Vernon has nothing clever to say

Odd Rock and Roll Musical Instruments

2010-05-21T14:06:00.006-04:00

I was thinking about this the other morning while listening to music during my morning workout. I've been a music fan for about 49 years I suppose. My Mom used to tell a story about me when we lived in Germany. I was maybe a year old. When I'd hear the old Telefunken radio playing, I'd run downstairs yelling "MockNow, MockNow!" (which was my pronunciation of music?) and sit down with my legs under the radio and listen. As long as I can remember I've listened to music and to this day I appreciate a really good musician, regardless of their style of music (although, I am loathe to call "rap" music).

Anyway, I was recalling all the instruments that seemed to come and go in popular rock songs. Some are still around, some seem to have lost favor or be out of style.

In no particular order:

Mandolin (new)
Accordion (Weird Al?)
Cowbell ("more cowbell!")
Saxophone
Violin
Piano
Pedal Steel Guitar
Organ
Flute (Jethro Tull anyone?)

Seems like I thought of a few more when it was fresh on my mind. Now, not so many.

How many other are there out there? I may review some of my older library of songs to see if there are a few more to add to this list.

Are blogs relevant anymore?

2010-05-12T17:23:00.002-04:00

Seems that with the popularity of social networking sites, the poor old blog has lost some of the appeal it once had?

I know I rarely post here these days and do much of my updates on the increasingly evil FB. I'm thinking about just pulling back completely and just writing letters :-) Recently one of my cousins sent a regular old fashioned letter to the house with an update for their travels, family and other items - in the US Post? What? How 1975 of them. But I can go pick up the letter again and read it when I want. No power is consumed. Completely green now that the printing is done, the letter posted and received, etc (even had a cool Christmas stamp, which made my wife check the post mark to be sure it had not gotten lost somehow).

How are you updating your friends and family? Email, phone calls, text messages, social networking?

Finally, an update on my goal to get healthier. The follow up doctor visit was excellent news. My higher than normal cholesterol and tri-somethings all went back to normal/good levels. This proved that in my case, exercise & eating can control them - no special TV ad drugs for me. I've lost about 55 pounds and am close to getting under 200 for the first time in about 20 years. Only down side is having to buy new clothes and that's no down side at all.

Until next time, I have nothing clever to say.

March 2010 - Progress Thusfar

2010-03-03T12:32:00.002-05:00

Hello March 2010.

Wondering what happened to January and February. One thing that has been very nice this year so far is my lack of travel for business. Only one trip to Boston and an upcoming trip to New York in 1.5 weeks. Not bad.

On the exercise front, I have managed to only miss 3 days this year - I am currently exercising an hour per day, every day. I alternate between the treadmill and the elliptical. I'm encouraged by the results and weight loss; started January 1 at 249 and am now at 219. I plan to get to 212 or so by the end of March. My follow up doctor visit where they will redo my blood work will be in early April. Hopefully my results will match the weight loss and general better feeling I have now.

Finally; what a winter so far! Lots of snow days, which I love and lots of cool/cold temps. I am about ready for warmer weather so I can walk or run in the park here in Suwanee. Should be good prep for the Peachtree Road Race (?) Not sure if I'm really ready for that or not - but I am considering it.

That's all, back to work.

Hello Old Friend

2010-01-26T11:02:00.002-05:00

Wow, talk about not following my 2009 post with anything useful at all :-) See, I said I had nothing clever to say.

So, let me recap 2009 if I can.

The year was consumed by too much focus on work and many long hours. We did have some very nice vacations; Lake Louise, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna again. No matter how many times we go to each location, we enjoy it very much and always find some new fantastic things to do & see.

Then there were the things that did not go so well. More illness in the family than we'd like. Short term, but still it reminds us that we are all getting older, time is short, precious and should be enjoyed to the fullest.

To that end, I finally had a physical and passed with mostly good results. I am overweight, no surprise there. My cholesterol is too high, by 7 points - which is not as bad as I suspected.

I used the visit to the doctor as a launching pad to start using all that expensive gear we have in the basement. I think people call it a "gym" or "workout" - terms that are foreign to me :-) 6 or 7 years ago we sprung for good home quality hardware for the home exercise room. We had gone through the less expensive items from Sports Authority and other stores - they wore out fast and were not great quality. So we started shopping at Fitness Resource and have really good equipment. But I got lazy and sat around too much, put on 40-45 pounds, made excuses as to why I didn't have time to exercise...

Now I'm going at it harder than I ever have and the results are showing already. I'm going to try and stay on my strict schedule and see if I can get back down to 210-215 where I was back in 2003-2004.

Stay tuned...

Happy 2010 folks.

Weihenstephaner Dopplebock - BoTE 3/13/2009

2009-03-14T17:43:00.001-04:00

Weihenstephaner Dopplebock - BoTE 3/13/2009
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

BoTE=Beer of the evening

My lovely wife & daughter stopped by Total Wine at Perimeter (the old CompUSA building) and picked up a "massive amount of beer" for me!

