Jessie

Sorry this is a bit late...

Sunday was Jessie's 9th birthday. I'm really not sure how she got to be that old, but it seems to have happened. So here's a look back at her life... (Or at least the few portions I happen to have pictures of sitting on this computer at work...)

2 weeks old

5 months

9 months

1 Year

Still 1 year

OK, big jump to 5 years old

Swim Team (8 years old)

Sea World (8 years old)

9th birthday (in Grandma's dress, and holding the Webkinz Bluejay Brennan gave her)

9th Birthday

We're very grateful for having Jessie in our lives, and for all the joy and happiness she's given us for the last 9 years.

And to finish it off, a quote from Jessie yesterday. They asked how old Hans was (since it was his birthday). When I told them, Jessie said, "Wow! He's even older than you are, Dad, and after all, you're pretty old."

Perspective

One clue that your world is not normal is when you tell someone that you can make something 300 miliseconds faster, and they're very excited about this.

Database Queries

If you find yourself writing a database query that looks like "select id from table where id = x", you might want to take another look at your design.

Shuttle

Today we got one of the benefits of living in Clear Lake: The shuttle, on the way from Edwards to Kennedy, made a low-altitude flyover of Ellington Field and JSC. Since we happen to live, and I work, in between those two places, we got a good chance to see it (Actually, Dee was busy, and I don't know if the kids got to see it at school or not...).

Best of all, since I happened to have my camera here at work (in order to get the snow pictures for the previous post), I got some good pictures. Here's a couple of them. I imagine that for my family, like me, these will bring back a lot of memories of Lancaster...

And as a note, I really recommend clicking on the pictures to see them full size. It's much clearer, and you get a nice view of the T-38s...

Snow!

OK, I know for some of you, this isn't quite as exciting, but for Jessie and Brennan, this is about as exciting as it gets. Last night, we had quite a nice little snowfall. It's all gone now, but they got to play a little last night and this morning, and we do have pictures...

And even for those of us who have had plenty of snow in our lives, it's more interesting when it's only once every few years. Although, it's snowed twice since we've lived here (they say it usually only happens once every 20 years or so), so now we'll never convince Jessie and Brennan not to expect it every year...

From Snow

Space Center Houston Pictures

Pictures

Here's some of the pictures I promised:

Beth, Scott & Heather at Space Center Houston

Jessie & Brennan

A strange bug

The "Turkey House"

Freedom of Speech

I found a story about this, and wanted to make it available to anyone who reads this and didn't see it elsewhere. This is a link to a full-page ad from the New York Times speaking out against the backlash against the LDS church in relation to California's Proposition 8. There is a link on the page to add your name to the list of signatures on the ad. It's an easy way to participate.

http://www.nomobveto.org/

The Bus Booklet of Truth

Just for the record, I've moved the Bus Booklet of Truth into its own blog. I put a feed to it in place of the old list. This way, it won't take over the entire sidebar of this blog, plus if anyone's really interested they can subscribe to the new blog and actually be made aware of any new quotes. Plus, it makes it able to be searchable, and taggable.

Thanksgiving Week

I'll see what I can remember....

The kids were off of school all week for Thanksgiving. At one point they were talking about having them go to school Monday and Tuesday to make up some of the Ike time, but when they realized that something like 40% of the teachers in the district already had non-refundable tickets to go somewhere else, they decided they'd have a hard time coming up with substitutes, and maybe that wasn't the right time to try and make up days...

So, anyway, the kids and Dee did a lot around the house the first part of the week. Monday they had their friends over (who are in the process of moving to the Woodlands (which is on the opposite side of Houston from us, for those who don't know)) a lot of the day, so they had fun with that. On Tuesday I don't really remember much, except that evening I went over for a few minutes to help pack up some stuff in the friend's motor home that they were taking up to their new house.

Wednesday I don't remember very well, either. I got off early that day, and that evening Jessie and Brennan started on what turned into a vast project. Originally we were making hand turkeys for Thanksgiving, and then Jessie and Brennan started creating a house for the turkeys so that they could stay inside all the time and avoid becoming a Thanksgiving dinner. In the end, the house included 2 arcades, an enterntainment room, bathrooms, an electronics room, bedrooms, tunnels, and I can't even keep track of everything. It pretty much filled the entire living room. I'll try to put up some pictures. The best part of the project was how well they worked together on it. That took up most of the evening and major portions of Thursday as well.

