Greetings from a splendid West Des Moines, IA..

New air conditioner unit was installed last Friday.  The two installers spent around 6 hours getting everything in place and working.  John was happy with how it went and the finished job.

New AC unit on the right

Hope that is the last AC unit we need to replace for a while…  :)

Last Saturday we spent the morning washing the RV and Jeep.  John was amazed that water was still beading up when he initially sprayed it down – so there must be some wax left on it.  We used a Wax As-You-Dry product by Eagle One to give it a bit more shine.  Seems  like it did a good job.  Will be interesting to see how long it lasts…

John getting a good start

Cleaned the chrome with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish

All done...

Having a great week of riding my bike after work.  Been nice and sunny with a cooling breeze.  Still riding 45 minutes to Gray’s Lake and back.  The lake has a nice terrace with tables and chairs – so been brining my Nook along and read for 30 minutes at the lake before heading back home.

View from bridge on way to Gray's Lake

View of Gray's Lake with downtown Des Moines in the background

Prince is doing well recovering from having three of his teeth pulled.  Think he went through withdrawal for a few days after he stopped receiving the pain medication.  He seemed more restless and unsettled then normal.  He is slowly getting back to normal.  Over the weekend he started to crawl in the lower shelf of the TV cabinet and sleeping behind the satellite tv receiver.  John was worried Prince would damage something so he move the receiver up one shelf and put a blanket on the empty shelf.  Prince seems to like it.

Prince napping away...

Not much else going on.  Working on planning some camping trips for this summer.  Working around John’s school schedule and the number of vacations I have.  We are hoping to take a week long trip to somewhere – but not sure.  Thinking about going to Canada – never been to that country before…

Greetings from a resplendent day in Iowa…

Went on my bike ride earlier today.  Was nice and sunny without much wind.  Lots more people on the trail then yesterday.  My bike has started to jump gears now and then.  Need to get it into a repair show for a tune up.

Prince is in “healing mode” recovering from his dental work yesterday.  The doctor sent me home with four doses of “antibiotics”.  Read the label and it is actually Buphrenorphine a pain killer. Prince gets a dose in the morning and each evening for one more day. Makes me wonder why the Vet described them as antibiotics instead of pain killers?  So I don’t use them myself?  He goes loopy when he gets it… running around, banging his head against the wall, twitching his tail erratically and then eventually zones out… Will be glad when he gets off the meds and back to normal again..

On Monday we received some bad news from one of the tenants – their air conditioner was not working. Said they had lots of trouble with it last year with the past owners calling the repair guys several times. Not good.. Each apartment has their own air central air system with their own external compressor units. John called the local air conditioning company listed on a sticker on the compressor. They come out on Tuesday and said the compressor was fried. They said they were called several times last year and told the old owners it needed to be replaced because it was 30 years old and shot. They kept limping it along…. The new air conditioning unit uses a different type of refrigerant and as a result the copper lines to the furnace/ac unit in the apartment would need to be replace. He came up with an estimate of around $2,700 after contacting the manufacturer….

AC unit on the right is the 30 year old one that needs replaced

John then called another air conditioning company to get a second estimate. They came up with a slightly lower estimate and John liked dealing with them better. The first guy was kind of an arrogant jag…. The second air conditioning company was much more friendly and can get the unit installed this Friday… So we went with them. It will be interesting to see how the run the new copper line because the old line is run under the floor of the apartment. It really sucks having to suddenly spend $2500 on the new AC, but at least it will fix the problem long term…..

Finally took some pictures of the flowers I put in place last week.  Have been watering them with some miracle grow this week.  Can tell they are slowly starting to grow…

Square flower box by the front door

Front flower bed

Close up of front flower bed..

Not much else going on.  John is listening to one of his weekly lectures for school.  Go going to leave him in the computer and watch TV for awhile….

Greetings from the West Des Moines…

Just came back from my nightly 90 minute bike ride. Did not get started until 6:00pm, so the sun was starting to set by the time I got back to the apartment building. Got a bit windy when some dark clouds appeared. Looked like it might rain, but it all blew over.

Last weekend we were at the LV Campground in Coggon, IA located north of Cedar Rapids, IA. They are a gay friendly campground that we’ve not heard of before. So we meet Don & Troy along with Mitch & Dave there. The campground is situated on what was once a farm. Several of the old barns and sheds are still around. John was able to maneuver our RV into one of the spots, but had a difficult getting it level. The ground was soft from rain the week before, so the RV sank down 8 inches. We put some boards in place to help stabilize, but they also sank down. The worst part was when the plate at the bottom of the back drivers side jack fell off. It is held in place by two large springs that are a booger to back in place.

