Rob and the California George Family

Girl Scout cookies are here. On Sunday, I spent 2 hours with a group of other parents sorting HUGE stacks of cookie cases onto pallets for the 50 Girl Scout troops in Lake Forest that ordered them. It was a good workout and it helps the girls, so I enjoy the chance to do this (this is my 3rd year).

Both of my girls sold cookies this year, although not as "gung ho" as in prior years. We will get some good bonding time in front of local stores over the next couple of weeks (seriously) while they sell the extra cookies that their troop ordered. It is a good break for me and it gives the girls good experience in being outgoing and feeling comfortable talking to adults and handling cash transactions.

What I find amazing is the amount of politics around GS cookie sales and the rules that have been developed due to this. For example, the girls receive their flyers for taking cookie orders before the "official" start of cookie sales. Anyone caught selling before the "official" start loses all of their orders (I think they just go to the council and the girl gets no credit). Not only is this rule strictly enforced, but the parents seem to delight in finding and turning in violators. Similarly, girls are expected to stay in their own cities and specifically in their own neighborhoods.

Similarly, selling in front of stores is very regimented. The girls have to stay in their own city. Within our city, there is a lottery for the store locations and times. Each troop gets a block of time at a store and has to clear out quickly for the next group when their time is over. I've seen adults get upset over losing 5 minutes in a 2 hour block of time.

I understand the need for rules. I don't understand how adults get so competitive over the situation, though I accept that it is something that happens and has to be dealt with. It's unfortunate and, in my opinion, sets a bad example for the girls. Overall, I really like the Girl Scout organization and what it offers for the girls. Even most of the cookie sales experiences are good. It's unfortunate that the few are there to spoil the experience.

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary. I think that most of the people who will read this were there. I still have many memories of the day:

- A rainy February that let up just in time for our outdoor wedding
- The judge that married us being both funny and inspirational at the ceremony
- Celeste looking AWESOME in her wedding dress
- Tons of friends and family there to support us
- LOTS of time for wedding party pictures after the ceremony
- Nearly getting "goosed" when I was about to kneel down on some flowers during photos
- Tim's suit (I forget what name he had for it though -- Bob the Suit?)
- Lee's "perfect man" toast (which was unfortunately mostly cutoff on our wedding video)
- Shoo, Lee, Froggy, and my brother as Groomsmen
- Tina, Karen, Tammy, and Claudia as Bridesmaids
- Getting my dad (in his wheelchair) in a tux!
- Lots of confetti at the end of the reception and in our car
- Putting together my stereo and Lee's stereo for the music with Byron as our DJ
- The wedding party chanting "smash, smash..." when Celeste & I fed each other the first piece of cake
- Celeste starting it by smashing first. My "massive" retaliation that I still don't think she has forgiven me for!
- A low budget reception with many friends helping out that was a lot of fun
- More food than we thought we would get for our money. Holiday Inn in Costa Mesa treated us right.
- A cash bar which I think my co-workers at the time mostly carried for us (we had to guarantee a minimum)
- Bobby Magees for dinner afterwards with the family and wedding party
- Being really young (especially in hindsight)
- A really long, tiring, but very fun and memorable day

I know that I'm forgetting a lot of good stuff too at the moment. It would be great to get any comments on what you remember if you were there.

There were some very memorable gifts and of course many practical ones. I don't remember who gave us what from the practical gifts. However, I now use the "memorable" gifts as a guideline whenever I can for wedding gift giving.

Thanks to everyone who was part of it and who has been a part of our lives since.

Labels: Family, Marriage

My mother-in-law started a tradition with Andrew of traveling to San Francisco during 7th grade. This year is Bethany's turn. Our school district takes off a long "Presidents Day" holiday which is Monday - Wednesday this week. Bethany and Gramma are using this time for the trip. We dropped them off at the airport yesterday and get them back on Wednesday.

They have a jam-packed schedule. Bethany called last night. The room is "small" and "quaint" which was at least not a negative impression. Between shopping (an amusing story I will relate in the future) and touring, they should have a great time.

The family misses them though. Good thing it is only for a few nights.

Work finally slowed down enough that I was able to take advantage of a trial offer for the online game City of Villains. I struggled a bit with the install (I think their ftp server was down when I first tried), but finally got everything going. The process included creating an on-line account (although no Credit Card was required for the free trial -- kudos to whoever made that decision!), downloading and installing the game, and upgrading my video driver. That took care of night 1 of my 14 day trial, but I can deal with that.

