Evie Day 509

Good morning, and happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 6 August 2024.

I have a session in a couple of hours, walking folks through setting up some security tools. It will be interesting to deliver a one-day class. I’ve done the same sort of thing before, with a different topic, but this one is new to me. Tomorrow, I get to do it all over again with another new class, but tomorrow’s class will be a 180-degree turn away from security as we explore AI.

The big news today is going to be Kamala Harris when she announces her vice-president. I have a feeling the opposition is lying in wait with a bucket of crap to throw at whomever it is, but it appears to be down to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. I don’t think either choice will really change my inclination for this voting cycle.

Lisa and I got a little tired of the Olympics last night. We’re not really into table tennis, team handball, or water polo. Sometimes it’s just as relaxing to watch old seasons of “Chopped” and see what kind of dessert the competitors can make with chocolate-covered raisins, miso, and an emu egg.

There’s not much else going on here. It’s hard to believe how quickly this summer is slipping by.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 508

Good morning and a happy Monday and a new beginning to the work week! Today is 5 August 2024.

We had a weekend, and it was a pretty good one. We spent some time with Gracie and Evelyn on Friday and Saturday, and Bonnie and her dog, Ruthie, came over for a bit yesterday. I had a productive weekend with the grill, preparing a whole pork tenderloin on Saturday, and a small brisket on Sunday. I might have to run into town to get more of my preferred hot barbeque sauce – we came across a sale on sauces, but none of them have quite the punch of the hot barbeque sauce I prefer. The results have met with everyone’s approval, and we’ll have leftovers for a few days.

We spent some time watching the Olympics. The airwaves were flooded with political ads – apparently, if you are running for public office it’s less important to run on your record, and more important to call names at your opponent, claim an endorsement by a felon, and work in at least half-a-dozen pics with gun.

I’m glad I don’t live in Missouri.

The Olympics have had their ups and downs. I feel empathy for any athlete who was required to compete in the Seine… that river was not cleaned up appropriately for use as a sports venue. E. coli is now running through the Olympic Village.

Yesterday was a good day with the guys. My dwarven cleric cast a couple of timely healing spells to get some party members out of trouble. I worked in a couple of vicious knee-cap strikes with my war hammer, and I was in pretty good grace with the rest of the crew.

I have two one-day classes this week, so I’ll spend the lion’s share of the day going through that content and running through the lab experiences. The classes are capped at 27, but I have a feeling I’ll be seeing about half that number in my deliveries. Prep, a few emails, organize a different presentation for next week, and get ready for an exam (maybe, might defer the exam another week).

Time for me to get started with my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 505

Good morning! It’s Friday! Today is 2 August 2024.

My spouse arrived home late last night from a business trip. I was very happy to have her return safely home, but I think the level of excitement expressed by the four pooches put my greeting to shame. They’re still excited 7 hours later.

It will be a good morning. My training partner and I will close out our four-week course with a closing and a little Jeopardy-style game. We have a two-hour slot, but we’ll see if we need all of it. I’m guessing there are more than a few of our learners who will be happy to wrap this up.

My daughter and granddaughter will be over a little later this morning. I look forward to seeing them both. Lisa told me we’d get Evelyn to ourselves tomorrow morning for a bit while Gracie runs some errands. We’re excited about one little milestone for Gracie – her car will be paid off completely the first week of September. Life is a series of minor victories.

Trash day – I better ponder this for a moment. I’ll get the trash out to the end of the driveway in a few.

I have work stuff to focus on, and new classes are showing up on the schedule. Next week I have a couple of new classes to teach, each of them one-day deliveries.

I might even get a chance to work with the Olympics on in the background this afternoon. Work, work, work, cheer for some random athlete or team, work, work, work…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 504

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is the first day of August 2024.

My gaming session with the guys last night absolutely rocked. Well, it might be more accurate to say I rocked. It would be even more accurate to say I was turned into a rock. Yep… I’m a rock.

Yesterday was a good day. My training partner and I worked through our two sessions and called it a little early when there were no additional questions during office hours. I think the class has gone pretty well over the last few weeks, with a lot of folks spread out all around the world. It’s an eye-opening experience when that little map in my head opens up and I start considering all of the different spots my learners live.

I watched some of the Olympics yesterday. The US Women’s National Team squared off against the Aussie team in soccer, and the retooled American squad looked pretty good, and the USWNT ended up victorious 2-1. I should take a look at the other matches coming up today and tomorrow.

I’ve got some travel coming up I need to lock down. I’ve got my hotel addressed for one of the September trips, and I should lock in my travel for the other. I just need to wait for approval from the responsible parties.

That’s about all I have today. Two talking sessions today, one more tomorrow, and that wraps up a four-week class.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 503

Good morning, and a happy Humpday to you all. Today is Wednesday, 31 July 2024.

I looked at the number of days I have been alive, and thought it looked like something else. My brain is a strange instrument.

There’s stuff going on around here. I’m busy, Lisa is busy, Dane is busy. Dane spent most of Sunday and Monday helping his friends move, and he went straight to the Ibuprofen yesterday.

Last night we had food from our local place, Cascada la Golondrina, and I splurged for the bacon-wrapped shrimp fajitas. I remember the character Ron Swanson from “Parks and Rec” stating that was a favorite, as it was his first and third favorite protein served together. Why I remember that, I have no idea.

We watched the Olympics, with some of the swimming events, and the US Women’s Gymnastics team bringing home the gold. It was great watching those young ladies complete their so-called “redemption tour”.