Also on Thursday Dee did a lot of cleaning in the house, and I started cleaning out the atrium, which has been completely neglected for probably a couple of years (and we've never really done much with it). A little later everyone else came out, and Brennan helped in the atrium while Jessie raked some leaves and Dee started loading the stuff that we didn't sell at the last garage sale into the van to take and donate. After a little while Jessie and Brennan switched to playing badminton together instead of working. Dee did a very impressive packing job to get everything into the van. I discovered a vast pillbug colony (I think I counted at least 20), as well as numerous spiders, a couple of odd lizards I'd never seen before, and a snake. Plus one strange caterpillar or grub we'd never seen before (we have a picture I can post). There's still a lot of weeds and grass to pull out in the atrium, so that project will be ongoing for awhile.

That evening we went over to the departing friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Wednesday night Jessie and Brennan made an oreo cream pie. We also brought a cherry pie (frozen), sweet potato casserole, and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes through a misunderstanding (Shelby, the dad of the family, thought we had brought mashed potatoes last year, and he really liked them. But it was really another family (that has since moved to China), since Dee had never made mashed potatoes from scratch before. But hers were really good, too). The dinner was very good, and the kids had tons of fun.

Friday I went in the morning and helped them load some more stuff to take to the new house. The rest of the day was preparing for Beth, Scott, Heather, Jessica and Lady to visit. They arrived around 3 in the afternoon. Shortly after that, Scott and I headed to Lowe's to get some fencing supplies. As these items are very popular at the moment (for some reason, a lot of people seem to be putting up new fences...), they've got quite a system worked out. All the materials are outside in the loading dock. You go in, tell them what you want and pay for it, then take your receipt to the loading dock and they load up your vehicle with what you bought.

We were getting the supplies to begin the long-put off project of putting a fence and gate between the backyard and the front yard. That evening we put in one fence post and started another on the non-gate side.

Saturday morning we went to Space Center Houston.

And now, it's another week later, so I have more to write about.... Drat! Also means details will get sparser...

Space Center Houston was a lot of fun for everyone, I believe. I was happy that I was able to land the shuttle successfully the first time (they have a simulator). Of course, I was doing the easy level where you only have to worry about getting your nose the right attitude. Maybe another time I'll try the harder version where you have to keep the wings level as well... The kids all had a lot of fun in the play area, and with a lot of the other activities.

That afternoon we put in more fence posts, and Brennan and Scott and I worked on cutting back some tree roots that were going to be in the way of the gate, but we had to improvise as we didn't have an ax or a saw. I was impressed with Brennan's hard work. Jessica really had a hard time because she wanted to fill in one of the post holes all by herself, but was eventually content with making her own dirt pile--and she also "planted a tree". While we were doing this, Jessie, Dee and Beth ran to some stores. Then we grilled some food.

Sunday Beth, Scott, Heather, Jessica and Lady went back home while the rest of us went to church. I don't remember much about what else we did that day--except work on the 300-piece Harry Potter puzzle Jessie was given as an early birthday present from Beth and clan. That continued off an on, until we finished it finally on Friday or Saturday.

This last week was more ordinary, at least the first part. I don't remember much about Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday Jessie had Achievement days and learned to knit, which she has spent a lot of time doing ever since. There were a lot of friends over this week as well.

I've been having problems with starting the van lately, because one of the battery terminals badly needed to be replaced. From Wednesday on, I had to jump start it each morning, although it has been fine coming home each day. Friday Jessie's friend Aiyana was coming to sleep over for Jessie's birthday, and her dad helped me change the terminal, so hopefully that will help (although I won't be surprised to end up replacing the battery as well). Jessie and Aiyana had fun, and stayed up late.

Saturday we spent a lot of time working on science fair projects (they were due Monday, and will be the subject of another post later, hopefully). We did go out to dinner for Jessie's birthday as well. That night, Brennan woke us up in the middle of the night because it was too dark--and we quickly discovered that our power was out. I went out to check, and our side of the street was completely dark, but the other side was fine. I could also see a big truck working at the end of the street. After 20 or 30 minutes, the power came back on, but that was a bit of a hard night for all of us (Jessie woke up just a little after Brennan).

Dee had to go to Ward Council this morning, but came home before church so Jessie could open her presents. She seemed to enjoy them a lot. After dinner we went to decorate the church for an open house before the Christmas devotional, and then stayed for the first part of the devotional, but we ended up leaving early because the kids (Brennan in particular) were very tired--not surprising after two late nights in a row.

That pretty much gets us to today.

Homework

Jessie recently had an assignment to create a diorama of an animal habitat, and along with it a report. Here's a couple of pictures of her finished habitat.

