Evie Day 531

Good morning, and a most wonderful Wednesday to you. Today is 28 August 2024.

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. Today is my brother Tom’s birthday. I wish my younger brother a happy and adventurous 59th birthday.

We had a nice dinner last night, tacos and fajitas, and for fun I picked up a peach margarita that Lisa and Dane split (no worries there, Dane is 23 now). After dinner, we had cake and ice cream and opened a couple of presents.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in about another hour. This morning I have a case study with my class on storage options for non-relational and relational databases.

Tonight, if the stars align and the internet allows, I’ll hang out with the guys and get a chance to slay some baddies. I missed the session on Sunday with my mom’s birthday, so I’m anxious to get back into the swing of things, even if the thing I’m swinging is a long sword.

Not much else to report. There’s stuff in the news, but nothing I really want to render an opinion on.

Here’s a motivational quote of the day…

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not too shabby.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 530

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 27 August 2024.

Today is also my wife’s birthday, so if you happen to be walking around the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Kansas today, wish my wife a good one if you happen to see her.

Oooh… looks like the Gallagher brothers have made up and Oasis is going on tour.
I could not care less.

I saw a funny ad last night. Lisa and I were watching some of the WNBA games, and there was an ad on for a gambling site. A guy dressed up as a Ravens fan spoke to the “football gods” and asked “Why do you hate me?”.
The reply… “We’re Chiefs fans”.
That I enjoyed.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish and I did a good job checking off almost all of the boxes. We’ll get 100% caught up today, and keep the train rolling.

I’ll be back in my virtual classroom after bit. This week we’re studying storage options for relational and non-relational databases, as well as some data integration tools.

Tonight I should plan something a little more special than just tacos. Lisa deserves it.

That’s about all I have for now.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 529 

Good morning, and Happy National Dog Day! If you are considering an addition to your family, please check with your local shelter. Today is Monday, 26 August 2024.

I had a pretty good weekend… any three-day block where I get to spend some time with my granddaughter every day is a good day. My daughter was over on Friday to get some things done, so Lisa and I were able to spend a little time with Evie. Saturday, Evie’s dad and another friend of his helped us remove a couple of trees from the yard, an old globe willow that had fallen during a storm a year ago, and a tree out in front of the house that had some big limbs in precarious spots that worried us. We didn’t want to see one of those big limbs land on a car or take out part of the front porch.

Yesterday was a road trip day to see my mom and some other family members. My mother turned 82 yesterday, although the birthday cake gave her a roll-back year… someone in the kitchen through mom was born in ’43 not ’42. That’s okay; no real harm was done. Mom’s laughter made her sound a year younger anyway.

I’m going to buckle down here in a bit and work on my week. I’ve got some follow-up business to take care of, some reading and practice to get in (tracking down a new security credential). My solutions architecture class picks back up tomorrow morning, and I want to have some new content available for them.

Tomorrow is another important day – my beloved’s birthday. I need to make a plan. My younger brother, Tom, has his 59th birthday on Wednesday… it’s that season for us here. Next month there will be a couple more, including my own.

OK, time to get focused on the day ahead.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 526

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all. Today is 23 August 2024.

This weekend we’re going to take a drive over to Clay Center, Kansas to celebrate my mother’s 82nd birthday. My brother is smoking a brisket, and I offered to prepare a pork loin. Now I just need to find one here in town. HyVee was out, so I need to run by Dillon’s or Checkers to pick one up. I’ll run by the Ace Hardware store to take a look at their smoking and grilling accessories. They have a nice assortment of rubs and sauces for the grill enthusiasts.

I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in less than an hour. I got the garbage out to the corner already. I’ll write this, post it, then get up and make some coffee and toast some bread for my peanut butter toast breakfast.

Lisa tells me she made arrangements to have an old tree taken out of the backyard. It was a globe willow that we called Bob Ross due to the shape of the tree when its leaves were in full display. I think we’re going to get another nuisance tree removed as well before it collapses and damages a car or the front porch.

I didn’t feel like posting much yesterday. I had some things on my mind that were bugging me, and it’s going to be a while before things get sorted out. If things get better, I’ll be happy to share when it does. In the meantime, I’m just going to sit on this.

Until then…

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 525

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 22 August 2024.

I’m not really feeling right writing today. My apologies. I’ve got some stuff on my mind, and I’m not ready to discuss it.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 524

Good morning and welcome to Wednesday! Today is 21 August 2024.

I look at the number of days I have been alive, and (woot!) I see a full house, Twos full of Fives!

Maybe it’s a sign… of what, I have no idea.

Right now the news is on, and they’re showing highlights from some of the speeches from last night at the DNC. A short bit with Barack Obama, but apparently Michelle Obama had a few mic drop moments.

Today I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in about an hour. This morning we’ll have our first case study, which we will go through as an inclusive group project. The next round of case studies might include breakout rooms and small group projects with reports, but for now, we’ll do the first one together.

Other than that, now much new to report. I have to participate in meetings, readings, and learnings when I’m not delivering our course online. But right now, I’m thinking about coffee and toast with a bit of peanut butter spread across.

And yes, there were tacos last night.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 523

Good morning! It’s my favorite workday of the week because dinner is already planned! Taco Tuesday! 20 August 2024.

