Food, Friends and Lawn Jobs

Started the day with a trip to Costco to pick up a few last items for company today and Easter company tomorrow (I also manged to pick up three Blue Spruce and two Weeping Cherry trees for the yard). I also picked up another bottle of Marquis Philips 2008 Shiraz (yum). I spent a few hours prepping dinner of: Tabbouleh, a rustic French boule, grilled asparagus, grilled peppers and grilled chicken with goat cheese and dried tomatoes . I was prepping some shrimp for an appetizer when I heard my son yell from the backyard. A White Acura MDX was driving through our backyard! Christopher and some neighbors got the license plate and called the police. Novi Police showed up and toke some information and the plate number. An hour later I got a call from the officer, the plate matched an Acure MDX in Northville, but the parents swore that their son was home with them and the care never moved. More to come when I hear it.

On to dinner; we had the Stones over and had a very nice time, ate shrimp in the back yard with a nice riesling, than moved into the dinning room for the main course. Wrangell was well behaved and happy to see people. Renee fixed Tiramisu for dessert and I had an espresso. The only thing that could have gone better is Dominoes. I did get high score...

Ending Taxes season!

I completed my Taxes on the 4/16 this year, that's one day later than any other year, and two days earlier than required. Glad to be done with them.

C# - The evils of var

Today I was trying to modify a collection of classes and interfaces used across 50 different applications. I wanted to remove some unused interfaces and did a quick grep for one and found that it was not used in any of the applications. I removed it and tried to recompile and found that it was used, just anonymously via "var". I have yet to come up with any reason to use var except for laziness...

Road Rash - Thankfully on my phone (or do I live in a 3rd world country?)

A lot planned for the day, give the dog a bath, complete my taxes, go for a bike ride and go to an Eagle Court of Honor. I blocked out Noon-2PM for a bike ride, figuring I could make the 3PM Eagle COH. The weather was great, Hines Park was busy and I was riding well. Coming home a took a rider going up a hill and hit it hard coming down, try to time a light I knew would turn green. As a got to the light another biker dogged a pot hole and I dogged the biker and took the hole. I flew a foot in the air, my water bottles went flying as I crossed the road. I got to the other side and was amazed that I was still on my bike and OK. I stopped and waited for the light so that I could pick up my water bottles and was ready to be on my way. When I got on my bike I discovered that my rear tire was flat (snake bite - where the tube is pinched by the rim). I did a quick patch and used my CO2 cartridge to blow it up, and I was on my way, 5 minutes lost... not bad. I got home and found my phone was missing (not in my jersey pocket). Now it's 2:15 and I have an Eagle COH at 3PM. Christopher and I drive back to where I got the flat and after 5 minutes find the phone. It's no longer much of a phone, bad case of road rash and it only beeps when powered on. I did make the Eagle COH, just 15minutes late. Now I have to decide how to get Michigan to maintain it's roads or take up a fat tire bike that can survive 3rd world roads.

A new puppy named Wrangell-St. Elias

Well our dog decided that it did not want to be alone in the crate, so from 11:30PM until about 2AM it cried on and off. About 2AM I let him out and than put a hot water bottle in his crate and he was able to sleep until 7AM. Today Christopher decided on a name for him: Wrangell (short for Wrangell-St. Elias). He also received his first bath today, he looks great and smells much better, and seems somewhat comfortable getting a bath. Today I have been running Wrangell around the yard has much as I can because I really need a good nights sleep tonight.

A dog named TBD

Well it's been a good day, Renee and I picked up a Whoodle today (half Poodle, half Wheaton Terrier. We (well mostly Christopher) are working on a name, with Wrangle and Scout being the two top contenders. The dog is currently about 8lbs but will reach about 40lbs when fully grown. He is a bit timed, but loves to lay at my feet and follow me around the yard.

Getting out and about on a bike and a hike

It's been a good week for getting out. Tuesday I went biking with a guy from work I met on an internal social network, the one thing he did not mention is he is half my age and does half iron-mans for fun. I managed to hold my own, but lets just say nothing got done at home Tuesday. Wednesday was a complete waste of time, the only redeeming quality was how easy it was to replace my router which was shot when I got home. Tonight my friends were biking, but I had a better offer; Christopher asked if I wanted to go for a hike at Maybury state park, so we did a two hour hike. We walked past his eagle project and things still look good, so we both felt good about that. Anytime your teenage son want to walk and talk, do it!