And here is her report:

The Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin
by Jessie Pew
I did my report on the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, more commonly known as the Bottlenose dolphin. It is called the bottlenose dolphin because its long snout, or rostrum. These dolphins live in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as many other warm bodies of water. They move and hunt for food by using echolocation. A dolphin will make a clicking sound and wait for the echo to return to see what kind of food or enemy might be around and where it is located. Their diet is mostly small fish, but they also eat squid and shrimp. The bottlenose dolphin usually swims between the depths of 10 - 150 feet. Because the dolphin is a mammal, it holds its breath underwater. They can dive for 8 minutes before coming up to the surface. Dolphins like the Bottlenose dolphin are very playful. Baby bottlenose dolphins are called calves and the dolphins swim together in groups called pods. The pods usually have between 7-15 dolphins, but can have between 1 - 100 and occasionally up to 1000 dolphins.

Primary Program

Sunday was the Primary Program in our ward. It was originally scheduled for September, but then this hurricane came by... so it was rescheduled.

Jessie and Brennan both did great. It is somewhat surprising to realize that Jessie is now I believe the 8th oldest in our primary. Two of those graduate from primary in the next four months or so, and another one (Jessie's best friend, unfortunately) is moving in about two weeks, and yet another will likely be moving in the next couple of months.

Anyway, we had several comments from many different people about the fact that most of the songs in the end were "Brennan and Jessie, with some accompaniment by the rest of the primary." Especially Brennan, because Jessie is old enough now to have learned some moderation in all things. Brennan is still of the opinion that you can never be loud enough. In fact, a friend commented that she noticed that the louder everyone else got, the louder Brennan got... But we appreciate that he is enthusiastic and is doing his best to participate. We're also proud of him because he had his part completely memorized--and he didn't really need the microphone to help everyone hear him.

Aside from Jessie and Brennan, the rest of the program was great as well. Our primary is small, but good, and we appreciate them.

Irony

So, if you're at a protest, and you're holding a sign saying "We will not fight hate with hate", or "Love", while next to you on one side someone is vandalizing private property, and on your other side is a person holding a sign that says, "All Mormons burn in hell!", at what point do you realize the contradiction?

Or, when you claim your cause is about tolerance, but when you lose the election you immediately single out the most prominent minority on the other side of the issue and begin attacking them, and threatening their members with violence, at what point do you have to admit tolerance isn't really one of your own strong points?

Or when you say the following: “The main focus is going to be going after the Utah brand,” (D.C. blogger John Aravosis) said. “At this point, honestly, we’re going to destroy the Utah brand. It is a hate state.”, can you find the irony in your statement?

Halloween

So, it appears that we didn't take too many pictures at Halloween this year... The first one is from the ward Trunk Or Treat.

The school awards assembly was on Halloween, which was also "Storybook Character Dress-up Day" (code for Halloween...). Jessie was given her art from the Imagination Celebration and a certificate as part of the assembly.


We only had one pumpkin this year, so Jessie carved one side, and Brennan carved the other. Here's pictures of each of them with their side...

Imagination Celebration

Here's Jessie with her artwork.


And here's a close-up of her drawing.


Brennan at the "Musical Petting Zoo" with a clarinet.


Jessie at the "Musical Petting Zoo" with a flute.


Brennan wearing the hat he made at one of the craft stations

Another Artist in the House

We got a call from School on Tuesday from Jessie with some exciting news. When she got to school she found a letter on her desk telling her that one of her drawings was chosen to be displayed at a district art festival this Saturday. They have a bunch of crafts and art things to do for the kids, and they also display art from some of the elementary students in the district, and this year Jessie's was chosen. She's very excited, and we're very proud of her.

Follow up on the Barricade

Well, I was going to add some pictures here, but Blogger doesn't seem to like something about at least one of the pictures, because it keeps giving me an error when it tries to upload them... So we'll go without pictures.

There's a bit of an entertaining story (I think) behind the removal of the barricade. A couple of weeks ago we started seeing large numbers of very big trucks filled with tree limbs driving around various subdivisions. Finally there were a few signs of them in our neighborhood. Then, as I came home from work one day, I saw some near our street. So, when we heard loud truck noises a few minutes later, we went out to investigate. Sure enough, here came a large container truck, another flatbed with a crane/claw thing on it, and a bulldozer. The two big trucks pulled over in front of our next-door neighbor's house, and the claw started picking up the pile from in front of his house. Meanwhile, the bulldozer started pushing stuff from the neighbor on our other side into the street and over next to the crane. It moved on, and set to work on our pile, and then the pile from across the street. In the middle of all of this, the first truck was filled up and left, to be replaced with a new one. Once those four houses were done, all the trucks drove off and vanished, leaving the rest of our street untouched.