I actually got a little play time in yesterday. My son (Andrew) got more time in than I did. The trial is only for City of Villains so we could not play "together" with Lee and Tina since they have the "Heroes" version of the game. Andrew tells me that Lee offered to beat him up in a Player vs. Player area if he wanted to get together. Nice offer. I think Andrew was seriously considering it!

Off hand it looks fun. The last time I played an online game like this was Asheron's Call several years ago. I put a lot more time into that than I have available now. If I do get signed up, it will definitely need to be on a restricted time basis. Andrew has discussed the idea of splitting the costs with me (both software purchase and monthly subscription) which may work out.

If nothing else, it was nice to have some time for myself to play for a while. Play time for the things that I want to do has been in short supply lately and I look forward to getting some back again.

Yesterday was a very busy work day. My client in Arizona made a change to their system that caused a bunch of inventory transactions to zero out the cost. I spent most of the day and evening recovering the costs so that they could be posted correctly. Accountants are funny about wanting their data to be accurate.

It felt good to get it done, but it was a painful process of a combination of SQL script updates to the data where possible and manual updates where automation was not possible. The really good part about all of this is that I was able to do it all from California and clearly demonstrate to them that I don't have to be at their office to get things done.

Rob and the California George Family
This is a test to see what the BlogThis! function does. I know a lot of people that work with computers and therefore don't want to "play" with them at home. I love to play with my computer in addition to working with it. I see things like "BlogThis!" as a new gadget to try and see what happens.

[Edited after initial post] ... and now I know. :-)

Labels: Blogging

As I wrote my last post, I remembered something that I find amusing. Around 2 years ago, we received a letter from our insurance company that specifically excluded Andrew (then age 16 or 17) and Bethany (then age 10 or 11) from being covered on our insurance. Andrew I could understand. Bethany was more of a mystery. However, the really amusing part is that Hayley (then age 8 or 9, now age 10) was not mentioned. Basically, that meant that the insured drivers (although not licensed) in our family were myself, my wife, and my 10 year old daughter. Now that Andrew has purchased insurance, that leaves just Bethany who can't drive our cars according to our insurance company.

I hope Hayley doesn't find out about this. She is an adventurous type and would love the chance to drive!

Andrew (my 18 year old son) has finally decided that he needs to learn to drive. It's not that he didn't want to drive before, but when we told him that he had to pay for his own driving expenses he decided that it was not that important. We live about 2 blocks from the high school, so walking worked fine for him. He had lots of friends to drive him around for lunch, etc. Of course my wife and I provided a lot of transportation for him too.

What has changed is that he is now taking a night class to help finish high school. He is also planning to go to Fullerton College next year. While the bus system could get him there, it would be slow and he didn't enjoy the company of his fellow riders when he rode the bus a couple of times last summer.

The thing that pushed him over the edge was a friend of our offering to teach him to drive. Our friends comment was something like this: "I can't teach you any better than your parents can -- the difference is that I am not your parent." Good point.

So the process started last week. He was added to our insurance policy and went to the DMV to take his written test. He passed and received a learner's permit. This allows him to drive when in the vehicle with a licensed driver that is over 18. I was out of town Tuesday - Thursday, so he was able to use my car. When I got home, I also had him drive for a few errands. He has now gotten experience with driving in a large parking lot, parking between cards, and driving around town day and night. The freeway is still looming as an unconquered learning experience.

The process is going well. He seems to have a healthy respect for the process and is taking it seriously. It's just a matter of practice now. He needs to learn to center in the lane better and get more comfortable with corners. He should be ready for his DMV driving test soon so that he gets a full license.

Labels: Andrew, Driving

For the first time in a very long time, I didn't have to work this weekend. Wow, what a relief. I am not a workaholic by nature, but I inherited a project over a year ago that has really taken over my life. The project isn't done, but it is winding down.

The timing was good for not working. Both my mom and my mother-in-law have upcoming birthdays. It was a good weekend to celebrate both (one on Saturday and one on Sunday). The weather was more like July than February, so we BBQ'd, played board games, and yesterday went to the tide pools at Dana Point. My girls had never been tide pool exploring before, so it was great watching them get their first experience with the critters, rock climbing, etc.

Shoo,
Per your request, I have thrown my hat in the blog ring. This is my first post and I am anxious to say that I have been published on the internet, so this is it for now.

Rob

Labels: Blogging