BoomFlag

This morning as I left home, Weird Al’s “Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” started playing. By the time I arrived at the office, the song was still going. I sure like having a commute time that’s less than the length of a (somewhat long) song.

Also, what better way to start a Monday than with a little Weird Al?

Twice a year we have an opportunity to talk to Alex while he serves his mission in Lima, Peru: Christmas Day and Mother’s Day (no, not Father’s Day). So this afternoon he “called” us via Google Hangouts and we put him on our 70″ television.

We had a great time chatting about how things are going. He told some funny stories about life in Peru, and it was fun to have more than just a weekly email to communicate. He’s doing really well and enjoying the work. Only 17 months to go!

Laralee and I were cleaning out some stuff in her office this afternoon, and as we cleared off one of the bookshelves I found the script for the first play I acted in during high school: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.

I think it was my sophomore year, which would’ve been 1987. I turned to Zack and said, “I even remember my first line: ‘Mornin’, Doc! Want your paper now?'”

And sure enough…

But my favorite memory was Dirk’s line. He only had one line in the entire play (unlike me, with my vast array of five or six!) and everyone in the cast knew it, so during practices we’d all shout along with him: “Oh, Ma! By ten o’clock I got to know all about Canada!”

Alas, neither Dirk nor I took this promising start in the theater to become famous actors (although he did major in theater in college).

After a beautiful Friday, Saturday dawned cold and grey. It was so dark that even in the early afternoon it looked like dusk. The forecast called for “severe thunderstorms” and although we didn’t hear any thunder, the rain came down in buckets and we even had hail for a bit. I was down in my basement office, watching the hail pile up in the window well where it’s now melted a bit into a sheet of ice.

Apparently there was at least one tornado in the area, too. Ahh, spring!

Yesterday was a beautiful late-spring day (finally!) so Laralee and I took a walk in the afternoon. As we headed out the front door, we could smell the lilacs that grow along the side of our house. They’re in full bloom now. Walking past our neighbor’s house, we saw some huge lilac bushes.

They smelled amazing. I suspect in a few days they’ll be finished blooming, but it was fun to walk past them.

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m not a morning person. As such, my calling as a seminary teacher this year has been a bit of a challenge. Class starts right after 6am, which means I’m rolling out of bed at 5:30. For most of the school year, the kids and I drive to class in the dark.

Until now. On Friday I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some doughnuts (a seminary tradition) and noticed that the sun was just peeking above the horizon.

As we approach summer, sunrise is shifting earlier. And as of next Monday, May 9, it will officially be at 5:50am– the time we leave the house. So for the first time in the year, we’ll see the sun on our way to class. Woo hoo!

In our family room there’s a light that illuminates the mantel above the fireplace. I suppose if we were the kind of people who had a beautiful well-decorated home with tasteful coordinated wall hangings, it could be pretty cool to highlight a photo and some decorations.

Instead, we have this.

The photo is by Thom, from a trip we took to Monument Valley. And the knickknacks are, well, just a random collection of stuff gathered over the years, including such things as:

* A Galileo thermometer
* A hollow glass globe with an intricate painting on the inside
* A swordfish we found twenty years ago at a touristey store in Estes Park that was going out of business
* A weird wooden carving of a beaver
* A second swordfish, this one made out of clay, which Alex gave us in second grade or so

I guess every home is different. Ours is… well, just a little more different than most.

I was contacted by a potential new client about building a web site for them. They’re a pretty big company, so, like all big companies, they have a Process for bidding on projects. In this case, they won’t even tell me precisely what kind of web site they need until I’ve completed a company profile on a system called Ariba.

From what I can tell, Ariba is a tool intended to let companies like this engage companies like mine as contractors. So, fine, I went ahead and filled out the profile. It was onerous and pretty invasive– asking for financial information, proof of liability insurance, employment histories, and so forth. But hey, this is a big company and maybe that means big bucks for a web project, so I forged ahead.

Half an hour later, after I’d submitted the profile, Ariba informed me that based on my company profile, there were 18 other companies who were looking for contracts I could fulfill! Yay!

Curious, I clicked to learn more.

Ha ha, just kidding, Zing Studios! You’re such a sucker.

Nice, Ariba. I just hope this is worth the effort.

Today’s winner for best spam message:

The message doesn’t actually say what they’re selling, but it’s apparently related to a “Dr. MaxMan”. What a cool name!

I guess it has something to do with growing vegetables. Maybe an organic fertilizer?

Last night, as part of our continuing quest to make cookies and deliver them to random people, we decided to take a plate of chocolate-chip deliciousness to the local fire station. It was about eight o’clock at night, but of course firemen are always on duty, so we rang the bell and presented the cookies.

It may have been a slow night, because they invited us in for a tour of the station. We spent about an hour talking with Monty (the lieutenant), Todd (the engineer), and Amy (the paramedic). The three of them have been working the same shift for years– Monty, in fact, has been a fireman for 38 years. They’re good friends and love working together. They showed us the trucks, talked about how calls come in and are dispatched, told us about their training, and on and on. We had a lot of questions and ended up having a great time. The level of experience and dedication these guys possess is pretty impressive. It’s good to know we’re in good hands in an emergency.