Now, we couldn't really complain, as we were one of the lucky houses to be cleaned up, but it did seem an odd place to start, in the middle of the street... Although they did come back from time to time over the next few days to finish up our street, for the most part. Of course, since then some new piles have been created.

The Barricade Is Gone!

Review:

Here's the barricade, just after Ike:


Here it is, after a couple of weeks:


And now:




Well, actually, I've picked up that last little pile as well...

Brennan's Lost Tooth

Last night, while brushing his teeth, Brennan lost his first tooth. He was very excited.

Another Week in a Post-Ike World

Well, we survived another week. Once again. a little more eventful than perhaps we'd like, but nothing too bad...

Monday Dee went back to work, although they were only doing half-days. Since school wasn't back in for Jessie and Brennan, they went along and helped. By all reports they were good assistants and had the teachers in the class next door requesting their help on Wednesday. Jessie even had some of the two-year-olds latch on to her in particular. After that was over, Jessie went to play with her friend Tori, and Brennan went to play with his friend Tyler.

Tuesday I don't remember a whole lot about anything that went on. I did go that evening to help take some insulation out of the attic of a sister in the ward who it was thought had had some water damage from the storm. But on examination of the situation, it was determined that the real problem was that her AC system wasn't draining properly and so we ended up not doing anything other than figuring that out. But, as you will see, in the end I got my opportunity to take out wet insulation after all...

Which brings us to Wednesday. Jessie and Brennan went with Dee to work again. That afternoon, they came in from doing some stuff outside and discovered water dripping down the door post between the living room and the hallway, and heard distinct water sounds. I was about to leave work anyway, so I just came right then. It didn't take long (or more than a climb into the attic) to discover a small leak in the hot water pipe, with water fountaining out of it across the attic. So we turned the water off. After some debate and discussion, I ran to Lowe's and bought some epoxy putty. I put that in the hole, and then Dee headed off to Mutual, a bit late. When she got home we turned the water back on and the epoxy seemed to be holding.

The next morning I called a plumber. They said someone would come between 12 and 6. So Dee and the kids made sure they were home. And they waited. And waited. And waited. And Waited and WAITED. Just before I got home from work the plumbing place called to make sure we knew they hadn't forgotten us. Then somewhere between 6 and 7 they called to say the plumber wasn't going to be able to make it afterall, but that someone would come the next day between 8 and 12, and because of the missed appointment they would waive the $50 service fee.

So, Friday I stayed home from work while Dee, Jessie, and Brennan went to work. Kind of a role-reversal there... Finally, right about 12, they called and said the plumber was on his way. Then it still took him more than an hour to make it to our house (have we mentioned how much we love having no traffic lights). In the end, he put a clamp on the leak.

This morning I left early to go on a work crew to Baytown. Just as we were getting organized at the church in Baytown, I got a call from Dee telling me that the ceiling in our living room was sagging. So that was not so fun. But I was kind of stuck in Baytown, and so was most everyone else likely to be able to help. We hauled a lot of tree branches, most of which had to first be pulled down or cut up or whatever. Despite being taught all my life that service is spiritually uplifting, during the work I lost my sole. There was also a wheelbarrow casualty, and a truck that got stuck in the mud. But despite this we got all the work done, including a fair amount for the neighbors of the house we had gone to. In the middle of all that work the said neighbors turned up to start working, and were quite pleased to discover this strange group of yellow-shirted people had already done a lot of their work.

Once we finished there, we headed back and I co-opted two of the other volunteers to come help get the insulation out of the affected area of our attic. That was loads of fun--NOT. You might think you'd get hot hauling tree limbs in the middle of the afternoon in late September in Houston. But that is nothing compared to how hot you get pulling up insulation in an attic in Houston in late September in the late afternoon. Luckily it didn't take us too long. Still, we'll have to do something about the sagging ceiling and replace the insulation.

After all that, Dee went to the Women's Conference. I think she enjoyed it. But she just got home, so I'm going to end this and relax.

Well, I guess I will mention that the latest we've heard is that it will likely be into November before all the traffic lights are working. There's still places in Houston without power. Of course, Galveston is going to take far longer to recover, but there's still plenty of reminders of Ike in Clear Lake.

Is My Method Too Long?