This one was good, but not great. Check out my Flickr page for the current (as of the picture) beer fridge inventory. I'm trying to reduce inventory this weekend :-)

Enjoy good beer.

Also, can't wait for this place to open http://tinyurl.com/d7pk89 on April 2, 2009. Check it out.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

2009-03-14T13:48:00.003-04:00

I'm doing a horrible job with my New Year's resolution to update this blog more often. Only the fourth post this year.

So, here's my problem; first, I have nothing much to say, I've been using Twitter and the link to Facebook as my 'defacto' blog, even if the updates are short. Also, I rarely update the FB status stand alone, I almost always use Tweets to do that for me.

That said, I am updating the blog today. It's rainy outside and has cooled back down from highs in the 70's & 80's earlier in the week and the fact that I had planned to do almost nothing today other than what came to mind or if I had a whim of some sort.

We are looking forward to my Uncle Jack's 85th birthday party in Marshall Texas the weekend of May 16th. There are only two Uncles left living from my Mother's family. Uncle Jack and Uncle Jakie (George actually, but he's always been Jakie for some reason). We have an entire campground reserved and we had about 35-40 relatives at his 80th back at Lake Caddo Texas. Should be a lot of fun.

We're also planning a visit back to Lake Louise in the fall of this year. Only 202 days left or 28 weeks :-) We skipped The Post hotel last year due to our European trips, but we are headed back this year for sure.

Well, off to get my shower. I am truly lazy today and enjoying every minute of it!

Terrapin Beers from Athens Georgia

2009-01-14T15:44:00.003-05:00

I purchased a 12 bottle package of Terrapin beers; 3 bottles of 4 different types of their beers; India Style Brown Ale, Rye Pale Ale, SunRay Wheat and Golden Ale.

I tried the India Style Pale Ale first:

It was an excellent, malty slightly hoppy ale. As with most of ales, you must (and I stress MUST) let the beer warm up before you enjoy it. The taste changes a lot with about 10 degrees of warming. Try to drink this one around 45 degrees. You will thank me later.

I'm going to try these others soon and post my opinion then.

Coming Soon - Terrapin Beer Review

2009-01-09T17:06:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I purchased a 12 pack of Terrapin Beers from Kroger. I've not had a chance to try them yet as I had some other beers in the fridge to clear out first.

I've tried their Rye Pale Ale first years ago in Ted's Montana Grill and I really liked it.

This is an excellent example of how to support local microbrews in Georgia.

Will post a more complete review later.

To read more, visit their web site at: http://www.terrapinbeer.com/

Back to work...

Happy 2009

2009-01-01T14:24:00.002-05:00

I resolve to update this blog more frequently :-)

It was a good 2008 for us, but not for lots of other people and that makes me sad. We are going to make more donations to charity this year, while we can, to help others less fortunate than ourselves.

Happy 2009 folks, try to do good for others and not think of yourselves so much.

Melvin the cat 1991-2008

2008-11-18T14:09:00.005-05:00

He was our 'baby Melvin', a Virginia apple orchard orphan cat. Back in the early 90's a few of my wife's family worked part time in an apple orchard. One day a tractor accidentally ran over a female cat with a small litter of kittens. My brother-in-law took the black kitten home and the person driving the tractor took the other kitten. He gave the kitten to us on a family visit very shortly after he brought him home.

We tend to name our cats with people names or characters from TV or a movie. Over the years we've had; Buckwheat (from SNL), Opert & Ronald Anne (from the comic strip Bloom County), Al, Bigboy, Karl, Buster, Scooter, Piper, Roscoe, Lulu and Melvin. Because Melvin had a tough start to his life, he was always very aggressive towards his food. Even this last weekend, as he was not feeling well, Melvin was still at the table, begging for scraps of food. He regularly ate breakfast with us :-) This aggressiveness cause us to name him after a line in the movie Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure when they "melvined" the Death character (a wedgie, actually). Well, the 3 of us thought that was funny and so we named the kitten Melvin.

The photo above isn't very good, but is a recent one and it shows his long black fur. He was a good cat and lived 17 years. We will miss him a lot the next breakfast we sit down to eat.

We love you baby Melvin, may you rest in peace (and have some fun with Buckwheat, Scooter, Karl & Bigboy where ever you may be).

A heartfelt thank you all you early voters!

2008-11-04T15:47:00.004-05:00

Long voting lines, what long lines? From 12:09 until 12:43 in my town. While it took my wife and daughter 6 hours, it cleared the way for today I believe. At least at my polling location, the line was very short and the staff very efficient.

My E71 does not take great pictures, but here is the view from the end of the line.

Thanks again to all the early voters that made this possible!

