It is Sunday morning, April 3, 2022. This entry probably won’t be very deep, as I’m just relaxing for a little bit before I go to hang out with friends online for a couple of hours. I may have to join my wife for a dinner engagement tonight, we’ll have to wait and see.

Right now the neighbor dogs have become curious about the goings on over here and have started a little barkfest with the pooches, Now that cacophony of dog chatter has been kicked up a notch due to the arrival of a delivery vehicle.

Sometimes I wish my dogs were a little more chill. As it is, they are pretty high strung. I’ve joked about it in the past that our dogs see every visitor as a potential murderer. Red Alert! Shields Up! Lock phasers and photon torpedoes on the intruder!.

Light up, pooches. It’s just a delivery of tube socks.

We’re planning on watching the Women’s National Championship tonight, and then we’ll let the anxiety ferment for another day until the men’s game tomorrow night, tipping off at 8:20. I guess they want to let the folks on the west coast get home before the game starts.

I’ll need to get some barbeque.

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

Peace y’all.

Good evening, folks! It is Saturday night, April 2nd, 2022, and this fat old man is in a pretty good mood. Kansas was able to knock off Villanova, 81 to 65. That means that Kansas will face the winner of the Duke-North Carolina matchup for the NCAA men’s basketball championship.

Good times in Lawrence.

Lisa and I started the day with some yard work, planting some things over here, and killing some things over there. The best part was just spending some time with my wife, talking about what we wanted to plant around our property and stuff. Nothing too emotionally draining, just a morning trying to defer all thoughts about the basketball game until the game began. That’s kind of the life of a college basketball fan.

Tomorrow I get a whole day to manage my blood pressure through meditation and mindfulness. Hope it works.

Tomorrow Lisa and I will get a few more plants in the ground and do that “weekend in the country”. I’ll then take some time with my online buddies and roll some virtual dice for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

By the way, I highly advocate for spending a few hours rolling dice, virtual or otherwise, on Sunday afternoons. Or Saturday afternoon. Of Thursday night. You get the idea.

So… how you doin’?

I know that a few of my friends see my blog posts, and I am very thankful for you. K & W, you know who you are, and S, of course. If you have an interesting question you would like for me to expound upon with some sort of stentorian echo, I will try to humbly oblige.

I love wordplay jokes.

OK, time for me to enjoy a little more college basketball.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday! One day closer to Saturday! Congrats on surviving! OK, I’m being a little goofy. It’s April Fool’s Day, and there have been a couple of decent AFD jokes, but for the most part, it’s a regurgitation of old pranks that have stood the test of time.

Bonnie and I are hanging out in the living room. She’s on her old laptop playing some game… the thing is, as a gift to herself, she has a brand new laptop sitting off to the left here. It’s driving me a little nuts that she has yet to take it out of the box and test it.

We’re planning on shrimp tacos for dinner tonight, and an evening of women’s Final Four basketball. It would be a little hypocritical of me to sit on the edge of the chair waiting for the men’s Final Four without giving credit to the women. My mom played sports, my sister, my wife, my daughters all played sports in high school, and you’ll find more than a couple of college athletes in there as well. I think we should try to support women’s sports as much as we do the men.

OK, that’s about enough for today. I’ll probably be writing with butterflies (condors?) in my stomach prior to the basketball games tomorrow afternoon.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, March 31st… in like a lion, out like a lamb? Maybe not so much. More like “out like a cold lamb” maybe, with highs in the mid-40s, and a bit of snowfall to the west of me a little earlier this morning.

Working on sharpening the saw today, going back through some demonstrations that could stand some “augmentation”. I take some pride in my demos, and try to be self-aware enough that I know when things could stand some improvement.

Lisa is in Chicago and will get back late tonight. Pooches seemed to sleep ok last night in her absence – Odin insists on sleeping right by her pillow, and Lucy and Freya cuddled up to me. I find it odd how the male dog focuses on the female pack leader, while the female pooches will gather around me (I’ve got the two floofs, Lily and Rosy, cuddled up next to me right now.

My workspace has been modified a bit, with the new desk I put in last week. I’ll need to take some time to organize cables, but I’ll plan on that after my new system arrives from work. I’m working out in the living room right now, as there’s no need for me to be in that enclosed space at the moment.