Picture I found on the web that shows the plate held on the jack by two springs...

So John spent two hours getting the plate back on the jack and the RV somewhat level. He was not a happy camper, but things looked up after we got setup. We spent the remainder of the weekend enjoying everyone’s company, sitting by the campfire and exploring the campground. On Saturday John took on another project – he replaced the cable that connects the brake controller and brake lights from the RV to the Jeep. He found a nice cable at one of the nearby towns and was happy with the end results.

On Saturday evening it started to get windy out – so we headed up to the “Rainbow Room”. It is a large barn with disco lights, stage and a movie screen setup. The place was pretty much dead – so we picked out a DVD to watch on the big screen. Ended up watching “The Divine Bette Middler“. I thought it would be concert footage, but was more like a documentary… but was worth watching on a cool windy evening in rural Iowa.

Here’s a few pictures from the weekend:

John working on the back Jack....

John working on the cable to connect the Jeep to the RV

Campfire time...

Dave & John

Troy and Don

John was worried that the RV would sink too much and would not be able to get out on Sunday morning.  We got lucky and it did not rain at all over the weekend.  So he was able to gun it, and back out with little problem.  He was not happy that his leveling boards had broken in two in the process…

I liked the LV Campground and think it would be a fun place to camp later in the season where there were more people around.  The guys who ran the park were super nice and did nice things like delivering firewood to our site and making popcorn for the movie.  They will be having special pride and bear weekends in the summer months.  The big drawback is that they are not setup for larger motor homes at all.  They don’t have parking pads or pull through sites with full hookups.  I would like to return sometime, but don’t think John would agree with me..

Today I took Prince into the veterinary clinic to have his dental work done.  Dropped him off at 7:30am and picked him up at 5:00pm.  Prince was put under for the procedure and ended up having three teeth extracted along with having a full cleaning.  The doctor said she did not expect there to be so much dental decay – was expecting just plaque buildup.  Prince is still hopped up on his pain medication – so is banging his head against the wall extra hard and just not settling down yet… He is not hurting himself, but is kinda funny to watch.  John is upset with the amount of money I spent on the dental procedures – came to $950.00.  I agree it was crazy expensive, but did not want him to be in pain with bad teeth.  Doctor said that the pain had to be substantial and that he should be more energetic and active after he recovers from the procedure.  When I picked him up, the vet showed me digital pictures of his teeth (before and after) along with digital x-rays.  Besides the ones that were removed, the remaining teeth appear to be in good shape.

Prince in the Jeep before I dropped him off... not a happy camper

Not much else going on – going to relax for a bit before calling it a day.  Still catching up on TV shows on the DVR… finally got through American Idol…

Greetings from a pastoral West Des Moines, IA…

Had some rain and storms move through overnight. I slept through them, but was greeted to a new batch of small branches from the oak tree all over the lawn and back parking lot. The oak tree seems to have somewhat brittle branches…

Worked another 9 hour work day. Actually 9.25 hours, but who’s counting If all goes well, will have enough time banked up so I can leave work early on Friday. Spent most of my work day working on a batch of issues for one of the larger, more important Domino applications we support. Just when I though I had each problem fixed, a new one would be brought to my attention. Hope to have them all fixed so they can be moved into production tomorrow. Not much good fixing things if it is not in production where it can do some good.

Tonight I finished up planting flowers. Started with a trip to Lowe’s where I purchased a hoe, a square wooden planter, a long rectangular wooden planter, a bag of potting soil and enough flowers to fill the planters. Then finished up the flower bed in front by planting the three flats of marigolds. Did not have room for two six packs of the marigolds, so planted them in back along the stairs that go to the lower units. Finished up by filling the two planters with potting soil and plants. It’s a good job to have done. Tired of playing in the muddy soil for now Now hoping everything grows. Will take some photos tomorrow – was too dark when I finished up tonight…

Not much else going on. Waiting for the muddy load of clothes I put in the washing machine to get done. Want to get them dried before bed time. Don’t like running the dryer after 10:00p out of courtesy for the neighbors.

Happy May Day from the bucolic West Des Moines, IA….