Going to exercise my civic responsibility

2008-11-04T11:05:00.002-05:00

I decided to work from home this morning, do one really important conference call and then head off to the polls to cast my vote. My wife & daughter early voted last Friday and it took 6 hours. I hope today goes faster, but I am prepared to spend as long as it takes to exercise my civic duties.

Wish me luck!

Filling up for less

2008-11-03T11:16:00.002-05:00

I'm a weirdo. Many people who work with me will agree without hesitation. I've been tracking my gasoline information since March 28, 1996. I had information going further than 1996, but I lost it on a very old HP LX-100 (ran MS-DOS!).

Anyway, my point is that gasoline has not been this inexpensive since March 30, 2007.

Very nice to fill up for less than $70! Bring on the sub-$2.00 prices!

Oktoberfest in Helen Georgia

2008-10-22T10:46:00.002-04:00

We took some time this last Sunday and drove up to Helen Georgia to check out their version of Oktoberfest (they claim; "the longest Oktoberfest celebration in the world!"). It starts in September and goes until the first week of November.

It was crowded, but not like some other "theme" cities here in the South. We had a nice lunch with German food and beer! :-)

Was very nice time and we'd return in the future.

Been a while...

2008-08-22T13:01:00.003-04:00

...since I posted last. It seems the time is flying by due to all the projects and things at work. I don't even have anything to say in this post other than to say I've been too darn busy to post.

I did have a thought the other day and I wondered how hard would this be to achieve? Global warming is a reality, while the causes are in dispute, the fact the earth has warmed up is not. We are in a 3 year drought here in GA, this is also a fact. Seems like one of those fancy desalinization plants would help slow down or potentially reverse some of this process, doesn't it? If the polar ice caps are melting (another fact) and the seas are rising, shouldn't a plant that removes salt water, converts to fresh water for drinking, irrigation, etc would help clean the air of pollutants and then slow global warming? I don't know jack about what I'm talking about, but it seems to make sense logically.

Back to work...

Mary, the birthday girl!

2008-07-13T14:47:00.001-04:00

Mary, the birthday girl!
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

This past Thursday, July 10, was our daughter Mary's 29th birthday. We went to one of our favorite local restaurants, California Dreaming and we all had a great time.

Mary has a big party weekend planned for mid-town and she's headed downtown for that bit of her birthday weekend.

We joke about this type of picture and call it our "hand on chin" portrait. Very funny, to us anyway.

Happy Birthday Miss Mary! Mom & Pop love you very much!

Okay, I admit it - I am no plumber

2008-07-06T19:50:00.001-04:00

The scene of the crime - too much torque!
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

I tightened the old one too much and POW!, off it came and the water went everywhere and I do mean EVERYWHERE! For the second time in 2 weeks, this corner of the basement got washed down and is now nice and sparkly clean! Geez...

Restaurant Review - Vreny's

2008-07-06T11:05:00.007-04:00

This past Saturday, July 5, for Linda's birthday we visited Vreny's Alpine Grille & Biergarten at 4225 River Green Parkway in Duluth. Another local authentic German/Bavarian restaurant.

The table comes stock with a basket of small pretzels and German mustard to dip them in. We started out with a Swiss Fondue, a couple of diet cokes and a 0.5L Franziskaner Weissbier for me. Mary ordered the same dish she had at Gasthaus a few weeks ago, the Swiss Spätzle or pasta. Linda ordered the Kalbs Geschnetzeltes mit Rosti and I had my usual Wienerschnitzel.

The girls really enjoyed their dishes and I was somewhat disappointed. First, the side I had ordered was potato salad and I got spatzle instead - which I do not care for. Our waitress was busy and didn't stop by to ask how our orders were and if all was okay, a major error in service principles in my mind.

Overall this is a good restaurant, although I think I prefer the Gasthaus for service and overall food quality. We did all have a good time and will come back, in September or October for sure - if not sooner.

UPS's Customer Service Sucks

2008-07-03T17:17:00.002-04:00

I am trying to get a package for my wife's birthday delivered to our new office and UPS are just a bunch of idiots. So I am driving to their delivery center to meet the driver and get the package, since I need it for Saturday.

Three tries at delivering it to our new location failed due to "THE RECEIVER'S ADDRESS IS INCOMPLETE. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THE ENTIRE ADDRESS AND COMPLETE THE DELIVERY. / THE ADDRESS HAS BEEN CORRECTED. THE DELIVERY HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED". Wrong UPS! There was nothing incorrect or missing - YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS!

Geez. Back to work...

Restaurant Review - Gasthaus

2008-06-29T16:16:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, June 21 we visited the Gasthaus in Cumming. It is an authentic German restaurant in an old house on Atlanta Street, just off Highway 9 & GA 400.

The service was a bit slow because they were down 2 people, so we had to wait a short bit for our seat and food, but the atmosphere was good and friendly.

When the drinks arrived, they were excellent.

And then the food arrived and it was very tasty. So far, this was as close to Bavaria as we've had here in the Atlanta area. We've also been to a German place off Peachtree Industrial, but don't recall if it was as good as Gasthaus. I recommend this place, try it out.