Not much going on here other than work. I took my car in to have the catalytic convert replaced – it was getting loud, and the engine light have come on due to some tripped sensor in the car. My regular mechanic has my car and keys, so even if I wanted to venture out, I can’t… even the lawnmower and the gator are still in the shop for their annual service.

So, I guess the next course of action is to get back to work here. Maybe throw a load in the laundry, too.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday, March 30, and yesterday was a very wet day. We had a couple of inches of rainfall in the last 24 hours, and Lisa and I were able to enjoy some of the fireworks (lightning) last evening.

I was able to speak with the service department taking care of our lawn vehicles. Looks like we’ll be able to get them back home on Friday, so we’ll be able to get back on track with our planting and mowing. I need to do an aggressive once-over with the yard, followed by getting some weed-and-feed on the spots that need it. Part of me would love to have five acres of beautifully manicured lawn, but there’s something to be said about the natural look of prairie grasses.

I’m watching some training videos today. So much to constantly learn, whether it’s scripting languages, automation options, classroom communication tools… a neverending feed of knowledge, a neverending necessity to kick penguins off the iceberg and make room for new penguins.

Don’t worry folks, that’s just a metaphor… no penguins were harmed in the creation of this blog post.

I am anticipating a couple of deliveries today and tomorrow. I have some items coming from the Microsoft company store, personal stuff, and I am also expecting (drooling? pacing?) delivery of a new work laptop. It’s always exciting when tech refresh happens, and I do love getting new gear. This is me living through a ketchup commercial (obscure reference to “Anticipation” by Carly Simon, featured in a ketchup commercial back in the 70s).

OK, time to get this post published and put to bed so I can get back to learning more stuff. Penguins… scooch!

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, March 29, and I have plenty to do here. I’ve already knocked a few things off my to-do list, and I’m hoping to whittle that down to a scant few things that I can’t get done without a little extra help from others, so, all-in-all, not a bad day so far.

Yesterday the internet went a little nuts over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards Sunday night. We weren’t watching the Oscars, so we didn’t fully appreciate the impact (lol… poor choice of words?) of the moment. Anyway, it’s over, both parties have apologized to each other, and life goes on.

In Ukraine, a sliver of a ray of hope. Putin’s forces have stated they are withdrawing from a couple of key municipalities… and Putin is about as trustworthy as a jailhouse rat.

Eh… maybe that’s not a nice thing to say about jailhouse rats.

Around here, it’s been pretty gray with brief sun breaks. Temperatures are getting into the 50s here (Fahrenheit, folks… global climate change hasn’t hit that hard here quite yet). Lisa and I are waiting for the last hard freeze to be over before we continue our planting. We’ve got three trees that made it through the winter in the house, so I’m sure they’ll welcome their permanent location here this weekend.

Time to get back to it.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, and I’m getting ramped up for my workday. OK, maybe I’ve already checked my email, watched two training videos, and cleared my Teams conversations. This is me flexing my time because I jumped in a little early.

Time management is something I consider to be rather important – obviously, as a guy that names all of his posts for the number of days he’s been alive, worried about the number of days he has left. I do manage my time with the goal of trying to keep my stress level down – there’s only so much I can deal with, and as I age, a couple of specters loom over my shoulder – my heart arrhythmia and blood pressure. I’ve been ok with my irregular heartbeat since my 20s, but as I get older, I feel it’s important to manage my street in an effort to keep my blood pressure down. The last thing I want is a massive stroke that turns me into a burden on all of my family members.

OK, the good news – yesterday I was somewhat concerned about the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team and their matchup against Miami. My concern was justified… for the first half of the game. Kansas went into the locker room at halftime down six points, but the second half was all Kansas, and the Jayhawks ended up winning by 26 and punching their ticket to New Orleans for the Final Four, along with Duke, Villanova, and North Carolina.

Time for me to take a look at my required training for work, and get that out of the way sooner rather than later.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, March 27, 2022, and I’m going to get this entry cranked out sooner rather than later… Kansas played Miami in the Elite Eight in another three and a half hours, and I’m not sure what kind of mood I’ll be in following that match. Kansas might lose, I’ll be grumpy, and I’ll put everything on the back burner if that turns out to be the case.