Was one of those days where it starts out cloudy, turns nice and sunny mid-day, then turns cloudy and overcast shortly after I was done with work…. Kept looking like it was going to rain, but it has not… yet…

My work week is very busy once again… lots of projects and issues to work on, but only one of me. Was sad to hear that one of my co-workers lost her husband to pancreatic cancer today. He was going through chemo therapy and thing were looking up until a few weeks ago…. Really heart breaking…

Tonight I started a project of my own by going to Lowe’s and purchasing plants for the front flower bed.  It took me some time to plan out what plant.  Decided to keep it traditional by going with some alyssum to spread out along the front stones, then some Silver Brocade to go behind it, followed by three kinds of marigolds.  Think I purchased just enough plants – ended up being six flats of flowers that contained six packs of six in each.  Comes to a total of 216 plants.  More then enough for the 15 x 6 foot flower bed.  Got all of the pants in the ground except for the marigolds.  Was getting too dark to get them in, so locked them up in the shed for the night.  Will take some pictures when I get everything planted tomorrow.  Should I put some type of mulch around the flowers at all?  Thinking it might help with weeds, but the mulch would make it so I could not hoe around them.  Let me know what you usually do?

Was watching the “Must Love Cats” TV show on Animal Planed last night and they had a segment about two guys who made an iPad App just for cats.  They shows it in use and several kittens were going crazy over it.  The App is called Game For Cats and I went ahead and purchased it to see what Prince would do.

He went crazy whacking an animated mouse...

And whacking it some more...

It was very cute to watch. You hear the mouse squeak each time it is hit by the cat’s paw.  He got a bit confused when the mouse would go off the screen. He tried to look under it for the iPad…. Seems to work best by keeping it to around 10 minutes of play time with it.  Kinda sad that my iPad has been reduced to a cat toy…

Spoiled rotten....

Not much else going on…  All set to read for a bit then head to bed… my eyes are getting tired now – so probably will not read for long….

Greetings from West Des Moines, IA…

We left the St. Louis RV park at 8:00am, stopped for lunch at Little Amana, then at a Flying-J for fuel outside of Des Moines. We pulled into the apartment building at 3:00pm. John reminded me several times that he would have made the trip in only 6 hours if I had not insisted on stopping for lunch. Bragging rights denied

The trip back was uneventful – which is good. We took US-61 out of St. Louis, to IA-27, to US-218 to I-80. This route worked out well with four lane roads the entire trip. Mileage was 7.8 MPG – better then the trip down due to less cross wind. Was a little windy heading across on I-80, but not too bad.

Everything is fine at the apartment building. Tomorrow I need to get some yard work done. Another storm came through a week ago and there’s lots of small branches on the ground from the oak tree. Also want to get flowers planted in front and put some mulch down around them.

Spent 90 minutes unloading the RV and getting the interior cleaned. Lugged things like clothes, perishable food, computer equipment and the cat’s belongings up to the apartment. Cleaning went well because John had things pretty well wiped down while I was at work on Friday. Is nice to be able to the clean the RV and have it stay that way until the next trip. Living in it we would clean then an hour later would need it again…

After spending two weeks in the RV, we appreciate being able to go back home to our “home base”. Felt great to take a long hot shower with full water pressure. The worst part of getting settled back in was having to setup my personal and work computers at my desk. The amount of power cords, usb cables, monitor cables and input devices is just nuts….

The trip was a great success for us. We got to spend time with our St. Louis friends that we have not seen for a few years, spent time with another of my coworkers in person for two weeks and see George and Lynn at the St. Louis RV Park again. Got to spend time working out of a “real office”. It worked out just fine, but will appreciate working from home on Monday. No commute and wearing t-shirt, shorts and no socks while programming is a very good thing….

Will be seeing some of our St Louis camping friends later this year at a camping trip we planned with them to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois.

Tomorrow will get laundry caught up, go through the stack of mail, attend ice skating class and believe we are meeting Dave and Mitch for supper. Starting to get back to our somewhat normal routines in Iowa…

Greetings from St. Louis!

The weather has been cool, overcast and breezy with occasional rain sprinkles.  At least we are not getting any stormy weather…

Our time here has been going by quickly.  The weekend went pretty much as planned.  Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Billy’s Fine Food.  It is an old diner that seems like it from the 1940′s.  Old worn benches, counter with stools.  It is not an imitation of what a old diner is like – it’s the real deal.  I had their breakfast bowl – a large portion of broken up potato with onion and bacon topped with shredded cheese and two fried eggs.  I like this place more then John, but he does not complain too much….