The Gratitude Campaign

2008-05-28T12:05:00.004-04:00

This post is not about politics or whether you support war or oppose it. It is about the people who serve. Both my father and my wife's father served with pride in the military. That is how my wife & I met, both of our families were stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas; at the time, the largest military facility in the world. While my father was considered a medical risk to serve in Vietnam, my father-in-law did two tours. I'm intensely proud of both of them. Although my father passed in 1981, my wife's father is still alive and we've never once discussed his service nor have I ever thanked him for his selfless service to our country in an unpopular war, much like today's conflict in Iraq.

To the point of this post and I'll just quote from the site:

"For the past several years as I've been traveling around the country, I've been approaching Soldiers in airports and thanking them for serving for us. On several occasions I have noticed that it felt a little awkward for both of us. There are several reasons, some of which I am even just now learning as I produce this film and talk to more Service Men & Women and Veterans. But they have always appreciated being thanked, and I have always felt better having expressed my gratitude.

I started to think that it would be nice if civilians had a gesture or sign that they could use to say "thank you" quickly and easily without even having to approach. I did some research and found the sign that we are now using.

Is this limited to the military? Not at all. If you look around you I'm sure that you'll find lots of people who are serving their communities, from local to global. If you appreciate their service, give them a sign. Say "thank you from the bottom of my heart." -Scott Truitt, FOUNDER, The Gratitude Campaign

Please visit this site and spend 30 seconds viewing the short video - http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/shortmovie.php. It brought tears to my eyes as often happens in the airport when I see our brave young women and men in service. After you watch this, take action the next time you pass someone in service to our country, regardless of your political views or opinions.

Thanks to TJ for sending me this link.

Back to work...

Goodbye Ford, hello Honda

2008-05-20T14:12:00.003-04:00

After 1,516 days of faithful service, my Ford F-150 is now gone to the used car lot at the Mall of Georgia Honda.

We spent the better part of a month or more discussing a new vehicle for my wife to drive. She really liked or thought she would like the Toyota Sienna. But after looking at it closely, it just did not past close inspection. It had a lot of nice features, but we chose the Honda Odyssey because of price; fit & finish, features and the dealership. Seriously, this was the most painless purchasing experience we have ever had in 30 years of purchasing automobiles. We used the Internet sales department, found the style we likes, got a fair price, got a fair trade-in for the truck, signed the paper work and left. Almost too easy.

These are not great pictures, but trust me, it looks great and the ride is wonderful.

We are enjoying the XM radio 90 day trial, the excellent GPS navigation, the voice control everything (almost) and the overall quality of the vehicle.

Back to work...to pay for this nice ride :-)

The Craziness Returns

2008-05-13T21:29:00.002-04:00

You know that feeling you get after a nice vacation? You get all relaxed, you get self-reflective and start to analyze your life, the way you spend too much time working or thinking about work. Then about 4 days into the vacation you realize you haven't thought about work for an hour or so. Then you go 3 or 4 hours without thinking about work. About the time you've completely put work out of your mind, the vacation is over and reality comes crashing down upon you; the craziness returns.

Don't you hate when that happens?

I've been doing pretty good since getting back from our week + 2 day vacation. Even managed to stay completely calm most days. The craziness is slowly returning this week. My excellent co-worker is on his well deserved holiday with his wife, scuba diving someplace warm and fun. His work load I happily take over, as long as it is just this week, and the craziness returns. I'll be happy when he's back. Of course, I'll be on the road again that day - to visit a Customer. But we'll sync up on Tuesday.

The point is, why can't that relaxed feeling last longer? I find I am more productive just after vacation. More rational. Make better decisions. Listen better. Remember more. Generally, I'm a whole lot 'smarter' too.

Never lasts long; the craziness returns.

Back to work... (sigh)

Fender Bender!

2008-05-12T17:29:00.003-04:00

Well, it was bound to happen. We've lived here since 1994 and I'm the only one in our household that had not been in an accident. I think I had broken some major statistical records by going almost 14 years without so much as a minor ding.

That all changed on Sunday, around 5:10. Some 'so and so' decided he would race across the Sam's parking lot, cutting through to the gas station. He did not see us. We were driving slow and carefully (legally, I might add) down the parking lane on our way out to Hwy. 20. Then boom, here he comes and into our lane, too fast to stop and too close for me to avoid hitting his car on the left front fender. We hit him straight, but were slid about half a car width to the left from the impact.

No one was hurt, thankfully, but boy was I pissed. My lovely wife had to physically restrain me from giving this young man a nasty verbal lashing; "calm down, calm down, we're okay". All I got off was "You can't go speeding across a parking lot, DUDE!!!!" He didn't seem phased, hurt or for that matter, too apologetic...

