to Wendell. They discussed passover cakes and how to make them. Jonny was sitting in the car waiting to pickup Jesse from a birthday party. He was carpooling with another child who lives two doors away. But Jonny was busy getting the baking tips and tricks from his father. And his father's father was a baker too. Wendell is an economist. But Jonny's dad loves to cook.

It was cold so today Jonny rode the bus instead of the bike. He has drifted off to sleep once or twice this is because, with no food there isn't much else to do.

Jesse and Jonny also went to the liquor store and bought some Slivowitz, that is Hungarian, kosher, plum brandy. While watching a Hallmark movie with Angelina, and the bottle sitting in the window of the living room. Angelina kept saying, come on I know you want to open that bottle. So eventually he did. Half an hour later she said it again. Come on I know you want to have another shot. He had a another shot while watching the news and reading DC.

Today Jonny listened to the chumash. This week's parsha is Shemini. This means something to do with the 8th day. Aaron accepted the blame. He learned to blame himself. Not blame other people. Animals are kosher. This is not because Hashem knows that an animal isn't good for us. It is simply because Hashem has decreed it. In the haft-torah, David put the Torah in a wagon instead of his shoulders. Why did Rabbi Akiva's disciples all die during this three week period?

Well time to get back to work. The automatic rebuild didn't work. So Jonny is supposed to kick it off when he leaves for the day.

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.

Tuesday

Another sleepy Tuesday.

Branden just went out for lunch. Jonny turned up the heat.

Wendell gave Jonny a whole bunch of grief. He wants Jonny to visit at the beach. Same old stuff. Then he got in a big fight with Angelina.

Over the weekend they went to Palm Palace for dinner.

Jonny and Alberta went to the UM basketball game. UM lost to Northwestern. Then they went to Sunday minyan.

Angelina is teaching three classes now. Lorraine helped dress up her power point presentation.

Jonny gave Jesse an old 486 computer. Some guys at work said they might have a sound card. This is because it isn't working very well.

Well Jonny is getting back to Sybase and VB.NET.

As soon as Branden gets back Jonny is going to pass out. He needs to sleep while Branden is over on his side of the partition.

Jonny is up to page 528 now of The Eight.

He listened to Torah gems Va'eira yesterday. Also yesterday he watched some BCS bowl games, pre-recorded. But he fell asleep at midnight in front of the TV.

Wednesday

Beverly and Branden were at the Hilton Hotel when Jonny arrived late. His headached so badly this morning that he drifted off to sleep before lunch. Maybe today he will stay an hour late. But Angelina has to approve it. Wendell called this morning while Jonny was walking Lucy. It was a short call. Wendell uninvited Jonny to Elizabeth's house in Florida. It was too short of a visit if Jonny could only fly Friday to Monday. There are many activities in Angelina's household that would have prevented such a trip. Wendell asked if Jonny could come for a week to the beach in the summer. Jonny said he would keep after Angelina about it.

Jonny is up to page 342 of The Eight.

Today he listened to the parsha Vayigash. It starts with Benjamin getting framed by Joseph. Judah forfeits his share in the world to come. The jews are put into Goshen a jewish suburb. The divine spirit only rests on a happy person. They remained in Egypt for 210 years. This is calculated. Moses was 80 years old when he left Egypt. Moses's mother was 130 years old when Moses was born. She was born at the time of the exile to Egypt. Two kingships descend from Judah and Joseph. Joseph asks is my father still alive when he reveals himself to his brothers. Why does he ask this question? There are at least 4 different answers to this question why was it asked.

Angelina was working at the flu clinic and Jonny watched the kids. The coffee pot got broken. Today Angelina called and ordered a new free one.

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.

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.

was a miserable day at first

This afternoon is better than most. Jonny listened to the parsha this morning. There was also many fire alarms today. They were really loud. Jonny sent his father a birthday card on the internet. Angelina got a new ID badge today in the first floor of the Hilton. So she came and collected the pop cans. She also brought Alberta and Lorraine along for the ride. Hold on Jonny has to stretch. Jonny is up to page 363 of Passage. It is like a baseball game, 300 pages without a single hit and then a bunch of home runs. That was a simile, correct? What would a sports metaphor be then? The book is still in the 3rd quarter there is plenty of time left on the clock. This week's parsha is about finding a nice lady in the field. That was in reference to when the Israelites were attacking. Then, if they found a nice lady in the field. Today Jonny forgot his cell phone. He has been pretty busy at work. Fortunately he was able to delegate work to his mentor, Lea. Jesse has been in art camp this week. He was taken out early to go to the dentist. So far no nap for Jonny. Jonny found Alberta's cell phone charger. Jonny needs to go to the bookstore and pick up this free book.

Birthday wishes on the cell phone

Today is Tuesday and Jonny just woke up from a nap. He had a weird dream.

Jonny is still suffering from a bad cold. His headache is starting to go away. The nap helped. But the sleep felt so good, he kept on sleeping.

He forgot to send Wendell a birthday card. He and Lorraine were walking Lucy and talking to Wendell on the cell phone. Speaking of cell phone, Alberta still hasn't found her charger. Lorraine has been a bit manic. So she would only let Jonny talk for part of the walk, and made him hang up.

Jonny's book has been good. He is up to page 345.

Last night Jonny called Richard Ziman. He was able to call while picking Alberta up at soccer practice.

Jonny rode his bike to the Hilton today.

Jonny's other hobby is playing with his candle. Angelina complains though. He ruined a dish towel with the wax. And last night he got more on the marble in the kitchen. He is trying to melt an old candle into a new mold.

Yesterday Jonny listened to the parsha so he will listen to it again on Wednesday.