Picture I found online of Billy's

We then headed over to the Soulard Farmer’s market.  The market was not over busy like in the summer months.  Was fun to check out all of the fruit, vegetable, meat & baked good vendors.  We purchased homemade ciabatta bread, oranges, mangoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower and several types of sausages.

Quick picture of John working the Soulard market...

Then we headed back to the RV park to drop off all of our purchases.  Then we drove to St. Louis Mills to do some clothes shopping.  We actually drove there twice.  First time we were almost there and John said “What about your disaster recover exercise?” – my reply was “Oh Crap…”.  I needed to have my part of the exercise done by 12 noon so we turned around in the mall parking lot and headed back to the RV park so I could log into work and do my thing.  It sucked because it is a 20 minute drive each way….

John was nice enough to drive back to the mall after I finished.  The mall has more empty store then I remembered, but my favorite ones were still there.  John found some nice shirts and I picked out a nice pair of jeans at the Levi’s outlet along with some socks and undies at Burlington Coat Factory that I will leave in the RV.  Wanted to find some shirts but nothing really jumped out at me.  I used to have a blue and white crinkly gingham shirt that I would like to find one like it again…. perhaps Eddie Bauer would have something…

Then Saturday evening we meet up with a group of 5 friends at the International Tap House for drinks.  Everyone enjoyed various beers from around the world.  I went with a Belgium Lambic that had a very tart berry/cherry taste to it.  Thought the tartness may help ward off the gout.  So far so good…

We then walked over to Chava’s Mexican Restaurant for supper.  I had a chicken chimichanga and it was quite tasty.  Had a distinct Tex/Mex flavor to it with a rich mole sauce.  Paired nicely with the Pomegranate margarita.

On Sunday we meet friends for breakfast at Lafayette Fire Company No. 1.  It is a fire station themed restaurant owned by a group of firefighters.  Complete with handsome firemen waiting on the tables.  I had an omelette named “Medic” – had spinach, tomato, green pepper, onion, black olive, mushroom and cheese in it.  Was delish…

Sunday afternoon I spent 90 minutes washing clothes in the parks laundry room.  Once I got that done, decided to walk over to the metro train station and go for a ride.  Took the red line east out of town, through East St. Louis and eventually ending up outside the Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, IL.  Ride took an hour each way.  John think’s I’m nuts for hopping on the light rail train just to go for a ride and having no destination, but I find it relaxing and fun way to sight see….

Made it back to the RV park in time to make supper.  Had a nice Italian meal with the Italian sausage and bread we purchased from the Soulard market.  Had enough left over for John to have for lunch later this week.

My work week has been extremely busy for me.  I’m on call this week along with working on my regular projects.  The help desk tickets take priority over my regular work – so not getting much done with them so far.  Was hoping to have a minimal amount of help desk tickets, but so far that has not been the case.

Tonight John and I went over to my co-worker Scott’s house for supper.  His wife prepared a yummy steak supper that really hit the spot.  Was cool to spend time getting to spend time with him outside of the office.  Had not actually meet Scott in person before this trip to St. Louis.

So that’s about it…  we have just been eating our way through St. Louis reconnecting with many friends we’ve meet during our three extended stays here.  St. Louis feels quite familiar and welcoming to us.  Hope we can spend more time here in the future.  We will probably be heading back to Iowa sometime on Saturday.  That will give us a day to get things in order at the apartment building and get the RV all set for our next trip.

Greetings from St. Louis!

Just got back from a walk through the downtown.  The Cardinals have a game tonight so it was busier then usual.  Lots of people dining outside on sidewalk tables.  There was numerous  musicians out playing guitars – a different one on each block.  It must have been some organized event.  Was cool to listen to as I walked down Washington street.

Our week here has been going quickly.  John drops me off at work at 7:30am and then picks me up at 4:15pm.  I’m working at the US Bank Plaza.  I’m only on the 8th floor but it has a nice view of downtown.

US Bank Plaza building

Work has been very busy for me.  My three projects are going along full blast.  Found out the largest project I’m working on needs to have major revisions to it because it’s not how the business owner envisioned it would work.  So much fun….