All of this with her heading out of town today, Monday, to help her parents. I got out of the car, after I yelled at him, and looked at the front of the car - thinking the worst. Wasn't bad at all. We have some parts shifted to the left, some broken plastic, scraped off paint, generally it looks crappy - pictures here - not bad really, but still - DAMN. How frustrating. What a way to end a lovely Mother's Day.

So now the dance begins - his insurance has already called the house and I missed the call (of course) and could only get voicemail the 4 times I called them back. It will be a PITA to get it into the shop, get them to rent us a car, then get it back. Oh well, I'm very thankful no one was hurt, even the little racer dude and his speedster car.

We'll see how it goes next. Back to work...

Vacation to Bavaria & Austria

2008-05-02T18:20:00.006-04:00

As a 30th anniversary gift to each other, my wife and I took a trip to Bavaria and Austria; Munich, Honhenschwangau (where the castle Neuschwanstein is) and Salzburg. Boy was it fun. Pictures are going to be posted on my Picasa site here - the beer, food, people, sites, nature - everything was just wonderful.

We flew into Munich and stayed there for 2 days. The first day is always the zombie day due to the overnight flight, but we still managed to get out and wander the streets and various Platz's of town. Eating was the key objective and we visited the Hofbrauhaus - a very famous beer hall in Munich. The food & beer was so very good.

The next day, after a good nights rest, we headed to the English Garden or Englischer Garten as it's known there. A massive, beautiful (can't use that work too much here) park that rivals Central Park or other large public parks. It was in partial bloom and although the weather was overcast and drizzly, lots of people were wandering about with their children or pets.

On the third day we rented a nice Audi A5 and drove to Hohenschwangau - the small village where King Ludwig II build his romantic palace Castle Neuschwangau - the basis for Walt Disney's castle at his theme park in California. We stayed at a family owned hotel, Muller and had a wonderful room on the second floor with a huge outdoor patio on the roof of the gift shop.

We hiked up to the older castle just behind the hotel and tour it - the build dates back to the middle ages and was a hunting lodge for knights before it was remodeled by King Ludwig's father in the early 1800's. But just a small place compared to the larger castle Neuschwangau.

We drove from Germany through Austria and back into Germany to a smaller town - Oberammergau - an exquisite Bavarian village with many fresco's painted on the buildings. Check out the pictures on the Picasa site.

One of the interesting things about this region, aside from the natural beauty is the fact it is so neat and tidy. Sure you can find some trash and the German kids love their graffiti - but you just don't see sloppy yards, businesses or junk - when you do see some odd bits & pieces, they are always stacked or organized very neatly.

After a drive back to the lovely Hotel Muller, we had one of many exceptional meals. Then off to bed for an early departure back to Munich to drop off the car and catch a train to... Salzburg, Austria.

What an awesome city Salzburg is. So very old and so very lovely at the same time. The weather was nice & hot when we arrived and a front promptly came through and dumped some hard rain - but we would not be deterred! We had a great time walking all the little connecting passages between streets on the old side of town. All the people were friendly and we had no issues communicating with them.

After two days here, it was time to board the train and travel the 1.5 hours back to Munich. Once back in town, we stayed at a Hilton that was just above the S-Bahn station and were able to get back downtown to check out a few more stores and the Paulaner Brauhaus!

I must say what wonderful beer culture that is prevalent everywhere in Munich and the smaller villages we visited. You did not find that so much in Salzburg, it was more about style and grace and Mozart!

Overall, we had a tremendous time and will return as soon as we can to explore more of the sites and towns in the area. We highly recommend it to anyone that would like a relaxing, romantic vacation.

Sometimes people can make you crazy

2008-04-16T12:54:00.002-04:00

Ever have one of those meetings or conference calls when your head explodes?

We have them frequently. At my company, we deal with people from a lot of various backgrounds, cultures and locales. Many times things go fine and we are productive. Other times things don't go so well, we fuss and argue, yell, get pissed off and generally are non-productive, to a point.

And sometimes, your head explodes, like the example Rob drew on my whiteboard after "one of those calls". Funny or not...

Back to work...

Travel Makes Me Tired

2008-04-10T11:53:00.002-04:00

First post in a while. I've been on the road a bit last week. From Atlanta to Boston thru Paris and finally to Helsinki. Due to my late booking, I had to stay in Finland until Sunday. That gave me the chance to visit downtown Helsinki and check out the sites. Friday I met with people from my company at their build. Wow, how nice the folks at HQ have it! Two places to eat, really nice open air building design, situated on the shores of an inlet or a lake, not sure. But they are extra nice people those Fin's. Very friendly, but respectful of your privacy.

The weather on Friday was extrodinary. Sad to say the weather on Saturday was not. While I was stuck indoors Friday, I was out in the +4 C, rainy, drizzly, cold weather. But the sites made up for the generally gloomy day. Got to see several landmarks; things I had seen on The Travel Channel. I've posted my pictures on Flickr, but have a few more that I'll put up on Picsaweb.