Yesterday was my prep day for this week. I return to my virtual classroom in about an hour, as I will be delivering a four-week course with the same gentleman I delivered the four-week administration course last month. This class is more focused on complete solutions for the cloud, and it should be a pretty good class.

I just took a quick look, and realized one of my certifications is about to expire. I think I need to focus on renewing that after our opening session this morning.

My middle finger on my right is healing up, although it is throbbing a bit this morning. I picked up some new bandaids and some anti-biotic cream for it as well.

Not much else top of mind right now.

We’re watching the news, and there’s coverage of the DNC. The first night was apparently quite the show.

Alright. It is that time. Eastern Time Zone classes move my timeline up an hour, so I don’t have as much time to mess around this morning. Coffee and toast aren’t going to make themselves.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 522

Good morning, and a happy start to the Western work week to you all! Today is Monday, 19 August 2024.

I was preparing a brisket for the smoker on Saturday. It was a little bigger than the last one I smoked, so I cut it in half and then proceeded to trim away the unwanted bits. It had a pretty good-sized fat cap on it and a hard layer of fat in the middle, but I went after it pretty aggressively to prepare it for my Ninja Woodfire Grill/Smoker. As fate would hate it, I was cutting the wrong way and slipped, leading to a nice slice on my right middle finger, right between the knuckles. I’m into day three of wearing a bandage on it, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need more bandaids. I opened the back of my finger up pretty good, but I’m inclined to think that it’s healing.

The brisket turned out pretty well. I did half on Saturday, and it was wonderful. The other half was interesting… I decided to cook it overnight, and that was brilliant. I aim for an internal core temperature of 205F, so the first piece I smoked was at a temperature of 265F, and that took about 5.5-6 hours. The second piece was put on the smoker at about 9:30 at night, and my goal was the same, 205 for a core temp, but I set the temp on the smoker to 210. When I woke up the next morning, the temp on the brisket was right at 196F, so I used my phone app, bumped the temp up to 265 on the smoker, and it was right at 205 within about an hour. I’m going to remember that technique. I might use that same process to smoke a pork loin this weekend – we’re going to visit my mom on her 82nd birthday. My brother Dan is making a brisket, so I’ll bring a different entree.

I’m back in my virtual classroom this morning for a discussion on preparing for the AZ-500 certification exam (Security). We’ll have folks from all over in attendance. The last time I did a session like this, I believe all of the attendees were from overseas.

Tomorrow I will start a new cloud solutions architecture course with the same instructor I worked with on my last 4-week course. We’ll talk a little later and plan out this week and next. We had a good experience last month, and I expect more of the same. After we wrap up this class on September 13, we’ll both be heading to a big team meeting in Las Vegas… I will do my best to make sure my blog isn’t interrupted.

So, that’s where things are today. There isn’t much more to share.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 519

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all! It is 16 August 2024.

Yesterday morning after I posted my blog, my wife played a little video on her phone. Our granddaughter… she’s learning how to talk. My daughter shot a video of Evie saying “apple”, “bye bye” and “hi mom”. Apparently she is enjoying her newfound superpower and doesn’t stop talking now. Evelyn turns 17 months old today.

Yesterday was a focus day for me, as I studied for a certification exam I have coming up. Some of it lands pretty soft, and some of it seems to lack traction trying to permanently embed in my consciousness. I sometimes joke that I do not have the cerebral elasticity of some of my younger peers, and occasionally, I have to kick some penguins off the iceberg to make room for new penguins. I think about it a lot – I’m not getting any younger (that’s not the way time works) and I am trying to stay aware of any cognitive decline I might be displaying. I have the moments like anybody else, walking into a room and forgetting what I went in for, but those moments pass – usually because I remembered why I went in the room, or I just accept it and move on.

Garbage day here, so I need to wheel the trash out to the corner. There’s a pile of boxes I need to take in and get recycled as well. I also need to get some gas and diesel for the yard machines. Gracie mentioned that she might pop over to do a little mowing, so I’ll get that sorted.

I also have a whole brisket in the fridge. It might be time to go on another “bark quest”. Smoke that slab to an internal temp of 165 F, then wrap it in butcher paper and throw it back on the smoker until it hits an internal temp of 205 F.

Lisa is coping with a dog crisis. Odin was sitting on Lily.

I’m going to get this in the can and get going with the rest of my day.

For anybody on Mastodon that reads my stuff, yesterday I couldn’t post the link due to a networking issue on the Mastodon side. All of my posts are readily available on the site.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 518

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 15 August 2024.

Yesterday was a good day. I had a small turnout for my session, my little one-day exploration of some security concepts and tools related to AI, but those who did attend seemed to have a good experience.

Last night, it was another gaming night with the guys. In this campaign, I play an archer-type of character who fights batter at range than in hand-to-hand combat – easier to avoid getting his that way. We did OK against the big bads that we were facing, and lived to fight another day (Ron, I wish you would’ve made it – the dice were rolling well!).

Today is a catch-up day, going through some presentations that I’ll be recording in the studio next month, and I probably ought to book my travel. I looked at the new travel app yesterday, and it didn’t like me very much. I’ll take another run at it later. I have two trips next month, one to Las Vegas for a work get-together, and another to Seattle for my studio obligation.

The weather here was unseasonably cool for the first part of the week, with thunderstorms. I don’t mind a summer rain, but Odin certainly does not like the thunder.

Time to look at my task list and sketch out my day.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.