I’m in a pretty good mood this morning. The last hard freeze of the year will be tomorrow night, so Lisa and I are thinking about our spring planting. I need to call the John Deere dealer to check on the status of our riding lawn mower and our gater (Gator? Is it upper-case with an O or lower-case with an E? Yeah, not going to spend too many processor cycles on that one).

Other things I’ll have in the hopper include reviewing a couple of courses I’ve got coming up, learning a bit about a couple of pieces of software (OBS and Klaxoon). I’m fortunate that I am part of a very competent and highly professional team of trainers… I think my teammates can say, “Yes, I’m part of a very competent and highly professional team of trainers, and Bob, too”.

I’ll readily admit that I’m not always the most formal of instructors. I like to have fun, and I do have fun in my role delivering content. My employer genuinely cares about people, and that is reflected in the attitudes of my peers as well as every manager I’ve had.

It’s about that time… Lisa and I have not gone into church since the pandemic started, and we’ve been watching the Mass broadcast from the Archdiocese of Denver for some time… kind of funny, though, one of the women that sings during Mass was a student of mine when I delivered a fundamentals course in Denver a couple of years ago. Small world stuff.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s Saturday night, and I’m a little later in the day getting my blog written. I just had to pause a moment and giggle, as in the NCAA Elite Eight match between Arkansas and Duke, there was a moment. The basketball got stuck at the top of the backboard, and one of the Arkansas cheerleaders was able to get the ball back down. That was kind of fun.

It is a Saturday, and although I usually write my blog in the mornings before I start my workday. It’s a weekend, Lisa and I had stuff going on early, I was up late last night, and add in another excuse here.

In reality, I was up late watching basketball last night. Lisa and I had to take a couple of our pooches into town for a little makeover. Rosy is five pounds of one-year-old puppy in dire need of a trip to the stylist. Odin is a two-year-old goliath morkie that looked like he wanted to sell me diabetes meds. After that, we started working on the yard, and cranked out a few hours of working n garden beds and the lawn.

We had a nice dinner, and settled in for an evening of basketball (ok, we did watch just a touch of the second season of “Bridgerton”, I’m not going to lie). Villanova was able to advance after beating Houston. Right now it looks like Duke has a pretty firm grasp on Arkansas, vacillating between single and double-digit leads.

Kansas plays against Miami tomorrow, and I told my guys that I game with that I would be unavailable until after that game was over, but hopefully, I’ll still be in the right mood to slay some baddies in a virtual game environment. I love being with my family, but my weekend social fix is hanging out with some other guys in their 50’s and 60’s and play a game from our youth. I enjoy it, and it’s a wonderful social outlet.

Next week, I’m on a non-delivery week, so I’ll have a chance to focus on sharpening the saw. In my role, there is always a need for continuous improvement… or as I have become accustomed to calling it, “kicking penguins off the iceberg to make room for new penguins”. I need to advance some skills with some software, as well as re-prepare for a couple of classes I have taught in a month to 6-weeks.

I’ll write more tomorrow. I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Friday, March 25, and it is going to be an interesting day.

Last night was the resumption of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, and there were some surprises. Going into this weekend, there were three remaining #1 seeds, with Baylor bowing out in the field of 32. That left Gonzaga, Arizona, and Kansas… and last night Arkansas knocked off the #1 overall seed Gonzaga, and Houston pelted Arizona with an array of 3 point shots to send them home.

I’m hoping that my Jayhawks were paying attention. They’ll play host to the Providence Friars in the Chicago region, and I’m going to be anxious until we know for sure whether Kansas moves on to the Elite 8 or not.

This morning is going to be busy. I’ve got a couple of hours of Office Hours for my administration class, the last such time commitment for this class. I’ll then have a post-course review with the blended learning team, followed by a team meeting with the West Coast team, and I have to present several topics in that meeting – 3 topics in fact, and I’m going to try and intro, get in, get out, then tackle any questions.

We’ve got to get some plants in the ground this weekend. The winter trees have done well, and Lisa had some more plants arrive in the last couple of days.

Time for this old man to grab a cup of coffee and a little Lent-appropriate breakfast.

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

Peace y’all.