The architecture is very interesting and very much like other European cities we've visited. I'll have more posting on this trip soon. I took notes on my Nokia E61i and I just need to go thru them and post an edited version later.

Back to work...

WtF

2008-04-03T06:56:00.002-04:00

04/03/2008
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

Yep, not faked - this is the Finnish magazine in my room at the Hilton in Helsinki. Visit the web site http://welcometofinland.fi

Actually, a very nice mag on how to enjoy Finnish people, their country and their culture.

Back to work...

Karl at the kitchen sink

2008-03-29T15:57:00.002-04:00

Karl, our 8-12 year old cat (not sure, but he looks sorta old now), decided to jump up on the counter top and go get a drink of water from the kitchen sink. So I turned on the water to a slow trickle and here he is, lapping it up :-)

Fuller's 1845

2008-03-23T17:22:00.003-04:00

Fuller's 1845 - the best Ale in the world!
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

This is how you drink beer. Proper glass, proper towel and most importantly, the proper temperature - 45-50F.

This is Fuller's 1845, one of the best tasting ale's on the planet, in my opinion.

Those stinkin' Bradford Pears

2008-03-19T10:43:00.005-04:00

Ah, the sweet smell of... WHAT!?! What is that awful odor?

It's that time of year again, when the Bradford Pear's start to bud out and are now in full bloom. And boy do they smell bad. According to the Wikipedia; "They have a sickly-sweet smell, often compared to the odor of human semen." I'm not sure I agree with that, smells more like a potato or underarm :-)

At any rate, how can something so pretty smell so bad? Many people say they can't detect the aroma. I am not one of them. I smell them too good (very poor grammar, I know - the beauty of a blog).

Here are a couple photos from my yard, taken this past weekend.

Reminds me of the song about another tree that has some issues - "lemon tree, very pretty..." if only I could remember the rest of the lyrics. But that's as story for another post.

Back to work...

Hard to keep caught up

2008-03-17T16:14:00.003-04:00

Man, work is crazy right now. I'm finding it very difficult to keep up with all the projects my team is involved in. Not to mention I can't seem to find time to post new blogs and I have several things on my mind right now. As a reminder to myself, here they are:

Spring is here, the plants are starting to bud out (and the stinkin' Bradford Pear blooms are back!)
My beer glass selection has grown, need to update my inventory
The nice people from Australia brought me some very nice Aussie beers - I would like to write a review here
Our daughter came home yesterday from her 2 week "holiday" in the UK

Hopefully, I'll find some time to write some updates soon.

Back to work... (sigh)

New beer glasses & beer clock arrived!

2008-03-13T18:59:00.002-04:00

Ordered a Samuel Smith wall clock and numerous glasses. I'll post some pictures shortly.

I'm very excited about adding to my collection. Now I need to go buy some beer to put in these new Celebrator and Samuel Smith glasses.

Oh, and I got two Sam Smith pub towels too - ahhh, beeerrr, ahhh.

Happy Anniversary to us!

2008-03-11T15:11:00.002-04:00

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary.

On Saturday, March 11, 1978, my darling and I were married in Ft. Hood, Texas in a small army chapel. Many of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins attended as did as many of her family as could make it to Texas. We were the furthest away from her family while most of mine lived either in Texas or Louisiana and Mississippi.

Many things have transpired since that day. We've moved six times, up and down the country and landed in the Atlanta metro area since 1993. Very different from Texas, but it's an area of the US we enjoy and our places of employment are here.

We've had a great time so far. We have a wonderful daughter who is 28 and lives at home with us while she attends college.

Life is great, comfortable and we are truly blessed to have found each other as well as the good fortune to have spent 30 years together.

I love my wife! Happy Anniversary Honey!

Collecting Beer Glasses

2008-03-09T20:03:00.005-04:00

Did I mention I like beer? :-)

I also like to drink my beer in the proper vessel (and I don't mean boat).

Over the past year or more I've been collecting logo beer glasses. Last night I sat down and wrote up an inventory of my collection. I have over 60 glasses representing 37 different brands.

And more are in route to the house! I have many beers I enjoy on a regular basis and found I did not have the proper glass to enjoy them. So, I ordered 8 or 10 pairs of glasses, I forget exactly. They should be here this week. For now, here is a shot of my existing collection. You can see a larger version over on my Flickr page.

Back to... some beer drinking :-)

I like beer...

2008-03-09T15:09:00.003-04:00

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I like beer. Not thin, weak, no taste beer, but good, rich, tasty, hoppy, dark, amber, red, black, pale beer. Beer with guts and glory - in two words 'good beer'.

I can remember years ago, when I drank Miller or Bud or others like Pearl, it was okay, but not good and certainly not great. Then a co-worker from the regional Bell operating company where I worked from '93-'99, invited my wife & I over for a get together. He introduced me to Oberdorfer Weiss, a Bavarian wheat beer. My beer drinking life was never the same. It was wonderful and had body, taste and character. An excellent that I've since enjoyed on an occasional basis.