On Tuesday we meet up with around 20 of the happy campers guys/gals at Happy China.  It was nice to see our St. Louis friends and get caught up with how things have been going.  The food on the buffet line was extra tasty.  Their egg roles and crab rangoon were especially good.  After dining we spent an hour hanging out and chatting.

John has been keeping busy doing things around our RV and the RV park.  On Monday John was up on the roof of the MoHo investigating the source of a leak. The lining on the underside of the front cabinet on the passenger side had lots of water in it.  The cabinet is not connected to the front window at all – so could not be coming in from the new windshields.  Only explanation is the roof where they are connected.  He poked around and the only possible place water could have come in is the clearance lights.  He ended up purchasing $60 worth of  Dicor caulk/sealant and used it around the lights then reapplied it to the main seam that runs down the entire coach.  When he removed the old caulk everything looked fine – did not see where water was coming in at all.  My guess is the storm last weekend forced it in somewhere…..

On Tuesday he worked on the shower.  The amount of water coming out of it seems low – so he suspected that some calcium built up in the valve due to not being used for 6 months.  He took things apart, cleaned it out and now it works better – but still not 100%.  Perhaps it just needs to be used more.

All setup in our spot

Another view of the MoHo...

On Monday evening we received a call from one of the tenants at the apartment building in West Des Moines.  They didn’t have any hot water and could not get the gas water heater to light.  John called the plumbers and they were able to stop by to check out the problem in 20 minutes.  Long story short, the 4 year old water heater was defective, not covered by any warranty and needed to be replaced.  They replaced it the following day and it cost us around $800 for parts and labor to get it done.  It was nice that the plumbers were so responsive, but sucked it occurred when we were out of town.  John would have replaced it himself if he was around……

Anyway… living back in the RV again is great.  It feels quite decadent because there’s so much storage space in it now.  Lots of empty drawers and cabinets make it super easy to stow stuff away for the short trip.

Getting used to cooking in here again.  Biggest challenge is the small amount of counter space, followed by the amount of time it takes for water to boil on the propane stove.

Prince is doing great.  I’ve not seen him so happy in a long time – its like he missed being an RV kitty.  He is bouncing around the dashboard to the sofa just like old times.  We have been brushing him like crazy to keep the amount of cat hair down.  Think we may be brushing him so much his skin is sore.  Tonight he only wanted to be brushed for a few minutes.

This weekend I want to check out the Soulard Farmers Market, then head over to St. Louis Mills for some clothes shopping.  Want to purchase things to keep in the RV all summer long.  Saturday evening we are meeting friends for supper back in the Soulard area.  Starting out at the International Tap House, then checking out one of the restaurants close to it.  Looking forwards to it.

Not much else going on.  I’m off to take a relaxing shower, then relax by reading for a bit…

Greetings from St Louis, MO!

We are getting a pretty good storm here at the St. Louis RV Park.  Lots of rain with some thunder and lightening.  Have the weather radio on to make sure we head for cover if a tornado develops….

Last evening we had a nasty storm cell go through West Des Moines.  We lost power for a bit while watching the storm from the front window via candle light.  John was listening in on the reports from the ham radio storm watchers in the area.  The storm blew three of the rain spouts off the side of the house (simple to reattach) and several trees in the neighborhood lost some large branches.  The worst damage we have is the large ham radio mast antenna broke at the base.  Here’s some pictures I took this morning:

Broken antenna

Tree branch down in neighbors yard

Another branch down across the street

Was not raining when we got up this morning.  Got showered and got final items packed up – John’s computer, toiletries and the cat’s stuff (litter, food & bed).  John got the Jeep connected and picked up some small branches from the parking lot and yard while I finished up.  We left the apartment at 8:15am and arrived here in St. Louis by 3:00pm.  The trip went well, but did encounter lots of wind and some rain on the way down.  Nothing too bad.  We took IA-5, to IA-34, to IA-27 to I-64.  Majority of the route is known as the “Avenue of the Saints“.  The last time we were on it, it was on and off 4  to 2 lane roads.  Now is the all 4 lanes – made for good driving.  The slowest part was going through Hannibal, MO.  The wind did not help our mileage – got around 6.8 mpg for the trip.

We stopped at a Flying-J to fuel up and grab some lunch at Denny’s a few miles from the Missouri border.  We paid $3.99 per gallon for diesel – we were hoping Missouri would have better fuel prices then Iowa, but not much different.  We do see diesel for $3.89 at a gas station not far from the RV park so will top off the tank when we pull out.

