Great Technology and a Broken Shifter

I had a great week of tech workshops at school. I'm pretty excited because my classroom has an interactive white board, I have a new laptop with some administrative rights, and I'm working on a tech heavy, interactive school year. After four days of great tech workshops, I hopped in my manual shift car without power steering and the shifter broke. I'm currently stuck in first gear and anything much over 10 mph gets me close to redlining the tachometer. I managed to drive back to school and, much to my surprise, I have wireless internet access in my classroom. That was a nice surprise considering I don't have an ethernet cable to plug in with.

Hopefully, the tow truck will be here soon (they said half an hour), so I should pack up and wait with the car.

Faulty microwaves and plumbing

What a weekend! Yesterday, our microwave oven starting giving long, loud beeps, putting F3 on the display and refusing to work. I checked the manual - nothing. I checked the website - nothing. General Electric does not want us to know what their fault codes are. I, however, was not so easily daunted. I continued searching and found that it meant that the keypad had a short in it. I also found that replacing that keypad would be an extremely annoying project, so I called in a professional. He can't get the part until midweek, so we are without easy leftovers until then.

Last night, we got home from a great wedding that was under a tent amid some serious thunderstorms and as we were brushing our teeth, the sink stopped giving cold water. The hot water worked fine. I checked the other faucets and nothing upstairs would give us cold water. Downstairs, everything was working fine. Unfortunately, all of our tubs/showers are upstairs. At least one toilet is downstairs. The plumber is coming tomorrow.

To top it all off, the sad rumors have come true. I heard that SciFi was thinking of changing its brand to try to distance itself from its own reputation for Science Fiction. That in itself is cause for mourning. But they did it in the oddest way. No longer named SciFi, they are now SyFy, which I can't help but pronounce in my head as Siffy (rhymes with spiffy), and that makes it very difficult to take the channel seriously. I have noticed a decline in their programming as it veered more and more away from science fiction and added all of that ghost hunters, etc... junk. I am saddened.

Grandma's Marathon 2010

Well, now would be the time to commit. It's scheduled for June 19, well after school is out and planning now leaves no good reasons not to do it. Do I commit now? If I wait, I won't do it. If I do it, I'm doing it right this time - no pulled muscles at mile 17. The 34th Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN will be held at 7:30 am on June 19, 2010. Who's in?

Goodbye Cafe Montmartre

It's a sad day for the Madison, WI downtown. My all-time favorite bar and home of the best rusty nails is closing. Cafe Montmartre was a staple for me and my roomates my senior year. This travesty of the economy is made worse by the fact that in the two years of grad school I also spent in Madison, I don't think I made it there once. I loved the atmosphere and have been missing it since I moved. While it seemed the place that would exude a slimy feel of superficial hippness (which really rubs me the wrong way), Cafe Montmartre managed to retain an actual identity without any pretentiousness. Other, similar bars that I've been to have not been able to capture the authentic feel that seemed so casually comfortable within the crumbling brick exterior just off the capital square. Cafe Montmartre, you will be missed!

It reminds me how we need to support the things we like, even if it means spending a little bit more. If there is a running shoe store that gives great service, buy your shoes there. Don't take their services and order online. I fully appreciate the need to save money and am a regular customer at Amazon, Borders, Target, and other large warehouse-type stores, but places that offer a unique atmosphere and add color to the local scene need to thrive.

NTN Trivia National Champion

I just got back from Damons for what may have been my first night out (without my lovely wife) in over four years (since my firstborn was born). I love playing the trivia game they have there and various other places as well. I've always done decently, but tonight may have been my crowning achievement. On one game, I got a perfect score and got the national ranking of #1 for that game. I've broken the top ten before, but I've never come close to a perfect game before. This was even after 50 oz of beer. I was on and on fire. It was my first night of volleyball this summer and I got to play with my brother who was subbing for my normal partner. We split the 6 games, but it felt really good. Playing 20 pounds lighter than last year really made a difference. I still can't believe I got the perfect score and I only had to guess on one question. I only wished one of us had a cell phone to take a picture of my name listed at number one. I guess I'll have to keep trying so that I can get a picture of a repeat.

Transformers!

For only the second time in close to 4 years, I saw a movie in the theater. The first one was 'Dan in Real Life' and it was a waste of theater space. Today, however, I saw the new Transformers movie and it was awesome. I thought the first one was really good, but didn't have enough with the robots. This one made up for it and I have to say, Optimus Prime kicks ass! I won't say anything else; just go see it.

I decided a few days ago not to do summer tutoring. I had a list of six kids who needed 30 hours of math tutoring to avoid repeating the same grade next year. I decided on a reasonable rate to charge and started contacting parents to get it set up. The first number that had been given to the school was no longer in service. Somebody didn't really want the school contacting them. The second parent went off on a mini-rant saying that her child messed around all year long and would have to repeat 7th grade all over again. The third parent informed me that he already set it up with somebody else, but asked what I was charging. I told him and he proceeded to give me a hard time because the other tutor was charging less and why should he go with me when he could get the same hours for less money. I said that I was merely trying to provide a service. At that point, I decided that this was no longer worth my time and I've felt a little bit happier ever since.

Now if we could just get our daughter to do what the swim instructor asks...

Shenanigans!

Borders and their minion Waldenbooks have irked me. That's right - irked. I don't particularly like Waldenbooks in general because the selection is lousy. If I want them to order a book and have it sent to me, I'll go to Amazon and get a better price. The staff, in my experience, while nice and earnest, is not very knowledgeable of the books they stock. Perhaps it's the categorization system they use and all of the other miscellaneous places that books can be displayed, but they can never find anything. Last week I asked if they had a particular book. The woman helping me looked it up in the computer and told me that the computer told her that they might have it. What kind of system is that? What kind of inventory system gives book statuses as might be in stock? Do they have other statuses such as likely in stock, not likely but not impossible, or even probably, but I'm not going to tell you where? Well today, they pushed me over the edge. I get the weekly coupons from Borders which work at Waldenbooks. One of the coupons was worth $2 off of a fiction book. I took a book and the coupon to checkout and the lady at the counter said that I had a Fantasy book; the coupon is only good for fiction. I won't even go into how many responses went through my head in the next second. She seemed like a nice old lady, so I only said that fantasy is fiction. She said the book had to come from the fiction section. I'm giving Waldenbooks the benefit of the doubt here. I assume that they don't actually think that all of the sub-genres of fiction aren't actually fiction. I've read some pretty interesting stuff with a very strong leaning towards sci-fi and fantasy and I would be a bit worried if it weren't actually fiction - no matter how cool some of it is. Waldenbooks, you just continued to disappoint me, but Borders, you have taken a huge step back that took me close to five years to be willing to go back into one of your stores again. Granted, that was because you were half an hour closer than Barnes and Noble, but I say this to you now. I am looking forward to the Barnes and Noble opening locally in 2010.