I hope to write more on the topic here when I have more time. I'm actually working on a Sunday, which sucks, but such is life.

Back to work...

Snow day!

2008-03-08T19:40:00.001-05:00

Snow in my town is somewhat rare. Snow 3 times in one year is very rare. Snow in March - well, almost unheard of. But today we got our third snow of the year. Sure it was just flurries most of the morning until mid-afternoon, but still - snow? Here? In March? Cool (or rather, COLD).

Then the clouds cleared and the temperature warmed a bit, but it was still very neat to have our third snow and have it in March.

Very nice and appreciated too.

WTF and other TLA's

2008-03-06T15:37:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Finland, did you think it meant something else? :-)

In my company, we are global, we have a lot of IM sessions with our co-workers rather than actually talking to them. I used some TLA's today and one of our Finnish folks said - what is that? So, I had to explain that "brb" meant be right back. He thought I had typed a burp into the IM chat window - how funny.

How many TLA's and FLA's do you know?

BTW, in case you don't know what a TLA & FLA is - three letter acronym and four letter acronym.

Okay, back to work...

Writers block today

2008-03-04T12:19:00.002-05:00

Can't figure out what to put here today. I haven't posted an update since last week when I was in Mountain View. As with most trips, I got a little behind in my normal daily routine and have finally caught up.

Lots of conference calls, emails to read & respond to, IM chats to have. "Work" as it were.

Raining here today, much needed with our severe drought still in effect. Would be nice if it would rain all day and into the night.

Maybe I'm not blocked after all :-)

Back to work...

My first Hybrid rental car

2008-02-26T19:32:00.003-05:00

While in California, I thought I would try (again) to rent a Hybrid. Luckily, the rental company had a Toyota Camry Hybrid. This time I was able to figure out how to start the darn thing. Last time I was out here, I could not figure out how to start the Prius. I could turn on the power (there is no key with Toyota, only a key fob), but could never get the engine to engage or start. Seems you have to keep your foot on the brake for a couple of seconds, then the power button turns green and you press and hold the power button - bingo, to starts - in electric mode at first, then the engine fires once you put it in gear.

My first impression is the brakes are extremely touchy, but work well. On my ~31 mile drive down the 101 to Mountain View, in rush hour traffic, I got a little better than 50 mpg!

There is even a little gauge on the steering column that gives instant feedback on how well you've done on mpg. If you do a good job, the gauge displays "Excellent!". Very funny and does cause the driver to potentially treat driving and gasoline economy as a game.

Only concern is that when stopped for more than 30 seconds, the engine seems to go dormant and then when you press the accelerator, it is not instantaneous like a pure gas engine. This aside, an overall a good experience so far. Very zippy and responsive.

Back to work...

Off to Mountain View

2008-02-25T13:55:00.002-05:00

Should be an interesting week. Off to Mountain View for our first face to face staff meeting with the new crew. I hope the weather is good and the meetings are productive :-)

Flying out of town from my city is always an adventure. The busiest airport in the world and things actually go fairly good considering the volume of people, cars, buses, vans and airplanes.

Sitting in the Delta crown room, working on email and participating in a conference call.

I would say "back to work..." but I'm already there dude.

Black Hole of Time

2008-02-23T18:55:00.002-05:00

Computers are a black hole of time.

I can't tell you how many weekends and evenings have just vanished from my life because of computers. Today for instance, the screen saver on my wifes new HP laptop has been non-functional for over a month now. After scouring the HP support forums with no luck, I tried a simple Yahoo! search for "Vista Screen Saver does not work". The search yielded a large number of results and the very first link in the results page had the answer - the wireless mouse was keeping the screen saver from coming on. Well known issue on the forums, but not on HP's site :-)

Then off to the basement office to work on this new Fedora 8 laptop I loaded a few weeks back. Moving files from the Windows machines could not be easier, but not having A/V on the Linux OS makes me nervous. I know viruses exist for Linux, but I've yet to find a good open source A/V solution.

All this in 3 plus hours. Thus, 'computers are a black hole of time'.

Off to have a nice beer of some sort...

Random act of kindness

2008-02-21T10:24:00.003-05:00

Rarely in my city do you see people stop to help others, unless there is a catastrophic event such as a bomb explosion, severe automobile accident, etc.

So I was surprise to witness a RAOK this morning. A small truck had stalled at an intersection and a couple of guys in a bright yellow GMC truck, did a safe & legal U turn, pulled over to the side of the road, jumped out and ran (fast) the stalled truck and helped the individual push it to the side of the road where he could get some assistance. Then the two guys jumped back in their truck and returned to their commute.

Very nice. Somewhat unexpected.

Back to work...

What is AADD anyway?

2008-02-19T13:25:00.002-05:00

Is it real or just a function of our busy lives? I have a ton of things going on each day and struggle to keep all the tasks up to date. For instance, as I post this note, I'm on a conference call, on IM chatting with a couple of co-workers, and replying to email.