The owners of the RV park were happy to see us and got us situated in “our spot”.  :) Being back in St. Louis is cool.  It seems very familiar and welcoming.  The area around the RV park continues to improve.  We can definitely see the upscale condos and restaurants slowing moving north of downtown towards the park.

Once we got set up, John had me take the Jeep over to the automated car wash at the gas station across the street.  It was coated in dirt and road grime.  Went for the full $10.00 wash.  It took a good dent out of the dirt, but not all of it…  I need to get the Jeep back on a weekly cleaning schedule.

I forgot to bring Prince’s cat bed along, so we took a trip to a PetSmart to get him one.  We found one that is similar to his old one.  We then wanted to check out the MicroCenter computer / electronics store, but they had just closed.  Then we decided to dine out for supper at a Dicky’s BBQ.  Last time we were at one of these was in Arlington, TX.  Some good BBQ really hit the spot.

Even with it storming out, it feels good to be “back in the MoHo again” (sing that like the cowboy ‘back in the saddle again’ song ).  Is nice to use it while not full timing in it.  Having lots of cabinet space and empty drawers made it nice to get things stowed away.  Looking forward to sleeping in the sleep number bed again while the storm rocks me to sleep.

Prince had adjusted back to the RV well.  He seems quite happy, playful and energetic.  Was worried he would spend the trip under the desk…  He has been bouncing around checking thing out like old times…

Not much else going on.  We do not have satellite TV in the RV, so I plan on getting lots of reading done this trip.  Been reading an interesting computer book:  Code Simplicity:  The Science of Software Development.  Much of it reinforces what I already know, but not all.  It is nice to see in print principles that have been working for me.  Need to get going. The storm is getting quite nasty outside and Prince is starting to meow…  The tornado watch for the St. Louis area has been lifted.

Greetings from an overcast evening in West Des Moines, IA…

The temps have been cooler this week with highs in the lower 60′s and lows in the mid-30′s.  Took a break from riding my bike this evening because it looked like it was going to rain.  Ended up getting a short 10 minute shower.

Spent the evening vacuuming the hallways of the apartment building and cleaning the windows in the doors.  Then decided to run some errands around town.  Needed to deposit some checks, buy some vitamins and get some replacement parts for a drippy faucet.

Our bathroom faucet has been dripping for the last two weeks.  To stop the noise of the water dripping, John puts a wash cloth in the sink.  That works ok until the cloth gets soaked.  It is a Delta faucet, so thought I could just get some replacement parts for it.  Good theory, until John found it was beyond repair when he took it apart.  He also found that the shut off valves under the sink do not work – so ended up turning off the water to our apartment.

So ran my errands – purchased a new faucet at Lowe’s ($29.95), deposited checks at the bank’s ATM and stopped at the Vitamin Shoppe.  Was home in less than a hour.  John had the old faucet removed and proceeded to install the new one.  I’m not allowed to do any home improvement tasks.  John acts like there is something magical about it and I don’t have the spell book…..

Everything is back together.  John did not have much fun working on his back under the sink, but I’m glad it is done.  Our water bill that thank him

John did not move past the first group interview with the Apple store.  On the Wednesday following the interview he received an email from them thanking him for his time, but they were not interested.  Oh well – it was a good experience for him and good practice for future interviews,

Have some good news about the motor home.  The repair shop has the body work finished and the new windshields in place.  John will be going up to pay for it and pick it up on Friday (tomorrow). So far, the repair bill is coming in a little less then we had anticipated.  He is also having them change the oil and fuel filters on it.  We should be all set for our trip to St. Louis, MO next week – as planned.  All of this would not have happened if John had not stayed on top of it all and kept making lots of phone calls to all parties involved.  Yeah, John!

On Saturday John will be taking his final exam for the SQL Database class.  He is going to be very happy to have this semester done and over with.  Hope he likes the next semester better…

I have lots to do to prepare for the trip… laundry, grocery shopping, getting apartment squared way and etc.  Looking forward to seeing our St. Louis friends and spending time in the RV again.

John is a bit unhappy with me because I purchased something naughty on eBay.  Wanted to obtain an old Commodore computer to play with.  Ended up going with  a vintage Commodore Plus/4 computer.  John is so not impressed and keeps asking me “what are you going to do with that piece of junk”….  Oh well….

Need to get going…  John’s conference call is starting and he is kicking me out of the office…