OK, here's a programming tip to help you know if your method you are writing is too long:

• You find yourself writing comments that begin with "Step 1", "Step 2", etc. Especially when you reach "Step 14"...
• Your method is over 150 lines long. Especially when it reaches 800 lines...
• If you print out that one method and it fills more than 10 pages...
• If it takes more than five minutes to scroll through it from beginning to end
• If trying to follow the flow of execution makes you start fantasizing about joining Frodo and Sam on their trip to Mordor. Or envying Ulysses that short trip he made to get home after the Trojan war...
  
• If there are more than 12 if blocks
• If one of those if blocks contains 12 "else if" blocks
• If there at least three places where it looks like the method might be ending, but then it keeps going and does something else.
  

Random Post-Hurricane Observations

• It's real fun working in an office with a nice, musty smell.
• It's even more fun for those, like one co-worker, who returned to find mold thriving on some office furniture.
• You don't truly realize how big trees are until you see what they look like cut into pieces and stacked up on the side of the road.
• Or see how big a pile the branches make on the side of the road, and realize how much tree is still there.
• There is nothing more exciting in the world for a six-year-old than watching large branches get pulled out of trees by a truck.
• There is nothing more exciting for an adult than trying to get through a major, busy intersection with out a functioning light.
• It's hard to remember to stop at intersections that have non-working lights when those lights are facing the wrong direction and you can't easily see them from your direction.
• When you come to a working red light, you become impatient with the people in front of you who aren't going any where, because you're so used to the broken ones.
• It's amazing how exciting it is to find milk in a store. Or meat.
  
• Piles of drying, decaying branches make excellent mosquito habitats.
• Having relatives spread out along the Gulf Coast might not have been the best idea...
  

The Latest News

I don't think I mentioned that as of Thursday, we don't have to boil our water anymore. We also were able to find some meat, eggs, butter and milk at the store yesterday. We actually managed to get some ice cream on Wednesday, so at least the most essential thing was taken care of early...

We also had fun yesterday when we were on the road and suddenly heard a loud thump from the back end of the car. But we didn't see anything, so we went on--we were almost at the store we were headed for. When we left, though, we very quickly realized that something was wrong. We pulled over, and sure enough, the left back tire was very flat. I put on the spare tire, and we saw a nail in the tire, so we assumed that was the culprit. But when they tried to repair it, they discovered there was also a large slash in it, so we had to get a new tire.

Church today was rather different. Sacrament meeting was left open for people to share experiences and gratitude from the events of the storm. Then the Primary kids went to have a combined meeting, and everybody else gathered in the cultural hall to discuss what needs are still in the ward, and other assignments. We have a few people with roof damage, and so Tuesday I'll be going with some others to clean out any wet insulation, to prevent mold. Thursday or so we'll probably do some more tree limb removal, and then we may be sending a crew to Beaumont on Saturday to do clean up. We may eventually (likely) be involved with efforts in Galveston as well, but from what we've heard crews are coming in from San Antonio and Austin. So I guess it makes sense from them to handle Galveston, and then we can go to Beaumont, since it would be much longer for them to go all the way there.

The current plan is for the schools to start up again a week from tomorrow. Many of them still don't have power, and almost all have at least some damage (except, apparently, one). A few are going to be unusable for the near future, and they also have to take care of kids from Galveston or other areas who don't have schools to go to. So, I'm sure we'll have a shortened summer vacation this next year. Although right now, Jessie and Brennan are happy enough to have the extra couple of weeks of vacation right now.

Before Ike came, we had been really working with Brennan on riding his bike without training wheels. He's gone as far as six or seven pedals around before he gets nervous and puts his feet down--he really could just do it, but he lacks confidence. Of course, sidewalks either covered with or lined with enough tree limbs to populate a small forest are not good for beginning bikers, so that project has taken a sabbatical. On the other hand, one of Jessie's friends gave her some hand-me-down rollerblades a month or so ago, and we found a pair at Goodwill in Lafayette for Brennan, and the two of them have enjoyed rollerblading through the house or on the sidewalks across the street (which are a little more clear).

Dee does go back to work tomorrow, but not full days. I guess they felt like it would be helpful for parents to have a place to take their kids for a few hours. Jessie and Brennan will be going with her, and are excited to help with the two-year-olds. I did go to work Thursday and Friday, but it was very sparse, so I don't know how much got done.

That's about all I can think of for now.

Ike Pictures, Part VI

The old house seems to have come out of it quite well.


This is the pile in front of the old house.

This is the hotel the Weather Channel was broadcasting from

Not usually where you want your yacht...

See if you can tell what's wrong with this traffic light...