Is that normal? Do others in their work environment do this type of multi-tasking? Or is this a result of the increase in available communication methods?

Back to work...

A near perfect day

2008-02-18T09:15:00.003-05:00

Sunday was a near perfect day. We had breakfast as a family at the kitchen table. Lots of laughs and stories to share. Then some project work around the house. Then some overdue cleaning of the covered patio. Then some "work" work. Then some TV. Then off to bed.

Even got some needed rain.

A near perfect day.

Back to work...

Paulaner Weissbier

2008-02-17T18:13:00.001-05:00

Paulaner Weissbier
Originally uploaded by vernonwalker

What I am drinking tonight.

New kitchen table ordered!

2008-02-16T16:00:00.001-05:00

We've been looking for a different "kitchen table" for some time now. We've been to antique shows, furniture showrooms, etc. We still couldn't find the right piece at the right price.

Well, last weekend, on the way back from Savannah, we stopped at Scott's Antique Market. A once per month show in a old exhibition hall south of town. Not close to our house at all and we only stopped because we were in the area on the drive back from our 4 day weekend.

We found this furniture maker that uses old pine floors from buildings being torn down in Canada. On Saturday, we visited his showroom and ordered our table. We got two benches for the table as well. Should arrive at the store in 6 weeks. Can't wait to get it in the house!

Got my Rush tickets!

2008-02-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

Seems Amex was having a pre-sale and so tonight when I got home, I purchased my two tickets.

I can't wait, it will be so good to see them again.

Rush rocks!!!

Rush is coming back to town

2008-02-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

My favorite band in the whole world is coming back to town for the last show of their extended tour. Visit www.rush.com for details.

They started their Snakes and Arrows tour in Atlanta last year and had finished in Helsinki Finland. That was supposed to be their last show, but they've decided to head back out on the road. Could be they are reverting to their old process of writing new songs while touring, playing them during some shows and then going into the studio to record them. How cool would that be.

Any way, tomorrow the Atlanta tickets go on sale and I'm sure hoping to get some good seats. The opening show was nearly flawless and I'm sure the last show will be excellent as well.

Back to work...

I am now officially a geek?

2008-02-14T16:35:00.000-05:00

Today, between conference calls, replying to emails, RDP'ing into servers and responding to IM - I loaded my old Dell laptop with Fedora 8 and Gnome.

How cool is that?

We are now using Red Hat and I figured if I could get some knowledge out of Fedora, it would be a good thing.

It was far easier than I thought it would be. I just changed the boot order of my Dell to boot off the CD rather than the hard drive, then inserted a bootable CD with Fedora loaded. The configured a few options, clicked on the install to disk and boom - an error :-( My first Linux issue to resolve. Seems you can't have the target drive "mounted" (in Linux terms) or the installer thinks the disk is in use. After two retries at the install, I thought "hum, let me unmount the target hard drive and try again" - success!

After that, I just shutdown the laptop, removed the CD and rebooted - all done. Even the mouse worked. Now I'm updating all the out of date packages on the Fedora build that was on the CD - about 193 updates and it's taking forever, but at least the ethernet adapter loaded effortlessly and my download speeds are great. But still, 193 package updates - geez...

Okay, back to work.

Work at home day

2008-02-14T09:32:00.000-05:00

My company and work assignment is nice enough to allow for work from home frequently. My objective is 1) reduce my impact on the environment, 2) improve quality of life (no stress from the drive to work) and 3) increased productivity due to fewer distractions & interruptions.

The downside is it reduces my face to face interactions with my team, I have a group of ~23 engineers and managers. Nice people, hard workers, very talented. I love my job! Sounds corny, I know, but I do - at least 90% of the time :-)

The other thing about working from home is that I actually spend more time "at work" than if I were in the office. Nice commute though, just up the stairs from the basement office.

Back to work...

Bad drive into work

2008-02-13T17:48:00.000-05:00

This morning, on my drive in, I saw a horrible accident. Looked like 3 vehicles; a Ford truck, Lincoln Continental, and some unrecognizable vehicle.

Turns out one of my team member's wife knows the occupants of the unrecognizable vehicle. She works with her. Dad, Mom and Baby were in the UV and Dad & Baby are back at home, but not Mom. She's still in the hospital, in a coma.

Not sure how it happened, but it was horrible to see and think of a family involved. Not that you would ever want anyone hurt in an accident.

Small world when you can live in the Atlanta area and see an accident on the way to work and then find out someone you know, knows the occupants of the UV.

Wow...

Open for business

2008-02-13T17:21:00.001-05:00

So the title of this blog says it all; I have nothing clever to say. A few of my friends have blogs and I'm way behind since I'm just starting. But what the heck.

Hopefully, I'll develop a habit of updating this when I have something interesting to say or have new photos to share.

Back to work for me.