I just paused a moment to figure out what Olympic events today might pique my interest. Looks like there will be some basketball to watch later today.

Breakfast and coffee are calling, so I’m going to wrap this up and get focused on the day. I’m back in my virtual classroom in about two hours, so I have some time to focus on me a little bit. A cup of coffee would be most welcome after I finish my second glass of water.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 502

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is 30 July 2024.

Where did this month go? Wow.

I look at my granddaughter, and the days for her are so full of new experiences. She’s only been in the world a scant 502 days, meanwhile, I sit over here, the number of days full of twos and threes, and each day rolls into the next, sometimes with significant interaction, other times, not so much.

Last night Lisa and I watched some of the Olympics. The men’s team gymnastics was a lot of fun, and we particularly enjoyed the pommel horse performance by a 25-year-old electrical engineer from Penn State. Stephen Nedoroscik took off his glasses and completed the Clark Kent to Superman vibe. What a performance! In an event where most of the team competes in multiple events, Nedoroscik is a specialist – he’s one of the best in the world at that piece of apparatus. His performance helped propel the US Men’s Gymnastics Team to the podium for the bronze for the first time in 15 years.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in another couple of hours. I’ve got a few tasks to attend to before the work day begin in earnest, including recording a small bit for work.

It is Tuesday, my favorite day of the workweek for food. Tonight, there will be tacos. I need to jump into the AI tool and generate a taco-related background for my meeting.

Other than that, not much else to report. Life goes on.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 501

Good morning, and a pleasant opening to the work week for you all. Today is Monday, July 29, 2024.

We did family stuff this weekend. Due to certain privacy concerns, I’m not going to go into too much detail, but yeah, we had a good time, all the kids were around, and I spent a little time with my granddaughter, and visited with some other family members. All in all, it was a pretty good time.

Back to the grind today, although the grind today will more likely have to do with coffee beans than repetitive work tasks. Today I’ll be in a day-long “camp” about using AI. I hope I pick up a few more tips on how to get the most out of the tools that have come to the forefront over the last couple of years.

I probably ought to throw a brisket or a pork loin on the smoker today or tomorrow.

The dogs have all gathered around my wife while she eats her breakfast, all four of them hoping for a taste, so more vocally than others.

I start my class tomorrow, so today will be a good day to attend AI sessions and organize my talks for the week. I’ve got a couple of emails to kick out to some folks in a bit, but they’re on West Coast time, so I’ve got a little time to myself before I have to dive into the workday in earnest.

In the meantime, coffee, breakfast, and maybe a little Olympic competition.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 498

Good morning, happy Friday. Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but my hosting service was undergoing some maintenance. Today is 26 July 2024.

My niece and her family are coming for a visit. It will be nice to reconnect. We’ve got some plans to have a little fun, and the Olympics will be on in the background.

I swapped Friday sessions with my training partner, so he’s taking today, and I’ll take the closing next Friday. All in all, today looks like a good day to take the afternoon off.

I see that there has been a coordinated attack on the French train system. I hate terrorists.

So.. what did I want to tell folks about yesterday? Wednesday was a good day. I got together with the guys for some gaming on Wednesday night. Any night my character remains upright the entire night is a good night. Yesterday was a little frustrating, as I tried to open up my WordPress site and the site said, “Not today, bud”. Had some meetings, got some stuff done, made arrangements to go to the company studio in September.

I’m kind of boring this morning. Nothing is really coming to mind to talk about.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 496

Good morning! It’s a Humpday! Today is 24 July 2024.

I really have no idea what I’m going to have for breakfast this morning. I should do some serious pondering on the matter.

This week seems to be flying by. There were two presentations on Monday, yesterday, and two more today, and that’s just fine. It’s what I do.

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s good to revisit from time to time. I almost have a split personality, or maybe it’s more like an “extrovert switch” I flip in front of an audience. I can be as extroverted and attention-seeking as the next person, maybe even more so. And then, we put the Bobster away and just go back to being Bob, and I’ll go grab something to read or a Sudoku puzzle and sit quietly in the corner.

It seems when I was younger, the Bobster switch came on more frequently and stayed on longer. These days, I burn through the moments, the energy dissipating rapidly.

I’ll be back in front of the camera for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon. Tonight… there will be gaming!

I look forward to those times on Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon.

And my mind wanders back to thoughts on breakfast… I’ll make the coffee, and contemplate… looks like toast with peanut butter might be in my immediate future.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 495

Good morning, and the happiest of Taco Tuesdays to you all. Today is 23 July 2024.

I was exceptionally relieved at about 5:00 PM yesterday afternoon, as my work teammate and I closed out the last of the sessions for yesterday’s learning day. I was up to my armpits in two sessions yesterday, one went off without a hitch, the other with a minor miscommunication that kept us from getting started promptly. All in all, it was a pretty good day with some pretty good sessions.

Today will be a regular virtual classroom day, with my training partner taking control of the office hours this morning, and I’ll be responsible for the first whiteboarding session this afternoon to talk about storage options in the cloud.

I’ll admit… I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about Vice President Harris moving from the VP role to Presidential candidate, but today I am significantly more comfortable, and that level of comfort seems to be growing not just in my household, but with others as well.

We’re busy here at the house when we aren’t focused on work responsibilities. We are having some family visitors this weekend.

Tonight… there will be tacos.

Until then…

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

Peace y’all.