First Daffodil of Spring

I've always liked daffodils, probably because they're some of the earliest flowers to appear in the Spring. Today, I noticed our first daffodil blooms; I may have missed then earlier, but I'm usually kind of observant about my daffodils.

It seems that the flowers are late this year. We had the shoots coming out of the ground in February, I think, but it seemed to take a long time for them to flower. Actually, I'm not sure when is the normal "first bloom" date around here. Now that I have a blog, I'll have to compare next year's date to today's.

Here's a poor photo:

It's All About the Information, Baby!

I'm taking this Good Friday (Jesus is the reason for this season) off work as one of my Floating Holidays or as Management Personal time or something. We were planning on visiting the in-laws this weekend, but those plans have been scrapped, and we'll be spending the day and weekend at home or at least in town.

The day off gives me some time to get things done around the house. I am finding that the things that "need to be done" are more and more information-related. Sure, I just helped the (usually) diligent T sweep the kitchen floor, but I also have the following tasks planned:

• I finally decided that 256 MB just wasn't enough RAM for the computer, so I broke down and bought 512 MB more. But, the last time I added memory (probably the wrong kind) to my old computer, it really messed things up. It wouldn't boot and the disk got corrupted somehow. So, I'm burning CDs of the last 5 years of family photos, which is probably a good idea anyway. The amount of disk space needed took a big jump after last year's purchase of a 5 MP camera capable of taking video.
• I need to finish up my taxes, or at least make a large dent on the remaining work. As I render therefore unto Washington the things which are Washington's (Matt. 22:21), this is also all about information. Since big ol' chunks o' gold aren't being passed back and forth, modern finances are all about keeping track of the information of who owes and owns what.
• I need to clean up our little home office/computer room area. As I look around, in addition to the kids' toys, there are a lot of papers strewn about: more information in need of management.
• Our bookshelves are a mess. What do books contain?
• OK, I think you get my point!

I also need to do some good old-fashioned car repair work of replacing an EGR valve. This is really beyond my car repair abilities, so I'm not sure how far I'll get. At some point, it may be better to junk the old car.

Pinewood Derby Results

The actual Pinewood Derby was today. It turned out that the Brownie car didn't win a design award, and came in third in each of its heats. The Wolf Cub Scout truck did win the award for "Best Workmanship" in its age group. It must have been the stylish writing and drawing that did the trick. The truck ended up winning one of its three heats, and came in second (of three) in the other two heats.

Here are a few more photos of the Pinewood Derby. First, here's an idea of what some of the other cars look like:


And here's the happy winner of the Craftsmanship award:


And the happy competitor:

2005 Pinewood Derby Cars

In case you're not familiar with it, the Pinewood Derby is an annual Cub Scout event, where the boys' fathers all make a car out of a block of wood. Then, there is a big event where everyone pretends that the boys made the cars, and they are raced by rolling them down a track. Below are our two cars for this year, along with last year's Tiger Cub car for reference. The Tiger car won the "Most Creative Design" award for its age group, so it's a tough act to follow.

Why do we have two cars? Well, in addition to a division for each of the ages of boys, there is an "Open" division for fathers, friends, and relatives who want to make their own cars. Last year, my daughter noticed that one of the cars in the Open division was a pink Disney-Princess themed one, and she decided that she wanted to enter a car this year. It should be obvious which is hers. If we were into that kind of thing, we could probably get "Girl Scout competes in Boy Scout Pinewood Derby" as a human interest story in the newspaper or somewhere, but we don't plan on attempting that.

So, who made what? Well,...

• The designs are solely by the kids.
• The wood-cutting is by my brother-in-law.
• The base painting was mostly by my wife in 2004 and by me in 2005.
• The trim work was by me in 2004 (for the face) and by the kids in 2005.

So, it's a family affair. Last year, we noticed that they didn't seem to care very much who actually won the races, so I don't think we're all that concerned about the cars being under-weight. Last year's car was maybe 10g under the weight limit (which most people thought was very light), but this year's cars are currently even lighter.

2005 Father-Daughter Dance

Here's a photo of people from my church, taken at Friday night's Father-Daughter Dance at Heritage Christian Church. Can you find me? :-)



And, since it's been a while since I've posted a photo of her, here's T:

The End Result

Here's the end result of our recent painting endevours. The photo give an idea of what it looks like, but I'm not sure that it totally does it justice. I'm sure that once we put some photos and posters back on the walls (and put the rest of the furniture in the room) it will be toned down a little more.

I Almost Feel Like I'm Stealing

I'm one of those people that have no idea how gasoline prices are determined. I find it interesting that all the gas stations sell it for the same price (within a few pennies) per gallon. If one place will raise prices 20c per gallon, so will the place across the street.

When I worked in a gas station, our price was always 1c more per gallon that the place across the street. The prices were set by telephone, where a mystery voice would call us and tell us what our prices should be. But I digress.

Today was one of those days where everyone raises their prices. They had been $1.99⁹ per gallon everywhere, and today all the stations raised their prices to $2.15⁹ per gallon. Except one place. As I was leaving, I noticed that they were at $1.99⁹. Throughout my daily travels, I noticed that every place else was at $2.15⁹. I didn't buy it at one of those higher-priced places, hoping to get it for $1.99⁹ on the way home. Sure enough, the place that didn't get the call was still 16c cheaper than all the other places. I ended up saving a whole $1.84.

But as I said, I am so trained to expect that unrelated gas stations (owned by unrelated companies) will all raise and lower their prices simultaneously. The fact that one place didn't stay in step makes me wonder and assume that it was only a mistake that caused them to not raise their prices. If they really meant to sell gasoline for $2.15⁹, then am I stealing from them?

The Mad Greek

Last night on the way home from work, I was going to pick up some Indian food for dinner. But, when I was phoning in my order, I found that the number of the closest Indian restaurant to my house had been disconnected. Further inquiries confirmed that the place had shut down. So, instead I picked up dinner from a place called "The Mad Greek". It's too bad that there aren't more restaurants like this one in the "Fast Food Capital of the Midwest".

This was the second time I was at the Greek, and the second time I ordered carry-out. One of the dinners came with soup, so the guy asked me what kind of soup I wanted. Maybe this was because I had taken a while to look at the menu, and perhaps it was because I wasn't a regular customer. But when I asked for the fish soup, the guy behind the counter suggested that I try each of the soups, said a few words (partially in Greek) to an employee, and soon I had three bowls, each with a small amount of soup in the bottom. They were

• Fish Something
• Lemon Chicken (Which was described as the "most popular"), and
  
• Lentil

They were all very good, but I went with my first urge of the fish.

Otherwise, all of the food is excellent. My usually picky daughter loves the pastitsio. Plus, they have delicious baklava ("Nature's most perfect food^TM"). It's all good, but I was most impressed by the personal service I received.

It's too bad there aren't more restaurants like The Mad Greek.

Note to Self on Odometer Readings

At the start of the year,

• Motorcycle, 22834.0
• Bicycle, 2725.2*
  

* - Sure, I could reset the bicycle odometer at the start of the year,
but what's the fun in that?

Speech Meet at The Tree

Our friends over at The djl Zone are big fans of the Tree of Life Christian School, or at least its athletic teams. Today, I had the opportunity to visit The Tree for the first time, as my daughter was entered in a speech competition there. She did a very good job reciting the poem The Three Little Kittens from memory. Given her skills at oration, it was almost too easy for her this year.

(Interestingly, a web search shows that there are a number of different versions of this poem.)

Here are some photos from today: